Page 56 of Wolf Pack

“Nay. I will be watching over Cleary and Baine though.”

“No’ at night. They will be in the barracks and the men there will watch them.”

“Like they did before sunset and sunrise this morn?”

Alasdair frowned at her. “Believe me, I will have words with my men over that. They should always be watched.” Then he lost his frown. “You will guard me while I swim in the loch.”

Last night, he had been too angered that he hadn’t kept her and her kin safe, which had resulted in Isobel taking matters into her own hands—or teeth, as it were. But he had regretted not seeing her swim.

She smiled. “It would be my pleasure. I mean, honor.” She inclined her head and continued to watch for signs of trouble when he wanted her to pay attention to him!

Was he mad? She was doing her assigned duties.

“This eve then.” Though he would see her during the nooning meal and the one this evening, he couldn’t speak to her during the meals. Not when she was sitting at a lower table, and he was sitting at the high table. But who had made Cleary and Baine sit with her and her cousin then?

When he reached the stairs, he ran down them to the bottom and then stalked across the inner bailey to speak with Cleary and Baine while rebuilding the wall. “A word with the two of you, but you can continue to work.”

“Aye,” the brothers said.

Conall glanced in their direction, looking curious about what was about to be said, but he continued to work as well.

“You went to the croft by the loch when the gates were open. Why?” Alasdair asked.

“To stretch our legs as wolves. We were driven to do it,” Cleary said.

“But why in that direction? Why not toward the other loch that is closer, or the woods, or just anywhere? Why there?”

“She scared us half to death. We didna know it was her and her cousin who bit us. But we…we had to follow the scent trail of the wolves that bit us. We had to know who turned us,” Cleary said.

“And?”

“Naught else. We were…just driven to learn who.”

Alasdair wasn’t sure that was all there was to it. He glanced at Baine but nodded as if agreeing with everything his older brother said. “Who told you to sit between Isobel and Conall at the meal this morn?”

“Mege,” both Cleary and Baine said at the same time.

“Mege?” She didn’t make seating arrangements or any other decisions of that magnitude. Then Alasdair realized she had made overtures that she was interested in mating him if he was interested in return. Mayhap she thought if she told the men to sit with the Icelanders, trouble would ensue, and Isobel would get herself into difficulties with Alasdair.

“Aye,” Cleary said. “We thought it was because we went to the croft where Isobel and Conall were staying, and Isobel wanted to tell us off.”

“Did she?” Alasdair asked, which would contradict what she had told him.

“Nay. She was nice about everything. She told us what we could expect as wolves, and she said that as Viking wolves, we would be even more—” Cleary paused, his eyes widening as if he realized what he would say probably wouldn’t set well with the Highland clan chief.

“Superior to our kind?” Alasdair offered.

“Aye, but we know she is wrong.”

Alasdair swore he heard Conall snicker. “We are equals as wolves no matter who might have bitten you,” Alasdair said.

But Alasdair would have his sister say something to Mege about involving herself in seating arrangements since Bessetta oversaw the women in the pack.

“It was all right that we sat with them at the meal, was it no’?” Baine asked. “We enjoyed their company.”

“You said no’ a word.” Alasdair couldn’t understand it.

Both Baine and Cleary’s ears turned red.

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