Page 27 of Wolf Heir (Highland Wolves of Old #3)

Aisling and Coinneach woofed at them and then raced through the meadow to the forest and to the trail to the waterfall, huffing and puffing. When they reached the spot, they sat watching the water spill down the rocks.

Coinneach shifted and sat on the stone they used for seating. “I told Aodhan what we suspect—that I could be Hamish’s son.”

Aisling shifted and sat on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek.

“Did he believe you?” She sounded worried.

“Finally, aye.”

“You told him my mother took you away?” Real fear shown in Aisling’s eyes.

“He assumed it.”

“Can he be trusted?”

“I believe so. He wants to help me prove I’m the chief’s son.”

She let out her breath. “Which means my mother and other women in the birthing room that day would know you were healthy and very much alive. And that you were removed from the room.”

“And replaced. Did they see my wolf mark?”

“My mother, aye. I dinna know about the others.”

“Do you know the names of the women who were there when I was born?”

“I’ll ask my mother. I should have done so before. What if Aodhan makes inquiries, and it spreads throughout the pack? Already, the rumors seem to be rampant that Rupert is Osmond’s son. But hearing you are Hamish’s son, that could be catastrophic.”

“I love you, Aisling. I want no other mate for my wolf. I dinna care if it’s proven that I’m the chief’s son, but Morag’s crime should be punished.”

“I agree.” She smiled at him. “You know I feel the same about you.”

“Which is why I want to mate you now and no’ delay the inevitable.”

Her eyes widened. “Here? Now?”

“There’s no other place for us to be alone. Your mother has consented to our marriage. When we are all free to do it, we’ll have a simple marriage ceremony at the croft.”

She got off his lap and seized his hand. “To the meadow where the grass is softer.”

He swept her up in his arms and carried her along the path through the forest, but she shifted into her wolf and leaped from his arms. She woofed and raced off to the meadow.

He laughed, shifted, and ran after her, glad she was as eager to mate him as he was her.

He quickly caught up to her, but she was sitting in the tall grasses, her tail straight out, her ears twitching back and forth, her fur standing on end—and he knew she was wary of something she’d seen or heard.

He stood next to her, listening intently, watching for movement.

Then Coinneach saw two men armed with bows heading their way, but they were sneaking along, keeping low. He smelled their scent on the breeze and recognized they were stable hands who worked for Osmond.

Aisling shifted, crouching low. “They work for Osmond.” Then she shifted back into her wolf.

Coinneach didn’t know what the men were up to, maybe just hunting for Hamish, but he didn’t think so. If the men followed Coinneach’s and Aisling's trail, which they could do with their wolf senses, then Coinneach would be more assured that they were there to hunt them.

He shifted. “Aye. Follow my lead.” Then he shifted and moved slowly away from the men while she trailed close behind him.

Once they were in the forest, he ran through the woods, leaping over fallen tree branches, driving through the branches, not taking any well-marked paths. It would make it more difficult for the men to follow them as humans.

As wolves, they would be way ahead of the men anyway, but Coinneach wanted to make it more difficult for them to follow if they were hunting them.

They finally reached the river, the fragrance of the water drawing him to it.

He ran across the rocky beach to the river, and Aisling joined him.

The water was flowing fast, but once they reached the other side, they could hide in the bracken at the foot of the trees and watch for the men to see if they were indeed following them.

Though in their human form, it would take the men time to reach the river.

Still, Coinneach had wanted to make sure that he and Aisling had enough time to swim across the river and conceal themselves.

He nuzzled her face, then walked into the water.

She joined him, and the two began to swim across the swiftly flowing river.

They struggled to reach the other side, bumping into each other, but staying together.

Then they finally scrambled up the rocky shoulder on the other side, about a quarter of a mile from where they went in.

If the men were tracking them, they would most likely assume the currents pushed Coinneach and Aisling downstream.

But he didn’t want to chance that they would go downstream to search for them.

