“She learned she has a former mate who’s still alive.”
Ian snorted. “The pirate Rafferty? The wolf is a dead mon. Guthrie with you?”
Cearnach swore under his breath. When had Ian learned the truth?
“Not exactly,” Duncan said to Ian.
“How many wolves are after her?”
“Five. We can manage.”
“Duncan, I know how capable the two of you are. But you have to include Guthrie. I don’t want to lose either of my brothers or the lass.”
“Cearnach doesn’t think he can guide him to the right location.”
“Try. I’ll send men to Senton Castle to grab their vehicles and hers. This time they’ll be stranded. Give them a taste of their own treachery.”
Duncan smiled. “Aye. Revenge is sweet, Ian. I’ll call Guthrie.”
Cearnach could envision his pack members driving the cars back to Argent Castle while Kilpatrick and the others had to return home as wolves. Let them face Oglivie’s gun and dogs. He hoped if the farmer saw the pack of wolves, he’d be drinking a wee bit much and believe he was seeing things.
“Guthrie,” Duncan said, “change of plans. Head north of Oglivie’s farm.”
“Aye, meet you north of that location.”
Duncan shoved his phone into the console between the front seats and began yanking off his clothes.
“Another five miles to go yet, brother,” Cearnach said.
Duncan smiled. “Aye. If you get stopped, just say I’m your pet dog. I’ll give the nice policeman a big grin.”
Cearnach knew his brother would, too.
The five miles seemed to take forever. When they reached the place Cearnach had in mind, he pulled the car off the road into a turnout and began to strip. Duncan was panting, waiting for him to open the door for him.
Cearnach reached around his brother and pushed his door open. Duncan jumped out of the car and shoved the door closed with his nose.
Cearnach pushed his own door open and locked the doors with the electronic keypad. Thankfully, they had a keypad on the outside door panel on their cars, so there was no worry about getting back into their vehicles after they were done with business.
After shifting, he pushed the door closed with his paws and joined his brother. Duncan greeted him, nose to nose, then the two ran to where Cearnach was certain Elaine would be headed. When he didn’t find her scent, he figured she hadn’t made it this far, and his heart began skipping beats. Hell, what if the wolves had already encircled her much closer to Senton Castle? What if they had forced her to return to the car park already?
He went north, hoping to reach her quickly. They were now northeast of the Oglivie farm.
Guthrie would be able to detect their scent once he’d reached where they’d left their car and begun to run on foot. Their paws would leave their scent, easy for him to locate.
Cearnach heard growling about a half mile away. He recognized the vocal sound at once. It was Elaine’s warning growl—long and low and threatening. Not quite like when she had stood beside him in the woods outside Argent Castle and growled at Baird McKinley and Robert Kilpatrick. Loud this time as if warning them that if any got near, she’d rip them to shreds.
Fear for her engulfed him. He tore after her, his brother racing beside him. His stomach was knotted, every muscle tensed, adrenaline coursing through his veins.
Male snarls and snaps greeted her as she responded in kind. Her cousins were trying to force her to return with them, and she was telling them in wolf terms—no way.
Someone yipped twice.
Not her. He remembered the sound of her yip when he’d startled her by coming up behind her in the river.
Then a yip sounded from her.
Cearnach saw red.
Chapter 27
If his tongue wasn’t lolling out of his mouth as he ran, Cearnach would be grinding his teeth. He’d kill the bastard who had frightened her so.
He knew her cousins would be pissed off at her. They’d take out their frustrations on her because of her perceived disobedience.
What did her cousins plan to do with her? They couldn’t knock her out with drugs, not while pursuing her as wolves. They had to be trying to corral and take her back to the cars parked at Senton Castle and to that bastard Rafferty. That’s all Cearnach could imagine they’d try to do.
He wanted to call out to her, howl, bark, to let her know her Highland warrior was on his way. But he didn’t want to alert her kin that he was coming to rescue her, afraid they might deal with her more harshly if they thought their time was quickly running out.
Instead, he moved swiftly over the glen and through the woods, scattering birds, and then he dashed across a shallow stream, sending the water flying, trying to judge where she was.
Dogs began to bark south of them. Oglivie’s collies. He frowned and glanced over his shoulder, couldn’t see anything but trees. He and Duncan were too far from the farmhouse for the collies to come this way. Unless… Guthrie had to be passing the farm. Cearnach briefly worried about the old man getting into his rusty pickup truck and trying to hunt Guthrie down.
Then Cearnach saw Elaine standing proud and tall, tail straight out behind her, her fur standing on end to make her appear more threatening. Five male wolves circled her, ganging up on her, bigger, meaner, more powerful. She was just as aggressive as they were. Every time one moved in close, she charged him, and the wolf would veer out of her path.
Trees surrounded the area on all sides but one, and that backed up on a swiftly moving river.
It was a game for them. A well-executed game. She knew it, but she had no other options but to keep them at bay.
They were trying to wear her down. Five against one. They were resting in between. She was tense, and with one perpetually attacking her, she didn’t have time to rest. Even so, everyone’s tongues were hanging out.
He noted then that Vardon’s ear dripped with blood.
She had bitten him? Her mouth was bloodied. That’s who had yelped? The biggest, strongest of the wolves?
Damn, the woman had balls.
He saw the blood streaking down her right hip. Someone had bitten her.
Cearnach turned his head to look at Vardon again. The wolf’s mouth was bloody also. He was a dead wolf.
Vardon and Robert saw Cearnach and his brother first. Their mouths snapped shut, their ears perked, and their gazes focused on the bigger, more dangerous male wolves.
They realized at once who Cearnach and Duncan were. Knew that they had a real fight on their hands now, not just with a she-wolf who was battling five males at once. The odds were still in her kin’s favor, but the odds were a wee bit better now.
She swung her head around to see what had taken the wolves’ attention. At first, Cearnach saw the relief in her expression and then the sorrow. She was mated to him but couldn’t be. The other wolves quickly moved around to face the oncoming males, but only Vardon need have worried about fighting a male.
Cearnach hit Vardon so hard with his body in a frontal assault that the wolf fell backward and landed hard on his side with an oompf. He quickly scrambled to his feet as Duncan growled low, warning the other wolves not to interfere.
Cearnach attacked Vardon again, ripping at his other ear, the flap dangling and bloodied. Vardon howled in pain and anger, then swung around to bite Cearnach, but then paused, looking past him.
Cearnach didn’t dare look to see what was happening behind him. A wolf never turned his head away from another that he was fighting if he wanted to live.