Page 27 of Wolf Pack

Alasdair couldn’t take his eyes off Isobel, seeing the love she had for her kin, the friendship she had for Elene. He wanted to get to know her better.

“We will hunt and then eat,” Alasdair said. “Bessetta is my sister. She’ll take care of the younger children if you want to hunt with us.” He meant for Elene, Isobel, and Conall to go with them if they wanted to.

Elene said, “Some other time if it pleases you. I’ll stay with the children and get to know your sister. I’m sure they’ll be more comfortable if at least one person they know stays with them.”

And that they trusted, Alasdair figured. He understood her concern.

“I will hunt,” Isobel said, and Conall wanted to also.

Alasdair suspected they both volunteered to prove they had what it took to be part of the pack.

“Do you know they have thirty wolves in the pack? With us, five and thirty?” Conall asked Isobel, smiling.

Isobel glanced at Alasdair for confirmation, her striking blue eyes catching his gaze, and he smiled a little.

“Aye, if you will stay with us, that’s what we’ll have. It is good that you changed your names. You’ve changed your garments, but you still sound Icelandic when you speak with your distinctive brogue. Which we can work on. You blend in with us otherwise. Your older cousin mistakenly said he was named Bodolf at first.”

“It will take some getting used to. Dinna fault me if I dinna answer to my new name sometimes either,” Isobel said.

Alasdair smiled. “Believe me, I would be the same way. How is your arm?”

“It’s better. I scraped it on the rocks when we swam to the beach to reach the other longships. You know, with our faster healing abilities, it will be better in no time.”

“Good.” It was times like these that he really regretted them not having a healer. But they hadn’t had any luck at finding one who was a wolf who would leave their own pack.

“Hey.” Hans rode up to join them, his horse’s hooves pounding the ground. “We have visitors. And they could be trouble. It’s Baine and his brother, Cleary.”

“God’s wounds.” Theyweretrouble. And Conall was wearing Icelandic clothes still!

8

Isobel wondered if the visitors coming to see Alasdair would mean the trouble had to do with them. With her and her kin. She had hoped she and her cousins might fit in with this pack.

After hearing their story, Alasdair’s people had been kind to her and her family, even trying to help her improve her Gaelic so that no one would think she was from the Northlands. Providing them with clothes so they appeared to be Scots, too, was a godsend. Though Conall needed clothes also.

And a bath? She and Elene had been ecstatic about bathing to remove the irritating sea salt from their skin and hair. She couldn’t imagine what the Scots had thought of them looking as wild as could be. At least Drummond and Libby would get baths too, but Conall still needed one.

“Dinna speak to anyone,” Alasdair warned her and Conall. “Hans, I’ll go talk to them. Keep Isobel and her cousin here.”

“Aye.”

But two men came riding up to greet them before Alasdair could meet them away from Isobel and Conall. Were the brothers gossipmongers who would tell anyone who would listenthat the pack had taken in the enemy? Or had they suffered at the hands of the Vikings—as well they might have—and would want to kill anyone who had Viking blood?

“Alasdair,” one of the men greeted him, a redhead with green eyes and a scowl.

“Cleary,” Alasdair said, inclining his head a little, then acknowledged the other man, “Baine.”

Baine was black-haired and bearded and looked as wary as the other man.

“We heard you were going on a hunt. May we join you?” Cleary looked over Isobel and Conall, but she didn’t like how he observed her. Then his eyes widened as he considered Conall’s clothing.

“We have enough clansmen on the hunt. Another time,” Alasdair said.

Cleary again eyed Isobel with speculation. “It appears you have gained some new clansmen.”

Alasdair smiled at him. But it was a look that told the men to leave. That he didn’t want them involved in his pack business. The two men were human, so they wouldn’t know Alasdair and his people were wolves.

Alasdair told Hans, “Take Isobel and Conall on the hunt with the others. I’ll join you shortly.”

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