A Highland Werewolf Wedding

Chapter 10

Elaine gave an abrupt laugh of disbelief when she heard Cearnach’s mother’s condemnation. Somehow she knew Cearnach’s accident, the church incident, the destroying of Cearnach’s minivan, and the stealing of her rental car would become her fault.

“Of course. I flew all the way to Scotland just to meet up with Cearnach on that road and cause all of these problems for your clan.”

His mother actually offered a small sour smile—of amusement or conjecture, Elaine wasn’t sure.

“I’ll get some ice for your cheek.” Shelley gave her a meaningful smile, saying she was supportive of Elaine’s cause, and squeezed her hand with reassurance on the way out.

Julia’s brow furrowed. “I’m surprised Cearnach didn’t kill Vardon for striking you. Cearnach’s the nicest man you’d ever want to meet, usually as cheerful as can be, but he’d risk his life for others to keep them safe from harm.”

“He did unsheathe his sword.” Elaine didn’t want anyone to think he hadn’t made the effort. “But I told him not to fight.”

His mother’s brows arched. “A she-wolf told my son not to fight?”

“Vardon didn’t unsheathe his sword so Cearnach couldn’t fight an unarmed man. I’m sure Cearnach was also afraid I might get injured if he fought Vardon.” Elaine didn’t mention that she thought Cearnach had been ready to kill Vardon over what he’d done and had needed all of his willpower to let it go and escort her outside.

“You were already hurt.” Julia’s voice was hard and unyielding. “Cearnach will not let this insult go if he sees Vardon again.” She took a deep breath and changed the subject. “So what is your business here? Are you staying somewhere already?”

“I had plans to stay at Flora’s Bed and Breakfast.”

Everyone exchanged glances. Round two in the battle with Cearnach’s mother. Elaine could understand his mother wanting to know everything about a prospective daughter-in-law. But she and Cearnach weren’t considering such a thing, not that she didn’t fantasize about it. Who wouldn’t when the wolf wore a kilt slung low on his hips, his chest bare, and the smile in his eyes and on his lips made her whole body heat with desire? Not to mention the kiss that had steamed up the car’s windows and made her temporarily lose her mind.

She wanted to tell the woman the truth—not about the fantasy part, though—but Elaine held her tongue, not wanting to even go there.

“Kilpatrick’s mother, Flora Kilpatrick, runs it. They’re first cousins to the McKinleys, one of the ones whose wedding you attended today,” Cearnach’s mother said hotly. “I thought you said you didn’t know them.”

“I hadn’t met them before today,” Elaine said, defending herself. “Only after we left the church and I said I was to meet with my distant cousin Robert Kilpatrick did Cearnach tell me who I’d been sitting next to.”

Julia let out her breath. “I bet the McKinleys insisting that Cearnach leave went over really peachy with him.”

“He appeared resigned to let Calla live her life the way she saw fit. She seemed perfectly happy. When we returned to where Cearnach’s disabled vehicle was, it was gone. He thought maybe the McKinley brothers had pushed it over the cliffs. When we went to investigate, we found it had been destroyed.”

“You went with him to look for it?” Julia asked curiously.

“Sure. I wasn’t going to stay in the rental car waiting.”

“You went as wolves.” Julia hadn’t asked a question but was more circumspect, as if she was seeing the picture more clearly now.

“Yeah. We could observe more, smell closer to the ground, see if we could sense any sign of the McKinleys. We didn’t find any. Not until we explored the beach, discovered his car, and returned.”

“You found your clothes and rental car gone.”

Elaine nodded, trying to push back the tears that suddenly appeared. She’d thought she was dealing with the situation well. She’d trusted Cearnach to take her someplace safe until she could get her money and ID back, at the very least. She hadn’t expected his kin to be so hostile. She was feeling the ramifications of losing her rental car on top of cutbacks at the college, the long trip here, not getting enough sleep, and then being run off the road, shot at, and nearly drowned… and now Cearnach’s mother was interrogating her.

She looked at the floor, trying to get her emotions under control.

Julia moved closer to her, patted her shoulder, and assured her, “We’ll get everything of yours back.”

“Why exactly were you here in the first place?” Cearnach’s mother asked, as if Elaine had slipped into the country to sabotage her son and she wasn’t buying Elaine’s declaration of innocence.

“I was supposed to meet with Robert Kilpatrick concerning a business arrangement.”

