13. Alban
Alban
A knock on the door woke me from my dead slumber … on the couch … in my office … at my town house!
What in the devil?
I sat straight up on the uncomfortable sofa. It was better than waking up on the dirt floor next to my mountain chickens, that was for certain. But why would I have fallen asleep here as opposed to in my own bed—
That thought broke off when memories of the previous night came crashing back.
I hadn’t given in to the urge to escort them inside. I’d held fast.
Even when Leora had said, “Well, I suppose we should get going …”
Her voice had shaken a bit but became steadier when she added. “Thank you again so very much for hosting us, Alban. I’ll wash and return your clothes as soon as I can.”
To my credit, I hadn’t answered. I’d clenched my teeth and continued to ignore my wolf, whose whining had become a roar.
We Scots have mixed feelings about Braveheart, but I could have sworn I heard the bagpipes and strings of James Horner’s studio orchestra going at it madly as I told myself to “Hold … hold …”
But then the carriage had rocked with the disbursement of their weight as Leora and Dorie made moves to get out.
“Wait!” The one word had broken through the front line of my clenched teeth, ending the battle.
“Yes?” Leora had asked with an odd note in her voice—almost as if she were eager to have me delay her departure.
Calling myself seven types of eejit, I’d turned to face her. “You’re right. That outfit is nae a good one for meeting your sister for the first time in over ten years. Wearing my kilt will give her and the others in the castle the wrong impression.”
I’d told her what I’d failed to in the chicken coop. “In Faoiltiarn, she-wolves only wear a man’s tartan to show others she’s already been claimed—by the male whose kilt she’s sporting.”
“Oh, I, didn’t realize …” Leora’s expression had turned mortified under the moonlight as she glanced down at the outfit she’d made. “I’m so sorry for putting you in this position. What can I do to make sure no one mistakenly thinks that?”
Her apology had curdled my stomach. Of course, she wouldn’t want anyone to think I was her male. Even for the few moments it would have taken her to explain what happened to her dress.
A man with even a modicum of pride would have taken her to New St. Ailbe and let her borrow something from one of those would-be brides.
But, as it had turned out, I wasn’t one of those males with even a modicum of pride.
“It’s late. Sit back down,” I’d said. “I’ll take the two of you to my town house, and we’ll sort everything out in the morning.”
Leora and Dorie had sat back down—quick as if they’d never meant to get up in the first place.
That was the short, baffling tale of how I ended up ceding my pride—and my upstairs bedroom—to the mother she-wolf and toothless pup I’d been trying to rid myself of last night.
And now, someone was knocking on my front door. At such an early hour of the morning, the sun had yet to yawn its way into the sky.
I lumbered out of my office and yanked it open, fully prepared to bite off the ear of whoever dared to disturb my sleep while it was still dark out.
But all the Scottish curse words fell out of my head when I found our new queen standing on the other side of the door.
My heart stopped. So, she knew I had her sister here in my home!
I gripped the door’s knob, scrambling in my head for a logical explanation as to why I hadn’t brought Leora straight to her at the castle.
But then she said. “Oh, thank goodness you did come back to town!”
She let out a relieved sigh. “I was afraid you were totally serious about this new mountain recluse look and wouldn’t show up for our big day. Magnus would have been so disappointed.”
I scrunched my forehead at her strange greeting. Then remembered the excuse I’d given Leora and Dorie for having to leave the cottage yestereve.
“Aye, the solar panel project.” I nodded. “Let me know where the materials are, and I’ll get started on it as soon as I tell you about—”
She cut me off with an angry look, “Seriously? This is what we’re doing? Talking about solar panels even though I’m dressed like this?”
I squinted at her outfit. For once, she wasn’t sporting one of those ridiculous city girl business outfits she insisted on wearing around the castle—as if she was our new CEO, not our pregnant banrigh.
But it appeared she’d gone a bit too far the other way.
