by Donna Grant
Lucan’s thumb caressed her cheek. “I will protect you, Cara. Never forget that.”
She opened her eyes and gave him a nod before she turned and faced the table. Galen, on the one hand, stood off to the side and smiled at her. Fallon, on the other hand, simply stared at them from his position at the foot of the table.
But it was the other three men sitting at the table who drew her attention. Two faced her while the other turned on the bench to look at her.
Lucan placed a comforting hand on her back. “The blond is Hayden Campbell.”
Cara’s gaze swung to the big man. He looked to be even bigger than Lucan with his huge shoulders and massive arms. He nodded in greeting, his dark eyes regarded her with doubt and worry.
“The one next to him is Logan Hamilton,” Lucan said.
Cara looked to Hayden’s left and into hazel eyes. Logan’s dark hair had strands of gold throughout, and she had no doubt that with Logan’s good looks he had women falling all over him.
Lucan shifted his feet and motioned to the man turned on the bench. “This is Ramsey MacDonald.”
Ramsey’s gray eyes missed nothing as he looked her over. She found no censure in his gaze, just curiosity. He was handsome but aloof, with blue-black hair shorn to his collar.
“And I am Cara,” she said.
Ramsey rose from the table and walked to her. She felt Lucan stiffen by her side, but she didn’t fear anything, not with Lucan near her.
Ramsey stopped in front of her. “You’re the Druid.”
“Aye,” she answered, “though I only recently learned of it.”
He gave a small nod and turned his gaze to Lucan. “Do you think Deirdre wants Cara bad enough to come for her herself?”
Lucan shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”
“Deirdre doesna leave her mountain,” Hayden said. “The last time she left was almost two hundred years ago. She sends Warriors and the wyrran in her stead.”
Cara wasn’t sure she wanted to meet Deirdre, not after everything she had heard of the woman.
Fallon moved to stand on the other side of Cara. “Deirdre wants Cara, and from what the Warriors said, Deirdre will stop at nothing to get her.”
“What makes her so special?” Logan asked. “Deirdre wouldn’t go to this much trouble for just any Druid.”
Cara looked up to find Lucan and Fallon exchanging glances over her head. Lucan didn’t want the men to know, but Cara realized the more information they had the better they would understand what they faced.
“My mother was a drough,” she said. She pulled out the silver vial, the Demon’s Kiss, and let it rest between her breasts. “Deirdre killed her and my father when I was just a child. I was hidden and therefore overlooked.”
Hayden got to his feet, his gaze narrowed on Cara. “A drough?” he spat.
“Cara isn’t a drough,” Fallon said. “She was raised in a nunnery.”
“Cara had no idea what she was until we told her,” Galen said.
Ramsey drummed his fingers on his leg, his expression calm and patient, so different from Hayden’s. “Has she done the blood ritual?”
“Nay,” Cara answered. “I’m not a drough.”
Logan blew out a breath. “Drough or not, she needs to be protected from Deirdre. I don’t want that evil bitch to get her hands on any more Druids.”
Hayden shook his head. “She has drough blood in her. She’ll turn.”
Lucan’s nails lengthened into claws, and Cara knew things would erupt into a fight if something wasn’t done.
“I’m not a drough,” she repeated. “I’m just learning of the Druids, but I’m not going to follow in my mother’s footsteps.”
“You canna know that for sure,” Hayden argued.
Cara sighed and opened her mouth to convince him when Hayden’s skin shifted and turned a deep, dark red. He snarled at something behind her, his lips peeled back to show his long fangs.
She turned to find Quinn standing in the doorway of the kitchen staring at Hayden. Quinn growled, his arms held out to his sides and his claws extended as the rest of him transformed.
“Cara is under our protection,” Quinn said. “You have a problem with that? Leave. Or die.”
Hayden took a step toward Quinn. Cara blinked, unsure if she had seen the small red horns that stuck straight up on the top of his head through his blond hair.
“You don’t know what evil the droughs can do,” Hayden said. “If you did, you wouldn’t allow her in your castle.”
