A Highland Werewolf Wedding (22 page)

“Have you seen Cearnach?” Ian asked beyond the drying room, the door still locked.

Ian.

Someone pounded on the kennel’s drying room door. “Cearnach, Elaine’s solicitor is
here. She needs to speak with him. You and I will also listen to what he has to say,”
Ian said.

“Hell,” Cearnach said, running his hand over Elaine’s hair. “Guess we’ve got to face
the world.”

She groaned. Then she sat upright and whispered, “Ian said my solicitor is here?”

“Aye.” He hadn’t thought the solicitor would show up this quickly, either. Ian must
have made the man fear the wrath of the pack.

She wrapped the towel around her and pushed at Cearnach. “Go, get the dry clothes
Logan brought for me. Mine are still wet.”

Cearnach put his damp clothes on.

“Why would a lawyer be here to speak to me?” Her eyes were wide.

“It probably has to do with your properties and the management of them. I’m sure that’s
what the solicitor is here to talk with you about.”

“Did your mother know about this before she suggested you mate with me?” she asked.
Then she shook her head. “She didn’t. We had only just met. I bet that would have
been an even greater incentive for you to mate me.”

Cearnach sighed. “You are priceless to me, lass. With or without your holdings. With
or without the treasure.” He smiled in a much too predatory way. “With or without
your clothes.”

He sighed. “Let me get the dry clothes.”

He left the room and stalked through the drying room where the dogs had left their
beds to crowd around the door, desperate to greet Ian. Cearnach unlocked and opened
the door. The dogs rushed out as Cearnach came face to face with Logan and Ian, both
giving him accusatory looks. The dogs eagerly greeted them, bouncing around and jumping
up in a wild frenzy of doggy love.

“The clothes?” Cearnach was not about to explain himself in front of Logan. Well,
to Ian either.

Logan handed him the clothes.

“We’ll be right out, Ian.” Cearnach shut the door.

“How’d they take it?” Elaine took the borrowed pale-pink sweater and jeans from him
and hurried to dress.

“I’m certain they knew it was coming.”

“I’m not getting married.” She pulled on the light sweater and looked up at Cearnach,
who was staring at her in surprise. “Wolves don’t get married. I don’t have any family
and…”

“You have us.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. He didn’t want this
to be an issue between them, but she had to marry him. He understood her reluctance
because she had no family—at least that would be welcome. “You have my family and
extended family.”

“No one would sit on the bride’s side of the church.”

“Oh, aye, the place will be packed. Mark my word.”

“Wolves don’t get married,” she said again. “I never planned to be married if I found…
found the right mate for me.”

“If something should happen to Ian, I would gain his title.” He sighed and kissed
her forehead. “It’s nothing to worry about now.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You wouldn’t have to do anything but show up at the ceremony.”

He smiled. “We fight the battles, lass. You plan the fun stuff.”

She snorted.

“My mother will insist on helping.”

She sighed at that.

“Tell her to stay out of it if you want. It’s up to you.”

“If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have a wedding!”

“Except for that.”

Cearnach took Elaine’s hand and led her through the front door of the kennels. As
soon as they walked across the inner bailey, several people greeted them, small smiles
on their faces.

Elaine’s cheeks flushed beautifully. “They know,” she whispered to him. “Don’t they?”

“Aye, I imagine so.”

She frowned. “Your mother will think it’s her doing.”

Cearnach didn’t say anything.

“Flynn will think it’s his.”

Cearnach finally smiled down at her and pulled her to a stop. “But I will know it
was
your
doing.”

“Mine?” she asked, looking up at him, her gaze questioning.

“Oh, aye, lass. You hooked me from the very beginning.” He wrapped his arm around
her shoulders and pulled open the door to the keep, then escorted her inside.

Though they had jobs to do, Duncan and Guthrie were milling around in the great hall.
When they heard Elaine and Cearnach crossing the stone floor, both turned to watch
them.

Duncan, not one to mince words, spoke right up. “Is it done?”

Cearnach frowned at him. “We haven’t spoken with Elaine’s solicitor yet,” Cearnach
said, not about to discuss mating with Elaine with his brothers.

Duncan gave him a small smile, knowing just from his response that he’d taken Elaine
for his mate.

