A Highland Wolf Christmas

  “Nay,” Calla said. “After what your pack had to do to help my parents and me out, I want something really simple. We can dress up. And that’s it. Someone in the pack can take pictures, and our honeymoon will be enjoying family here.”

  She realized then that she would be spending Christmas with her new family. “Can…can my parents come to the Christmas celebration?”

  Heather hugged her. “Aye, of course. They are family now too.”

  Calla let out her breath. “This is all so new to me.”

  “You’ll get used to it right away. If Guthrie ever gets to be a problem, you just tell me. I’ll let his mum know. End of trouble.”

  Calla laughed.

  They both sat down to wrap her fragile decorations—family pictures and other mementos—in paper, then tucked them into a box. It seemed so strange to be packing up her stuff like this and not needing her home any longer. Living in the castle was bound to be more fun, though—seeing everyone and having more people to bounce ideas off—and she really looked forward to another open house with crafts and games and a holiday bazaar like they’d had this year.

  Heather smiled at her. “You’ve made everyone so happy. We all worried about Guthrie after his last breakup. I didn’t really care for the woman. But the two of you are just perfect for each other. I’ve never seen Guthrie so sure of this being the right move to make.”

  “With the other woman, he thought she was the right one too, didn’t he?”

  “As far as his ego went, aye. She fell all over him and, well, he thought if the woman adored him that much, they had to be right for each other.”

  “Then she left him for her old boyfriend.”

  “Aye, but before that, she started belittling him in front of others. We all like Guthrie. He’s a good man. She had no business putting him down like she did. She just made up stuff to complain about.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Calla said, shocked. She shook her head.

  “Then there you were. He was fighting with himself, trying so hard not to share the same space with you.”

  “Because of the last girlfriend.”

  “Aye. But then he couldn’t help himself where you were concerned. The two of you have a common interest in finances. Not everyone has a good head for numbers. And…well, any of us who were decorating the tree… When it was suddenly knocked over and Guthrie rescued you and you kissed him for such a gallant deed—we knew where it was headed.”

  Calla chuckled. She hadn’t thought of it in either of those ways. Before she got to know Guthrie, she had assumed he was going to be the Scrooge of the family. She would never have guessed that she would end up planning an event like the holiday bazaar with him. And the kiss? Only an impulsive, exciting, and reckless bit of fun. Or so she’d thought at the time. She’d treasure that special moment with Guthrie forever. She could just imagine some of the MacNeill kin saying to the kids she and Guthrie would have someday, “Did you know that your mum and dad were caught kissing underneath the Christmas tree way before you were born?”

  She smiled at the thought and wrapped another picture.

  The back door suddenly creaked open. Both Calla and Heather looked in that direction, but they couldn’t see who was there, if anyone.

  Calla couldn’t imagine why anyone was using the back door. The men had all left through the front door, and Guthrie had locked it on the way out. She had some patio furniture out back, but she had no plans to take any of it with her. She was going to leave it there for the prospective guests. Beyond that, trees lined another cobblestone drive that led to the back side of the property.

  Concerned, Calla rose to her feet. Just as Baird came into view.

  With a soft gasp, Heather jumped up and backed toward the front door.

  “Don’t move,” Baird warned Heather with a threateningly deep voice.

  “Go,” Calla said to Heather, her voice firm and angry as she continued to stare Baird down. He looked angry, tense, and determined. “This is between Baird and me. Heather has nothing to do with it.” Besides, she knew Heather would go for help.

  As soon as Heather raced for the door, Baird went after her. Calla jumped him, knocking him against the wall. She held on to him in a tight body hug. He cursed her as he tried to peel her arms and legs off him.

  In her panic, Heather struggled to get the door unlocked while Calla fought to keep Baird from going after her. She prayed Heather would manage to get out of the house before Baird could shove Calla aside and reach her. He finally managed to jerk Calla away from him, nearly making her fall. She regained her balance and tackled his whole body again before he managed another couple of steps toward the entryway.

