Page 67 of Wolf Pack

They heard horses off in the distance, and she knew Alasdair’s men would kill her brother for harming her mate and the men with him.

“What are you doing here?” Isobel asked, glad to see her brother, but she needed to know their intent.

“We smelled lots of wolves in the area and thought it was a pack, and we might join them. Then I smelled your scent here and thought these people had taken you hostage,” Leif said, looking shocked to see her and to learn she was mated to the man whom he’d struck. “I came to free you.”

She wasn’t sure Alasdair would let them join the pack now. “Help me with Alasdair.”

Leif hurried over to help Alasdair sit up. Alasdair looked at her, his eyes not focusing at first. Then he saw Leif approaching and reached for his sword still lying next to his clothes on the beach.

“He is my twin brother and had come to rescue me,” she quickly said, holding Alasdair’s arm to keep him upright.

“The one lost at sea?” Alasdair asked, frowning.

“Aye, but he has found me.” She looked at the other men, both brown-haired and bearded, both blue-eyed. “I dinna know the other men, but they are wolves also.” She and her brother helped Alasdair into his clothes before Alasdair’s forces arrived.

With tears in her eyes, she kissed Alasdair’s cheek, hoping he would be all right.

“I grew up with them,” Leif said about the men with him, staying with Alasdair to assist him.

She jumped up. “I’ll get our brats.” She ran off into the bracken where, moments earlier, she had mated Alasdair. She returned to Alasdair. “The three of you are on your own?” Isobel asked her brother and the other two men.

“Aye,” Leif said. “The brothers lost their parents to a sickness after they had taken me in, and so the three of us have been working where we can and living off the land. They took me in because I’m a wolf also, taught me the language, clothed me, and fed me until their parents died, and then we were on our own.”

The horses were growing closer, and Isobel howled as a human to tell the ones coming to rescue them that everything was all right so that the pack members wouldn’t kill her brother and the other men.

“Did I hear right? That you mated the pack leader?” Conall asked, sounding surprised, finally sheathing his sword.

“Aye. I just didna think my long-lost brother would show up and nearly kill him.” She felt mixed emotions, horrible and worried about Alasdair and glad to see her brother but hoping Hans and the others wouldn’t kill Leif.

“I am sorry,” Leif said to both her and Alasdair. “He really is the pack leader?” He carefully helped Alasdair to stand.

“Aye, I am. And so is Isobel now,” Alasdair said, unsteady on his feet.

“Do you want to go inside the croft?” Conall asked.

“Aye,” Dawy said. “Bring him inside.”

“You will join my pack,” Alasdair said to Leif, showing no ill will toward him and his friends. “We need able-bodied men such as yourself. You can help rebuild the wall, live in the barracks, and eat with us.”

She was proud of Alasdair and glad she had mated him. He could have managed this situation so much differently. She knew how her former chieftain would have dealt with this. For striking him? His warriors would have killed Leif without hesitation.

The horses were nearly upon them. Hans and Rory were leading ten men to the croft and soon surrounded them before Leif and Conall could assist Alasdair to the cottage.

“What has happened here?” Hans dismounted and helped Alasdair as Isobel finished dressing.

She sheathed her sword and secured hersgian dubhin her boot, then grabbed Alasdair’s weapons.

“Everything is secure,” Alasdair said, though his forehead was bloodied, and he was still wavering a bit where he stood.

“Aye, and who hit you?” Hans asked, none of the other men dismounting.

“I did. I thought the Scots had captured my sister and made her a slave. The last thing I knew about her whereabouts wasthat she was still in Iceland. Now she’s here? What was I to think when I smelled Inge’s scent here?” Leif asked.

“That I had made a home here like you have done. This is Alasdair’s brother Hans, and the other is Rory. This is my brother Leif,” Isobel said. “And I go by Isobel now, Leif.”

“We are mated,” Alasdair said as Leif and Hans helped him inside the croft.

Hans, Rory, and the rest of the men smiled.

---