Guthrie raised his brows.

As Cearnach and Elaine walked by his brothers, he cast a glance over his shoulder
at them, giving them a look, reminding them not to spread the word until he was ready
to tell everyone. Duncan would speak with Shelley about it, and he was certain Ian
had told Julia already.

When they arrived in Ian’s office, he introduced Elaine and Cearnach to her solicitor,
a wiry, little gray-haired man with a laptop computer and a big black briefcase. The
man smelled like a gray wolf.

“I’ve been managing the lass’s estates for years,” Mr. Hoover said. “Samson and Tobias
Hawthorn gifted the properties to her centuries ago, and the estates have earned enough
money to pay the taxes and upkeep all these years. I… couldn’t locate her once I learned
her uncles had died. I did try. Once I discovered where she’d gone, she had already
disappeared again.

“You own Senton Castle and all the land around it. Your parents married in the chapel
there when the castle was still standing. Grand affair, if I do say so myself,” Mr.
Hoover said to Elaine. “Here are the property descriptions and locations.” He passed
a pile of papers to her.

“They were married at Senton Castle? Why did my parents leave there?” she asked, tears
forming in her eyes.

“Many years later, they left when they couldn’t maintain the castle. Wars, famine.
One of those wars resulted in the death of your older brother.”

“Brother?” Elaine asked, sounding horrified. “I had a brother?”

“Two, but one was stillborn. The other was ten when you were born. Fighting broke
out and he was beyond the shelter of the castle walls at the time. Your parents were
distraught over the death of their male heir.” Mr. Hoover looked at Ian as if the
fault was his.

That had Cearnach thinking about the times they’d bombarded the castle with cannon
fire.

“Your parents left the castle in your uncles’ care shortly after that. Not wishing
to remain in Scotland, your parents started anew in Florida. While your uncles were
away sailing the seas, the Kilpatricks and McKinleys ran Senton Castle into the ground.
Your uncles bought the other properties also. All of them were bequeathed to you.”

“I’d had no word. My parents never mentioned any of this to me.”

The solicitor nodded. “You were young.”

She hadn’t been for years. Cearnach frowned at the solicitor.

Mr. Hoover cleared his throat. “We did try to locate you, Miss Hawthorn. You’d changed
your identity and moved so many times over the years…” He spread his hands in a gesture
of helplessness.

He glanced down at his notes. “You own two manors and a keep in Scotland that have
been continuously rented out at a goodly income for years. The properties have been
well maintained and are in good shape. All but Senton Castle, which as you probably
have learned is in…”

“Ruins, I know,” Elaine said, frowning.

“Did the Hawthorns store any merchandise at any of the locations?” Cearnach asked.

“You mean, sir, the merchandise stolen from ships while they were away at sea?” Mr.
Hoover inquired, his brows raised.

Elaine barely breathed.

So the old fox knew. Cearnach nodded. “Aye, that’s what I mean.”

“Nay. Several warehouses full of stolen merchandise were captured and sold to pay
off those whose property had been taken at sea. Some of the merchandise had already
been moved before the authorities learned of the locations.”

“None of the merchandise was left at the manor houses?” Elaine asked, glancing at
the documents, then passing them to Ian, who began to study them in earnest.

“Nay.”

“Did my uncles leave me a key?”

“To the manor houses and keep, aye. Several. To the warehouses, several more. But
those I didn’t bother to pay the rent on. No need when they held no more goods and
the storage space wasn’t being used. I turned the keys over to the owners of the warehouses
years ago. Most of the buildings don’t even exist any longer.”

“So no merchandise that my uncles might have stolen is left,” Elaine said, sounding
both disappointed and relieved at the same time.

“That we know about, nay. That doesn’t mean they didn’t hide some in another location
that I don’t know about. I brought you the deeds and wished to offer my services to
continue to manage your properties, should you so desire.”

“Why didn’t you contact me about this? As soon as you could?” she asked, her cheeks
growing flushed, her whole posture stiff.

“We couldn’t locate you.”

“Maybe early on,” she retorted. “But my cousin found me. Why couldn’t you have?”