  Heather threw open the door and it banged against the wall. She sprinted outside.

  Calla felt a tiny bit of relief, but she held on to Baird, afraid he might still be able to catch Heather before she got very far on the driveway. He finally shook loose of Calla, cursing up a storm. She jumped on his back as he headed for the door.

  “What do you want? You got your money!” Calla yelled at Baird.

  “I wanted you, damn it, Calla. Giving your parents that loan was to tie you to me in the first place. Your parents were indebted to me. You were always the good little daughter. When you wouldn’t agree to come back to me, I had to play that card. To save your family from financial ruin, you were supposed to return, beg me to take you in, and—” he said, struggling to get her off his back, but she held on as if her life depended on it. Which she was afraid it might.

  “And then I was supposed to give you my savings? Sell my carriage house and hand you the profits? Turn over my income to you? My savings would have paid for the money you borrowed from your pack. When my parents paid off their debt to you, any repayment of the loan would have been your money and not your pack’s. Except for the commission your brothers and cousin would get from the deal. Isn’t that right?”

  “The money would have been ours,” he corrected her, still attempting to reach the doorway and stop Heather.

  Heather was screaming, yelling, trying to get the men’s attention as she ran for the manor house, her boots pounding on the cobblestone driveway.

  “Nay. You would have controlled every aspect of it,” Calla said, still struggling. “Cearnach was right. Once a pirate, always a pirate. Your loan has been paid back, one hundred percent legally. You have no control over me or my parents.”

  He finally reached the door and saw how far Heather had gone. Instead of going after her, he slammed the door and locked it. Calla jumped away from him, now that he was unable to go after Heather in time. He had murder in his eyes. “You mated that bastard, didn’t you?” His mouth twisted with hate. “You put me off for a whole year and you’ve already mated him? You’ve been dating him for what, two weeks?” He glanced around at the packing boxes. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? I thought you had sold your house to help pay your parents’ debt, but you wouldn’t have had time.”

  The fury in his voice scared her.

  She raced for the back door, but he quickly caught up with her, grabbed her, and held her pinned against his body this time. She struggled to free herself, but he was too strong.

  “Let. Go. Of. Me,” she growled, trying to infuse her voice with as much steel as possible to hide her fear.

  How long would it take before Guthrie and the others came to rescue her? She had to delay Baird, though she was afraid he’d just attempt to kill her rather than allow Guthrie to have her for his mate.

  Baird tried hauling her toward the back door.

  “Nay, let go of me, Baird! Your pack has its money back. You don’t need me any longer.”

  “They have the money back, aye. But the only way they’ll forgive me for taking it in the first place without the pack members’ mutual consent is if I mate with you and bring your income and properties to add to the pack’s holdings.”

  “I’m already mated to Guthrie. For life. You just said it yourself. You know I can?
??t mate you.”

  “I don’t care. I still need you.”

  “Or what?” she asked, still fighting to free herself as he made headway to get her to the back door.

  “Or I’m out. The same with my brothers and my cousin who conspired with me. We’re all out. Without a pack. Without money. Power. Nothing. So you’re coming back with me.”

  “You think the MacNeills will allow it?” she said, trying to reason with him.

  “I don’t have any choice. Can’t you understand that?” he said, angered.

  “You’ll be alive, Baird.”

  “I’ll be nothing.”

  There was no reasoning with him. She couldn’t free herself from him, no matter how hard she tried. He must be parked out back. No matter what, she couldn’t allow him to take her with him.

  All she could think of doing was shifting. She’d never tried it before when she was fully clothed. She’d never heard of a lupus garou managing to shift while wearing clothes.

  But she was desperate. If she had her wolf’s teeth, she could bite him. Even with her just making the shift, she knew he would have a hard time holding on to her.

  She called on the urge to turn, her body stiffening slightly, and he quickly said, “Oh, no you don’t.”

