The Druid Chronicles: Mystical Historical Romance

by Christina Phillips

  Today, that small band of Celtic warriors had paid the ultimate price.

  He jerked his horse around and prepared to head deeper into the forest. But fetid memories clawed through his soul and phantom screams of agony pierced his brain and shredded his heart. Mercy begged for and denied. Compassion trampled underfoot and the sour stench of spilled blood scorched his throat.

  Futile rage seared his veins and momentarily blinded his vision as the foul recollections scalded his reason. Within a moment he regained control, regained his senses, and against every logical, tactical instinct he urged his mount toward the others.

  The woman might be a warrior trained for battle, but he still couldn’t stomach the thought of her being brutalized before butchered.

  So engrossed in humiliating their victim, not one of the scouts turned at his approach. A cursory glance disproved his earlier supposition, and a fresh wave of disgust roiled through his blood.

  These Celts were no warriors. They were traders.

  Dead traders.

  Bren dismounted and shoved the nearest man from his path.

  “Dunmacos,” the man said, using the hated name Bren had appropriated three torturous years ago. “Just in time for a turn with the Cambrian whore.”

  “After me,” Trogus grunted, as he hunched over the partially naked woman. “Turn over, bitch, or I’ll fuck your arse instead.”

  She wasn’t crying in fear, or begging for mercy. She was so silent for a moment Bren thought her already dead. Until he saw her fingers curl around the handle of her dagger.

  He thrust Trogus aside, dropped to his knees and gripped her wrist in a bone-crushing vise. If she used her weapon on the other man there would be no saving her. Instantly her face lifted from the dirt, and infuriated, dark eyes flashed at him.

  Something hard punched through his chest, as if he’d just ridden full pelt into a stone turret. Even covered in filth and blood the woman’s strong Celtic beauty glowed through, condemning him for daring to touch her. For denying her the satisfaction of using her dagger.

  “Get out the fucking way, Dunmacos.” Trogus gave the woman’s thigh a brutal kick, and she winced but still didn’t make a sound. Her eyes never left Bren’s. “You can go next, if I leave anything worth having.”

  He didn’t loosen his grip on her wrist. She didn’t loosen her hold on her dagger.

  “No.” He didn’t bother looking up at Trogus. “I claim this one. And in return I won’t advise the praefectus you attacked and murdered a group of traders.” Only then did he glance up and catch the furious gleam in Trogus’ lust-glazed eyes. “I never came across you.”

  Trogus hissed between clenched teeth, but there was nothing to discuss. Bren outranked him. Outranked all of the exploratores here. And that wasn’t all. The praefectus of their auxiliary unit trusted him implicitly.

  As much as any Roman would trust a foreigner.

  “Take her, then.” Trogus spat on the ground and looked as if he’d like to kick her again. Instead he flung Bren a smoldering glare as if something had just occurred to him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Dispatches. I’ll take the woman to warm my bed at nights.”

  “She’ll butcher you in your sleep.” The sneer Trogus arrowed his way suggested he’d very much like to witness such an occurrence. “We’ll take the goods as compensation. Unless you have any objection, Dunmacos?” It was a covert threat. Any other time Bren would have risen to the challenge but right now another challenge glared at him from the ground.

  Not that he’d let Trogus get away with such insolence entirely. “Take all but the woman’s personal items. I don’t want to have to purchase another gown for her.”

  As the scouting party rifled through the traders’ packs, Bren leaned toward the woman and spoke in the local dialect.

  “Drop your dagger.”

  Beneath his fingers he felt her grip tighten, although he knew the pressure he exerted around her wrist was close to shattering bones. But she made no other movement, as if realizing that, for the moment, her best chance of unmolested survival was by lying low and remaining still.

  Within moments, the exploratores had claimed their spoils and were leading the riderless horses away, back to the garrison. With little effort he rolled the woman onto her back, holding her wrists above her head. It would be easy to break a bone, give her no choice but to abandon her dagger. How much more satisfying, though, should she decide to discard it of her own free will . . .

