A Highland Werewolf Wedding by Terry Spear Page A

wolf released from a cage.
    After circling around the tower room, she wrinkled her nose at a hole in the floor
     where men would have urinated when they were on guard duty. Then she stood on her
     hind legs to look out a perfectly round window at the water, where whitecaps frothed
     over the tops of moss-covered boulders. She smelled the wind for the longest time,
     breathing in the scents, filling her lungs, letting out the air, and doing it again.
     While he was smelling her . The way she was so ecstatic, excited, loving it.
    She dropped to her paws, whipped around, and licked his cheek again. Before he could
     lick her back, she raced down the circular stairs until she reached the bottom as
     he flew down the steps after her.
    She circumnavigated the inner courtyard, her thick fur coat protecting her from the
     chilly light rain. She poked her nose at the water-filled well, which had large, leafy
     plants floating on the surface as the rain splattered into the well. Then she dashed
     into the cellar, smelled the ovens where bread used to bake, the storage area where
     meat and grain had been stored, and then ran up the stairs to the baron and baroness’s
     chambers, where the roof was long gone. She sniffed around, then headed back out again.
     Exploring the chapel in the same excited way, she smelled the scents that had collected
     over the years, none of which humans who were purely humans could detect.
    Staying close, he took delight in seeing her joy. He realized then how easily Elaine
     had made him forget his mission, his anger at the McKinleys and the Kilpatricks, showing
     him how important life’s little pleasures were.
    She headed for the tunnel that led out of the inner bailey and raced down the one
     hundred and fifty stairs cut into the cliff like she was possessed. She was sure-footed
     despite her rushing because of the fur on her pads, just like when he could run on
     ice without slipping. He had to laugh deep inside as he easily kept up with her. He
     trailed just behind her, watching the upper stairs that led down, then looking up
     to the castle tunnel, to ensure that no one was coming or might see them.
    No one was out in this weather.
    Then she leaped the short distance to the beach and ran to the water’s edge, snapping
     at the churned-up surf smashing against boulders. Whitecaps danced across small waves,
     as the wind blew his and Elaine’s fur. The water was too stirred up for boats to be
     out in this weather.
    She glanced out across the loch, then loped along the edge of the water, looking all
     along the beach and up at the cliffs.
    The rain hadn’t started pouring again, though as dark as the sky was, it looked like
     it might any minute. The outer guard hairs on Elaine’s and Cearnach’s thick coats
     repelled the water, keeping the downy, soft fur close to their skin dry and warm from
     the bitter cold wind.
    She stopped to observe the castle, looking at it in awe and with reverence. The massive
     stone structure truly was a sight to behold. Anyone who had wanted to storm the castle
     must have had a death wish.
    His own kin had put a few holes in the walls back in the early days just to make a
     statement concerning the Kilpatricks’ thieving ways.
    He stood beside her, listening to her heart pounding and the way she was panting and
     resting for a bit. He was damned angry about his car, but all he could think of was
     escorting one beautiful she-wolf out to dinner later tonight. Thinking in that direction
     was strange because he was always business first, pleasure second.
    He nudged at her to join him and they continued searching away from the castle, around
     a bend in the cliffs so they couldn’t see the ruins any longer. That’s when he spied
     the debris straight ahead. The ragged remains of his minivan. His ire rose instantly.
    The van looked like a flattened aluminum can, resting on its top, tires sticking straight
     up in the air. Cearnach raced over to the vehicle,