Mr. Hoover sat even more rigidly in the chair, his jaw tightening with tension. “He
hired someone to locate you and told me you were coming here to meet with him. I asked
how he had located you. He said he had friends in low places, laughed, and wouldn’t
say anything further. Even so, it took him ten years after he…” Mr. Hoover paused,
glanced at Ian and Cearnach, then focused again on Elaine and hesitated to finish
what he was going to say.

“He…
what
?” Elaine asked, her voice terse.

The solicitor ground his teeth. “Your uncles had told me never to contact your relations
in Scotland, but a renter offered a substantial amount of money to buy one of your
manors ten years ago. I didn’t know what to do. He decided to keep renting. If you
were no longer living…” He sighed. “I had to find you, to let you know you had properties
and learn what you wanted to do with them. I thought maybe one of your cousins might
know your whereabouts.

“I contacted Robert Kilpatrick since I handle his estates also. I didn’t tell him
about your properties, although I’m certain he assumed that the only reason I would
try to learn where you’d gone was because you had an estate. He said since I couldn’t
find you, he’d have someone else search for you. It wasn’t easy. He had several false
starts, and then finally you changed your name back to Hawthorn and returned to Florida
a month ago. As soon as Mr. Kilpatrick could verify it was you…”

“How did he confirm it was me?” she asked warily. “I’m certain there are tons of female
Hawthorns in the state.”

“Aye. I don’t know for sure. He wouldn’t say. I assume he used a wolf living in the
area to check on you and substantiate that you were one of us, for one thing. You
were the only Hawthorn she-wolf in the area.”

“But once you learned she was living in Florida, you didn’t contact her,” Cearnach
said. “
We
contacted
you
once we discovered she had estates in Scotland. You didn’t bother to try and speak
with Miss Hawthorn before this.”

A bead of sweat broke out on the solicitor’s upper lip. Matching beads appeared on
his forehead. “Aye. Mr. Kilpatrick said the lass was coming to Scotland, and he would
tell her I wished to speak with her. She vanished after she had arrived, and he was
trying to locate her again. He said he didn’t know where she’d disappeared to.”

Elaine folded her arms. “All right, so what if I wanted to sell the properties? Not
that I’m saying I want to, but if I did?”

Mr. Hoover cleared his throat. “You can’t.”

Her eyes widened.

He glanced at Cearnach as if he was afraid the alpha would take him to task. “I mean
to say that not all the properties can be sold. The keep and Senton Castle must go
to your heirs, Miss Hawthorn. No one is permitted to sell off the properties as long
as they’re supporting their upkeep. The manors are a different story.”

“Have they incurred any profit? If so, where has the money gone?”

“A bank, Miss Hawthorn.” He stiffened. “You’re quite a wealthy woman. All the money
is there. You can have your own accountant verify that the expenses and receipts all
are correct.”

She raised her brows, showing a slight upward tilt to her mouth.

Cearnach stared at Elaine as the beautiful she-wolf sat straighter, her lips parted.
Her uncle had told her
she
was the key to his heart, to the treasure. Not in goods, but in land holdings.

She took a deep breath. “Had my uncles planned to settle down here? In Scotland?”

Mr. Hoover shook his head. “They were seafarers. The ocean was their bloodline. They
wanted this for you. For the child that neither of them had.”

Tears reappeared in her eyes, and Cearnach took her hand and squeezed it.

Mr. Hoover watched the intimacy between them and pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed
at his brow.

“Why did they want me to mate with Kelly Rafferty, then? Did you know about that?”

He swallowed hard and gave a jerky nod, his gaze settling on hers.

“Then why?”

“You were so young. You needed protection.”

Cearnach snorted.

“Something to fall back on,” Mr. Hoover hastily said. “After your uncles died, you
disappeared. Four months later, word reached us that pirates had attacked the ship
you’d been traveling on. It was nearly a year before we learned you had become Rafferty’s
wife and then that he had died. If we could have located you, you would have had the
income to use as you saw fit all these years. Did… did you want us to continue to
maintain your estates, ma’am?”

“I will have Guthrie MacNeill verify the accounts,” Elaine said. “I’m certain he will
manage them from now on.” Then she looked at Cearnach as if she realized that since
she was a mated wolf, it would be his business also.