Rich brown leather sofas and a light brown rug added to the earthy tones. A man’s room, she thought. But something wasn’t right. Bright lights from another room intruded on the soft lighting in this one. With the greatest apprehension, she moved without moving toward the doorway bathed in brilliant white.

  Someone was in there. Shadows crossed the doorway briefly as someone moved about, blocking the light marginally. She had to see into the room. Had to see who the someone was.

  Two shots rang out.

  “Hey!” From a great distance, Sam shattered the future world Carol was in. Instantly her thoughts became her own again, except that she couldn’t remember what had happened, where she was, or what she was doing. Shots had been fired. Hadn’t they?

  The cold shook her from the fogginess—the shower, the soap, the kidnappers! She opened her mouth to speak, to call out, to get Sam’s attention.

  Shots rang out. Shots fired from close by. From the kidnappers. At Sam.

  The acrid smell of gun smoke drifted to her.

  Her mouth snapped shut. Silver bullets? She couldn’t be the cause of Sam’s death. Best to let the villains take her away.

  “Raise the alarm!” Sam shouted.

  The man carrying her swore under his breath and tightened his hold on her, stumbling at a slightly faster pace.

  “What the hell’s happening?” Darien asked, growing closer to Sam’s voice.

  They were coming for her. The sensation that she was one of the pack gave her some peace of mind, but the danger the gunman posed if Sam and Darien caught up with her was too great to ignore. The bullets would kill Darien and Sam and any others who got too close. They couldn’t risk it. Don’t risk it!

  “Three men running that way. They’ve got Carol!” Sam shouted back to him. “And they’ve got guns!”

  Another shot rang out and Carol tried to squirm, but not a muscle obeyed her.

  “Carol!” Darien shouted.

  She tried to speak, to shout, but she had no voice.

  Suddenly she felt herself falling, dropped like a sack of cold groceries. She should have felt a hard impact, but her body didn’t feel anything but a slight jolt. Now she was left in the sweet-smelling grass, crispy with frost, to freeze to death. She curled up into a fetal ball, trying to get warm, when a large hand gripped her shoulder and she shuddered. They weren’t leaving her behind after all. At once, she felt an odd mix of reprieve and regret.

  “You’re alive,” he said, his voice low and dark but comforting.

  Ryan? A sense of overwhelming relief washed over her. And a fuzzy question surfaced. When had he returned from Green Valley? She envisioned him racing to the rescue on a white steed while he wore the McKinley plaid, the kilt reaching his knees, sword belted at his waist, a shirt open to his collarbone, his face frowning as he scooped her up from the cold ground and—

  “I’ve got her!” Ryan wrapped her in something warm and soft that smelled of him, his distinctive male scent of fresh soap and heat. Of spices and the wind in the firs, of the wild. Was it his plaid? She imagined him now wearing only the long shirt that reached mid-thigh and sturdy leather boots that met his knees, his expression worried and stern.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, lifting her off the cold ground. He jostled her as he ran, his arms so tight around her that she felt he was going to crush her. But the heat and his protectiveness comforted her.

  And when they reached the laird’s castle, he was going to kiss her and tell her how much he loved her, how he couldn’t live without her. She would be a member of his clan as they would want her to join them. Despite her being a MacDonald. Did the McKinley clan fight with the MacDonalds? She didn’t know but fervently hoped not.

  “Carol, can you focus?” His darkened eyes studied her for a moment as he rushed toward their destination.

  She parted her lips, couldn’t get a word out, closed her eyes, and concentrated on him and the way he held her so… so possessively.

  He squeezed her tight again and kissed her lips gently, which got her attention. As soon as she opened her eyes, even as blurry as her vision was, she saw his lips curve slightly upward, but his brow was still furrowed in a deep frown.

  After what seemed like forever, his feet tromped on wooden steps—when she thought they should have been stone—and then inside. She felt the warmth of the castle keep and smelled the scent of apple pies coming from the kitchen far away.

  “Ohmigod… Carol. Is she all right?” Lelandi asked. “What’s happened?”

