Page 33 of In Bed with a Highland Beast

“Callum… ye could have spared us all the trouble an’ attacked us on the way,” Alaric said with a sigh, letting his head fall back. A headache, pulsing and unbearable, was crawling behind his eyes once again and he hoped Callum would do whatever it was he was planning to do with the two of them soon, so he wouldn’t have to listen to him drone on and on.

Chuckling, Callum made his way through the room, revealing himself. When Alaric took a closer look, he saw that the old man was still there and so was Douglas, but no one else from the Ravencloaks was present.

He has taken it personally. He wants tae kill us himself.

That suited Alaric just fine. If they only had to fight Callum, Douglas, and an old, frail man, then an escape would be much easier.

Of course, they would have to get out of the ropes first and if Alaric wanted any assistance, then Lucia had to be awake, too. The Ravencloaks were bound to be nearby. They couldn’t escape with him carrying her.

“Did ye think I wouldnae find out about the letters?” Callum asked, tutting as he shook his head. “Did ye think ye could hide it from me? I have eyes everywhere.”

“Well, yer eyes dinnae seem tae be very clever, so we thought we might get away with it,” said Alaric. “But I suppose one o’ the cleverer ones caught us.”

“So, he did,” said Callum. The floorboards creaked under his boots as he approached Alaric, and Alaric knew what was coming before Callum even got close. When Callum’s fist collided with his stomach, there was no surprise; only a dull pain spreading over his torso and exacerbating every other throbbing pain in his body. Bound as he was, he couldn’t even fold in half, his body convulsing as he tried to fend off the pain.

Coughing, Alaric took a deep breath and tried to control himself before slowly leaning back, looking up at Callum with a cold gaze. “Why did ye bring us here?” he asked. “Why didnae ye simply kill us?”

“Kill ye?” Callum asked in disbelief. “I would be riskin’ me men’s lives fer nay good reason. But now I have ye here an’ I will enjoy killin’ ye very much.”

Is he afraid o’ us? Afraid o’ what we can dae?

It seemed so to Alaric, but he wasn’t certain whether it was a good thing. On the one hand, if Callum was frightened, it meant that he could be careless, acting out of desperation; that would either cost him his victory or make him all the more dangerous. A frightened man was a dangerous man and Alaric had to approach their escape with care.

“I didnae think ye would take it so personally,” Alaric said, trying to buy himself some time. Instead of answering, though, Callum punched him again, this time across the cheek. The blow was hard enough for Alaric’s head to snap to the side and he tasted blood as it flooded his mouth from where his teeth had cut into his skin. He had yet to recover from the last beating he had received and his ears were already ringing with the force of the blow, the room around him swimming in the dark. He couldn’t handle too much of this. Hurt as he already was, he knew that he would be approaching his limit soon and he had to find a way out of there before that happened.

Maybe I should stop antagonizin’ him.

Alaric could hardly help it, though. He despised men like Callum. He had fought against such men his entire life and now he couldn’t resist the temptation of fighting back any way he could.

“Ye’ve come intae me ranks,” said Callum. “Ye’ve lied an’ cheated yer way through an’ ye’ve brought naethin’ but chaos with ye.”

Alaric gave Callum an incredulous look, shocked by the accusations which, though true, were nothing compared to the harm Callum and his gang had done.

“Ye dare speak o’ chaos when ye’re the one workin’ with the enemy?” Alaric said, the volume of his voice rising with every uttered word. As though being a brigand and a mercenary wasn’t bad enough, Callum was more than willing to collude with the English in order to gain more influence and destabilize the clans. Blaming Alaric for trying to stop him only served to fill him with rage, the blood rushing to his head the more he considered Callum’s words. It was when Callum laughed, though, as though his actions were humorous, that Alaric became enraged, bucking against the restraints as he tried to get to him.

The chair under him creaked and wobbled. In his fury, it barely registered in his mind, but it was enough to inspire an idea for their escape.

“Please,” Callum said with a callousness that chilled Alaric to the bone. “Dae ye think I would care about that? They’re certainly nae me enemy… only yers.”

Behind Callum, Alaric saw Lucia come to slowly, blinking as she took in her surroundings. Panic soon kicked in and she fought against her restraints, the sudden ruckus catching Callum’s attention and making him turn around with a cold, malicious smile that Alaric didn’t like at all. He didn’t want Callum’sattention on her, but now that she was awake, he could finally put his plan in motion.

He gave Lucia what he hoped was a meaningful look over Callum’s shoulder, though he couldn’t tell if she noticed. She was always quick to action, though, jumping into the fight with no hesitation, so Alaric wasn’t too concerned about that. He was only concerned about getting his hands on a blade and escaping that room unharmed.

With a grunt, he lifted himself up as best as he could and then slammed back down, throwing himself along with the chair on the floor. Old and crumbling as it was, the chair broke on impact, the wood shattering under Alaric’s weight and digging painfully into his back. The fall itself knocked the breath out of him, leaving him gasping, but he didn’t have the luxury of time to catch his breath. Without wasting a moment, he shot to his feet, kicking away the ropes, and threw himself at Callum, dragging him along to the floor as he froze in surprise at the sudden attack.

Distantly, he could hear the sounds of struggle behind him as Lucia slammed her body against Douglas, the chair breaking between them. As much as he wanted to help her, though, there was nothing Alaric could do if he didn’t fight off Callum first.

In his weakened state, it was difficult to block Callum’s attacks. The man was strong, each punch he dealt Alaric landing with a rib-shattering precision that pushed all the air out of his lungs. Half of his attention was on Lucia and Douglas, which only made his task even more difficult, but he couldn’t ignore the fear thatsomething could happen to her if he didn’t get them both out of there soon enough.

It was that thought that helped him muster all of his strength and hit back, catching Callum in the jaw. The single moment of disorientation that he caused was enough for Alaric to get out of the man’s grasp and stumble over to Lucia, who was struggling in Douglas’ grip, trying to shove him off her with little success. He was too big, his frame towering over her, and though she was a strong woman, Douglas was holding her in a vice grip that was difficult to break.

Before Callum could reach him, Alaric managed to fall into him, forcing him to let go of Lucia. Afterwards, he didn’t try to fight either of them; he didn’t think it was worth it. The only thing in his mind was escaping that cottage, and so he grabbed Lucia’s hand and pulled her to the door, the two of them bursting through it as Callum and Douglas followed in pursuit.

“The horse!” Alaric called to Lucia—it was Douglas’, a large chestnut mare that was hopefully strong and fast enough to carry them to safety. Footsteps thundered behind them as Callum and Douglas gave chase, but Alaric resisted the temptation to look back. There was only forward, the way out of there, and they were so close that he could almost bring himself to believe they had a chance.

As Lucia jumped onto the horse, Alaric deftly undid the knot that held it tied to the fence. Instantly, the horse reared and Alaric saw Lucia tighten her grip as she tried to hold on, while he pulled himself up as quickly as he could.

It wasn’t fast enough. A blade cut him across his back just as he jumped on and Lucia set the horse to a dizzying pace, the two of them finally escaping into the wilderness.

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