Cearnach’s stern-faced aunt laughed. No one else seemed amused.

Aunt Agnes asked Elaine, “Do you plan to mate with Robert Kilpatrick?”

“Heavens no. We’re related.”

“Distant cousins, so you claim,” Lady MacNeill said.

“Well, no, I have no intention of mating with him or anyone else in Scotland.”

“Good,” Cearnach’s mother said. “We saved you from some horrible business scheme, my dear. Believe me, we’ve been through a financial swindle of epic proportions with an American businessman recently and know just how awful that can be. At least this is a good thing.”

Elaine couldn’t tell them she intended to find a pirate’s stolen treasure. Her uncles had been commissioned to steal from merchant ships loyal to their country’s enemies. So one could rationalize that her uncles had been doing their nation’s work for a grand cause and not that they were… pirating exactly. But whoever they’d stolen from wouldn’t think of them as anything other than pirates.

“How are your kin related to Robert Kilpatrick?” Cearnach’s mother asked, her voice darkening.

“My great-grandfather was his great-grandfather’s brother.”

“Your great-grandfather was Padruig?”

Elaine barely breathed. Cearnach’s mother knew him? This was so not good. “Yes.”

“He was the one who started the war between our clans years ago,” Cearnach’s aunt said, her lips pursed and eyes narrowed. She looked at Elaine as if she personally had advised her great-grandfather to go to war with the MacNeill clan eons earlier.

So much for Cearnach taking her someplace safe until she could get her ID and everything back. But she had nowhere else to go.

“What did you say your name was again?” his mother asked.

“Elaine.”

“Your last name.”

She hoped that her uncles had not accosted any of the MacNeills’ ships.

“Hawthorn.”

His mother seemed to mull that over, then her face turned red. “The Hawthorn brothers. Pirates, both of them. The men who Lord Whittington had hanged in St. Andrews?”

“Privateers,” Elaine countered. “Fighting for the American cause.”

“Och!” his mother said in outrage, her face reddening. “Tell that to the men who lost everything.”

Elaine’s heart tumbled over itself, and she gritted her teeth as a sudden shimmer of tears swam in her eyes. Had her uncles killed the sailors? She didn’t think they were that cruel, but what did she know, living as sheltered a life as her family had given her?

Except for after they died and she had to deal with Kelly Rafferty on her own.

“I’ve got to straighten this out with Robert.” Elaine looked away from his mother’s harsh glower before the woman could see how upset she was. She knew that kind of woman. She would not be moved by tears, taking that reaction as a sign of weakness. “I need to get my things back and talk to him about the… uh… inheritance.”

“That’s what this business arrangement is about? An inheritance?” Cearnach’s mother asked.

“Um, yes.”

His mother looked like she wanted to ask more, but Julia took charge. “Come. Let’s join the men. I’m sure they’ll have a plan of attack.”

Elaine frowned at her. She didn’t want the clans fighting over this.

“Just a figure of speech. After what happened to you and Cearnach, I doubt they’ll want you doing this on your own.”

Elaine wasn’t sure what to think about the MacNeills’ offer of help. In a way, she wished she could have it since at least Cearnach seemed genuinely interested in her welfare. Yet she wondered if they would just create more trouble if she allowed them to get involved. She didn’t want to tell them the whole truth—that she was after her uncles’ treasure. What if some of it belonged to the MacNeills?

She sighed. If she hadn’t met Cearnach’s family, it wouldn’t have mattered. But now that she’d met them, she felt obligated to do the right thing and turn the treasure over to his family if it had belonged to them.

“You… don’t have any dogs, do you?” Cearnach’s mother suddenly asked Elaine.

Elaine was so startled by the question that she didn’t respond right away.

“You know, dogs?” his mother said, impatiently waving her hand as if conjuring up visions of dogs.

“No. No dogs.”

“Good.”

Julia frowned at her mother-in-law, appearing to be surprised by the question, too. Then she escorted Elaine to another room down the long hall and knocked on the closed oak door. The men’s conversation inside the room went silent.

Ian said, “Yes?”

“It’s Julia. Elaine wishes to speak with Robert and get this matter taken care of.”

Duncan opened the door. Cearnach was already moving toward Elaine and Julia, looking grim-faced, a man with a definite mission, like he was ready to do battle on her behalf.