  Lelandi? The Highland romance Carol was living instantly died, and she remembered the pies Lelandi, Silva, and she had made after returning from the tavern and her date with Ryan.

  “I think she’s been drugged. She’s not said a word since I found her. She can barely open her eyes, and she is limp and unresponsive.” Ryan rushed through the house.

  Carol smelled the scent of the roses on the mantel as they passed them. Felt his legs lift, his thighs bumping her back as he ascended the stairs. What was she wrapped in, if not his plaid?

  “Where were you when Sam raised the alarm?” Lelandi’s words were spoken close behind him, her footfalls on the carpeted stairs lighter but just as hurried.

  “I was searching the woods out back when I heard gunfire and Sam’s yelling. When I drew too close to her kidnappers, they must have heard me coming and dropped her.”

  “Oh, Carol.” Lelandi’s voice was clearly shaken. “Take her to her room. I’ll call Doc.”

  Then the hazy world seemed to fade away. Carol was safe and home for the moment with the man of her dreams. And free.

  Chapter 12

  RYAN HUGGED CAROL TIGHTER AS HER SLIGHTLY TENSE body seemed to lose all strength again. He’d gotten Darien’s approval to stay and guard her, but damn if Darien had said he’d stay in the sunroom, which was too far from Carol’s bedroom to be any help. Although he’d planned to sit in the recliner in her room later that night anyway. If he couldn’t serve as her bodyguard in the way he felt would offer her the right amount of protection, there was no sense in his being here.

  If he hadn’t been searching around the grounds outside before he retired for the evening, he’d never have heard the men take off with her on the other side of the rambling two-story house in time. And if he hadn’t nearly reached them to identify them by sight, they wouldn’t have dropped her and left her behind, he was fairly certain. For that, he was grateful.

  “Carol, can you hear me? It’s me, Ryan,” he said, his voice soothing, wanting her to know it was him and not one of the men who had taken her hostage.

  “Hmm,” she said, stirring a little.

  As little as it was, he was still glad to hear her response. “Until Doc gets over here with something to counteract the sedative they used on you, you’re going to feel pretty out of it. Your skin and hair are caked with soap, and Lelandi doesn’t have the strength to wash you in the shower. A bath would take too long to prepare, not the way you’re shivering. I’ll have to wash you in the shower.”

  “Hmm.”

  He took that as a yes, although they hadn’t any other choice.

  When he reached the bathroom, the shower had been turned off, but the room was thick with warm moisture, the mirrors steamed, the scent of sweet peaches still lingering in the air. He lay Carol down on a towel on the tiled floor, but as soon as he released her, she reached her hands slightly up to him.

  “I’m right here, Carol,” he coaxed, squeezing her hands, hating to have to leave her unattended for even a second when she didn’t seem to understand what was going on.

  Then he released her again and turned on the hot water. Once he had stripped out of everything but his boxers and when the water temperature felt right, he unwrapped her from his goose-down jacket and lifted her in his arms.

  She shivered, and he squeezed her tightly against his body as he climbed into the tub.

  “I’m going to set you down, wash the soap off, and then dry you and put you into bed. Doc will be here soon.”

  Lelandi hurried into the bathroom. “What will the other bachelors think?” Her tone was more amused than alarmed. She eyed him as he stood in only his boxers with a naked Carol in his arms. “Here, let me help,” she said, reaching out to grab Carol’s arm.

  “I’ve got her,” Ryan said, setting Carol down in the tub, not wanting Lelandi to do any heavy lifting in her condition.

  Lelandi handed him the handheld showerhead, and he washed Carol’s face and hair, the spray wetting him also. “She’s probably got soap in her eyes. If I can’t get her to open them, Doc will have to flush them.”

  “He’s unable to come. He said the drug should wear off. Silva will pick up some medicine that will help counter the sedative. Doc’s got three cases of swine flu and a human boy whose brother accidentally broke his nose playing basketball with him, and one of the pregnant humans is in labor now, so he has to remain at the hospital. Nurses Charlotte and Matthew are busy helping him.”

  “I should have been with her. Those bastards would have never gotten near her.” Ryan lifted Carol’s chin and applied a steady stream of water to her face.

