Page 57 of Wolf Pack

“They are both smitten with my cousin,” Conall said. “But they’re also cowed by her. She told them to say what they felt, but they were afraid to.”

“We were no’ afraid.” Cleary sounded angry now as he slammed a rock down on the wall.

But Alasdair could tell that was the case already. “Work hard on the wall. You’re doing good work so far.”

Alasdair had no intention of having the two brothers, who were smitten with Isobel, sit with her further.

What if the brothers overcame their shyness with her and earned her favor? Even though they might have hated her for what her people had done to theirs, he’d also wondered at the time if they had been interested in the bonny lass instead. It seemed that was the case. Maybe they even thought she had turned them because she was smitten withthem!

There was one other way to rectify the situation. She would sit at the head table with him, his brothers, and his sister. Then Mege and the other lasses who wanted to mate Alasdair would see it was a lost cause. And so would Cleary and Baine if they had an interest in Isobel.

15

That afternoon, the dynamics between Isobel and Alasdair changed again. To her surprise, Hans pulled her away from speaking to Elene and Bessetta before they sat in the great hall to eat and told Isobel she would sit next to Alasdair at the head table.

Isobel thought he might still be perturbed with her because she had bitten Cleary.

Bessetta smiled brightly. “It’s about time my brother came to his senses.”

Elene smiled just as cheerfully. “Enjoy your meal and everything else.”

Isobel swore her face had to be bright red with embarrassment. But then she wondered if Alasdair had not been pleased that she had spoken to Cleary and Baine at the meal this morn. Or mayhap it was because of the interest the two brothers had shown in her.

She and Bessetta walked to the head table, and Isobel sat beside Alasdair. “Did you want me to sit by you so you can keep me out of mischief?”

She smiled at him, hoping the lasses who desired a mating with the wolf would believe they had no chance. She didn’t believe she had made enough of an impression on him that he would want to mate her. But she wasn’t above playing the game.

“Aye.”

“You know some of the women who are interested in vying for your attention will be envious that I’m sitting beside you and that they dinna have the pleasure.”

He laughed. “If I had been interested in any of them in return, they would be sitting here with me instead.”

His words surprised her. She had thought he was trying to keep her from causing any further trouble with the newly turned wolves.

“Lorne says you’re doing a great job guarding the keep.”

“It’s easy. No one is sneaking toward the castle to fight you.” She was glad about that.

“Most likely, if anyone tried it, they would come at dark, though we never leave anything to chance. If we didna post guards during the day, that’s when someone would attack. But we also have wolf patrols at night. We can still see at night when my enemies are disadvantaged, and our wolves can keep a lower profile.”

“I agree. Lorne didna mention that he would put me on that duty.” She figured he just hadn’t gotten around to it.

Maybe he scheduled guards to do it longer so they wouldn’t have sleep issues as much as they would have with switching back and forth from day to night duty. She’d had difficulty with that with the Icelandic clan before.

“He asked me if I wanted to have you serve as a wolf on guard duty at night, but I said no. I want you to be at the croft at night, and you and Conall can keep your family and the crofters safe should you encounter trouble.”

“Thank you.” She appreciated that Alasdair would want her to keep her family safe at night.

It was probably true that if they had trouble, the enemy would arrive when everyone was sleeping. She was glad his telling Lorne not to put her on wolf guard duty wasn’t because he wanted her watched while she pulled guard duty or because he thought she couldn’t fight as well as his Scottish warriors.

But his comment that she would continue to stay with the crofters meant he wasn’t interested in taking her as a mate, or she would be staying at the keep instead. She felt a modicum of disappointment because of that.

“How many enemiesdoyou have?” The clan her family had joined had been powerful, so they didn’t fight with other clans very often.

“Too many to count. Does that make you want to leave and find someplace that is less—dangerous?” He drank from his tankard of ale.

She laughed. “I’m sure we ended up in the best place we could have since you are wolves also. And we will be eager to help your cause, but also most of your pack seem to have no animosity for us, which is always a concern.”

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