Ulf was not so circumspect. His face twisted with rage, he was waiting for them in the lower bailey with several other soldiers when their parry crossed the bridge. "What the hell is this? You have brought our enemy inside our very gates.'"
Lachlan motioned for the rest of them to halt and approached his brother alone. He glared at the other soldiers until the men stepped back from Ulf.
"The only enemy to the Balmoral clan stands before me," Lachlan said when he stood less than two feet from his brother. "In your lust for power, you killed one of our soldiers in hopes of luring me into a trap. You do not even have the courage to fight your own battles."
"I have the courage," Ulf snarled, "but I promised our father I would not challenge you for the position of laird. He did not think I could lead the clan because I have no beast inside me to cloud my thinking. He believed you were his true son, but I am more like him than you ever will be!"
"You have his temper, but you lack his strength and his intelligence."
"That's a lie! I'm everything he could have wanted in a son, but he judged me on the way my body reacts to a full moon."
"Go to the great hall," Lachlan commanded. "You will explain your treachery to me there."
Ulf just sneered.
Moving so quickly, she almost missed it, Lachlan hit his brother straight on the chin, knocking him backward into the dirt and into an unnatural sleep in the process.
"Carry him to the great hall," he instructed two of the warriors that had been hidden in the trees with Drustan when Lachlan confronted Talorc by the lake.
When they moved to obey, he asked the other soldiers if they stood with Ulf or with him. The men went to their knees and knelt before him, one going so far as to explain they had just been called from their duties by Ulf to help protect their laird. As a strong, chilling wind, portent of things to come, whipped around them, the soldier's story was confirmed by others and they were dismissed.
Lachlan went to the great hall and then made sure that no one but Chrechte and Emily and Ulf were in the keep before instructing that the door be shut and guarded by a Chrechte soldier on the other side. And she understood why he had insisted on having the confrontation at the keep. He was protecting the pack's secrets as Chrechte leaders had been doing within the clans since joining them the century before.
Ulf was awake and fuming by the fireplace when Lachlan allowed the rest of them into the great hall a few minutes later.
She and Cait stood between Drustan and Angus, with the Sinclair Chrechte behind them. There were two other Balmoral Chrechte on either side of Ulf. He glared at her and Cait, and then at Lachlan, "What are the women doing here?"
"Your treachery affected their lives. They will hear what you have to say for yourself."
"I need not explain myself to you."
"Like it or not, I am your laird. You will explain."
"Only because our father protected you by demanding that promise."
Lachlan shook his head. "Our father was protecting you from death when he made you promise not to challenge me. But you did not care. You chose to try to take control of the clan through devious means anyway. What honor is there in trying to negate your father's will, or in trying to get the Sinclair to kill me for you?"
"More honor than there is in a younger brother taking my rightful place of laird."
"Our father dictated I be his successor. It was his right."
"He made the wrong choice. It was my right to lead!"
"To what end? What could you have done for the clan I have not done?"
Ulf just glared.
"You are guilty of murder."
"You believe the word of your enemy over your brother?"
"You did not deny your treachery."
"I knew it was useless when I saw the two of you from the wall walk. I knew you would stand together as werewolf brothers even though you and I are blood brothers."
A spasm crossed Lachlan's face. "Are you saying now that you deny you plotted to get me killed? That you did not kill that young soldier?"
"Would you believe me if I did?"
"No." The absolute finality of that word could not be lost on anyone in the hall. "I know too much to believe your denial."
"Then why should I attempt one?" Ulf stood proud and erect, his expression filled with contempt and hatred. "You deserved to die… just like that soldier. He would have had a position of leadership one day, just as Drustan does, but what of me… your brother?"
"You turned down the position of first-in-command."
"It should have been you as my first, not the other way around. Why should I agree to serve you?"
"So, you believe you… a murderer and a liar… should be laird?"
Ulf was unfazed by the accusations, as if he truly saw nothing wrong with his actions. "I am a Balmoral, son of our father, just as you are."
"If I challenge you, does that negate the promise you made to our father?"
"On what grounds would you challenge me?" Ulf asked sneeringly.
"You murdered one of my soldiers."
"Prove it."
"I don't have to."
"You do if you want the clan to stand behind you."
"You are a fool to believe that."
"Am I?" Ulf asked, his expression taunting. "There is also your own honor, which would not be satisfied unless you can be absolutely sure I had done the deed."
"But I am."
Ulf just shrugged.
"There are also the many insults, heard by witnesses, you have subjected my mate to."
"You are not mated."
"I soon will be. Emily is my betrothed."
Ulf staggered as if Lachlan had landed him another blow. "You are going to marry a human?"
"Yes."
"I thought you were afraid of having human children like our father."
"If they are as fierce and loyal as their mother, it won't matter if they are werewolves."
Warmth suffused Emily despite the tension of the situation.
"She has tricked you with your lust."
"I'm not so easily deceived. I have told you this. You should have listened."
"Aren't you? You believed me about Susannah."
"I believed the evidence of my own eyes. Susannah was married to Magnus and I knew I had not given her permission to leave the island. Therefore I believed she had been taken without the permission of her clan."
"Now you know I sent her to Sinclair land."
"Why?"
"I wanted you to declare war on the Sinclairs. I could have led you into a trap. It's what our father would have done, but you are not enough like him. You're too soft."
"You're a fool if you believe that. You are the weak one and Father saw the lack in you. He knew you craved power but did not have the character to lead. He should have banished you, or sent you to serve under another laird, but he was too soft-hearted toward you. He loved you too much to let you go. You are my brother, but I am strong enough to see you get the punishment your crimes deserve. You were a fool to believe you could manipulate me."
"I wasn't. I had it all under control. If those two whores had not gotten out of the keep, you would not be playing ally with the Sinclair now."
Lachlan backhanded Ulf and the other man slammed against the wall beside the fireplace.
Chapter 21
"Speak respectfully of my intended, or die where you stand."
Ulf wiped at a trickle of blood from his mouth. "I pity her, but most of all I pity the children you might have… children that could be like me."
"We will have children if God wills it. If some, or all, are fully human, I will love them."