  Lelandi grabbed a towel from the nearby rack. “I’m sure Darien will agree now to allow you to stay close to her.”

  “A little late,” Ryan muttered. From now on, he would do this his way.

  “I feel the same way, but you know Darien. You’re an outsider.” Lelandi handed Ryan a warm, wet washcloth. “He still wanted one of his bachelor males to woo her. Now you’re becoming a real obstacle to his plans.”

  His own feelings mixed on the subject, Ryan wasn’t about to reveal his thoughts on the matter. “How do you feel about what he thinks?” When she didn’t respond, Ryan looked back at Lelandi and noted the wry amusement on her face. He shook his head. “Jake or Tom would make tolerable mates for her but not the beta males.”

  “What about you?” Lelandi asked softly.

  With the rush of the shower as he ran the water over Carol’s hair, he almost didn’t hear Lelandi’s words. “I’m here to do a job. Serve as her bodyguard. That’s all.” Yet even as he spoke the words, he didn’t feel sincere in the least.

  He gently washed Carol’s eyes, finished rinsing out her hair, and ran the water over her face again and down her body, where a sheen of soap still covered her skin and goose bumps raised. It would take a saint not to notice her soft feminine curves, her vulnerability, and her beauty.

  But he was trying his damnedest to keep his wolfish thoughts at bay, just as he knew she had when she’d observed him after he’d shifted and remarked, You look nice and healthy to me. He’d seen the admiration in her gaze, noticed she’d taken a gander twice at his size, and wasn’t fooled by her pretense. Not when he heard her heart beating rapidly and saw the faint blush tinge her cheeks beautifully.

  Her eyes suddenly blinked, and she squinted.

  His heart hammering, he lifted her chin gently. If he hadn’t had an audience, he would have kissed her lips, maybe enticing her to open her eyes again.

  “Can you do that again, Carol? Open your eyes so I can wash the soap out?”

  She tried, but she could barely lift her lids, her face grimacing. Then she went completely limp again, deep in drug-induced sleep.

  “You’re very good with her,” Lelandi said.

  “I’m used to helping victims of crimes.” Although he wasn’t capable of feeling impersonal in this case. Not when Carol was naked and so defenseless. Crouching in front of her, he squeezed the water out of her hair with one hand, his other holding her shoulder to keep her from sliding.

  “Ah, and the kiss you shared with her earlier before the gathering?”

  What could he say about that? A mistake? Was dancing too damn close to her at the gathering also a mistake? No, none of it was. Just some errant need to get closer, to possess, to quash his compulsion to learn how she scrambled his thoughts to such a degree. To show her he thought she was much more intriguing than the other women at the gathering. Hell, maybe she did have psychic abilities. The kind that included mind control.

  Many of his Scottish ancestors believed in witches in the old days, many of the women having practiced the healing arts in their unusual ways. Carol was a nurse and had ancestral ties to the Highlands of Scotland, so maybe some of her ancestors were among those healers and she had inherited their genes. He shook his head at himself for even going there.

  “Want to turn off the water?” He didn’t say anything in response to Lelandi’s question, figuring she had already decided he was hooked on Little Miss Nightingale. Not that she wasn’t desirable as hell, but she really needed someone who could completely believe in her.

  Lelandi handed him an oversized fluffy white towel. The cloth contrasted sharply with Carol’s skin, flushed from the heat of the shower, as he wrapped the towel around her.

  “Can you get something for her to wear other than that silky see-through nightgown?” he asked.

  Lelandi’s brows shot up as she handed him a towel for Carol’s hair. “How do you know what she wears at night?”

  “She was standing in the window watching me in the woods. Hard not to notice.”

  Lelandi’s lips parted. Then in silence, she shook her head and left the bathroom, while Ryan wrapped Carol’s hair in the second towel and then lifted her from the tub.

  Carrying Carol into her bedroom, he saw Lelandi holding up the shimmering translucent nightgown he’d seen Carol wear the night before. It reminded him of the silken goddess standing in the window, staring out at him, as beguiling as ever.