  She saw his fist right before he struck her, and she tried again to pull away. He hit her hard. Pain radiated through her skull, preventing her from concentrating enough to complete the shift. A flash of recall of when he’d done it to her before followed. She wished to God she had her wolf’s teeth bared. Then her world instantly dissolved into inky blackness.

  Chapter 20

  Guthrie and the others dropped everything they were doing when they heard Heather screaming and shouting that Baird had come back for Calla. Heather was crying and running as fast as she could toward the manor house, which was about a thousand feet from the carriage house.

  They rushed outside, and Guthrie bolted for Calla’s place, Duncan and Oran keeping pace as Ethan and Jasper raced behind them.

  “Stay in the manor house,” Cearnach said to Heather. “Call Ian.”

  And then he hurried off to catch up with the rest of them. When Guthrie reached the carriage house and twisted the doorknob, he found it locked. “Calla!”

  Duncan yanked out his standard lupus garou lockpicks and worked on the lock, while Guthrie and Cearnach sprinted around the other side of the house, in case the back door was open. His heart thundering, Guthrie saw Baird’s red car peel off down the long cobblestone drive to the main road. But no sign of Calla in the car. Not that he could see anyway.

  Guthrie and Cearnach hurried inside the back entryway, where the door hung wide open. Guthrie hollered at Duncan and the others, who were searching in the back rooms, “Any sign of Calla in the house?” He worried then that Baird might have killed her and run.

  “They’re gone,” Duncan said, stalking down the hallway. “She’s not here.”

  “All right. They headed off the property the back way,” Guthrie said, hurrying for his car just as lightning blazed across the darkening sky and thunder cracked. The rains started right after that.

  Duncan and Cearnach climbed into Guthrie’s car and Guthrie drove off. Oran and Ethan took off in the other, following them, while Jasper stayed behind to watch over Heather—just in case they had unexpected trouble from more of Baird’s kin.

  Cearnach called Ian on the speakerphone. “Baird’s taken Calla hostage. He’s headed onto the main road. We’re in pursuit.”

  “Out here, the rain is changing to sleet. Be careful,” Ian warned. “Keep me posted.”

  By the time they got to the main road, they couldn’t tell which way Baird had gone.

  Duncan quickly got out of the car, sniffed the wet air, then got back in the car. “His recent car fumes indicate he headed left.”

  They were off again, the car roaring down the road and Guthrie going way faster than was probably safe. But no one told him to slow down. If any of their mates had been abducted, they would have felt the same way.

  He just hoped they weren’t too late.

  The roads wound back and forth in the hilly country, some of it edging steep cliffs that dropped away to the cold sea.

  Guthrie’s heart rate hadn’t slowed down from the moment he had heard Heather’s frantic cries.

  Usually his brothers would reassure each other when something was wrong—saying they would take care of it. In this case, everyone was silent, anxious, watching for any sign of Baird’s car and trying to see if it hadn’t driven off on another road along the way. No cars were traveling on this road at all, though, most likely because of the bad weather.

  The road surface hadn’t completely frozen yet, but the rain hitting the windows was definitely mixed with sleet as it slid down the windshield and began to accumulate like chunks of glass.

  A couple of times they slid on the road. Cursing, Guthrie cut back on his speed when he saw in his rearview mirror that Oran’s car had hit an icy patch and dovetailed into a ditch.

  “Oran’s in the ditch,” he quickly told his brothers.

  Duncan got on the speakerphone to Ethan in Oran’s car. “Hey, are you two going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, go after the lass,” Ethan said. “Don’t lose her. We’re going to try and get ourselves back on the road and catch up as soon as we can. We’ll keep in touch.”

  Cearnach was on the phone to Ian again. “Oran and Ethan slid on a patch of ice. They ran off the road, but they’re both fine.” He gave their location. “We’re continuing on this route. No sign of Baird’s car yet.”

  “Okay. We’ll send someone to pick up Oran and Ethan if they aren’t able to make it back to the road on their own. What about Jasper and Heather?”

  “Back at the manor house.”

