Lachlan growled, the sound inhuman and frightening.
Talorc ignored it as he had ignored her protest a moment before. 'I do not believe your father would feel the same.'
'You aren't going to tell him?' Emily asked, horrified.
'I'm going to see you wed, or I'm going to war.'
Emily looked wildly around her, but no one appeared ready to step in and aid her in dismissing Talorc's daft notion. Cait's worried and faintly sick expression said she knew he meant it and she was worried that Lachlan was going to refuse. Emily was more afraid he wouldn't.
'You don't want to marry me,' she cried, facing him.
'Would you rather see our clans go to war?' he asked with interest.
'Of course not.'
'Then you will marry me, English.'
'No.'
Emily was standing in front of a priest an hour later. She was still reeling from Lachlan's confrontation with Ulf upon their return to the keep, which was her excuse for getting this far in a wedding ceremony she was sure should not take place.
Talorc and his soldiers (there were four) had accompanied them back to the castle because he insisted on seeing Emily wed, and Lachlan, for reasons she could not fathom, had agreed to accommodate him. Her continued vehement denials and arguments about why the wedding should not take place were ignored by the two lairds walking side by side.
If she were Chrechte, she would turn into a wolf and bite someone. It was a lucky thing for them all she was ladylike enough not to do it anyway.
Thankfully, Talorc had plaids hidden on the island for him and his soldiers and they were now decently covered. Though Emily had to wonder if the Highland women would have been nearly as shocked by their nakedness as she had been.
Ulf's roar of fury from high on the wall walk splintered her thoughts in that moment and sent a chill skittering down Emily's spine. But when she looked up, she did not see him. She peeked sideways at Lachlan. He acted as if he hadn't even heard the war cry.
But she knew he had and her heart went out to him even though she doubted he would thank her for the concern. Learning his brother was a traitor and a murderer could not have been easy, but he had revealed no emotion at Talorc's revelations. And he didn't expose any now either.
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
'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.'
