Marked By The Wolf, page 14
The coffee table was laid out with a white lace cloth, delicate china cups, and matching saucers. The light from overhead glinted off silver teaspoons and cake forks. There was a three-tier stand laden with crustless, triangular sandwiches and other goodies. In a quaint little café, this might be a welcome treat but here in this basement room, the lavish afternoon tea felt like a trap.
Anna was already seated on one of the armchairs beside the table. The sofa was at right angles to the armchair and Maddie chose to sit at the end of it that was farthest away from Anna. Lisa had no option other than to take the seat where she’d be positioned between the two women. To sit elsewhere would make things awkward. It seemed her instinct about this being a polite ambush was correct.
“You don’t have to wait on us,” Maddie told Anna as the other woman started to pour tea into their cups.
“I know, but I want to. You’ve no idea how refreshing this is for me. The boys aren’t into afternoon tea.”
It was hard to picture the MacDonald men sitting around with delicate cups and dainty little cakes in their enormous fists.
“You’ve gone to a lot of effort,” Lisa remarked.
Anna beamed at her. “It’s a celebration. You’re here and Maddie’s back. The future’s starting to feel a lot brighter.”
Anna’s comment made Lisa uncomfortable, but she hated to dampen her enthusiasm. She turned to Maddie in the hopes of diverting attention from herself and to say the things she needed to get off her chest. “I’m sorry about the other night. I really fucked things up trying to drag you out of here.”
“You were only trying to help. You thought I was in danger.”
While that was true, Maddie wouldn’t have found herself the target of the Knights of St. Francis if Lisa hadn’t told them about her. “I put you in danger in the first place.”
“Perhaps.” Maddie flashed her a conciliatory smile. “But it’s all forgotten. I’m here in one piece and I couldn’t be happier.”
“Why did you come back?” Lisa asked.
“Because it was her destiny,” Anna replied. “Here, have some cake.”
Lisa took the plate Anna thrust toward her and looked to Maddie, waiting to hear her response.
“The pull toward Finn was irresistible,” Maddie conceded. “I left because I couldn’t handle the truth about him being a shifter but as soon as I was gone, I wished I was back here. I knew he was the one for me, so I came back and committed myself to the relationship.”
“That’s so romantic,” Anna gushed. “When did you realize Ross was the one for you, Lisa?”
“Uh, I’m not sure that he is.”
Both women stared at her as though she’d grown a second head.
“What do you mean?” Maddie asked. “I thought he claimed you.”
“That’s what he keeps telling me.”
“So you’re bonded.”
“Not necessarily.” Anna shook her head slowly. “It’s possible he tied himself to you without you tying yourself to him.”
Lisa shrugged. Nothing about this made sense to her. The legends she’d read about werewolves hadn’t touched on the emotional side of things.
“Why would he do that?” she asked.
“Samhain.” Maddie huffed out a breath. “He’s all out of whack because there’s a powerful moon rising.”
Lisa’s eyes widened as she considered the possibility Ross had acted rashly because of the pull of the moon. Perhaps he hadn’t intended to claim her.
“So, what’s going on?” She put her plate down on the table, the cake untouched, and turned to Anna. “Are we stuck together for eternity because of some whim?”
“I don’t know,” Anna admitted. “I think you can still walk away from him if you want to.”
“Oh, my god,” Maddie exclaimed. “It’s like a medieval romance. The knight falls head over heels in love with the fair maiden and pledges himself to her, but she doesn’t accept his advances.”
Lisa rolled her eyes. Her situation bore no resemblance to the type of stories Maddie studied.
“What happens if I don’t bond with Ross?”
“I’ve no idea,” Anna said. “If you rejected him, he’d probably pine for you. He might never get over it.”
“That’s horrible.” Maddie raised a hand to her chest. “He’s not my favorite person, but I’d hate to see him suffer.”
The thought of Ross going through such emotional torment didn’t exactly please Lisa either. She had to admit, there was a lot she liked about him—his protectiveness, his loyalty to his family, his sexual prowess—but she wasn’t sure whether she could love him.
“What are you going to do?” Anna asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about him.”
“What you need is a test,” Maddie told her, “some unexpected event that forces you to confront your feelings and decide whether you want him.”
“Like what?” Lisa furrowed her brow as she considered it.
“I don’t know. It would be something unforeseen, shocking.”
There had been plenty shocking, unforeseen events in Lisa’s life lately. She could do without another. Maddie was right, though. Matters had to be brought to a head, and soon. Sighing heavily, Lisa reached for her plate. It seemed she needed that piece of chocolate cake after all.
* * *
“Shoes.”
Ross looked up from the computer screen as Neil came into the room and dropped a bag onto his desk.
“What?”
“Brought your girl some shoes,” Neil said. “I noticed she never seems to be wearing any.”
That was Ross’s fault. He’d disposed of the clothing she’d worn when she arrived here and hadn’t thought to bring her shoes when he gathered things from her house for her to wear. He hadn’t brought her underwear either, but that had been deliberate. He picked up the bag and looked inside to find a pair of flat black shoes with a sparkly bow at the front. Not exactly Lisa’s style.
