Hero of a Highland Wolf (19 page)

“You?” She couldn't help sounding a trifle annoyed. He was so arrogant and, God, so appealing. He was right. He seemed to be just what she needed in her life, but she didn't want him saying so. She was used to being in charge and deciding what she needed, no one else.

Even in the case of her prior mates, she had been the one to tell them she thought they should be together, not the other way around.

She took in another deep breath of him and considered his expression. He might be smiling at her in an interested way, all serious, but it was the way his heart was beating just as fast, the feel of his arousal pressed now against her, the way she wanted this more than she thought she should that made her hesitant.

“Aye, you need me. But not any more than I need you, lass,” he said, kissing one cheek with reverence, and then the other.

“You left me last night,” she accused. What if he pleasured her here, just like she wanted him to, then hurried off again, abandoning her, only this time among the bottles of wine?

“Aye, lass.” He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “I'm not good at this—this courtship phase with a wolf. I know what I want, and I'm fairly certain of what you want.”

“A mating?” she asked. She had to know. For certain.

“Aye, a mating.”

Did she want this? To be a pack leader, and not just in charge of a couple of beta cousins? Did she want to live here with Grant and his family and his clan?

“This isn't a way for you to return to your chamber, is it?”

He chuckled. “You are a canny lass. But I don't intend for you to sleep in the lady's chamber,
ever
. You have a year to decide, but I will be working on convincing you the whole time that you wish to be mated to me.”

She opened her mouth to speak. If he put it that way, she would never last. She slipped her arms around his neck. “Try me.”

Someone pounded on the cellar door.

Colleen's heart skipped a beat. “You locked the door?” she asked, hoping he had.

“Aye, how could I capture you if your pirate mateys showed up and came to your aid?” He brushed a kiss against her forehead.

“Colleen, are you in there?” Heather called out.

“Why is the door locked?” Julia asked.

“We are negotiating terms of surrender,” Grant hollered back. “I'm not releasing my captive maiden until we get this right.”

Colleen laughed at him. She could just imagine what the ladies would think of that. Was he playing? Or for real?

The ladies were silent for several heartbeats. Then Julia said, “Is this why you wanted to talk with me, Colleen?”

“Yes!” And leave it to Grant to keep her from doing so.

“Then I approve. Get on with the surrender terms. Tell Grant you accept his surrender in full. Don't let him get anything by you.” Julia paused. “Can we get a bottle or two of wine first?”

Colleen loved Julia.

“You will have to wait,” Grant said, then winked at Colleen. “We are busy.”

“All right, just this time!” Julia said, then squeaked. “Run! Ian… Run, Heather! Get the troops!”

Colleen laughed. “I should be with my pirate cohorts, aiding them against the kilted lot of you.”

“You, lass, are out of the game. Except for the one you and I are playing now.”

She caressed his bare arms. “Does that mean you love me?”

“Ever since the day you recorded every bit of me sparring with Ian MacNeill.”

“I got your best side, too.”

“You got my arse!”

“Yes.” She laughed. “As I said, your best side.”

He reached around and cupped her buttocks. “Yours is not so bad, either. But do you love me?”

“From the time I saw you so valiantly fighting Ian, to when you slept as a wolf on the floor of the White Room and then rescued me and Ollie from the sea, I knew you were truly special. You are a good pack leader and clan chief, and I adore you.”

“And love me.”

She smiled wickedly and reached down to caress his kilt-covered buttocks. “Yeah, I do. It wasn't hard to do. But I worried…”

“That I wasn't like the other wolves in your life. You will
not
find that to be a problem.”

“Oh, I think I might,” she said.

And then he leaned down to kiss her, his mouth hungry on hers, but this time she wanted to hold him where he wouldn't let her touch him the last time. She reached down, her hand slipping over the soft fake fur on his sporran, and felt his erection stir beneath it and his kilt.

Her touch had him groaning against her lips, right before he thrust his tongue into her mouth and leaned his erection against her hand.

His hands caressed her breasts and he smiled. “No bra, lassie.”

He'd know, as he'd retrieved it from Ian and Julia's chamber and attached it to the pirate's pole. He pulled her blouse down and exposed her nipples, the corset pushing her breasts up for his pleasure.

She lifted his kilt so she could cup him, and his eyes darkened with intrigue as she felt his cock, hard and pulsing and heavy in her grasp.