Julia quickly introduced the brothers: Ian, the pack leader and her mate; Guthrie, their financial advisor; and Duncan, in charge of warfare. All eyes were focused on Elaine’s swollen and bruised cheek.

The air was already sizzling with tension when she walked in. When everyone saw her injury, she felt the whole room would explode.

Shelley quickly joined them and handed Elaine an ice pack. She pressed the cool ice to her cheek while Ian looked to Cearnach to explain.

“Vardon McKinley did it when he tried to hit me. Elaine attempted to stop the fight.” Cearnach stood so close to her that she could feel the heat radiating from his body, reaching out to her, warming her.

Ian’s phone rang. He read the name on the caller ID. Shaking his head, he said to his brothers, “The Kilpatricks.” He set his phone on the desk and didn’t answer it.

They had to know she was here. She felt mixed emotions over that. She was worried about bringing the MacNeill clan into this, although it was her kin’s fault for putting her in this predicament in the first place. And she felt self-righteous satisfaction that after having been so ruthless toward her and Cearnach, the Kilpatricks had lost her to their enemy.

“After what they pulled, we’re not going to just turn her over to them,” Cearnach said, as if he was in charge of the pack and dictating terms.

Ian took a seat at his desk and leaned back in the chair. “She’s their kin. I doubt they plan to harm her.”

“Ha! They’ve already treated her shabbily. What if she had been shot while running as a wolf?”

Ian’s expression turned stormy. “You mentioned nothing of this to me.”

“A sheepherder’s dogs barked until the farmer investigated to see what was disturbing the peace. Oglivie, you know how he is, and another man chased after us in a pickup and tried to shoot us. What if they’d injured Elaine?”

Duncan snorted. “Her kin don’t deserve to have her back.”

She wholeheartedly agreed, but she wasn’t sure Ian wanted to keep her here, which could stir up more trouble between the clans.

Cearnach remained beside Elaine, his fists clenched in anger. “What if they’re furious with her for having been with me? You can’t turn her over to them.”

“I’m not going to. They have to make full restitution of your vehicle and hers. Your clothes, sword, phone, and anything else they took. If they can’t do that right away, she’ll be our honored guest until they do,” Ian said. He looked at Elaine as she stiffened, and she thought his dark expression was a warning. She had brought this trouble to the clan; he was the clan chief and would decide what happened to her.

After Rafferty, no one had dictated what she could do, so she was used to being in charge of her own destiny. She didn’t like anyone thinking he could tell her what to do.

Ian’s phone rang again, and this time after he looked at the caller ID, he shook his head. “The McKinleys.” He set his phone back down on the desk. “They can stew overnight about what they did to the lass and Cearnach. Guthrie, make sure the place is locked up tight. Next time they see her, they can show their kin a wee bit more Scottish hospitality.”

“Aye, Ian.” Guthrie hurried out of the room to take care of the task.

“Elaine and I need to have dinner.” Cearnach slipped his hand around her arm. “I’ll get us something to eat.”

“You don’t cook,” Ian reminded him. Though his brother’s tone was dark, Cearnach thought he heard a hint of amusement in his voice.

Cearnach gave him a small smile. “Maybe I can manage a pizza. Or…” He sniffed the air. “Maybe Cook’s got some of that lamb stew left.”

“The way this clan eats, I doubt it,” Duncan said.

“Then I can take her to Scot’s pub.”

“Not without an armed escort. Call ahead and clear out the place before we arrive,” Duncan suggested.

Cearnach was thinking of a quiet dinner for two. Just Elaine and him where they could discuss what they would do next. Not a mob scene with his clansmen watching over them.

“Did the rest of you not eat already?” Cearnach asked. At this late hour, he knew they had.

Ian and Duncan glanced at each other and looked as though they finally got the message.

Julia and Duncan’s mate, Shelley, smiled. His aunt and mother didn’t look pleased.

“Cearnach,” his mother said, her brow furrowed, “a word with you.”

When he hesitated, fairly sure she would lecture him about getting involved with his enemy’s kin, he couldn’t believe it when she said, “Please.”

It was the first time he’d ever heard his mother say the word, and he knew everyone present was just as shocked.

“I’ll take Elaine down to the kitchen, and you can join her in a few minutes,” Shelley quickly offered.

Cearnach didn’t care how nicely his mother asked, if she even asked him nicely, or if she tried to order him about. She wasn’t the one to determine what would happen to Elaine.