Page 73 of Wolf Alliance

“I didna think of that. Though he would have smelled me in the castle anyway since I have lived here since I was born.”

“Aye, do you want to return to the tunnel or?—”

“I will stay with you so I know if the person or people coming into the room are friends or foe.”

Then they divided up into groups of six in each of the five bedchambers. As soon as Erik, Accalia, and four other men joined them in her da’s chamber, they closed the door and took up positions around the room.

They were sitting on the floor next to the bed on either side, next to a large chest, against a wall, hidden by clothes hung on pegs on another wall. Everyone was hidden from the view of the door. Erik and Accalia stayed on one side of the bed together.

He kissed her. “Are you all right?” He listened to her rapid heartbeat and smelled her anxiousness.

“Aye. I hope my da is fine and comes here to sleep.”

“I wish that would be so.” Erik pulled her into his arms and held her tight so they could rest until someone arrived.

They waited for what seemed like hours but probably only an hour or so when they heard footfalls head past the bedchamber. “The others willna know if the ones going to the bedchambers are my people or no’,” she said.

“Logan saw your uncle when we came for you, so he knows him. If a grown man enters any of the other chambers, yours, your aunt’s, or your cousin’s, they willna belong there. Even so, they willna kill them, no’ until they know for sure.”

“Aye.”

Then they grew quiet and waited. It seemed like forever before they heard more footfalls coming up the stairs and down the hallway toward the bedchambers.

“He has killed enough of my men already,” a man said.

“Freigard,” she whispered to Erik, her heart beating like crazy.

“I told you he was one to watch out for. If you had allied with my brother, that would have kept him from our gates,” another man said, and Erik recognized his voice as her uncle’s.

Accalia’s eyes widened and she took hold of Erik’s hand. “My uncle. Dunbar’s…he’s in league with Freigard?”

Erik whispered back, “It appears that way.”

That’s how Freigard and his men were allowed into the castle so easily, Erik suspected. Her da wasn’t with them in the hallway, or he didn’t make a sound if he was.

“On the morrow, I want you to send out some of your men with a couple of mine to learn if Accalia is still at Whitehaven. Your people can infiltrate them and learn their plans,” Freigard said.

“Aye, that I will.”

“Dinna change your mind about being with me on this,” Freigard told her uncle.

“You are putting me in charge of the pack. I wouldna do anything to sabotage that,” Uncle Dunbar said.

Then Freigard said, “You’ll stay in your chamber, Baldur, until your daughter returns here.”

Her da was with them, but he was a hostage! Erik needed to know how many of Freigard’s men they had to fight. If they could solicit Baldur’s people to battle Freigard’s, they stood a chance to defeat Freigard and his men. He hoped that Baldur’s kinsmen weren’t siding with his brother.

Erik motioned to the other men in the bedchamber that the person entering the room was Accalia’s da and no’ to make a sound or harm him.

They all nodded their assent.

“You’ll have a guard posted at your door at all times, so dinna get any ideas,” Freigard said.

“I canna believe you would go along with this, Dunbar,” Baldur said.

“Why no’? I always should have been the one to take over the clan,” Dunbar said.

Then the door opened, and Baldur walked inside, looking weary as a guard shut the door behind him. But then Baldur’s eyes widened as he sniffed the air. Thankfully, he said nothing and moved deeper into the room. “Accalia?” he whispered.

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