“They’re new, don’t worry,” Neil assured him.
“I can see that.” A price tag was stuck to the sole of one of them. “Where did you get them?”
“They were in a cupboard at home. Some lass must have left them.”
The expression on Neil’s face told Ross he couldn’t be any more specific than that. It was typical of his cousin not to know details. Neil and Duncan went through women like other men changed their socks. Even if he could remember what the girl who’d left the shoes looked like, Ross doubted Neil could put a name to her face. Duncan, on the other hand, would probably know exactly who among their many conquests was the previous owner of the shoes.
“No sense them going to waste,” Neil continued. “They should be the right size. Your lass has pretty big feet.”
Ross narrowed his eyes. Neil took the hint that he didn’t appreciate the remark and made a swift exit. Alone once more, Ross turned his attention back to the computer screen. Not for the first time, he wished the surveillance images came with sound as he watched Lisa chatting with Maddie and Anna. What were they talking about? Was Lisa saying good things about him, or trying to recruit the other women to help her escape? Perhaps they were talking about clothes or something equally trivial. The uncertainty was enough to make him crazy.
He was about to go and find something more productive than spying on his mate to occupy his time when Lisa suddenly got up from her seat. She hugged Maddie and then Anna and walked toward the stairs. Ross switched to viewing the cameras in the hallway to check she wasn’t going to try to run. When he realized she was heading in his direction, he cut to one of the outside feeds. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he was obsessing over her every move.
“Why did you claim me?” Lisa demanded as she stormed into the room.
Her hostile manner, the directness of her tone put him on the back foot, and he needed a moment to recover.
“Because you’re mine.”
“How did you know?”
“I felt it.”
From the moment he first touched her, Ross had known she was meant to be his.
“Are you sure it wasn’t because of the Samhain moon?”
Ross wondered where she’d got that idea. What had the other women been saying to her?
“No,” he replied carefully, “it wasn’t.”
“I think it was,” Lisa shot back at him. “I think the upcoming moon is making you nuts. You don’t actually want me. You marked me without thinking it through.”
It might be true he’d claimed her without weighing the consequences beforehand, but Ross hated the suggestion he’d been overtaken by forces beyond his control. His desire to be with her ran deep. He felt it in his soul.
“I claimed you because I want you as my mate, by my side.”
“And on my knees.”
“Aye, that too.” Ross moved around the desk to where Lisa stood and cupped her cheek with his hand. As he bent his head to kiss her, an alert came in on his phone. He cursed loudly. “This new security system’s a real cock-blocker.”
“You’re assuming your cock would get some action. What if I’d stopped you?”
Ross responded with a smirk. Lisa knew as well as he did she wouldn’t defy him. It was the one thing he could be certain of where his mate was concerned. With reluctance, he stepped away from her and glanced at his phone. Someone had triggered the silent alarm at the castle. He opened up his laptop and found the security feed. Sure enough, a person was wandering around what had once been the inner bailey. How the hell had they got as far as the castle without setting off any other sensors?
As he studied the surveillance images, Lisa came and stood beside him, resting her hand on his shoulder. The person on screen turned so the camera caught a better image of their face and Lisa gasped in astonishment. “Catie!”
“What?” It was hard to believe Lisa’s sister had just shown up here when he had people out searching for her. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Ross grabbed the shoes Neil had brought to him and handed them to Lisa. “In that case, put these on and let’s find out what the hell she’s doing here.”
Chapter Sixteen
If Ross hadn’t kept a firm grip on her hand, Lisa would have slipped and fallen several times. After a light shower of rain this morning, the ground was sodden. The grass on the steep hill leading up to the ruins of Glenlogie Castle was precarious and these shoes weren’t helping matters. Lisa supposed she should be grateful to have any footwear at all.
“Mind your step,” Ross told her as he helped her clamber over the low stone wall encircling the castle enclosure.
Once she was safely over the wall, Lisa turned and looked out over the top of the trees toward Glenlogie Lodge and then in the other direction, to the farmhouse where Neil lived. On another day she might stop to admire the view a little longer, but Ross clearly wanted to waste no time in finding her sister. She had to admit she was anxious to quiz Catie about what she was doing here.
Ross led her over to the tower, the only building that was still relatively intact. The door was wide open and the way he cursed told Lisa it shouldn’t be.
“Lock’s been forced.”
Ross pointed to the deep scrape marks in the wooden door and the stone frame where someone had used a crowbar or something like that to break in.
“Catie couldn’t have done that, could she?”
“The door’s old. It wouldn’t have taken too much effort.”
Lisa heard the self-reproach in Ross’s voice and wondered if he thought he should have done more to shore up security. From what she’d seen, he bordered on obsessive when it came to keeping the estate secure.
She followed him into a large, open room with a high ceiling. At one end was an enormous fireplace with ornate carvings etched into the stone. It must have been the castle’s Great Hall, used for throwing lavish banquets. Nobody was there and the only doors leading off from it were all blocked off.