  “Drop your weapon, and I give you my word you’ll remain unharmed.”

  Her lips parted. Full, luscious. Inviting. Without warning, his cock pulsed, a sharp reminder of how long it had been since he’d taken a woman, how long it had been since he’d even enjoyed solitary relief.

  “Roman coward.” Her voice was breathless, her Latin accented but clearly educated. Enticing tendrils of luxuriant black hair escaped her braid and framed her dirt- and blood-smeared face. “Your word means nothing to me.”

  “I’m no Roman.” He answered her in the same language and kneed her thighs apart, bracing his weight on forearms and knees, trying yet failing to smother his unwelcome arousal. Gods, he wanted her. The contemptible need pounded through his arteries, vibrated against his temples. “I’m from Gaul.”

  Her lips curled back, exposing white, unbroken teeth. “Then you’re worse. A spineless mercenary for their gutless Emperor.”

  For a moment Morwyn thought she’d pushed him too far. His eyes, an extraordinary shade that reminded her of new leaves unfurling, glinted with danger and his fingers tightened around her tender wrists.

  But she wanted to push him too far. Wanted him to lose control, just for an instant, so she could plunge her dagger into his heart and escape this ignoble fate.

  Instead, his odious erection brushed against her and she tensed, waiting for the inevitable attack, waiting for a scalding surge of revulsion to flood her captured flesh. But he made no further move to mortify her, his gaze roaming over her face as if he were memorizing every tiny detail.

  Her terror ebbed and it made no sense. Like the others who had attacked her he was her sworn enemy. A man intent on rape and humiliation. Yet he held her only to prevent her from inflicting a deadly injury.

  “Be wary.” His breath singed her lips but it wasn’t foul, wasn’t repulsive. “Such careless words can be mistaken for treason.”

  His green eyes scorched her. His muscular body pinned her helplessly against the undergrowth of the forest floor. A desperate, despicable part of her longed to feel the hardness of male strength thrust deep inside as he took her violently, mindlessly, so she could forget, for a few fleeting moments, everything but exquisite physical pleasure.

  But she had sworn never to take another man again. Never again worship the goddess who had manipulated her loyalty, betrayed her trust and scorned her love.

  The Morrigan could suffer her abstinence. Morwyn would honor her vow of celibacy, the vow she’d made the night her entire world had shattered.

  “I would never betray my people. Your Emperor doesn’t have my loyalty.”

  He closed the small distance between them, broad chest flattening her sensitive breasts and aching nipples, his chain mail serving only to accentuate every ragged breath he took.

  “Who are you, Celt?” There was command in the question and a spark of warning pierced through her tangled thoughts.

  She would succumb to no man. Would never bow before the invaders of her land. But if this Gallic bastard, a mercenary for Rome, didn’t mean to kill her outright, there was chance for escape.

  A chance that would vanish instantly should he discover her true origins.

  The Emperor hated Druids, afraid of the spiritual power they held over their people. Since that night, a full turn of the wheel ago, when the great goddess, the Morrigan, and Arawn, the lord of the Otherworld—when all their gods— had deserted them and they had fled to the Isle of Mon, his hatred had grown. Fractured reports had reached them of the mer
ciless slayings. That was why when she and the others left Mon they hid their Druidry and disguised themselves as traders.

  Such subterfuge hadn’t saved the lives of Einion, Drustan or Morcant. But it might possibly extend hers.

  “You know what I am.”

  Silence, as if he contemplated her words. “Traders.” He paused and raked his eyes over her face. She held her breath, willing her pulses to slow, but if anything, they hammered more rapidly than before. Then he glanced above her head, at the exquisitely crafted gold bracelets that adorned her wrists. She hoped he had no idea of their true value. No trader could afford to wear such riches. Why did I insist on wearing them? “From where?”

  She flexed numb fingers around her dagger, then gripped it more securely when she felt his hold upon her wrist momentarily lighten. Her limbs were deadening but if he gave her the slenderest of opportunities, she wouldn’t hesitate to slash open his throat.

