“I set up two tents while you were gone, Madison.” Julie snapped her fingers, implying she must have used magic to do so. “But, I can erect a third if you would prefer sleeping alone.”
“Of course I prefer sleeping alone,” she exclaimed, surprised by Julie’s presumption. Did she think she’d end up in Ethyn’s tent? Worse yet, Cray’s?
Unfortunately, even as she thought it, she knew precisely which tent she would get in trouble in despite her best intentions.
“Okay, no worries.” Julie chuckled and shook her head, manifesting a third tent between the first two with a chant. “I only mentioned it because you’re newly arrived, and it can get pretty spooky out here.”
No more spooky than having already seen and spoken with a literal ghost. But she appreciated her friend’s concern.
“I’ll be all right,” she assured, somewhat surprised by her own bravery.
Sleeping alone out in the middle of medieval woods surrounded by massive wolves and rogue miscreants would have frightened her before all this started. But now she felt changed somehow, either because of her dragon or maybe even her ring. It was hard to know. Because honestly, at the very least, she should be a little shell shocked after watching five men get killed right in front of her. Two of them beheaded no less.
But no, if anything, as she lay in her tent a little while later, she found herself replaying what had happened if for no other reason than to watch Cray in action again. She’d never felt such a mixture of fear and excitement. There had been a certain thrill in watching him battle. An unexpected rush. Which was telling because she wasn't the type to experience a rush about much of anything. But then as a general rule, she didn’t surround herself with too much excitement.
“You should not be sleeping alone,” Cray eventually grumbled into her mind. “’Tis too dangerous.”
They both knew that wasn’t true.
The danger lay in her being by his side. Being too close to him.
She had wondered when he would reach out to her again and was surprised to find she was glad when he finally did. Even more relieved when she heard him sneak into his tent earlier, thinking himself stealthy. He might be especially light on his feet, but she suspected she would hear him from a mile away.
Sense him.
Despite herself, she was glad he was back amongst the living again. She worried about his inherent need to separate himself from others. Something she knew he had not always done. She understood why he did now, though. How difficult it was for him to remain civil with others when he had so much pain churning inside him. He lived in a constant state of unrest, often vulnerable to a foul mood he feared taking out on others in a way he couldn’t control.
With good reason considering what had happened between them in the woods.
She had seen the fresh rage in his eyes before Phelan intercepted him. The unchecked fury that he barely kept at bay. It wasn’t just his inner dragon either but his human half. Between what had happened to him with Maeve and Aidan then Maeve’s sickness and pregnancy, he carried around a lot he’d yet to let go of.
When she didn’t reply to Cray’s voice in her mind, not quite sure what she wanted to say, he continued, surprising her yet again with what he was willing to let happen.
“If you willnae lie in my tent,” he muttered, “you should lie in Ethyn’s.” Then, because he likely couldn’t help himself. “Not too close to him, though. Not until...” she sensed he was going to say his typical ‘I have you first,’ but instead said, “not until you are more comfortable with him.”
She frowned, shocked by his statement yet, at the same time, understanding what he was doing. He wanted her but decided her knowing his secrets, or perhaps even how those secrets had made him feel all over again, was too much. He was pushing her away to keep himself safe. Or at least that’s how he saw it.
“I’m staying right where I am,” she finally replied. “I’ll be fine.”
Though she sensed how unsettled that made him, he said nothing more.
So, at last, knowing he was safely back, she finally dozed off.
Dreams came and went, mostly of the Machrie Moor Stonehenge and the Irish Stonehenge. Sometimes they were steeped in fog, other times engulfed in flames, yet always the count bothered her. Why did five stones become nine, and which friend betrayed them?
“Because one definitely did,” she whispered, once again at the Irish Stonehenge.
This time, however, she looked down on it from a substantial height.
She blinked and tried to wiggle her fingers only to realize they were talons. Where she thought for sure fear would roar up inside her, instead she felt joy as she looked from wing to wing.
Until she realized they were bound, and she couldn’t spread them.
Rather than panic, rage filled her as she peered down at the stones once more. She narrowed her eyes, swearing she saw the flicker of a wolf’s body racing through the fog. Phelan? She wanted to lower her head and look closer, but she couldn’t. Suddenly, a loud keen rent the air and fear washed over her.
Not for herself but for her mate.
He knew she was in trouble.
“No,” she cried, her voice an animalistic whimper, her words another language. “Stay away!”
Yet he wasn’t listening.
He would not listen.
She felt it deep down as his keens and roars of rage grew closer.
Bindings or no, they had her. She had made sure of that. And they would have him too if she allowed it. If she let him come to her. If she let him walk into their trap.
Desperate, finding more strength than she knew she had, she struggled until she broke free. She knew what she had to do. How to keep him safe. She started flying, desperate to get to them before he got to her.
Terror filled her as she sensed him drawing closer.
Time was running out.
So she pumped her wings harder, all the while chanting, hoping this would work. Hoping she would make it in time. Desperate in her fear. Panicked as she somehow tripped on thin air and fell before she pumped her wings even harder and jolted awake.
