Page 16 of Wolf Alliance

“Aye, we believed the same thing.”

“This is your chamber,” Etta said, showing her the room that featured a bed, chair, small table, and a trunk. A narrow window opened on one wall.

“Where is Erik’s chamber?”

Etta’s eyes widened.

“Show me.” If Accalia were to marry the pack leader, she would be in his bed, not in a guest room. But not right away. She had to know they could love one another and that the boys would be fine with the arrangement.

“Aye, my lady.” Etta led her to another set of stairs and showed her a much larger room, a bigger bed, tapestries hanging on the walls, trunks beneath them, and a bathing area.

It would do. “I will take my bath in here while Erik is occupied. But first, we bathe the lads and put them to bed.”

“Aye, my lady. Will you sleep in the lord’s room?”

“Heaven’s no.”

Etta nodded perceptively. Then she showed the lads’ chamber to Accalia filled with wooden toys—swords, horses, toy soldiers—scattered all over. The beds were unmade, furs on the floor, feathers from pillows scattered around. The room was larger like Erik’s for three growing boys.

“I want all the toys removed and the boys’ bedding washed. But in the meantime, fresh bedding must be added to the beds,” Accalia said. If the boys had no toys in the room, they wouldn’t make such a mess of their chamber. And they couldn’t play if that was what they did until they fell asleep.

Etta smiled. “Aye, my lady.” She hurried off and within minutes, several men entered the chamber and began hauling everything out. Three maids stripped the beds and carried the bedding out of the room. Then others came in with replacement bedding.

“Better.” Accalia liked her life and her castle to be nice and orderly. It made her feel more settled.

Then men brought up a tub and women filled it with buckets of water warmed in the kitchen.

Accalia wanted to ask where the hellions were, but suddenly Logan entered the chamber and smiled. He folded his arms. “I heard there was lots of activity going on up here. You’ll do.” Then he cast her a smirk and left.

She scoffed at him. He wouldn’t decide if she would be Erik’s mate. She would.

Not much longer after that, three husky Highlanders were pulling three cantankerous boys into the chamber. One of the boys immediately tried to leave, but the burly Highlanders guarded the door. Now that was more like it.

While the door was still open, the five rambunctious wolfhounds ran into the bedchamber. Their claws tapped on the stone floor and echoed through the bedchamber. The wolfhounds ran around, panting and joyfully barking, their large paws creating a chaotic symphony of noise as they stepped on her feet and the boys. They knocked her over and she fell on one of the boys’ beds.

The boys laughed. She figured she would have done the same in their place and didn’t take it personally.

One of the men came to her aid, but she got to her feet without his help, wanting to show the boys she could manage.

“Out with you,” Accalia said, waving her hands at the dogs to leave the bedchamber.

The men herded them out of the room for her, the one saying, “Off with ye now!”

She wondered then if the dogs slept with the lads. If they did, she might have to rethink chasing them off. She wanted them to bathe and sleep and not to remove something that might comfort them.

“It’s bathtime,” Accalia told the boys. “Whoever wants to take a bath first, remove your clothes and climb in. It’s warm and will feel delightful.”

“Then you take a bath in it,” one of the boys said, folding his arms across his small chest.

“Which one are you?” Accalia asked the impudent lad.

“Hendrie.”

“That’s Thorfinn,” Etta said, shaking her head.

“Aww.” So disrespectful and deceitful. Not a good start.

“Who are you?” Thorfinn asked, tilting his head to the side.

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