“I planned to secure as much of my inheritance from my parents’ estate as I could and then flee the city.” She looked down at the table. “Pirates attacked our ship.” She glanced up at Cearnach, eyes narrowed, and gave a little snort of derision. “Imagine that. Sailing on the high seas wasn’t safe at all. Worse, the ship was one of Rafferty’s.

“He wasn’t the captain of the vessel, but one of his men recognized me, which was probably good since some of his men were ready to treat me as fair game. He locked me in the captain’s cabin to keep me safe so I wouldn’t be spoiled goods. They returned home with all haste. You see, I was the biggest treasure of all. They didn’t want to anger Rafferty if they should somehow lose me before they could turn me over to him.”

Cearnach clenched his hand around his fork, afraid of where this was headed and not liking it one bit.

“My parents maintained a manor home, a couple of lodging houses, and three ships. When Kelly forcibly took me as his mate, he owned all of it.”

Cearnach growled low, wanting to kill the bastard.

“He’d actually been in competition with my family for years before that. So mating with me was strictly a business arrangement. He possessed me and everything I could bring to the relationship. I was the perfectly reticent mate, waiting for his return each time he went out on a voyage.”

“I have a difficult time imagining you being reticent,” Cearnach said, stabbing a chunk of potato and wishing he could have protected her so long ago.

She humphed. “I prayed he’d perish every time he went out to sea. Rafferty had bodyguards, werewolves who were completely dedicated to him and who would have died before they let anything happen to me, including allowing me to escape. Not that I didn’t try. When he returned home, his men told him that I had tried to run away, and Rafferty beat me for it. No one raised a hand to stop him. It was his right to do with me as was his will. He would have done the same to any of his men, had they gotten out of line. Or he would have done worse.”

“He better be dead,” Cearnach growled.

She nodded and suddenly looked even wearier as she sank down in her chair.

He noticed the dark shadows beneath her eyes, but he had to know more before they retired for the night. He still hoped she’d eat some of the stew.

“Did you have children?” He could hardly bear the thought of the pig lifting her skirts and rutting into her like some wild animal. Cearnach was certain, given her description of the man, that he couldn’t have cared about pleasuring her.

“No. I protected myself. I didn’t want children who would be treated as harshly as I was. Nor did I want to bear any males who might have been forced to become pirates. Not having any children emasculated him in front of his men. He couldn’t produce one child. He blamed it on me, and rightly so. I won’t deny I took evil pleasure in knowing he worried about his own manhood.”

Rafferty’s distress over his inability to procreate wasn’t enough to compensate for what Elaine had experienced at his hands, Cearnach thought.

“What happened to him?”

“As privateers, my uncles had some honor. Maybe not a whole lot, but they believed in part they were justified. Not Kelly. He never served as a privateer. All that he stole, he kept for himself, except for the proceeds he had to share with his men. On an earlier voyage, he cheated his men out of their share of the loot. When he went out on the next one, he didn’t come home.

“His men said the quartermaster, Terrance, killed him in a squabble over his share of the loot. He was supposed to have received twice the usual share, like the captain, for seeing that his orders were carried out and managing the day-to-day operations of the ship, administering punishments, and dividing up the loot. The crew threw Terrance overboard to make him pay for murdering the captain. They gave Kelly a burial at sea. I envisioned the captain and his quartermaster floating there together as their ship sailed away. A perfect end to their despicable lives.”

She took a long breath. “I don’t believe it happened that way. One of his men had overheard Kelly and Terrance speaking in the library of my parents’ home about cheating the crew when the two men had had too much whisky to drink, celebrating their return and the loot they’d stolen. Before their next voyage, which was to be their last, the word must have spread among his crew and the men mutinied. That’s loyalty among thieves for you.”

Cearnach didn’t care how the bastard had died as long as he was dead. “What happened to you?”

She shrugged as if it didn’t matter. Deep down he knew it did. Everything that had gone on in her life had made an impact of one kind or another.

“The men figured I was part of the spoils. Probably payment for what Rafferty hadn’t given them, even though they had his ships. They didn’t know what a fighter I had become. Only two of them were guarding me the afternoon they received word that Rafferty was dead and one of the men had taken over as captain of his ship. They didn’t expect me to shift and use my teeth.

