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Ian’s wife, Julia, hurried out to greet her in the inner bailey. Calla hadn’t wanted her to come out into the cold, dressed the way she was in just a sweater, slacks, and boots, with snowflakes collecting on her red hair. Julia’s worried green eyes took in Calla and the rest of the wolves. Several more of their clansmen hurried out to greet them, moving aside to let them into the keep. Julia took Calla’s bag from Guthrie.
“Come, Calla,” Julia said to her. “I have prepared the blue bedchamber for you.”
Before long, Calla was dressed and warming herself in front of a great fire in the cozy den.
Guthrie and his brothers stood nearby, now dressed and with their arms folded across their broad chests, waiting to hear what had happened.
“All my bags are in the car,” Calla said, as if Ian and his kin wouldn’t already know that.
“We’re headed out to find your car, and if we can’t move it, we’ll haul all your things here, lass,” Ian assured her. “We won’t leave them in the car overnight.”
“Aye. I wasn’t sure when the snow would melt enough to budge it,” Calla said.
“In a couple of days, most likely. We’ll get your things for you in the meantime so you don’t have to worry,” Ian said.
“After the McKinleys stole my and Elaine’s cars, we don’t trust them not to steal yours,” Cearnach said, repeating Calla’s own concerns. He was Ian’s second-in-command of the pack and had been a friend of hers when they were young.
Calla sipped her hot tea, the sweet and spicy cinnamon flavor sliding down her throat and warming her, while Ian made arrangements for more of the men to go back to her car.
“Thanks for coming to my rescue.” Calla still couldn’t believe Baird would do something as stupid as this. She was trying to move on and wished he would too. It was one thing to come to her house and try to convince her to renew their friendship, but quite another to confront her in the MacNeill wolves’ territory.
“Aye, lass, which is all the more reason we need to have a bodyguard detail watch over you,” Ian said.
She’d objected earlier, not thinking bodyguards were necessary and assuming Baird would realize sooner or later that things were over between them. He was proving to be much too stubborn for that. Still, she had hoped they could remain—well, maybe not friends, but not enemies, either.
Most of all, she loved how she felt so secure among the MacNeill wolves, though hating Baird for making her feel unsafe without them.
“Thanks for carrying my bag, Guthrie. Sorry it weighed so much.” Calla realized as soon as she spoke the words that she might have offended his masculinity.
Especially when his brothers chuckled. Men.
“It was no trouble.” The sparkle in Guthrie’s green eyes dispelled the idea that anything would be too heavy for him.
When the men left to get her personal items out of the car, Julia sat down on one of the chairs by the fireplace. “I’m so sorry that Cearnach and I didn’t get your messages right away. I was in your room getting it ready and had left my phone charging in the kitchen. And then I came down to supervise where the men would set up the Christmas tree. Cearnach was helping bring it into the castle. With the bad weather, we thought you would have changed your mind and waited.”
“Nay, I’d promised. I really did think I would arrive long before it got that bad, though.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here now. You will help us to decorate the tree, won’t you?”
“I’d love to.” Calla loved how Julia had taken her in like she was part of their family. Calla had already helped decorate her own family’s tree, as well as hers, even though she hadn’t planned to be home to enjoy it. Still, before she left, she had wanted to feel the Christmas spirit.
“We’ll have dinner tonight and decorate it tomorrow. I have to show it to you first.”
Julia led Calla into the great hall where she stared at the tree in awe. Not a cut tree, but a beautiful Nordmann fir—a deep, rich green, bristling with full, rounded needles, and redolent with the luscious scent of citrus. Divine. Best of all, it was living.
“You’re going to plant it after Christmas?” Calla asked, excited. She would love to return and see the pack members plant it. Help, even, if she could.
“Yes. Isn’t it beautiful? You know that Duncan’s mate, Shelley, is a botanist. She had the brilliant idea of buying a tree that we could plant after the holidays. Just think, over the years, we could have a whole new forest.”
Calla took in a breath of the Christmas scent. “It’s the most beautiful Christmas tree I’ve ever seen.” She reached out and touched the soft needles. She’d never known anyone personally who had a living Christmas tree in their home for the holidays.
Julia smiled, but then her expression turned serious. “Calla, I have to ask you. Is there anything more to Baird’s wanting you to return to him so badly? Something more than what we assume it’s all about?”
“Other than him being a jerk and an alpha who doesn’t like to lose? Nay.”
Julia glanced at the doorway, but she and Calla were the only two people in the great hall at the moment. A lot of chatter and laughter were coming from the kitchen, however, while the dinner was being prepared.
“One other thing, are you…going to be able to manage Guthrie?” Julia asked.
Calla wasn’t sure what Julia was asking. About the Christmas party expenditures? That was Julia’s job. But yeah, Calla assumed he’d be all negative about the cost of the party.
“Concerning what?” Calla asked.
“A courtship.” Julia smiled broadly.
Chapter 3
Guthrie wasn’t sure how to take Calla Stewart, party planner entrepreneur. He still couldn’t get over how she’d stolen his shorts and hung them on the pirate’s flagpole the ladies had put up during the hen party a couple of weeks ago. Many in the pack had teased him mercilessly about how Calla had the hots for him. And they wanted to know what he was going to do about it.
What he’d like to do was one thing. Her real intentions were another.
He and nearly everyone else in the pack had thought Calla and Cearnach would be mated wolves someday, especially when she’d moved back into the area a year ago. But both his brother and Calla had insisted they were just friends. Cearnach mating Elaine had finally assured the pack of that.