She’d draped our clan’s tartan over a voluminous white dress.
I gave my head a shake and returned to the subject at hand. “I’ll put in the panels before I return to Brother’s Cottage, but there’s something you should—”
Again, she interrupted. This time with an enormous sigh. “You really think you can put in a whole system of solar panels by yourself before you return to your mountain shed tomorrow?”
“Cottage,” I corrected. “And, aye, of course, I can.”
“No, you can’t!” Tara produced a clipboard out of nowhere. “Oh my gosh, do I have to do everything around here?”
She balanced the clipboard on her baby belly as she began furiously writing. “I’ll find some volunteers to help you install the solar panels tomorrow, then you can get back to that lonely old mountain of yours on Monday, okay?”
“Nae, not okay. I can handle the job myself,” I insisted. “Also, I should tell ye—”
Tara held up her clipboard like a stop sign. “No arguing. I’m not going to let you take on the whole project without volunteers.”
I glared and informed her. “I will absolutely be handling the entire project. By myself. No volunteers required.”
“We’ll see about that!” She wagged her clipboard at me, then simply waddled away as if that were the last word on the subject.
“And take a shower before the big event, Al!” she yelled back over her shoulder. “Body odor is not a great scent for the biggest day of my life.”
Me installing solar panels was the biggest day of her life?
I shook my head, then called after her. “Wait, Banrigh, I wasn’t done talking. There’s something I have to …”
If she heard me, it didn’t show. She cut around the corner to the next street over before I could even finish telling her we needed to talk.
Our new queen moved surprisingly fast for a she-wolf with two pups in her belly.
And aye, I could have tried to catch up with her, but she’d find out the news soon enough when I showed up with Leora at the castle. Plus …
I sniffed under my pit. She wasn’t wrong about me needing a shower.
Since I was already awake, I did a quick wash-up in the downstairs toilet. Then I threw on some clothes from the duffel I was still living out of—despite having returned to my townhome.
The kilt I donned had become wrinkled without a proper hang-up, and I had plenty of ironed kilts ready to go in my upstairs closet. But I headed straight to the kitchen, bypassing the stairs.
Allowing that walking piece of temptation to spend the night here was dangerous enough. There was no way I’d let my wolf anywhere near the she-wolf sleeping peacefully upstairs.
I strode into the kitchen, only to stop short inside the door. I was completely thunderstruck by the vision in front of me.
Leora stood there dressed in a ribbon blouse and a long skirt made up of the Faoiltiarn tartan.
My mother’s old clothes. I’d hung the outfit in the upstairs bathroom for her last night. My mother was much taller than Leora, and I hadn’t even been certain it would fit.
It fit. To the point I couldn’t speak. The she-wolf had changed out of my kit. Yet, dressed as she was, she looked even more like she belonged to me.
“Did I not put it on right?” she asked, mistaking my lack of words for disapproval. “I haven’t ever worn anything like this before.”
It was an effort, but I managed to reply. “You put it on more than right, Leora. Other than your skin color, you look as if you were born in Faoiltiarn.”
“Oh, what a compliment. Thank you.” She ducked her head with an embarrassed smile. Then admitted, “I know it’s vain, but I love the way the skirt swishes when I walk.”
More skirts. I didn’t even make a habit of exchanging Christmas gifts with my family. Yet her small confession made me want to commission an entire wardrobe of skirts. I could suddenly see myself presenting them to her in a large, oversized box with a bow on top.
Mine … mine … mine … the word thumped in my chest in time with my heartbeat. And I couldn’t stop myself from closing the space between us.
“Leora …” I said with no idea of what would come out of my mouth next.
For some reason, she didn’t step back. Nae, she lifted her lovely face to look up at mine, her eyes two dark pools of hypnotizing brown. “Yes?”
I couldn’t stop myself from coming even closer—from bending to hover my lips over hers. Would she stare up at me, her gaze so innocent and trusting if she kent?