Only to find herself in a nightmare a thousand times worse.
Chapter Fourteen
HE BOLTED AWAKE when Madison scrambled out of her tent, tripped over him then unbelievably enough, shifted right then and there. Though tempted to gawk at her exceptionally beautiful, lithe blue-black dragon, he sensed her inner terror, so he came to his feet slowly.
“’Tis all right, lass,” he spoke into her mind, staying very calm. Trying to soothe her despite his inner dragon’s excitement. “Dinnae be frightened. ‘Tis just your other half finally coming out to say hello.”
He shook his head and made a gesture to stay put when the others poked their heads out of their tents, discombobulated at first, then in sheer awe of her. Best that they stay where they were and made no sudden movements. They couldn’t have her roar or, even worse, take flight.
She blinked several times, her haunches shaking she was so terrified.
“Just speak to me within the mind like you usually do, Madison.” Ever-so-slowly, he set down the blade he had grabbed when she woke him. “I will hear you if you but speak to me.”
“I can’t,” she whimpered into his mind, flexing her wings awkwardly, jerking when they got caught in tree branches. Her stunning, almost metallic blue-gray eyes narrowed on him as if seeking comfort. Understanding.
He did his best to keep his emotions under control at the sound of her dragon’s inner voice. It was the sweetest thing he’d ever heard, calling to him in a way that made all his nerve endings come alive. She needed him calm right now, though. In control. Letting her know she was all right. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
“You can and did just speak to me,” he replied gently, considering the best way to go about this. “Now, you need to relax and let me approach you, lass.”
“Relax.” The irises of her eyes flared with distress. “How am I supposed to rel
ax when I don’t understand what’s going on! When I’m trapped like this!”
“I promise you are not trapped.” He approached her very slowly, very carefully. What he wouldn’t give to embrace his own inner dragon right now. To help her through this in a form her dragon could better relate with. To see her through his actual dragon eyes. “You are but embracing your other form for the first time.” He shook his head. “’Twill not be permanent.”
“How do you know?” Her head jerked as if she were trying to shake it. “I don’t know how I ended up like this, so how am I supposed to switch back?”
When her strong body kept trembling, he wished he could wrap his wings around her. That he could soothe her as she should be soothed. Instead, taking a big chance but unable to stop himself, he got close enough to at last rest his hand on her haunch.
While doing such could have very well startled her dragon and caused it to flail, it instead calmed almost instantly, and her trembling began subsiding. He closed his eyes briefly to the feel of her cool scales beneath his fingers. Interestingly, though harder, they were as silky smooth as her hair.
“I feel you,” she whispered. Her inner voice was a mixture of her human and dragon as she lowered her head and peered at him. He knew she wasn’t referring to his actual hand touching her but a connection he hadn’t anticipated though probably should have.
Her inner dragon was reaching out to his.
And his was reaching back.
That was the only way to describe it. As though, despite being repressed, she was a lifeline in its dark abyss, pulling him to her. While his human side was tempted to pull away, not wanting to suffer this kind of closeness with a woman again, his dragon would not allow it.
Her dragon would not allow it.
But then, just as fast as her dragon pulled him to her, it pushed him away.
Not literally but by shifting her back before their dragons could connect any further. Luckily, he sensed how that would go ahead of time and shoved her behind him the instant she shifted. Not to say he didn’t get an eyeful of her stunning and very nude body first.
“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed.
He glared at Ethyn when his cousin didn’t retract back into his tent fast enough. Meanwhile, rather than chant Madison into clothing and risk magic inciting her dragon, Tiernan tossed Cray a fur blanket. He promptly wrapped it around her, keeping his eyes averted despite the overwhelming urge to look at her.
“’Tis all right, lass,” he assured, stating the obvious, praying his cock behaved. “You’re back to yourself again.”
When she didn’t respond, he finally met her eyes, only to find her curious gaze trained on him.
He frowned, hoping she truly was okay. “What is it, Madison?”
Realizing she was staring, she blinked a few times and shook her head. “I don’t know...” She wrapped the blanket more tightly around her shoulders, warming herself against the blustery morning wind. “That was just a lot and you...” She seemed to struggle to find the words. “I guess I didn’t expect all that from you.”
“’Twas just what needed to be done,” he replied, knowing it had been far more than that.
He was surprised she was more focused on him than the fact she had just shifted for the first time. But she was, her gaze softening on him in a way it never had before. She glanced from her tent to him.
“You were sleeping outside my tent, weren’t you?” she said softly. “Protecting me?” Before he could respond, she looked from the blanket to him. “Then, just now, when normally you wouldn’t have the decency to look away, you did.”
“You dinnae ken just how dangerous things are here,” he muttered, trying to seem unaffected by the way she looked at him. Trying to keep her at arm’s length at least for the moment. “And I did look before covering you.” He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “’Twould have been foolish not to.”
Where before that would have been the usual opening for her temper to flare and their bickering to begin, instead a knowing little smile hovered on her lips.
“Either way,” she murmured, “thank you, Cray.” She rested her hand on his forearm. “I can’t imagine what going through that would’ve been like if you hadn’t been here. If you didn’t calm my dragon like that...calm me like that.”
