Page 78 of Wolf Pack

“Stay here with the children.” She didn’t want him to fight the raiders while healing from his injury.

“Aye, lass.”

Libby and Drummond helped him up while Isobel ran outside after her brother, her sword, andsgian dubhat the ready. Elene was out the door after that.

Isobel hadn’t wanted Elene to fight either, but she realized she probably needed to do this for her peace of mind after they had kept her as a slave for so long.

Instantly, Isobel saw Vigge fighting Alasdair, but as soon as he saw her, he paused. Then he slashed at Alasdair with his sword. “I would have protected you from my da. Even though your traitorous uncle had tried to kill him, if you had been my mate.”

“I’m already mated.” She went after one of the Vikings who was ganging up on Alasdair.

She didn’t tell Vigge that she was mated to Alasdair because she knew he would be enraged and try even harder to kill her mate.

But Alasdair was too proud to let it go and said, “To me.”

With a clang, Vigge struck Alasdair’s sword so hard that she was surprised it hadn’t broken in two.

“You and your da set my uncle up.” Isobel was sure of it.

That’s why the other men had agreed to go against Funi but then, in the end, had killed her uncle. They just hadn’t expected her to take her family and Elene all the way across the ocean to Scotia.

As wolves, Conall and Elene tackled another who kept swinging his sword at them, but they were too swift, getting vicious bites in and dodging his sword. They would have to kill him, or he would become one of them.

Hans was engaged in combat with another Viking while her brother was fighting a fifth man.

“You disappeared,” Vigge said, falling back as Alasdair continued to strike at him.

“Aye. We knew you would kill us—kin to a traitor.”

“Nay.”

She knew then it had all been planned. Never did Vigge say that it hadn’t been. But the man she was trying to keep from attacking Alasdair further was getting the best of her. He was much bigger and stronger. Hans had killed the man he was fighting and tackled the one Elene and Conall were biting.

Then Leif cut down the Viking he was battling and hurried to help Isobel. The Viking she was fighting wasn’t holding back; ready to kill her and hit her sword so hard she fell back on her arse. Leif was right there taking up where she had left off, striking his sword against the Viking’s, forcing him back and away from Isobel.

Now Vigge was closer to her. Before she got to her feet, she sliced Vigge’s leg. And then she hurried to her feet. Vigge struck her sword so hard that she lost it. But Alasdair sliced at Vigge’s throat as Isobel stabbed him in the chest with hersgian dubh. He collapsed and fell face-first in the meadow grasses.

Alasdair took on the man fighting Leif, and then between them, Leif knocked his sword from his grasp, and Alasdair stabbed him in the chest with his sword.

Hans had killed the other man. All five men lay dead in the field.

“Come. We go now to the keep, just in case Lorne, Erik, and the other men dinna manage to kill the rest of them,” Alasdair said.

“Aye. I’ll get the children and Dawy.” Leif hurried to the croft.

“Do you want to change first?” Isobel asked Conall. Elene had arrived as a wolf, so she figured she would return to the keep as one.

Conall woofed and ran to the cottage.

“I can walk,” Dawy said. “I’m much better. Fighting the Vikings, probably no’ so much. But walking? I can manage.”

Libby and Drummond ran to Isobel, and she hugged and kissed them both. Elene joined them and licked them in greeting and affection.

“We’ll take care of the bodies later,” Alasdair said. “Dawy and Libby, you can ride Conall’s horse to the keep.”

Conall hurried into the barn and saddled his horse, then he and Leif helped Dawy onto the saddle. After that, Conall lifted his sister onto Dawy’s lap.

“Let’s go.” Alasdair started moving at a fast pace, Isobel beside him.

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