Page 50 of Wolf Pack

When he and his men finally reached Cleary and Baine, they could smell the gray wolf sitting there. Conall was growling low at the two men, guarding them and not letting them leave.

Then Alasdair saw Isobel’s naked backside as she carried a sobbing Libby inside the croft. Drummond was standing in thedoorway. Dawy and Agnes were standing behind him, Dawy’s hands on the lad’s shoulders. Conall woofed at Alasdair, then raced back to the house, and Dawy closed the door.

God’s wounds.Nothing had gone as planned and Alasdair had to find the underlying cause. “Why was Libby screaming?” Alasdair asked the brothers, his tone of voice angry.

“Your—or I should say MacEachans’ hounds attacked us.” Cleary sounded astounded. “We didna provoke them, I swear. We’re always good with animals.”

It was good because they were among a pack of wolves and needed to have a good relationship with them, especially with the Icelandic wolves.

“Me too.” Baine ran his hands through his disheveled black hair.

He and Baine showed Alasdair where the wolves had broken the skin on their arms, and they were bleeding. If Isobel and Conall had turned the brothers, Cleary and Baine were now of Icelandic wolf ancestry.

“I asked you a question. Why…was…Libby…screaming?” Alasdair asked.

With care, Cleary cradled his injured arm. “No one would tell us if they were Vikings. The lad, Conall, was wearing clothes like they wear.”

“And they sound like the bastards,” Baine said.

“So you grabbed Libby to force her to tell you?” Alasdair was certain that the men had threatened Libby, and she screamed. Ironically, they were now related if Cleary and Baine felt any animosity for them being Icelanders.

“Cleary did it. I mean, she was out here wandering around by herself. She coulda gotten lost,” Baine said.

“Or fallen in the loch and drowned,” Cleary said.

“Or been accosted by the likes of you.” Alasdair knew they had threatened her.

Shocked didn’t cover how Alasdair felt about the whole matter. Both men appeared as stunned as everyone else there. Everyone looked at Alasdair to see what he wanted to do about it.

“We’ll talk in the morn when we break our fast,” Alasdair said, needing to speak at once with Isobel. But then he added, “Unless you need to discuss matters with them as they play out, Lorne.”

“Certes,” Lorne said.

Alasdair wanted to know what they had done to Libby and was angry that no one had been watching them as they were supposed to.

“Take Cleary and Baine to the barracks. Lorne will oversee the men who will watch over the newly turned...wolves.” Lorne might need to explain what had happened to them if they had been turned. But if they didn’t shift until daybreak, there was no sense in trying to explain it to them until then.

“Aye,” Lorne said.

“I will see you in the morn. Though if there is any trouble”—more so than what Cleary and Baine had pulled—“come and see me.”

Alasdair headed straight for the croft to speak with Isobel when he realized Hans was sticking with him while the others rode off with the brothers. “You dinna need to be with me for this. Go. Get your rest. I’ll return to the keep shortly.”

“Dinna be too angry with her. She only wanted to protect her kin,” Hans said.

“Do you think I dinna know that? How will it look to the clan when a woman—an Icelander—turned the Scots without my permission?”

“Like she was protecting her cousin.”

“Dinna stick up for her. You know what I mean. Aye, she and Conall were doing so, but some will still believe they could have threatened them with swords, not bite them.”

“I am only saying that’s how I’m sure our people will view it—that they were protecting Libby. Isobel lost her uncle and the rest of her family. She has had to do so much to keep her cousins safe for weeks.”

Alasdair growled. “Didna I tell you to return to the keep?”

Would no one listen to his orders now that the woman had arrived?

“I was thinking of swimming in the loch.”