Page 11 of Wolf Alliance

Logan smiled a little at her. “You will have to be stronger, more in charge if you are to interest him. Though your choices—and his—are slim.”

She laughed in an annoyed way. “I have no choice in the matter. ‘Tis my place to please my da and help my people.”

“So you think to have an alliance between your pack and ours if you please Erik?”

“Tis better that, than mating with Freigard and having no alliance. There is no guarantee that Freigard willna attempt to take over our pack later.”

“Or sooner. What if he takes over your pack before my brother decides about you?”

“Then I will have to be returned to my people and do what I can to help them through the situation.”

“You wouldna want to stay with us?” Logan asked, looking surprised.

“Your brother would have no need of me, and I would have no need of him.” But her da and her people would need her, she knew in her heart.

“We will be at Whitehaven Castle by late tomorrow. I would warn you of two things. Cook doesna like Erik, but we lost our own and she is the deposed clan’s cook. She prepares good meals so Erik keeps her on.”

“She was turned?” She knew the former clan ruling there had been human, though her da and the lord had never been able to agree on an alliance. Even though she’d been but ten moons, the lord had wanted her for his wife and her da wouldn’t agree. Not when she and her clan were wolves, and she had been so young. Accalia had liked Cook and many of their staff that she had met.

“Aye, she wanted to leave and didna want to serve the chieftain and his devil wolves, but we had lost our cook, and we had no one else to manage the kitchen staff.”

She frowned. “Did you turn the whole staff?”

“Aye. They wanted to be like us.”

“I’m surprised she hasna poisoned the chieftain then.”

“He requires that she tastes all of his food just in case she intends to poison him.”

Accalia shook her head. “So she and the others are white wolves then.”

“Aye, devil wolves.” Logan smiled. “We have learned you know her, and she has threatened Erik that she will poison him when he’s least expecting it if he even hints at turning you.”

“She wouldna. Didna you tell her I’m a wolf already?”

“Aye, she wouldna believe us.”

“You said there were two things you wanted to tell me.”

“Aye. My brother had a mate and lost her.”

Accalia couldn’t believe it. No one had said anything to her about it. Their kind often mated for life, though if a wolf lost his mate, he or she might take another. Especially in the case of a chieftain who needed an heir.

“How long ago and how did she die?” Accalia couldn’t help wanting to know. This was such a shock to her. She had expected to mate with a wolf who had never been mated.

“A year ago. He would have mated before this, but he was waiting until after he conquered Crawford so that he had a castle and lands to call his own.”

She didn’t say anything. The old chieftain had never allied with her da, but they’d kept the peace between them all these years. When Erik had taken over, they worried he would take her clan over next.

“Erik…has triplet sons,” Logan said.

Accalia stared at him.

“They are five summers old.”

“How did his mate die?” she asked, saddened for the children and their mother.

“Of a fever. A dozen of our clan members died, and it was dark time for us.”

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