In the next heartbeat Lucan transformed and put himself between her and Hayden.
“You don’t understand!” Hayden bellowed.
“Nay, Hayden.” Galen’s skin had turned green. He walked to stand between Quinn and Lucan. “It’s you who don’t understand.”
Hayden shook his head. “You know, Galen. You know what the drough can do.”
“I do,” Galen admitted. “I also know it is a choice each Druid makes. Cara hasn’t been raised as a Druid, much less a drough.”
Fallon took her arm and tried to move her behind him, but she yanked out of his grasp and walked to stand between Hayden and Lucan.
“Enough!” she shouted. “We have a common enemy, Hayden. Deirdre. You cannot fight her alone, and neither can we. Either side with us or leave, but make your choice.”
“Now,” Lucan growled.
The hall was tense, everyone waiting for the others to move. Ramsey sighed and walked around Hayden before coming to stand beside Fallon.
“Cara is right. We need to stand together to defeat Deirdre,” Ramsey said.
Logan slapped his hands down on the table and rose. “I know your pain, Hayden, but Cara hasn’t done the ritual. She isn’t a drough. We need to protect her.”
Cara watched as Logan walked past his friend, cuffing him on the shoulder. Logan didn’t stop until he stood next to Lucan. Hayden shook his head and closed his eyes. She could see his pain, knew he was conflicted. Whatever a drough had done to him in the past had left deep scars.
Finally, Hayden changed back into a man and lowered himself on the bench. All but Quinn reverted back. Quinn gave her a nod and stalked out the castle door into the bailey.
“Good choice, Hayden,” Galen said.
Lucan’s fingers wrapped around her arm before sliding down to her hand. His heat surrounded her, comforted her. She had never expected to see men have to decide whether to defend her or not. She knew without a doubt Lucan and his brothers would have fought along with Galen to protect her. It was a good thing the other three had realized they were better as a team than individuals.
She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding and leaned against Lucan’s calming strength.
“Since there are seven of us, I’d like five men posted on lookouts while two guard Cara,” Fallon said.
“I can stay in my chamber,” Cara volunteered.
Lucan shook his head. “Nay. A Warrior could get to you too easily. You need to be somewhere safer.”
“The hall,” Galen said. “Keep her here. It’s centralized, and with us standing guard, she’ll have added time to prepare herself for when they get through.”
“Good idea,” Lucan said.
Cara wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in the great hall in front of everyone, but she wouldn’t argue with them. They were trying to protect her. The least she could do was make things easier on them.
Fallon glanced at Lucan. “You will be with Cara always. The rest of us will take turns being the second guard.”
Lucan gave a quick nod of his head. “Agreed.”
Cara didn’t stop Lucan when he pulled her out of the castle.
He released her and walked down the steps to pace the bailey. She swallowed and lowered herself onto the top step.
“That was close with Hayden,” Lucan said.
Fallon sat beside her. “Too damn close.”
She hadn’t heard Fallon follow them, but she wasn’t surprised to find him there.
“I don’t trust him around Cara.” Lucan shook his head. “I don’t want him alone with her. Ever.”
Cara clasped her hands together in her lap. “We don’t know what happened to Hayden, Lucan.”
“It doesn’t matter, not when he threatens you.”
Her heart swelled. She had just been Cara, alone and unwanted, until Lucan. He wanted her, had safeguarded her since the moment she fell into his arms. When she looked into his eyes, she saw desire, yes, but she saw something else, something deeper.
Fallon sighed. “Until we know what is going on with Hayden and why he reacted so strongly to Cara, we might want to make sure he’s watched.”
“I’ll make sure I’m not alone with him,” Cara said.
Lucan winked at her in response. “Thank you.”
The castle door opened and Galen stepped out. “Is supper ready? I’m starving.”
Cara laughed and looked over her shoulder at him. “Aye, it’s ready.”
“Galen,” Lucan halted him before he could return inside the castle. “We’d like to know why Hayden reacted the way he did to Cara.”
Galen leaned back against the door and crossed his arms over his chest. “We all have a story to tell. Hayden is no different.”