He groaned her name as she stroked him, right before he suckled one of her breasts, his mouth warm and wet, his tongue lathing her nipple. She moaned at the exquisite sensations he stirred deep inside her. She was becoming wet for him, and he knew it. Smelled her readiness, just as she smelled his.

She wanted to tell him how much he turned her on when he wore his kilt, but she suspected he already knew that or he wouldn't have changed. She pulled it up so she could touch his tautly muscled buttocks, while his focus remained on her breasts, his tongue licking one, his thumb stroking the other. In the cool, damp cellar, she was burning up with his heated breath and touch.

She ran her hands over his ass, squeezing it, arching against his erection. He didn't remove her clothes like she thought he would, but eased her onto the sacks of grain, fumbled then with her long pirate skirts, and yanked them up.

Omigod, this was so…medieval. She loved it. She didn't attempt to remove his kilt. Just lifted it and saw his masculine need for her swelling to the occasion.

She never thought she would mate her next wolf like this—in a Highland castle's wine cellar with a hot alpha wolf wearing a kilt and nothing else, while she wore a medieval wench's gown and nothing underneath.

Then again, somehow it seemed appropriate to mate with a Highland alpha wolf just like this.

His large hand moved between her legs and urged her to spread them for him. He stroked and caressed her all-too-willing nub that ached for his touch. He kissed her mouth that was every bit as possessive and insistent. She licked and nipped his lips and tongue until he began to bring her to climax, and then her fingers dug into his sexy rump, her body arching to his strokes.

“Surrender,” he whispered to her.

She smiled, wanting his surrender first, and yet not. She needed this, to reach the peak, to explode into a million sparks of wonder, and before she could think another thought, she did. Shattered with the utmost intense pleasure.

Grant had decided this the moment Lachlan had handed him the signed petition from his pack. The feelings he had for her had been building since the minute he'd met her, despite him trying to deny it was so, and he'd known those feelings would end in this.

Maybe not exactly here, like this. But he knew with the way he felt about her, and the way she felt about him, they couldn't have waited much longer. He couldn't have been any happier to take the she-wolf in Ian's cellar dressed as they were, knowing just how turned-on he made her when he wore his kilt.

He was proud to wear it, never thinking that it would turn his potential mate on, but damn, if she didn't do the same to him, no matter what she wore or didn't wear. He couldn't stop thinking about her wearing that velvet robe and nothing else while she regally ate dinner with him.

He eased into her, savoring the feel of her wet sheath surrounding his cock, opening for him, caressing him, as her hands stroked his skin everywhere—back, arms, arse—making him hotter.

And then he was in all the way to the hilt and pulling out again, treasuring not only the sex, but that all this felt right—the mating, the joining, the change in pack leadership.

He would treasure his faux captive she-wolf forever.

He thrust more deeply into her as she took his tongue hostage and sucked. He loved when she did that. He ramped up his speed, kissing her back like there was no tomorrow, still reeling from the fact she'd said yes, and then he came in one euphoric, explosive moment.

Yet he continued to move against her, feeling sure she was about to come, until she exclaimed, “
Oh…my…God.
” And slumped against the sacks of grain, her orgasm clenching around his cock.

Now what were they going to do?

Grant had moved so that he wasn't resting on top of Colleen on the grain sacks, looking down at her, one elbow propping him up, the other hand caressing her hair. He seemed to be lost in thought after making such wondrous love to her.

Colleen had loved her past mates. She truly had. But being with Grant was a world apart from anything she'd ever experienced. She loved battling with him to be on top, instead of being with a beta wolf, where she had always been the initiator. She loved how passionate he was and how much he got into the role she and her friends were playing, in a good-natured, hot and sexy wolf way. She would cherish their first mating forever.

He looked down at her with such an intensely proud and loving expression that she smiled up at him.

“We have a problem,” he said, kissing her cheek, her brow, her lips.

“What is that?” She suspected he meant about telling the others that they'd mated, though she supposed they'd assume as much.

He played with a tie on her corset. “If we were at Farraige Castle, we wouldn't leave our bed for a week.”

She laughed. Now that was the difference between the alpha and the beta. Her previous mates would have waited for her to say so.

“But here, we have a real dilemma.” He was smiling so broadly that she couldn't wait to hear what he would say. “I've captured my pirate she-wolf.”

“Who says I haven't held you hostage down here?”

