A Highland Werewolf Wedding by Terry Spear

gone before then,” she promised, giving him a small smile. Before he
     could respond—to tell her he hoped to change her mind, even that he planned to change it—she slipped into the bathroom and closed the door.
    He waited outside the ladies’ room while she undressed and shifted. He couldn’t help
     thinking about her taking off the clingy, wet red dress and him seeing her naked.
    When she scratched and whimpered at the door, he broke loose of his vision of her
     as a naked woman, forgetting she’d be a wolf now, and pulled the door open. A beautiful,
     mink-brown wolf with dark brown eyes emerged. She wagged her tail and stood by the
     ladies’ room, waiting for him to get her personal effects.
    He scooped up her boots and the bundle of clothes that she’d wrapped inside her raincoat,
     then tucked them under his arm and strode across the inner courtyard to the outer
     one. Leaning down, he stuffed her things deep inside the cannon. Then he started to
     strip, putting each article of clothing inside the weapon as soon as he’d pulled it
     off.
    While he did so, he watched her as she raced all over the castle ruins. She seemed
     to be chasing smells and unsure which way to go first because everything seemed just
     as intriguing as everything else. She sniffed around the stone stables, busily exploring
     them. Then she dashed across the bailey, glanced in his direction, looked at his kilt
     still riding low on his hips, then bolted up narrow, winding stairs into one of the
     castle towers. He’d just finished removing his kilt when she peered down at him through
     a broken part of the wall.
    He smiled to see her head poking out of the broken structure as if the hole in the
     wall was a new window, her gaze perusing his naked form, her eyes catching his as
     he observed her reaction. If she was in her human form, would she be blushing again?
    He willed his wolf half to take over. His muscles stretched, the tendons and ligaments
     warming as he called upon the change. Shifting felt like getting a gentle workout,
     but before the shifter had a chance to really experience the warming sensation, he
     or she was standing as a wolf, a genetic necessity to prevent humans from seeing them
     during the shift. If anyone observed the change, hopefully they would see a blurring
     of forms as if their eyes were playing tricks on them.
    Now he was fully clothed in wolf fur, kneading the ground with his paws and stretching
     his legs before he raced to join her. Watching her explore the castle ruins and seeing
     her enthusiasm about running as a wolf made him feel a surge of lightheartedness,
     something he hadn’t felt since Calla decided to mate with Baird McKinley a month earlier.
    Sure, he had to see if his car was anywhere about. But with helping to run Argent
     Castle and the pack, he hadn’t taken much time for himself of late. If his clan could
     only see him now. Though he was always kidded for being the most easygoing of the
     brothers, this was something entirely new for him—putting aside a crisis to enjoy
     the company of a she-wolf, forgetting duty or the pack for the moment.
    He quickly joined her on the tower stairs. When she unexpectedly licked his face in
     greeting, he cast her a wolfish grin.
    She had to know her actions were considered part of the courtship phase between wolves.
     Werewolves might not date, but they definitely courted in their own way. He was all
     too ready to go along with it.
    She ran up the rest of the stairs, wagging her tail and stopping to sniff at a corner
     of the tower and then on the step before her while he nearly rammed his nose up her
     butt because of her sudden stops and starts.
    He could have laughed at the way she was so delighted to cast off her human form and
     play in her wolf one.
    Probably some of her enthusiasm was due to the long flight, confinement on the airplane,
     the drive here from Edinburgh, and now her first chance to really stretch her legs,
     like a wild