Page 71 of Wolf Alliance

“I dinna want you hurt,” Erik said.

“Aye, and I dinna want you harmed either.”

“I was ready to go straight into the fray.”

She smiled at him. “I knew you would. I can be sneakier.”

He chuckled. “You would be right in doing so. We dinna know how many men Freigard has at his beck and call. Or if some of your people are dead or injured.”

“I canna imagine my da allowing Freigard into the castle without a fight, but I’m trying no’ to think about what might have happened.”

In silence, they rode for an hour, and then when they were an hour away from the castle, the men going with Erik and Accalia grabbed their weapons and anything else they required off their saddles.

Erik glanced at Logan, and he said, “I’ll take your things.”

“I’ll take the lass’s,” Rory said, smiling at her.

“Dinna drop them along the way to get back at me for the mischief your sister and I played on you over the years,” Accalia warned as she stripped out of her clothes.

Rory smiled. “I wouldna think of it, no’ when you now have a mate, and Erik is no’ one to cross words—or swords—with.”

Then she finished stripping and shifted. Erik finished removing his clothes, and so did five other men. They turned into wolves and Accalia and Erik led the way.

The wolves moved much faster, able to stay low and well hidden in the bracken and woods. They managed to reach the croft that was out of view of the castle. A farmer was mending a fence when he saw them.

When he noticed Accalia, he raced to his croft and opened the door, waving at her and her companions to go inside.

The wolves ran toward the croft and loped inside the small abode where the crofter’s wife was preparing a meal, and the children were helping her.

The woman, her daughter, and her son were wide-eyed as they saw Accalia and the male wolves enter the croft. She grabbed a fur blanket off the bed and waited for Accalia to shift.

Accalia shifted, took the fur blanket she offered her, and wrapped it around herself. “Tell us what has happened.”

“Freigard and his men went to the castle. We do no’ know why, but they were allowed into the castle and the gates have been locked ever since. We believe everyone inside has been taken hostage.”

Erik shifted. “We were coming to celebrate my mating to Accalia and to agree on an alliance with her da, but we were warned this had come to pass. No’ exactly how or why, but we have men following us in their human form, some from Alasdair’s pack.”

“You are going through the secret tunnels?” the woman asked.

“Aye. You know about them?” Accalia asked.

“No’ where they are but that they exist. Most castles have escape routes, aye?” the woman asked.

Erik nodded.

“What can we do?” the crofter asked.

“Take care of your family,” Accalia said. “If any of Freigard’s men manage to escape the castle and come this way, do what you must to keep your family safe.”

“Aye,” the crofter said. “May you be successful, my lady, my lord.”

Erik prayed no harm would come to his mate or any of the rest of their people, that no one was guarding the tunnel, and that they could free her people without too much bloodshed.

20

With trepidation, Accalia and Erik shifted back into their fur coats, and the wolves left the croft. Accalia led them to a tall cairn. She followed it farther west, stopped, sniffed the ground, and pawed at the dirt.

Erik hoped they didn’t need shovels to find the entrance. But then he and the other wolves began digging and soon their nails scratched something metal. Erik shifted and found the rung on a trapdoor and pulled it, opening the entrance to the dark tunnel below. He knew the other men would eventually catch up to them and smell their scents and where they led. He shifted again into his wolf.

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