He and Aisling shook the water off their fur, then raced through the woods to the approximate place where they’d gone into the water.

Once there, they waited for the men to reach the opposite riverbank. They hid in the bracken, lying down beside each other to rest. But then Coinneach shifted.

“I want to see if they truly were following us and aimed to hunt us down.”

Aisling nodded.

Then he shifted back and cuddled with her, so much for mating her in the meadow. His first thought, if the men were sent to kill them, Rupert had everything to do with it. But what if Morag did? Or even Rupert’s da, Osmond?

Their hearts were still beating hard after their swim and run. Coinneach licked Aisling’s cheek, and she affectionately nuzzled him.

It seemed they waited forever when they finally heard the men coming through the trees on the other side of the river, except they were a bit north of Coinneach and Aisling’s location.

But at least they could still see the men.

One was black-haired and bearded, and the other brown haired and bearded.

Both were muscular, and Coinneach wondered if they’d ever been trained to fight with a sword.

They were huffing and puffing, still holding their bows, ready to shoot Coinneach and Aisling. They must have heard and smelled the river before they reached it, but maybe they believed they weren’t as far behind them as they thought they were.

They stood staring at the forest on the opposite side of the river.

“What do we do now? We canna chase them as hunters. They’ll run all over the forest and keep far away from us as wolves.”

“We shift and kill them as wolves.” Then the one man began stripping off his clothes and shifted.

The other followed his lead.

They entered the water, and the current carried them downstream.

They didn’t fight it, and Coinneach suspected they would go where they thought he and Aisling had left the water.

As soon as they were around the bend in the river, Coinneach dashed upstream in the direction where the men’s clothes and weapons were lying on the riverbank.

Aisling quickly followed him, and the two of them began to cross the river. This time, they were north of the location where the men’s clothes were so the currents carried them to the bank where they were.

Coinneach shifted and carried one man’s clothes into the deeper part of the water where they sank.

After shifting, Aisling carried the men’s bows and quivers of arrows to the river and dumped them.

They returned to shore and rushed to where the men’s remaining clothes and weapons were, then continued to submerge them in the river.

They swam quickly back to the shore as fast as they could, knowing the men would eventually reach the place where Aisling and he had left the river on the opposite bank, then follow their scent trail to the woods.

They would realize that Aisling and Coinneach had been watching them when they shifted into their wolf forms to track down the couple.

Coinneach nudged Aisling to follow him. They raced toward his family’s home.

He didn’t think the men would be foolhardy enough to try to kill them there. But if they tried, they wouldn’t be successful.

He would have howled a warning to his family, but he didn’t want to alert the men. They were probably still crossing the river to reach their clothes and weapons. Coinneach would have loved to see the looks on their faces when they discovered they were missing.

When they were nearly to the farm, Coinneach and Aisling saw Tamhas and Nelly talking to each other in the meadow.

Coinneach headed straight for them to warn them of the trouble headed their way. Unless the men returned to the castle, giving up their quest.

Tamhas saw Coinneach and Aisling and furrowed his brow. He probably knew Coinneach and Aisling weren’t racing each other to the croft in fun.

Coinneach barked at them to return to the croft.

Tamhas took hold of Nelly’s hand and ran with her. Magnus was in the field and quickly glanced in their direction, realizing there was bound to be trouble.

Coinneach nudged Aisling ahead of them to the croft, while he protected Tamhas and Nelly. But Aisling stayed with them, and he knew she meant to fight the wolves if they reached them and attacked.

Coinneach looked back, thinking he’d seen something in the tall grasses. Sure enough, the two wolves were trying to reach them before they could seek shelter in the croft. Coinneach and his companions had been moving more slowly because his brother and Nelly were running as humans.

Tamhas made Nelly go inside the croft. Their da was armed with a pitchfork. Tamhas had his swords. But Nelly came out with Aisling’s bow and arrows.

