Page 37 of Craved By a Highland Beast

Graeme wanted to be part of that alliance. Nothing could prove more useful in his quest for influence. Not only would his own clan have important allies, but he could also get the resources he needed in order to suppress any opposition against the English and Balliol.

I could be the one who wins this war fer him. I could be the one who keeps him in power.

And if he kept him in power, then Balliol, and even King Edward I, would owe him plenty.

The knock on the door pulled Graeme away from the window and he sat once again behind his desk, instantly reaching for his cup of wine.

“Enter,” he called, and the door opened to reveal his advisor, Ranald, as he walked into the room. Ranald was older than him by a decade and his dark hair had begun to grey at the temples, lines adorning the corners of his dark eyes, and yet he was still one of the best warriors the clan had seen. “Ranald . . . come, sit.”

Ranald bowed before taking his seat across from Graeme, his expression turning even more somber than usual. He wasn’t the kind of person to smile often. In fact, Graeme couldn’t remember if he had ever seen a genuine smile from him.

“It is just as we suspected,” Ranald said with a weary sigh. “Miss MacLaren an’ Laird MacGregor are nae cousins, as they claim tae be.”

Graeme echoed that sigh, a hand coming up to scratch at the back of his head as he drained the rest of his wine. With the last drop, he slammed the cup on the desk, his rage getting the better of him.

“Are ye certain?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Ranald nodded. “Perfectly certain, me laird. We made sure.”

“I see.”

It was nothing Graeme hadn’t already expected to hear. For one, he didn’t think he had ever heard of a connection between Clan MacGregor and Clan MacLaren, at least not one recent enough to render Bonnie and Evan cousins. Then, he had thought that perhaps they were distant cousins and simply happened to have a closer bond, but Ranald’s research had disproved that. From the way they were acting, he could only assume they were lovers, but he couldn’t imagine what their scheme was.

Perhaps they wish tae stop this weddin’.

But then why wouldn’t Evan simply ask for Bonnie’s hand in marriage? Why would he go to such lengths when he, too, was a good match for her?

Does it matter? All that matters is that I wed Bonnie.

“What shall we dae about him, then?” Graeme asked, mostly talking to himself. There really was only one thing he could do; Evan had left him no other choice. “I suppose we must dispose o’ him as soon as possible.”

“Dispose o’ him, me laird?” Ranald asked with the sort of timidity Graeme wasn’t used to hearing from him. “Dae ye think that is wise?”

“Why wouldnae it be?” Graeme asked with a shrug. “We shall make it seem accidental.”

“Even so . . . he is the laird o’ Clan MacGregor,” Ranald reminded him, rather unhelpfully. Graeme knew as much, of course, and it didn’t matter to him at all. “An’ there is also the issue o’ his brother.”

“His brother?”

“Aye,” said Ranald. “He is here, too. What if he doesnae believe it was an accident? What if he suspects?”

Much could point to Graeme as Evan’s killer, especially after their brawl in the training grounds. It had been a mistake, fighting him like that in front of everyone. Now not only his people, but Bonnie and Alaric, too, had seen the murderous rage Graeme carried for Evan and it was likely that they would question his death, no matter how accidental it would seem.

Graeme couldn’t deny that it could cause a problem, though if Alaric had no proof, then there was little he could do.

“We will be discreet,” Graeme said. “Or . . . perhaps we could dispose o’ them both.”

What was one more body in the line of bodies he had left behind him in his efforts to gather more power and wealth? Alaric wouldn’t be the first to become collateral damage nor the last.

“There may be a better way tae deal with this,” Ranald said. For a man who was such a skilled fighter, he certainly did his best to avoid a bloody conflict. Then again, that was why he was his advisor, Graeme thought. He didn’t allow Graeme to make any rash decisions. “Bloodshed may yet prove tae be unnecessary.”

“If ye have a better plan, then by all means, tell me,” Graeme said, though he had already made up his mind. There was no better plan. Some things were unavoidable. “But it must happen soon. I’m sure ye have seen Laird MacGregor’s interest in Bonnie. I cannae allow him tae ruin this alliance afore it even begins.”

“Surely, Miss MacLaren kens what her duty is,” said Ranald. “The MacLaren council has already arranged yer marriage.”

“I dinnae think it matters tae her.” For all her reassurances that all she wanted was to get to know him better, Graeme couldn’t believe her until they were both saying their vows in front of the priest. She had already stalled long enough and still claimed thetime they had spent together was not enough, so Graeme could only assume she was trying to find a way out of this marriage.

And Evan would be more than willing to help her.

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