“’Twas all ye, lass.” His brogue thickened with his emotions. By the way her dragon had made his feel. “Ye did good for yer first shift. Verra courageous.”
She flinched. “I was no such thing, but thanks for your vote of confidence.”
“Everything good out there now?” Julie called. “Coast clear, or should we stay in our tents?”
“Just a sec, let me get into my tent,” Madison called back, shocking him when she dropped a kiss on his cheek in passing.
As soon as she vanished inside her tent, he let everyone know they could come out.
“Oh, my goodness, your dragon’s gorgeous,” Chloe gushed the minute Madison reappeared dressed in fresh clothing, thanks to the satchel her friends had provided the night before. “And your eyes are as amazing in that form as they are this one!”
Madison blushed, her uncertainty obvious despite her inner dragon preening with the compliment. “Thanks.”
Tiernan had gone off to hunt so they could break their fast before continuing to travel.
“So, what was it like?” Chloe asked, her eyes alight with curiosity. Whether she was told ahead of time or not, it was clear based on Madison’s reaction when she shifted, that it had been her first time.
“Terrifying,” Madison confessed, at last, sitting beside Cray rather than Ethyn. Her gaze flickered from him back to Chloe. “At least at first.”
“I can only imagine.” Chloe grinned knowingly at Cray before focusing on Madison again. “I’m so glad someone was here who could walk you through it. Make it a little less scary.”
“Me too,” Madison said softly. “I can’t imagine how it would have gone otherwise.” Her eyes met his. “I really am grateful for what you did, Cray.”
“’Twas nothing.” He waved it off though inwardly he was pleased he could be there for her. That he could help her through it.
“Oh, it was something.” Julie’s eyes were as knowing as Chloe’s when she looked between him and Madison. “The way her dragon calmed so quickly was amazing.”
Chloe nodded in agreement. “Truly touching.” Her astute gaze went to Madison’s finger. “And I see the ring didn’t budge an inch.”
“No, it didn’t.” Madison eyed it curiously. “Literally.”
When Julie cocked her head in question, Madison shrugged. “It wouldn’t stay straight on my finger before,” she explained. “Now, it does.”
While typically that wasn’t something of note, when it came to all that was going on, every little thing tended to matter. Julie glanced at her own ring. “Hmm, mine’s always been straight now that I think of it.”
“Mine too.” Chloe frowned. “So, is this important?”
“It might be.” Julie sighed. “But not as important right now as getting to the bottom of what we learned last night about there being an imposter amongst us Brouns.”
It was clear they had been discussing it when he and Madison were tromping about in the forest.
“I seem to recall less tromping and more kissing,” Madison murmured into his mind, surprising him that she even brought it up. “Which means we’re free to get to know each other now.”
She had him there. In truth, as he had felt before, he wasn’t as opposed to it as he’d imagined he would be. Now that she’d embraced her dragon and they had connected in a way he couldn’t quite figure out yet, he felt even more drawn to her. Not just sexually, but more somehow. While he knew the Claddagh ring was at work, it had more to do with their dragons. With their obvious connection.
A connection he sensed there would be no turning away from, and it terrified him. He might know now that Maeve had been under a spell when she turned from him, but that didn�
��t erase the inherent fear of loving that deeply again and being rejected. Nor did it dispel the risk of loving someone so much only to lose them.
So he would keep things as they were for now until he had no choice.
He realized he would effectively end up doing what she requested and get to know her first. Which would, if anything, buy him time. Mayhap in that time, his lust would wane. Or he would discover Madison was the sort of lass who might ultimately turn away after all. And mayhap this go around, he would bloody well know if a spell was at work or not.
“’Twas but a peck,” he replied to Madison, repeating his words from last night, however untrue they were. He had never kissed a lass so roughly nor felt what he did when she kissed him back. When she met his rough passion with a fury of her own. In part, it had been her dragon, but not entirely.
No, as he had suspected, she’d not just repressed her inner beast but a passionate nature he looked forward to exploring. Discovering and controlling. If the woman in her responded to him at all like her dragon, it would be enjoyable indeed. He wanted to free and tame her all at once. Show her all the facets of her sensual nature.
No doubt catching his every thought, her eyes met his in tempered warning. Unlike before, she wasn’t angered by his intentions, but instead, if he wasn’t mistaken, dared to challenge him. To make him work for it.
To pursue her the way she wanted to be pursued.
He was so drawn yet equally challenged by her sudden, lustful defiance that he growled in approval. Red flashed in his vision before he swore he saw her dragon eyes staring back at him in another time and place.
More specifically, peeking at him from around a tall standing stone.
Chapter Fifteen
FOR A SPLIT second, she was peeking around a standing stone into Cray’s fiery dragon eyes before she was once against sitting where she had been before.
“I was much smaller,” she whispered, knowing without question she had just visited where she’d been in her nightmare. “At the Irish Stonehenge.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You saw it too, didn’t you? You saw...me?”
A Scot's Resolve (The MacLomain Series: End of an Era, #3) Page 10