Page 24 of Wolf Pack
Isobel nervously chewed on her bottom lip. She hesitated to mention their longship or her cousins, worried that these men may not have their best intentions in mind.
“We were shipwrecked,” Elene hastily said, and Isobel was glad she was such a quick thinker.
“Oh?” Alasdair sounded like he didn’t believe her. “Is anyone else waiting below the cliffs for you? A lad, mayhap?”
“Nay,” Isobel said too ferociously and with her Icelandic accent. She shouldn’t have said anything like Elene had told her not to. But then she realized her mistake. Alasdair had killed the other guard, and with his wolf’s night vision, he must have seen her and Connal near the longship.
“Just the two of us made it to shore,” Elene said.
“Who else was with you? More slaves of the Icelanders that chanced to escape?” He sounded like he didn’t believe her.
Isobel didn’t think that sounded believable either, but she waited for Elene to say something further.
“You couldna have manned a longship all that time, just the two of you, and they wouldna have brought you to our lands, risking your escape.” Alasdair took a deep breath and let it out as if he would let them off at their word—at least for the time being.
Elene swallowed hard.
“Come, we will feed you and provide you shelter, and you can tell us more about your people.” But he continued to eye Isobel with suspicion, and she knew she shouldn’t have spoken a word.
Isobel would have to, though, when they questioned them further. She couldn’t pretend to be a mute. It was too late to use that scenario as a ruse.
Then Alasdair shifted into his wolf and motioned with his head for the others to take the women with them.
At least Alasdair hadn’t shifted and then disarmed them. That made her feel safer. Until a wolf howled from behind her, and more wolves howled beyond the forests and the loch. How many were there?
She quickly looked around, expecting Alasdair to be trailing close behind them, making sure they didn't attempt a foolish escape. It would have been unwise for both her and Elene to try.
They had nowhere else to go, and if they had climbed back down the cliffs, these men would have learned who else was down there and found the longship and their supplies. Isobel and her companions would have lost everything.
She thought Alasdair would lead the way. Then again, her father had told her that he followed behind their small wolf pack when they were traveling to ensure no one was left behind.
But Alasdair had disappeared into the woods.
7
Alasdair howled for his men at the keep to bring his clothes with them to the cliffs. He and a few of his men would descend the cliffs and learn how many Vikings were down there while the others would take the two women back to their castle.
He couldn’t believe the women were wolves, and he knew they hadn’t come alone—not when he had seen the lad with the Icelandic woman. If they were correct in saying they were the only two who had survived a shipwreck, maybe there were three of them, which was possible but unlikely. He suspected they were protecting the lad.
He was certain he would also see some remnants from a shipwreck. The woman who fought the guard wore a bloodied cloth around her arm. They were carrying several water pouches, and he suspected they had planned to fill them with water from the loch to return to the others down below.
They were also carrying bows, arrows, andsgian dubhsso he assumed they had planned to hunt for food.
The one woman was most likely a Scotswoman, dark-haired, dark-eyed, very pretty. She was the one doing most of the talkinguntil the other was afraid that he and his men would check the shore for other “survivors” of a shipwreck and spoke up.
He had to find the lad and ensure there were no others. The other woman, with beautiful blue eyes and golden hair, was an Icelander. He was certain of it. Unless she’d been captured when she was very young, and her language had been influenced greatly by the Icelanders who had raised her.
As soon as his men rode to him on horses, bringing his own with them along with his clothes, he shifted, dressed in his tunic, brat, and boots, securing his belt, sword, andsgian dubh, and mounted the horse. Then they rode from the forest to the cliff’s edge.
When they reached it, he and the others dismounted. He peered over the edge, and this time, he saw a young man and two children gathering firewood. The young man looked like the one who had been with the lass who had killed the guard on the beach.
The youngest wore a brown kirtle, leather shoes, and a shawl wrapped around her shoulders—she was a young lassie.
The other was a lad who looked to be about the same age as the lass. He wore a gray tunic and trewes and ran barefoot in the sand on the warm summer’s morn. The older lad was tall but not well-muscled yet, his tunic a muted green while his breeches were tan, and he was ordering the young ones about.
“You missed a few sticks over there,” the older boy told the younger lad.
Alasdair couldn’t believe it. Could the five of them have made it all that way from Iceland on their own? Grown men had to be with them to make that long, hard journey.