  “Why? So you can send your band of Gallic mercenaries to slaughter more innocents?”

  “No. So I can verify your words.”

  If she directed him to a nearby village, would he truly spend time discovering if she spoke the truth or not? She doubted it. He was delivering dispatches for the military. He’d told the filthy dogs who’d ambushed her he intended to use her to warm his bed during the journey.

  And he was alone. No, he wouldn’t waste time verifying her word when her word was of no account, when all he saw when he looked at her was a woman he could use for sexual satisfaction.

  “Two days’ ride west. I’ll tell you no more than that.”

  His eyes narrowed as if he didn’t believe her. “And where were you heading?”

  Her gaze didn’t waver. “To the new Roman fortification. The civilian settlement is always hungry for our goods.”

  From somewhere deeper in the forest a wood warbler’s shivering song shattered the taut silence. Before she realized his intention his forearm pinned hers securely to the ground, bringing the length of his body against hers. Heavy, masculine. How long had it been since she’d been crushed beneath a man, since she’d been held, touched, wanted?

  The grip around her wrist increased beyond endurance but still she held on, despite the stabbing pains, despite the way her vision flickered. He’d have to kill her before she relinquished the only weapon she possessed.

  With his free hand he prized her deadened fingers from the hilt of her dagger and she could do nothing to stop him. His body enslaved her from ankles to thighs, hips to breasts, and now that he gripped her dagger, he released her throbbing wrist.

  She panted into his dark, foreign face. A face that wasn’t Roman, but beneath his helmet he had the hated Roman military hair. Short, stark. Nothing to grip in lust or fury.

  “What are you waiting for?” She flung the words at him in her own language. “Take me and have done with it.”

  Rape was abhorrent to her people. To their gods. And especially to the Morrigan. She’d endure his assault because there was nothing else she could do, but it would mean nothing. It wouldn’t touch her. Wouldn’t break her.

  And by the sacred blood of all her ancestors, she’d find a way to slaughter him afterward.

  For a long moment their eyes clashed. His cock seared her, despite the barrier of his tunic and her ruined gown before he raised himself onto his hands, his groin still melded with hers.

  Curse her despised gods, but how she would relish plunging her dagger into him, castrating him before ending his miserable, misbegotten existence.

  He rolled off her, kneeled beside her and contemplated her as if she were his own personal property. She refused to smooth down her crumpled gown or wipe her hair and filth from her face. Let him look long and hard at how his compatriots had mistreated her.

  “I’ve no intention of taking you in the open forest, Celt, where anyone could stumble upon us.” He raked his glance over her and she gritted her teeth. “I’ll wait until you beg me.”

  Chapter 2

  Ignoring the bone-deep ache in her wrist, she pushed herself upright. Beg him? She would sooner tear out her tongue than ever admit such a treacherous desire.

  “Since you have no use for me”—and the way his cock had burned her proved how much of a lie that was—“then let me go.”

  He stood up. She had to crane her neck to maintain eye contact but it was all she could do for the moment. She didn’t yet trust her legs to support her. She’d rather remain seated on the ground than stumble to her knees before him.

  “Let you go?” He appeared to contemplate her words. “Alone, in occupied territory? I don’t think so.”

  Air hissed between her teeth. “I can take care of myself.”

  He didn’t reply. He didn’t have to. The disbelieving glance said enough.

  She flexed her fingers, blocking the pain of her abused wrist. She was so close to the heart of Caratacus’ resistance. She could feel the call of freedom vibrating in the air, enticing her, if only she could find the right path.

  And this Gaul intended to drag her with him to—wherever his cursed duty took him.

  Without warning he hunkered before her and she glowered into his face, ignoring without success the harsh line of his jaw and high, aristocratic cheekbones. In another lifetime, before the Romans had invaded Cymru, she might have looked twice at this warrior. Might have invited him into her bed and enjoyed his charms and battle-hard body.