He laughed. “Oh, aye, you have. And still do.”

She blushed as she felt his cock stirring inside her. “Insatiable.”

“Aye. But I don't want to share my conquest with anyone else…at the moment.”

She sighed. “As much as I hate to admit it, I feel the same way.” She loved the intimacy between them and wasn't ready to give it up. But they really did have to rejoin the party. Or…maybe not right away. She licked his chin. “I do believe we're still in negotiations.”

And with that, they began to negotiate all over again.

***

When Colleen and Grant left the cellar, she had two bottles of wine in hand, ready to return to the outdoor garden room, but Grant escorted her out there, not wanting any of the other men to take her hostage if they were still playing the game.

“Seems like since you are my enemy, I should not allow you to escort me,” she said, snuggling close to him in the chilly wind.

“I'm protecting my investment.” Then he kissed her, waiting for her to enter the garden room and having a devil of a time not regretting that she was sleeping with the women tonight instead of him. The thought of waking next to her in the morning was what he truly craved.

“'Night, lass. But remember, if I catch you beyond the garden room…”

“You have such a one-track mind, Highlander. Did you know?”

“Aye.” He smiled.

The door opened and Julia said, “Good, you brought more wine. Should we take him hostage?”

Colleen smiled and Grant grinned, then turned on his heel and returned to the keep before they truly decided to do so.

He found Ian and the others sitting about the fire talking about battles they'd fought over the years when they spied Grant joining them.

“So tell us,” Ian said, “how did the terms of the agreement come out?”

“The lass knew she couldn't get a better deal.”

The men all laughed. It seemed strange yet right to be here with his lifelong friends when he mated Colleen, just as she was with her best friend, Julia. And he suspected Ian's extended family would be her friends as well.

He rather liked this ladies' day and night out, as long as he was included.

Hoots and hollers and a few feminine howls sounded beyond the wall to the keep in the direction of the gardens.

“Sounds to me that the terms of the lass's surrender worked out well for the rest of the lassies,” Ian said, giving Grant a salute with his whisky.

“Aye, only next time they have one of these parties, I want my brothers to be here, too. They have missed out and that won't do. What is planned for tomorrow?”

“You do realize that this is supposed to be for the women only, right, Grant?” Ian asked.

“Aye, so as I said, what will they be doing tomorrow?”

They heard a bark outside. But it wasn't one of Ian's Irish wolfhounds. It was the bark of a wolf.

The men started stripping out of the kilts. Forget what tomorrow would bring. Tonight, they would chase the she-wolves in their own wolf coats.

***

Colleen thought the idea of running as wolves would be fun. Though she believed they'd slip out without the men knowing. But one of the she-wolves barked.
Julia.
Was she giving her mate a heads-up so he knew what they were doing beyond the castle walls? Probably. Colleen would do the same with Grant.

The other time Colleen had been a wolf in the Highlands, she'd been drunk and maneuvering cliffs. This time she had a nice buzz from the wine and was running with a she-wolf pack in an ancient forest. How cool was that?

They weren't running in the cool misty woods in a follow-the-leader pattern, but spread out, exploring the sights and scents and sounds, like wolves would.

They hadn't gone very far when she heard growling, two female wolves to the left of her somewhere in the forest. Before she could turn and investigate, Julia raced past her. Colleen dove after her in wolf rescue mode.

Five male wolves approached. Colleen didn't know any of the men in their wolf form and they were downwind of her. But the females growled in a highly dangerous way, not in play. The other she-wolves quickly joined them as a united front.

The females bared their teeth in warning, snapping and snarling, while Julia raised her snout and howled.

Colleen knew she was calling in male reinforcements. Definitely not good.

The males only took a moment to consider the situation, then turned tail and bolted. The females did not follow. A matter of minutes later, Grant and several male wolves appeared. They quickly assessed the females, ensuring they were uninjured, then Grant and Duncan—Colleen recognized him by scent—stayed with the females while the rest of the men took off after the fleeing wolves.

Who were those wolves? Julia and Ian had scent-marked this area of woods, so Colleen knew the encroaching wolves had to have known better. On the other hand, fewer females were born to a werewolf pack, and she wondered if their appearance had to do with attempting to find a mate among the she-wolves of Ian's clan.

Seemed a dangerous way to go about it. And she suspected it wasn't the case.

