“We shift and kill them as wolves.” Then the one man began stripping off his clothes and shifted.
The other followed his lead.
They entered the water, and the current carried them downstream. They didn’t fight it, and Coinneach suspected they would go where they thought he and Aisling had left the water. As soon as they were around the bend in the river, Coinneach dashed upstream in the direction where the men’s clothes and weapons were lying on the riverbank.
Aisling quickly followed him, and the two of them began to cross the river. This time, they were north of the location where the men’s clothes were so the currents carried them to the bank where they were.
Coinneach shifted and carried one man’s clothes into the deeper part of the water where they sank. After shifting, Aisling carried the men’s bows and quivers of arrows to the river and dumped them. They returned to shore and rushed to where the men’s remaining clothes and weapons were, then continued to submerge them in the river.
They swam quickly back to the shore as fast as they could, knowing the men would eventually reach the place where Aisling and he had left the river on the opposite bank, then follow their scent trail to the woods. They would realize that Aisling and Coinneach had been watching them when they shifted into their wolf forms to track down the couple.
Coinneach nudged Aisling to follow him. They raced toward his family’s home.
He didn’t think the men would be foolhardy enough to try to kill them there. But if they tried, they wouldn’t be successful.
He would have howled a warning to his family, but he didn’t want to alert the men. They were probably still crossing the river to reach their clothes and weapons. Coinneach would have loved to see the looks on their faces when they discovered they were missing.
When they were nearly to the farm, Coinneach and Aisling saw Tamhas and Nelly talking to each other in the meadow.
Coinneach headed straight for them to warn them of the trouble headed their way. Unless the men returned to the castle, giving up their quest.
Tamhas saw Coinneach and Aisling and furrowed his brow. He probably knew Coinneach and Aisling weren’t racing each other to the croft in fun.
Coinneach barked at them to return to the croft.
Tamhas took hold of Nelly’s hand and ran with her. Magnus was in the field and quickly glanced in their direction, realizing there was bound to be trouble.
Coinneach nudged Aisling ahead of them to the croft, while he protected Tamhas and Nelly. But Aisling stayed with them, and he knew she meant to fight the wolves if they reached them and attacked.
Coinneach looked back, thinking he’d seen something in the tall grasses. Sure enough, the two wolves were trying to reachthem before they could seek shelter in the croft. Coinneach and his companions had been moving more slowly because his brother and Nelly were running as humans.
Tamhas made Nelly go inside the croft. Their da was armed with a pitchfork. Tamhas had his swords. But Nelly came out with Aisling’s bow and arrows.
Aisling ran inside the croft and came out dressed in one of his mother’s kirtles. Aisling took the bow and quiver of arrows from Nelly. “Go inside, now.”
“What is happening?” Nelly asked.
“Someone has sent hunters to kill us,” Aisling said.
Coinneach waited as a wolf, intending to kill at least one of the wolves in that way.
“Who?” their da asked.
“Two of the men who work in the stables. They’re running as wolves now. We got rid of their clothes, bows, and other weapons in the river,” Aisling said. She readied her bow and aimed for the movement in the tall grass. Then she released an arrow, and a wolf cried out.
Coinneach raced forward, intending to take down the other wolf. Tamhas and his da were right behind him, though they couldn’t keep up as humans with his swift wolf speed.
Even Aisling was running behind them, trying to catch up to them. Coinneach knew she would stop and try to use her arrows on one of the two wolves, which was an excellent way for her to keep her distance and still take down a wolf or two.
Sure enough, before Coinneach clashed with the bigger of the two wolves, an arrow slid through the air and hit the wolf in the shoulder. Now, both wolves wore one of her arrows as Coinneach tackled the larger wolf—their mouths biting at each other, drawing blood.
The other wolf lunged at Coinneach, but Aisling shot him in the flank. Then Tamhas reached the smaller wolf and struck hisshoulder with his sword. The wolf howled in pain. He whipped around to attack Tamhas, but his father plunged his pitchfork into the wolf’s neck, and the wolf went down. The dead wolf shifted into his human form.
Aware that the other wolf was dead, Coinneach was still fighting the larger wolf. He tried to grab the wolf’s neck, but the wolf leapt out of the way. Their da jabbed at the wolf, but Coinneach jumped at him, determined to keep him from attacking his da.
Aisling was closer now and readied an arrow, but as viciously as Coinneach attacked the wolf, Aisling couldn’t get a clear shot.
Likewise, his da and brother couldn’t attack him either.
