Page 75 of Wolf Pack
“How do they know you?” Hans asked.
“They were the human Vikings with which Isobel and her kin stayed. We need to let the others know to join us in the woods from where they are now,” Alasdair said.
“I’ll swim to the other beach, climb the cliff there, and guide them to the woods,” Hans said.
“Aye. We’ll begin the climb here then,” Alasdair said.
Alasdair and the others climbed up the cliffs while Hans swam to the cave and beyond.
“Once we reach the top, we’ll wait for the others to join us.” Alasdair glanced at Isobel. “Nice knife throw.”
She smiled at him. “I was waiting for someone else to eliminate him, but didna want to wait too long.”
“No one had time to react like you did.” He wanted her to teach his men how to throw like that. Some were passable, but maybe with her tutoring them, they’d be as good at it as she was.
When they neared the top of the cliffs, Alasdair peered over and listened, sniffing the air simultaneously. Birds twittered. He didn’t hear anyone talking or moving about in the woods. He smelled the scents of several men he didn’t recognize.
As soon as he climbed onto the top, he moved into the forest, staying low, the bracken and boulders giving him cover. Isobel and the other men with them joined him, just as cautious, lifting their noses to smell the scents.
The Vikings were probably hunkered down in the woods and the bracken near the croft, waiting for Alasdair and his men to rescue the hostages.
But then someone gruffly said nearby, “Do you smell smoke?”
Only the Vikings hiding in the forest wouldn’t know that Alasdair, his friends, and pack members had set their longships on fire. Several headed in Alasdair and the rest of his party’s direction at a run.
The men Hans was bringing hadn’t arrived yet, so Alasdair and the others would have to tackle however many there were here.
He looked to see where Isobel was, but she had vanished. Alasdair’s heart lurched when he realized she was no longer with him, which had him worried that she had gone alone to try and reach her family at the croft.
The men headed in their direction were nearly upon them when Alasdair and his men jumped up and swung their swords to cut the Vikings down.
“’Tis an ambush,” one of the Vikings cried out. “You will pay for this.”
But Erik quickly dispatched him, and several other men killed the seven Vikings trying to reach the cliffs. Alasdair had backed up to the cliff while one of the Vikings came at him. At the last minute, the Viking dove for him, and Alasdair leaped out of the way, hitting the ground, hoping the man had fallen to his death below the cliffs.
The Viking cried out as he fell, and then Alasdair heard a thud at the bottom of the cliffs. The man sprawled out on the jagged rocks, staring lifelessly at the sky.
“Has anyone seen Isobel?” Alasdair asked.
“Nay. I thought she was with you,” Erik said.
Then Hans and the rest of the men joined them. Hans shook his head. “Sorry, we were too late to help.”
“I’m sure there are more up ahead. Let’s move quietly. Though the fighting here might have alerted others closer to the croft.” Alasdair just prayed Isobel would keep herself safe.
They headed through the woods as quietly as wolves stalking their prey. If the other Vikings were far enough away, they might not have heard the men fighting in the battle. Only the wolves could hear sounds that were far away.
When they were closer to the croft, they paused and listened. They could hear some people speaking quietly, and then someone coughed. Not in Alasdair’s party, but the Viking’s, he suspected. “If you cough again, I’ll kill you myself,” one of the men in the bracken said.
Alasdair motioned to his men to move forward, and before they knew it, they were facing a new foe, the Vikings sitting on their arses on rocks hidden in the bracken, not expecting Alasdair and his men to show up. The battle began at once.
Isobel couldn’t wait any longerto attempt to rescue her family and Dawy. She left her mate to fight, certain he would be successful in his fight against the raiders, but she couldn’t let a moment pass while her kin and Dawy were being held hostage.
She left the force and moved through the bracken, grateful for its cover. But she was careful to move quietly, listening and sniffing for scents, not rushing through the ferns, which could be her undoing.
She was angry with the clan for taking them hostage, but she wouldn’t let that, or impatience ruin her chances of succeeding.
She didn’t find anyone in the bracken, much to her surprise. She expected to have a force to fight here and there. Then she worried. What if her family wasn’t even at the croft? What if Vigge and his men had taken them somewhere else?