Grant nuzzled her face for a moment, then went back to standing guard with Duncan, who had greeted his mate, Shelley, in the same manner.

For a good twenty minutes, everyone continued to listen for any sounds other than the wind whipping through the trees. Then a wolf howled, and Julia howled back.

Ian was the one calling to say everyone was all right, and Julia let him know all was well here. They still waited for them in the woods until the other males returned and greeted the females. The jaunt through the woods was over for now.

After they ran through the back servants' entry gate, Ian waited for Julia so she could let him know her plans. She was back to doing their all-girl thing and headed for the garden room.

They were going to watch
Prince
of
Persia
next. Forget a chick flick. The ladies wanted to watch a swashbuckling adventure with a touch of paranormal and romance. But before they watched the movie, in various forms of nightwear, warm robes, and slippers, the ladies all settled down on the sofas around the fire to discuss what had just happened in the woods.

Calla said, “Cearnach rescued me from a bad mating and marriage. The one wolf we faced out there still thinks he can get me to change my mind.”

Elaine said, “Some of the others were my cousins. The lot of them. True pirates. The bad kind.”

“And one other,” Julia said. “I'm certain if Grant had known, he would have torn after him himself. Well, he'll be highly pissed as soon as Ian tells him who he was.”

“Who was he?” Colleen asked.

“Archibald Borthwick. Friend of your father and no friend of Grant's.”

***

Grant knew about Calla's former fiancé and how Cearnach wanted to save her from a bad mating, and did. But he was surprised that the ex-fiancé continued to stalk her.

“We'll get them,” Ian said. “This is the first we've seen of them since the big fight where several of Elaine's cousins were injured. But what I don't understand is why Archibald Borthwick was with them.”

Grant's blood turned to ice. “Archibald?”

“Aye. He's as much a pirate as the rest of the men, only he attempts theft in a different way. Word has it he's got some notion he might still have a chance at running things at Farraige Castle,” Ian said with a knowing glint in his eye. He knew that Grant wouldn't let the bastard get near Colleen in any way, shape, or form now that they were mated.

“Why the hell were they here?” Grant asked, though he realized that Colleen had told him where she would be for the night, so he knew she was here.

“I imagine they're after the same thing—Baird McKinley still wants Calla, and Archibald has some notion he has a chance with Colleen. Things didn't work out between Archibald and her father, but maybe he thinks mating her will even work better in his attempt to get his hands on Farraige Castle,” Ian said.

“Like hell he will,” Grant growled. He would kill the bastard if he thought to lay a hand on his mate.

“I doubt he knows you've mated her yet. I'd make it known in a grand wedding soon,” Ian said.

Grant intended to do just that.

Guthrie said, “Just don't let Calla plan the wedding. It will cost the clan a fortune.”

Ian smiled. “I have a task for you, Guthrie.”

His brother frowned at him.

“Now, don't get all negative on me. Calla's been staying with friends—not even her own relatives—attempting to keep a low profile while Baird is still harassing her. I want her to stay here with us. She won't agree to it. Cearnach has been more of a friend to her than any of us, but even he couldn't persuade her. She insists Baird won't make her hide away. She has her party-planning jobs to do.”

“Aye, I understand how she feels,” Guthrie said warily. “What has this got to do with me?”

“Julia's asked if she would stay, but she's given her the same song and dance.”

Now
Guthrie
was grinding his teeth. “You can't think
I'd
ask her to. What if she planned parties for every day that she stays here?”

“She hung your shorts on the pirate's pole. I never would have thought she'd do such a thing.” Ian smiled. “I want you to ask her to stay.”

“Ian…”

“That's all, Guthrie. Just ask her to stay with us for her own protection. You don't have to do any more than that.”

“Aye,” Guthrie said, “but what if she sees more in my asking her to stay than I mean for her to see?”

Ian chuckled. “You can do it. Just get her to agree.”

“If Colleen decides she wants to use Calla's wedding planner services, the lass can stay with us until the wedding's done,” Grant offered.

Guthrie sighed audibly.

“But she's staying with us after that, Guthrie,” Ian said. “You will make it happen.”

Grant bit back a smile. If he could deal with Colleen, who he'd thought would be the bane of his existence, and turn the situation into one that he could live with as one happy wolf for the rest of his life, maybe Guthrie's ordeal would turn out just as well.

He saw the way Guthrie scowled.

Maybe not.