  But now he was a creature of Rome. And no matter how she ached for fulfillment she would never lower herself so irredeemably as to slake her need with one such as this.

  Because I have no intention of ever slaking such need again.

  Of course she hadn’t. She had made a vow; she would honor that vow. It was no hardship. She was simply disorientated by the attack and this Gaul’s unexpected denial of his base urges.

  His arrogance.

  Yes, his arrogance. To assume she would ever beg for his touch. Crave his possession.

  “I don’t have time to return you to your village.” His voice punched her back to the present. “Or escort you to the garrison. And I won’t leave you here at the mercy of any passing legionary.”

  “It wasn’t a legionary who murdered my fellow Dru— traders.”

  Heat flared through her at her error but he appeared unaware she had almost given herself away.

  “No. But on your own and in your current state, you’re fair game for any man wanting a rut.”

  She staggered to her feet, ropes of fire searing her thigh where the other filthy auxiliary had kicked her. “And you don’t want to rut?”

  He stood also and deliberately examined her dagger, as if it held great interest to him, before sheathing it beneath his chain mail. “I’m not that desperate.”

  Not that desperate? Pride snaked through her, stiffening her spine, momentarily obliterating the burning pain in her thigh and the throbbing ache of her ribs.

  “Then you have no reason to encumber yourself with my presence. I’ll return to my village and relay the bloody murder of my countrymen.”

  He shrugged as if he no longer wished to discuss the matter. “You’re coming with me whatever your personal thoughts on the matter. You have no horse, you can barely stand and, in case it’s escaped your notice, you no longer have any weapons.”

  No horse? She glanced wildly around, but the only mount nearby was the cursed Gaul’s.

  Her heart thudded against her bruised ribs, every beat an agony of pain and indecision. He was right. She could barely stand. There was no chance she could walk for any distance, certainly not back to Mon.

  But she couldn’t go with him. It was tantamount to accepting his authority, to accepting she’d been enslaved.

  His calloused fingers grazed her naked shoulder, where her gown had been torn from her, and she jerked back. She didn’t want his touch. Couldn’t take his touch. Not when a part of her wanted nothing more than his cursed touch.

  The Gaul’s jaw tightened as if he took offence at her resp
onse. “Get changed.” His voice was harsh. “Your things are there.” He jerked his head to her pack, which had been ripped open and the contents strewn across the forest floor.

  Next to the broken body of Drustan.

  Her stomach twisted and regret speared through her heart. It was her fault he was dead. Her fault they were all dead. If she hadn’t been so determined to seek out Caratacus and avenge Gawain, they would all still be safe on the Isle of Mon.

  Safe. Hiding from the enemy once again. The way they had hidden from the enemy before.

  The way she’d vowed she would never hide again.

  Swallowing the bitter taste of defeat, she hobbled toward the scattered items. She hoped they’d left her medicine bag intact. If she was going to escape, she needed to deaden the agony in her leg and the multitude of other aches and pains flaring across every particle of her body.

  And slip something into the Gaul’s waterskin. Something to incapacitate him so she could take his horse, equip herself with weapons and find the rebels.

  With a smothered groan she sank to her knees and began to gather her things. She heard the Gaul mutter an oath and stamp toward her. “Here.” He thrust one of her gowns into her arms. “You’ll have to forgo tending your wounds until we stop for the night.”

  Instantly she became aware of her exposed back, and heat rushed through her at the way she’d allowed him unfettered access to gloat over her battered flesh. She slung him a resentful glare but he missed it because he was snatching up her possessions from the ground as if they were a personal affront to his existence.

  For a fleeting moment an odd warmth wormed through her sore heart at his apparent thoughtfulness. And then reality returned.

  He wanted to hurry her along. So he could start his journey.

  She shuffled around so her back faced him and gingerly tugged the ruined gown from her shoulders before pulling the new one over her head. Curse the gods, her limbs were stiffening at an alarming rate. She’d have to poison him quickly, before they even left this forest, so she could find safety to rest before fatigue overwhelmed her.