Page 10 of Wolf Alliance

“They were. The one said Freigard wanted me dead before you could have me. I assume it’s because he doesna want you allied with my da.” She couldn’t believe how comforting Erik felt, how warm, solid, and protective he was, the rain subsiding, his hair wet and rainwater running down his face. She wanted to brush away the droplets with a tender gesture, but she resisted the silly notion.

“Then he is determined to have you. For him to attempt to steal you away from me shows such determination.”

“But the man said he would kill me.” She realized she was shivering from the danger she had experienced, and Erik must have noticed it too as he held her closer to his hot body and she soaked his warmth in, smelling his manly wolf scent and the air cleansed by the rain.

“Mayhap to keep you in line. I doubt he would have harmed you,” Erik said.

“What about you? What do you want?”

“I want what’s best for my people. But we are white wolves and you are a gray wolf.”

She frowned. “We are all gray wolves, from what I understand. Then at some point, the gray wolves in the northern regions started changing. It was said so your kind could blend in with the white winters.”

“Aye.”

“So we are all the same.”

“Do you feel this way?”

Erik’s white wolves were as beautiful as her kind and she hadn’t expected that. “Aye.”

“We shall see.”

“You havena lived long here.” She knew their history. He and his wolves had left their lands, looking for someplace to conquer that was more hospitable. He had taken over the weak chieftain’s lands, but then he’d dispersed the residents or turned them as they would have to keep their secret.

So he’d been known as the Great White Wolf Chieftain, even though humans didn’t know that the white wolves with him were shifters, nor that he was one. Only that he used the white wolves from his homeland to hunt his prey. Others wouldn’t know that he was one of the white wolves on the prowl. But still, she—and her kin—had wondered if there was more to their reason for coming here.

“You shouldna have been so far away from our encampment.”

She figured he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. “They wouldna do the same thing twice, would they? The closer we get to your castle, willna they give up?”

“You are no’ a warrior, my lady. They willna give up until we reach the castle. Some skulk nearby, I venture to guess, just out of sight.”

That didn’t make her feel in the least bit comfortable.

They reached the encampment that had been packed up and he dismounted before she could, then he helped her down only to set her on her horse. He was firm but gentle and seemed troubled about all that had occurred. About his brother being injured? Her nearly falling into his enemy’s hands, because surely now, Freigard was his enemy? Or concern for her? Maybe a little of each.

Then they were on their way again.

She watched for signs of Freigard’s men lurking in the woods they traveled through. Every rustle of a branch or flutter of a bird caught her eye now. As a wolf, her senses were always on higher alert than a human’s, but even more so now. She realized then that though she had trained as a warrior in the event they were ever overrun, she didn’t know their tactics out in the wild.

Then she saw Logan looking a little pale some distance off, heading in her direction, his head wrapped in a cloth bandage. She caught Logan’s eye and mouthed a silent thanks to him. He didn’t look pleased. She realized he was probably in trouble with his brother over the matter of her abduction. But he had to fight six men and was lucky to be alive.

Erik had moved ahead to speak with his men and two others were ordered to stay beside her as they made their way through the woods.

With no one to talk to, she rode in silence, wondering what his castle and people would be like now that he had taken it over. All she remembered of the castle was that it had towered over her, dark, and dreary. She had made certain her castle was comfortable, clean, and presentable. Had his kind made any changes? If not, she would make some changes while she stayed there which might not be for long.

Logan rode up and replaced one of her guards, a little blood staining the center of the bandage on his forehead.

“You were valiant, and I thank you,” she said, relieved to see him alive, and wanting to hug him for trying to keep her safe.

“Dinna tell the chieftain such.”

She scoffed. “Any man who could fight against such odds and come out unscathed”—well, nearly so—“is a warrior and he should be proud of you.”

“You were stolen away when I was guarding you.”

“Who made the assignment?”

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