“We’ll try upstairs,” Ross said. “The staircase is narrow, and the steps are uneven, so take care.”
Lisa climbed the stone stairs behind him until they came out onto a landing. Ross led her along a corridor and into a big room that, like the hall below, had an enormous fireplace. It signaled that this had been one of the more important rooms.
“The laird’s private chambers,” Ross told her. “Remind me to bring you back some time and I’ll show you some of its secrets.”
They took a quick look around the smaller rooms leading off from the larger one but saw no sign of anyone having been there. Ross headed for the stairs once more and Lisa came along behind, watching every step more carefully now. The closer they got to the top of the building, the worse its condition seemed to be. Lisa wasn’t entirely sure anyone should be up here.
“What’s this room?” she asked when they came out into a small chamber.
“The lady’s bedchamber, I believe.”
There were faint traces of paint on what must have been a beautifully decorated ceiling in the past. A damp, musty smell hung in the air and there was a feeling of neglect that hadn’t been present in the lower rooms. Ross put his arm out to bar her way as she took a step forward.
“I don’t know how safe it is. There’s not been much restoration work done here.”
Lisa stepped back through the doorway, into the narrow corridor. The last thing she wanted was for a ton of medieval masonry to come clattering down on her head. She waited as Ross went into the room and made his way carefully through the door to an inner chamber. Lisa held her breath as he disappeared from view. If the structure was unstable, anything could happen.
When Ross returned to her a minute later, relief swept over her.
“She’s not there.”
“Do you think we missed her?” Lisa asked. “Is there anywhere else she could be?”
“There’s a small guard room above us and then the roof, but she’d have to be mad to go up there.”
Lisa sighed, suspecting that was precisely where her sister had gone. Catie had always been too daring for her own good.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where she is.”
Ross looked at Lisa and his shoulders slumped in resignation. “Okay, I’ll take a look. You stay here.”
Lisa would have insisted on going with him until she saw the rickety wooden ladder leading up toward the roof. She had a good head for heights but wasn’t keen on taking unnecessary risks. She trailed behind Ross as he put a foot on the first rung of the ladder.
“Do not move from this spot,” he commanded. “I mean it, Lisa. You are not to put yourself in danger.”
Knowing all too well that tone meant punishment if she disobeyed, Lisa nodded. She leaned back against the wall as Ross climbed the ladder and disappeared out into the open air. A moment later, she heard voices, confirming someone else was up there. She strained to hear what they were saying but all she caught was a low murmuring. Then suddenly, a female voice cried, “Stay back!”
Lisa scrubbed a hand over her face. Her sister sounded distressed. Despite Ross’s warning, she clambered up the ladder and scrambled out onto the wooden platform that formed the makeshift room. She struggled to her feet and to her horror, found her sister standing dangerously close to the crumbling stone parapet. Catie had a gun in her hand and she was aiming it straight at Ross.
“Catie, what are you doing? Where the hell did you get that thing?”
Firearms weren’t exactly easy to come by in a country where few people owned one. She doubted her sister had the slightest idea how to handle it safely.
“Get back downstairs,” Ross snarled.
Boy, he was angry, but Lisa couldn’t worry about that. She had to focus on getting her sister down from this roof before she hurt herself.
“I’ve come to get you out of here,” Catie said. “You have no idea the danger you’re in.”
“I’m not in any danger,” Lisa assured her.
“He warned me you’d say that. He told me you’d been brainwashed.”
“Who told you that?”
“Mark.”
Lisa exchanged a look with Ross. Now Catie’s sudden arrival at a place she couldn’t have known her sister would be made sense.
“He lied to you, Catie. I’m perfectly safe. Ross is my...”
“I’m her mate,” Ross growled. “She wears my mark.”
Lisa grimaced. She had no idea if Catie knew about shifters and his choice of words would sound peculiar if she didn’t. When her sister was waving a gun around wasn’t the best time to shock her with the news werewolves existed.
“He’s my boyfriend,” Lisa said firmly.
“Mark warned me you’d say that.”
“What else did Mark tell you?” Ross demanded.
It was clear from the way she was shuffling from side to side that Catie was frightened of Ross. The way she brandished the gun made Lisa uneasy.
“He told me what you are—a filthy animal. He said you had to be put down.”
“And what about me?” Lisa asked.
“You’ll be fine. Mark can cure you.” The pitch of Catie’s voice was getting higher. “I just have to get you away from him.”
She gestured toward Ross and Lisa’s stomach knotted. Someone was going to get hurt.
“Look, Catie.” She tried to placate her sister with a soothing tone. “Mark lied to you. Ross hasn’t done me any harm. He won’t do me any harm.”
Catie looked skeptical but she did lower the gun.
“Come on, now,” Ross said impatiently. “It isn’t safe up here. Just give me the gun and...”
An ear-splitting crack tore through the air. Ross staggered backwards. Another crash came as he fell through a rotten part of the wooden floor and disappeared from sight. It wasn’t like they showed in the movies. Everything didn’t happen in slow motion. It was all so quick it took Lisa a full minute to register what had transpired.
