Page 64 of Wolf Heir
“I love you, Aisling. I want no other mate for my wolf. I dinna care if it’s proven that I’m the chief’s son, but Morag’s crime should be punished.”
“I agree.” She smiled at him. “You know I feel the same about you.”
“Which is why I want to mate you now and no’ delay the inevitable.”
Her eyes widened. “Here? Now?”
“There’s no other place for us to be alone. Your mother has consented to our marriage. When we are all free to do it, we’ll have a simple marriage ceremony at the croft.”
She got off his lap and seized his hand. “To the meadow where the grass is softer.”
He swept her up in his arms and carried her along the path through the forest, but she shifted into her wolf and leaped from his arms. She woofed and raced off to the meadow.
He laughed, shifted, and ran after her, glad she was as eager to mate him as he was her.
He quickly caught up to her, but she was sitting in the tall grasses, her tail straight out, her ears twitching back and forth, her fur standing on end—and he knew she was wary of something she’d seen or heard.
He stood next to her, listening intently, watching for movement.
Then Coinneach saw two men armed with bows heading their way, but they were sneaking along, keeping low. He smelled their scent on the breeze and recognized they were stable hands who worked for Osmond.
Aisling shifted, crouching low. “They work for Osmond.” Then she shifted back into her wolf.
Coinneach didn’t know what the men were up to, maybe just hunting for Hamish, but he didn’t think so. If the men followed Coinneach’s and Aisling's trail, which they could do with their wolf senses, then Coinneach would be more assured that they were there to hunt them.
He shifted. “Aye. Follow my lead.” Then he shifted and moved slowly away from the men while she trailed close behind him.
Once they were in the forest, he ran through the woods, leaping over fallen tree branches, driving through the branches, not taking any well-marked paths. It would make it more difficult for the men to follow them as humans.
As wolves, they would be way ahead of the men anyway, but Coinneach wanted to make it more difficult for them to follow if they were hunting them.
They finally reached the river, the fragrance of the water drawing him to it. He ran across the rocky beach to the river, and Aisling joined him. The water was flowing fast, but once they reached the other side, they could hide in the bracken at the foot of the trees and watch for the men to see if they were indeed following them.
Though in their human form, it would take the men time to reach the river.
Still, Coinneach had wanted to make sure that he and Aisling had enough time to swim across the river and conceal themselves.
He nuzzled her face, then walked into the water. She joined him, and the two began to swim across the swiftly flowing river. They struggled to reach the other side, bumping into each other, but staying together. Then they finally scrambled up the rocky shoulder on the other side, about a quarter of a mile from where they went in.
If the men were tracking them, they would most likely assume the currents pushed Coinneach and Aisling downstream. But he didn’t want to chance that they would go downstream to search for them. He and Aisling shook the water off their fur, then raced through the woods to the approximate place where they’d gone into the water.
Once there, they waited for the men to reach the opposite riverbank. They hid in the bracken, lying down beside each other to rest. But then Coinneach shifted.
“I want to see if they truly were following us and aimed to hunt us down.”
Aisling nodded.
Then he shifted back and cuddled with her, so much for mating her in the meadow. His first thought, if the men were sent to kill them, Rupert had everything to do with it. But what if Morag did? Or even Rupert’s da, Osmond?
Their hearts were still beating hard after their swim and run. Coinneach licked Aisling’s cheek, and she affectionately nuzzled him.
It seemed they waited forever when they finally heard the men coming through the trees on the other side of the river, except they were a bit north of Coinneach and Aisling’s location.But at least they could still see the men. One was black-haired and bearded, and the other brown haired and bearded. Both were muscular, and Coinneach wondered if they’d ever been trained to fight with a sword.
They were huffing and puffing, still holding their bows, ready to shoot Coinneach and Aisling. They must have heard and smelled the river before they reached it, but maybe they believed they weren’t as far behind them as they thought they were.
They stood staring at the forest on the opposite side of the river.
“What do we do now? We canna chase them as hunters. They’ll run all over the forest and keep far away from us as wolves.”