Nae, certainly not. She’d run from the kitchen if she kent all of it. How badly I wanted to taste her, consume her, take her upstairs and make her mine.
“Alban! Alban! Are ye here, then?” a voice called from somewhere in the distance. Then came a heavy knock at the front door. “Open up!”
I took an immediate step back from the she-wolf I had no business kissing. “That’s Magnus, pounding on my door.”
“Magnus? As in King Magnus?” Her eyes widened. “My sister’s mate?”
“One and the same,” I answered.
Expecting her to follow me, I left the kitchen to answer the front door before he woke up the entire house.
“Have you seen Tara, then?” Magnus asked without pre-amble when I opened the door. He stood on my step, wearing a Prince Charlie jacket and full stockings underneath his kilt. I tell you, he was almost as overdressed as his wife. “A few people told me they saw her headed in this direction.”
“Aye, she was here,” I complained grumpily before giving him an earful about that female of his recruiting more volunteers for the solar panel project, even though I could do it myself.
But he seemed way more interested in hunting that out-of-control queen of his down than listening to anything I had to say. He shot away as soon as I pointed in the direction she’d gone. Without giving me the chance to tell him about my overnight guests.
Speaking of which …
I’d expected Leora to follow me to answer the door and step forward for an introduction. But when I turned around, the front room was empty. I found her a few moments later still in the kitchen, filling up a kettle at the sink.
As if bustling around my kitchen was part of her morning routine.
I squelched down all my wolf’s approving thoughts of that notion and asked, “You didn’t want to meet your sister’s mate, then?”
“I do. Of course, I do.” Her voice was bright, but she didn’t look at me as she transferred the kettle to the electric stove. “I was just making tea in case either of you, ah … wanted some.”
I squinted at the she-wolf, refusing to meet my eye. “Your sister stopped by earlier too.”
I gave this information less as a confession and more to see what she’d do with it.
“Did you tell her I was here?” She punched confusedly at the stove’s buttons. I could tell this was the first time she’d ever come into contact with such an appliance.
“No, it didn’t come up,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck.
“Oh, good.” She let out a visible sigh of relief. “I mean, I still have to wake Dorie up and get her ready to meet my sister, the queen. And my showing up here out of the blue is probably going to seem crazy to her. I’ll have to figure out how to explain that.”
She started turning the dials with a mad, frustrated energy.
“Leora,” I said again, this time reaching over her shoulder to turn all but the burner under the kettle to the off position.
She gave me a look that was half gratitude and half defeat.
“Yes?” she asked again.
“You know she’s no better than you just because she’s Magnus’s mate, right?” I crooked my head and folded my arms across my chest. “I know what I said about the clothes, but you don’t have to be afraid of making a bad impression. And you’re not crazy for showing up here.”
I unfolded my arms to tell her, “You’re brave. Remember that. I admire you for this trip you’ve made across an entire ocean on Dorie’s behalf, and she will too.”
She looked up at me, a thousand protests in her eyes.
And damn my wolf, all I wanted to do was kiss her.
Kiss her until she believed every word I said.
But I couldn’t. I shouldn’t. She in no way fit into my plans to return to the Brother’s Cottage to live out the rest of my days alone.
And it wasn’t like she’d continue to give me the time of day after she met the many other eligible bachelors in town.
I thought about how mortified she’d looked at the prospect of being mistaken for my female, and my stomach churned with acid. And frustration.
How could my wolf want someone who so clearly wasn’t meant for me? Gail’s parting words about my suitability for any female did another lap around my head.
This … this was why I needed her out of my house. Out of my life, so I could go on as before.
This had to end, I told my wolf. This had to end now.
“Leora …” I said a third time, this time fully resolved to what I knew had to be done.
I set the kettle aside and opened my mouth to command her to go upstairs and wake Dorie so that I could take them both to the castle with me when I went to install the solar panels.