  “They may have to stay there overnight. We’ve got a new problem. The ice storm has brought down”—Ian paused—“electric lines. The electricity just fluttered.” Silence. “It just went out. Some roads are impassable, according to the weather reports. Lines are down all over the area around here.”

  “Wait, what about the other ladies?” Duncan asked, sounding worried.

  “They, ah, went shopping, when you went to pack Calla’s things,” Ian said.

  “They went Christmas shopping? In this weather? Are they crazy? Are they back yet?”

  “Nay. They were supposed to be back already, but they called and said the car slipped on ice and managed to hit a telephone pole. No one’s injured. But they’re shaken up a bit. I’m on my way with a couple of other men to get them.”

  Cearnach shook his head. Duncan growled.

  “They…didn’t want anyone to know about it,” Ian said as Guthrie and the others heard car doors slam and the engine roar to life over the phone. “But, they didn’t go out for Christmas shopping.”

  “What then?” Duncan asked, his tone of voice furious.

  “They went shopping for wedding gifts for Calla and Guthrie.”

  ***

  Calla’s head was pounding—again. Thankfully, Baird hadn’t struck her in the same place that he had hit her before. So she’d have a new bruise and a new lump on her temple, other side. She wanted to kill him. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute. He was driving beside the cliffs near Elaine’s castle ruins. She recognized this stretch of highway, the place that Cearnach’s vehicle had been pushed off the cliffs by Baird’s own kin. Which is what had led to her calling it quits with mating Baird.

  She felt the car slipping and sliding on ice. The sleet slithered down the windshield and the side windows, and the ice piled up at the bottom of the glass. Every time the tires slid, she sucked in her breath. Baird glanced up at the rearview mirror. Cold, dark eyes stared at her. She almost didn’t recognize him.

  She wanted to tell him to watch the road, as bad as the conditions were, or even better, to stop the car and let her out, but even making a sudden stop could send them over the cliff. She wanted to plead with him, but she didn’t feel
she could say anything further that would change his mind. Not now. He was hell-bent on his own destruction and hers. The only hope she had was that when he took her back to his pack and she told them she was mated to Guthrie, they’d let her go—to avoid riling the whole MacNeill pack—and deal with Baird in their own way.

  Then the car slid on ice again, and the words slipped out anyway. “Baird, slow down!”

  He just growled and ignored her.

  She knew it was crazy, considering the more worrisome concern of how Baird could very well end up killing them both, but still, she thought about the Christmas party she and Julia had planned for tomorrow and how she might never be there to help set it up. Most of all, she thought of Guthrie and the short time they’d had together as a couple, and wished with all her heart that they’d gotten together sooner.

  Baird shook his head. “You’re the reason I’m in such a mess.”

  As if. She didn’t want to antagonize him further, though she did have a question she wanted answered, no matter how much he might not like her bringing it up.

  “Why didn’t you try this hard to get back together with Ivy? Why all this trouble for me?” Calla was still irritated with him that he’d set up the meeting with her and that it hadn’t been chance or love at first sight. She wanted him to know that she knew all about Ivy and how he’d met her the same way.

  “I knew she wasn’t the right one for me. I didn’t pursue her because I called it quits. Did she tell you differently? She wanted to get married. Pleaded with me to come back. She called a dozen times after I left. Even came to my house after I had ended the relationship. Bothered my brothers by asking them to let me know she needed to talk with me.”

  Calla couldn’t believe it! Then Baird had to know how she felt about being stalked. But was he telling the truth? Had Ivy lied?

  “After you split up, did you go to the same places you had taken her before?” Calla asked.

  “Nay. She frequented them. I wasn’t about to put up with her fitful scenes any longer. She was spoiled, used to getting her own way.”

  “But…” Calla wanted to tell him that he was behaving just like Ivy. But she realized then why Ivy hadn’t had him thrown out of her ball. Ivy had wanted him there. Maybe she had hoped that Calla and Baird would get into a fight, so she could move in and entice Baird to be interested in her again.