Aisling ran inside the croft and came out dressed in one of his mother’s kirtles. Aisling took the bow and quiver of arrows from Nelly. “Go inside, now.”

“What is happening?” Nelly asked.

“Someone has sent hunters to kill us,” Aisling said.

Coinneach waited as a wolf, intending to kill at least one of the wolves in that way.

“Who?” their da asked.

“Two of the men who work in the stables. They’re running as wolves now. We got rid of their clothes, bows, and other weapons in the river,” Aisling said. She readied her bow and aimed for the movement in the tall grass. Then she released an arrow, and a wolf cried out.

Coinneach raced forward, intending to take down the other wolf. Tamhas and his da were right behind him, though they couldn’t keep up as humans with his swift wolf speed.

Even Aisling was running behind them, trying to catch up to them. Coinneach knew she would stop and try to use her arrows on one of the two wolves, which was an excellent way for her to keep her distance and still take down a wolf or two.

Sure enough, before Coinneach clashed with the bigger of the two wolves, an arrow slid through the air and hit the wolf in the shoulder. Now, both wolves wore one of her arrows as Coinneach tackled the larger wolf—their mouths biting at each other, drawing blood.

The other wolf lunged at Coinneach, but Aisling shot him in the flank.

Then Tamhas reached the smaller wolf and struck his shoulder with his sword.

The wolf howled in pain. He whipped around to attack Tamhas, but his father plunged his pitchfork into the wolf’s neck, and the wolf went down.

The dead wolf shifted into his human form.

Aware that the other wolf was dead, Coinneach was still fighting the larger wolf. He tried to grab the wolf’s neck, but the wolf leapt out of the way. Their da jabbed at the wolf, but Coinneach jumped at him, determined to keep him from attacking his da.

Aisling was closer now and readied an arrow, but as viciously as Coinneach attacked the wolf, Aisling couldn’t get a clear shot.

Likewise, his da and brother couldn’t attack him either.

Coinneach tore the wolf’s skin at his shoulder. He attempted to bite Coinneach’s neck. He darted out of the wolf’s snapping canines and rounded on him again. This time, he managed to grab him by the back of the neck and held on for dear life as the wolf tried to shake him loose.

Then Coinneach bit hard, severing the wolf’s spinal column, and the wolf collapsed, no longer a threat. Immediately, the dead wolf turned into his human form.

Coinneach ran into the nearby lake and cleaned off his bloody fur. Aisling hurried after him to see how he fared.

Tamhas and their da loaded the naked, bloody bodies into a cart. Their da asked, “Do we return them to the castle and explain what happened here?”

Coinneach shifted, and Aisling immediately hugged him. “Nay. If Rupert, Osmond, or Morag sent them, they will twist the story and say we killed them for whatever reason. Take them to the bog. They can wonder what happened to the men.”

“Come, let me take care of your wounds,” Aisling said. “How will you serve guard duty looking like this? How will you explain that you were in a fight and with whom?”

Coinneach smiled. “Come, sweeting. Take care of them, and we’ll return to the castle to sleep. By morning, most of my wounds will be fading.”

Once Aisling and his mother had bandaged Coinneach, he put on some of his spare clothes that Tamhas hadn’t packed.

“I’ll walk with you back to the castle,” Tamhas said. “In case anyone attempts to ambush you again.”

Coinneach inclined his head.

Nelly looked thrilled that Tamhas was going with them, even if it was just to protect them on the trip back to the castle. Perhaps it was because he wanted to spend more time with Nelly.

When they reached the castle gates, Nelly gave Tamhas a quick kiss, and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing her more soundly.

Beaming, she asked, “Do you want me to wait for you, Aisling?”

“Nay. Go to bed. I’ll be there shortly.”

Looking on top of the world, Tamhas bid them good night and headed off for home.

In the inner bailey, Aodhan quickly joined Aisling and Coinneach, eyeing him with concern. “What the hell happened to you?”