“After I’d dealt with them, I sold the properties and moved. Robert Kilpatrick finally found me, saying he’d been contacted by a solicitor in Scotland concerning some correspondence that had to do with our family. The lawyer was reviewing old records and needed to locate me.

“My uncles had mentioned the goods and where they were hidden in a roundabout way, in case anything ever happened to them. They didn’t give me sufficient information to know what the treasure was or where it was kept. For two years, Robert had tried to locate me to see if I knew anything about where the treasure was hidden, or if I at least had the other half of the puzzle.”

She offered Cearnach a wicked smile. “He tried to learn what information I might have without giving up the fact that he knew something of the matter. If he’d gotten the rest of the clues from me, I wouldn’t be here today. I had the impression that his kin knew nothing about what he had discovered. That he was keeping the treasure secret from them so he could have the spoils and not have to share them with the others. Especially when he planned to meet me at the castle ruins two hours before Calla’s wedding. I assumed he didn’t want the McKinleys to know what he was up to. Or maybe even his own brother.”

Cearnach could see Kilpatrick doing that. “If you hadn’t come to Scotland, that would have been my great loss.” He couldn’t imagine not having met her again today. He would never return to Senton Castle’s ruins without remembering how she had looked there earlier this afternoon, first as a human, observing the castle with such awe and reverence, then exploring it like a wolf—eager, excited, loving it.

Elaine turned to him. “So, all I have to do is mate you, and we can go on a treasure hunt. For your peace of mind, I’m not mating you. You can let your mother know that, too.”

He loved her pragmatism and fighting spirit. He also saw the challenge in her eyes. He was certain she was waiting for him to contradict her, to say he wanted her. She had to know he did. That he recognized she wanted him also.

He cast her a predatory grin, tilted his chin down, and reached under the table to take her hand from where it was resting in her lap. Her gaze latched on to his, and he knew she could see the desire he had for her as plain as he could see the interest in hers. “We’ll see about that.”

He was named “victorious” for a reason. He was often victorious in anything he set his mind to accomplish. And he was determined to have her.

He released her hand and finished his stew.

“All these years, you’ve never been mated?” Cearnach asked, not believing Kelly Rafferty could have been the only one she’d mated with.

“Oh, sure, several times… nearly.”

The inference that she’d been mated several times got to him, until she clarified with nearly. As beautiful and fun to be with as she was, he wasn’t surprised she could have been mated many times over, although hearing it bothered him deep down. He couldn’t fathom why any wolf wouldn’t have followed through.

She took a deep breath, then said brightly, her tone incongruent with her body posture, “A lot of wolves took interest in me over the years. They just always vanished before anything could come of the relationship.”

“That’s hard to believe.” He meant it. Why would any of them show interest and then quit the relationship? Not when she was as intriguing as she was.

She smiled a sad kind of smile. “Maybe so, but it’s true. I began to believe I could easily attract attention, but no one was interested in mating me for a lifetime.”

That’s why she thought he couldn’t want her? Because the others had skipped out on her?

Why would they change their minds overnight like that? He pondered that for a moment more, then a realization dawned. “They were betas.”

“How… did you know?”

“No alpha who wanted you would vanish without making you his. So they had to be betas, unsure whether being mated to an alpha would work out. Why your interest in betas? You need an alpha.”

Like me, he wanted to say.

She gave him a ghost of a smile. “An alpha would have been like Kelly Rafferty—in charge, beating me when I didn’t do as he wished, in control of my money.” She gave a half shrug. “I didn’t need a mate for that.”

Cearnach clenched his fists and wanted to kill the wolf himself for hurting Elaine. “You’re certain he’s dead?”

Though the point was moot. No alpha who had taken her to mate would have left her alone all these years. Not one as controlling as Rafferty had been.

He would change her mind. Not all alpha males were like that bastard.

“Yes, he’s dead. His men wouldn’t have come for me if he hadn’t been dead. They’d know he would have killed them.”

She looked so tired, her eyelids drooping, the swelling and bruising on her face from where Vardon had hit her making her look all the more done in. Cearnach took her hand again and rubbed his thumb over her soft skin. “We can talk more tomorrow. Did you want to eat any of the stew?”