  “Guess she’s not used to sleeping naked like the rest of us yet. She’s got some other nightgowns, but all are shorter and more revealing,” Lelandi said.

  Carol looked small and sleepy in his arms, and beautiful. But the idea of her lying naked or wearing that silken piece of nightwear or anything even shorter and more revealing as she slept next to him in bed tightened his groin even further.

  “Does she have sweats? A long T-shirt?” Damn, considering anything she might wear made him think of her as sexy as hell.

  Lelandi glanced down at Ryan’s soaking-wet boxers. “Don’t let Darien see you like that.”

  How could he help it if rinsing off Carol’s naked body had left him hard as steel? Even though he’d done his damnedest to keep his efforts as professional as possible. He was only human and a lot wolf, after all.

  “What made Darien realize she’d been kidnapped?” he asked, resting Carol in the bed.

  Lelandi held out a light blue T-shirt. He helped Lelandi pull it over Carol’s head. When they stretched it down Carol’s body, it barely covered her feminine enticements.

  Lelandi slid the comforter up to Carol’s shoulders. “Jake was still up, editing his photos of wildflowers on his computer.”

  Ryan raised his brows.

  “It’s Jake’s hobby. Sam was watching him work, but both thought they heard something bump against the side of the house. Sam ran outside, while Jake tore up the stairs to check on Carol. He found her shower on and a trail of water leading to the window. The men had used a ladder and left it there. Outside the house, Sam smelled the reds and a perfumed soap that lingered in the air. The same shampoo that Carol uses. Jake alerted Darien, and I woke Tom. And here you are, her knight to the rescue.”

  Hell, if he’d been a true knight, he wouldn’t have allowed her to be taken in the first place.

  Ryan glanced at the bedroom door. He realized then that there was no sound of anyone else in the house, no evidence that the group chasing Carol’s kidnappers had returned. Which wasn’t good.

  “I’ll dry her hair. You get dressed.”

  “We’re alone? Just you, Carol, and me?” he asked. “What if the men had tried to take you also while everyone left you alone?”

  “I’ve got big teeth if anyone is of a mind to show up who doesn’t belong here. I called the sheriff and his deputy, and they’re on their way.”

  “Hell, that’s not soon enough. And these guys have guns.”

  “I heard. What is the world coming to?” Lelandi sounded flippant, but her worried look belied her true feelings as she hooked up a blow-dryer and began running the hot air over Carol’s hair.

  Ryan watched Lelandi comb her fingers gently through the damp strands the way he had done when he rinsed the soap out. Silky blonde curls turned from wet and dark to soft spun gold, and he thought of how it would feel to run his fingers through her hair when it was dry.

  Shaking loose of the notion, he headed into the bathroom to strip out of his boxers. “At least three men were out there. Maybe four. See if you can recognize any of their scents tomorrow when it’s daylight and you have plenty of protection.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Sam barged into the bedroom and gave Ryan a disparaging look. “Hell, what happened?”

  “She was drugged.” Ryan dried off and jerked on his jeans in the bathroom. “Did anyone catch any of the bastards?”

  “Not yet. Darien and his brothers shape-shifted and are tracking them. He sent me back to help you guard the women in case the men doubled back and returned to the house.” Sam walked over to the bedroom window and peered out.

  “Think they were shooting silver bullets?”

  “Might have been. Reds wouldn’t be a match for us grays.” Sam turned around to look at Ryan and frowned. “Where were you that you got to Carol so quickly?”

  Ryan grabbed his shirt. “Outside. I’d already circled the grounds once, and then I thought I heard whispered voices on the other side of the house headed for the woods. I came from a different direction than you and Darien. Since you were shouting and I was in stealth mode, they didn’t hear me coming until it was almost too late. They dropped their precious cargo and hightailed it out of here.”

  “Damn good thing, too.”

  The sound of footfalls coming into the house through the back door caught their attention. Sam stormed out of the bedroom.

  “Lock the door,” Ryan warned Lelandi. Ready to shift and take care of the threat, he dropped his shirt on the end of the bed and took off after Sam.