"It is all right. Truly. I am happy to go to the tower. You must not worry about me."
The older woman who had approached them in the bailey came forward and put her hand on Cait's arm, nodding to her son. "I am Moira, mother to Drustan, Angus and Susannah. Welcome to our family, child." Moira looked at Emily then. "You are English."
"Yes."
"You are betrothed to the Sinclair."
"Yes."
"How can this be?"
"By order of both our kings."
"Ah." Moira nodded again. "That explains the mystery. Why is our laird bent on locking you in a tower? Have you been difficult?"
"Perhaps, a bit."
Ulf grunted and grabbed her arm. "Come."
Emily turned to her friend and hugged her tight with her free arm. "All will be well, Cait. Truly it will."
"Yes." Then, seeming to know what had Emily most worried, she said, "He will not hurt me. He promised."
Emily swallowed down her emotion and nodded as she stepped back. Then she looked at Drustan. "Be kind to her. If she is to be your wife, you must realize you are duty-bound to protect her from harm."
Instead of getting angry, Drustan nodded solemnly. "I would ever do my duty."
Emily turned to Ulf. "Please release my arm. You are hurting me. I will follow you without argument."
He ignored her and started dragging her toward the main entry to the great hall. Suddenly, he stopped and his grip fell away from her arm.
Lachlan was there, his face inches from Ulf's. "I gave you an order, it did not include touching her. Do not do so again."
Ulf said something vicious, but he did not take her arm again. He led her across the great hall to the entrance to a stairway in the eastern corner. They started up a set of spiral stairs in total silence. She kept several paces behind him, afraid of what his temper might make him do. The steps felt like they went on and on.
She and Ulf passed three landings on their way upward, but did not stop on any of them. When he finally did stop, it was on a small landing that had only one door. He pushed it open and she stepped inside, careful not to touch him as she squeezed into the room.
The door shut behind her with a bang and the unmistakable sound of the bar sliding in place let her know she'd been locked in good and tight.
Shivering, she hugged herself and looked around her new accommodations. The circular area was small and sparse. It had a bed covered with the Balmoral plaid, but no rags over the window to keep out light or wind, no tapestries on the cold stone walls to relieve their monotony, no fireplace for additional warmth, and not even a chair to sit on. There was a small table with a wooden pitcher, a bowl, a cup and a cloth. She looked around for a chamber pot, but saw a garderobe with no door on it instead.
The tower room looked exactly like what it was, a place designed to keep prisoners.
But it was clean and it could have been worse.
She could have been warming Lachlan's bed.
Cait stood in the middle of her new home, her insides shaking. She was married. Again. She did not want to be.
No, that was a lie.
Part of her very much wanted to be a lifelong mate to the werewolf leaning against the door, his big body pulsing with energy denied by his negligent stance. Already, she could not imagine her life without him. And that terrified her more than the fact that she had been kidnapped and forced into a marriage born of the Balmoral laird's need to redress an insult.
She should not feel so much. Indeed, she should not feel anything after such a short acquaintance.
She had not felt this way about Sean, not before or after marriage. She had wed him because her brother had commanded it, but she had never fallen in love with him. She very much feared she was halfway there already with Drustan. He'd been so careful with her, even when she'd tried to escape. And when he kissed her, she experienced cravings she had never known existed, even when she had gone into heat and mated with Sean during a full moon.
"You look worried." His voice sent shivers over her flesh though the air was not cold.
She took a deep breath and almost choked letting it out when he stepped away from the door… toward her. She quickly moved in the opposite direction. "I'm simply making myself acquainted with my new home."
Drustan's quarters were directly above the soldiers' quarters on the opposite side of the keep from where Emily had been taken. No matter how hard she tried, Cait could hear nothing of her friend. In fact, with the heavy door shut, she could hear nothing at all through it or the thick stone walls. It afforded a level of privacy unknown among the Sinclair pack members. She liked it.
The room they were in was not a bedroom, having a table and chairs in one corner near a fireplace, which was an extravagance she never would have expected in a room besides the main hall. Two benches lined the opposite wall near a large chest. There was an open door close to one of the benches which she surmised led to a bedroom because she distinctly remembered him saying he had a bed.
She scooted around the table as her new husband stalked her. "Your mother seems very nice. She welcomed me into the family."
"As she should." Drustan's eyes glowed with unmistakable hunger. Only he looked as if food were the last thing on his mind.
Her heart pounded so loudly, she was sure he could hear it. He took a step closer, coming around the table.
She backed up, toward the wall. "Where do you sleep?" she asked in a bid to distract him.
"We sleep in there." He nodded toward the doorway she had noticed earlier, confirming her guess it was the bedroom.
"I was thinking we could wait."
"To sleep?" His teeth flashed white. "Yes, that will come later."
Oh, heavens above, how could he put such strong sensual promise into a few short words?
"I meant before we mate… I would like to know you better."
He came closer, his scent growing stronger, letting her know that he was aroused. Her body reacted to it even as her mind scrabbled for logical reasons why he should not claim her.
Reaching out, he brushed his fingertips down the side of her face, making her shiver. "You have very soft skin."
"Thank you," she said primly.
He smiled as if her words amused him. "How well did you know your first husband before you mated?"
"He was a member of my clan. I had known him since childhood."
"Did you? Or did you know his face, his name… rumors of what kind of soldier he was?"
"I don't understand." But she did. He was implying she had not known her first husband the day they had wed any better than she knew Drustan. And he was right.
"Don't you?"
Silence was her best defense and she made use of it.
He touched her again, this time brushing his thumb across her lips. "Did your first husband court you?"
She almost laughed at that, but Drustan's touch drowned her humor in rapidly growing desire. Sean had never even run with her during a hunt before her brother decreed the two of them should wed.
Scurrying backward, she bumped her shoulder on the wall, changed course and increased the distance between them. "No. He did not court me."
"Did he wait to claim you as his until after the wedding?" Drustan sounded only mildly curious as he stalked closer, making her feel like prey for the first time in her life.
As a femwolf, she had hunted, but had never been the prize to be caught. Even when she'd gone into heat the first time, she'd already been mated and there had been no "hunting" involved.
She shook her head at Drustan, unable to talk because, try as she might, she couldn't seem to get the table between them again. She was panting in a combination of atavistic fear and excitement.
He got closer with each passing second, maneuvering her with the skill of a master predator until she was up against the wall beside the open doorway to the bedroom. Another step and she would be in the room. He did not stop until his body brushed against hers. Then, he caged her in with one hand against the wall on either side of her.