“Maybe,” Fallon said, “but none of the others wanted to harm Cara.”
“I don’t think he would have hurt her.”
“You don’t think?” Lucan asked. “I saw his eyes, Galen. The word drough made him go daft.”
Galen was silent for long moments before he blew out a breath. “Hayden’s story is his own, but I will tell you that at one time Deirdre used the drough for her own purposes before she began killing them. The drough did truly horrific things in their quest to find Warriors.”
“Thank you.” Cara stood and faced Galen. “I’ll gather the food for supper now.”
Galen moved and opened the door for her. Something tugged the end of her hair, and she glanced back to see Lucan wrapping a strand of her hair around his finger.
She was saddened for Hayden, for all of them. They couldn’t help the anger and hate that fed them. She held the same hatred for Deirdre for her parents’ deaths. The difference was Cara didn’t have a primeval god inside her giving her added powers.
But you do have magic.
Aye, she did have her magic.
* * *
Hayden clenched his hands into fists. It had never entered his mind that the MacLeods had a Druid, much less one with drough blood in her—and around her neck.
The need to kill her, to end the existence of any evil, burned him. It was fitting that the god inside him was Ouraneon, the god of massacre, since that’s what the droughs had done. And it was what Hayden wanted to do to Cara.
Yet when Ramsey, and even Logan, had chosen to stand with the MacLeods and the Druid, Hayden’s ire had cooled. For the time being.
The Druid was correct. They did have a common enemy. But once Deirdre was dead . . .
* * *
Supper had gone much smoother than Lucan had anticipated after Hayden’s outburst. Hayden himself didn’t look up from his trencher. Nor did he have much to say. The others, however, spoke freely.
Lucan learned that Ramsey had his god unbound shortly after they did. Ramsey had been taken by the wyrran while traveling. Though Lucan was curious, he didn’t ask Ramsey how he had escaped from Deirdre’s mountain.
Logan told them even more. “I met Ramsey in the mountain. I was there for a score of years, and he was there before me.”
“How long did Deirdre have you?” Quinn asked Ramsey.
Ramsey set down his goblet. “Too damn long.”
Logan chuckled. “Ramsey isna much of a talker.”
“How did Deirdre find you, Logan?” Lucan asked.
Logan paused in his chewing. “I was returning home from meeting a lass who had caught my fancy. My brother saw the wyrran take me. I feared they might hurt my family, so I went with them willingly.”
“A good thing,” Fallon said, and pushed his empty trencher away. “The wyrran would have killed them.”
Lucan glanced at Hayden but realized the big man wouldn’t answer any questions. Yet the more withdrawn he became, the more worried Lucan got.
“I think you should have built a bigger table,” Fallon said. “We’re squeezed in here.”
Lucan had Cara sit on his knee while they ate. She had wanted to eat by the fire since there wasn’t room at the table, but Lucan was on the end and had patted his leg.
“I didn’t anticipate having guests,” Lucan said. “Next time I’ll make a bigger table.”
Fallon smiled, a true smile that reached his eyes. It had been so long since he had smiled that Lucan was taken aback.
Cara rose from his leg and walked to the kitchen. He quickly followed. His cock had been hard since their kiss in the garden, and with her now bedding in the great hall, time alone would be scarce.
He caught her around the waist and spun her back against the wall. Her chestnut waves teased him as they fell around her shoulders and down her back. She looked up at him with a welcoming smile.
“I had hoped you would follow me.”
Lucan inhaled her scent and kissed the spot below her ear that always made her shiver. “You did?”
“Oh, aye.” She was breathless, her pulse racing.
“Why is that?”
She threaded her fingers in his hair. “Because I want you.”
His balls tightened at the sound of her husky voice whispering in his ear. He slanted his mouth over hers for a kiss, deepening it when she moaned. His need, his hunger, for Cara overshadowed everything else. All he wanted was her, in any way he could have her.
He gathered her skirts in his hand until they were bunched at her waist. Then he lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he ground his hard rod into her.
“Lucan, I need you.”
He shifted her so that he could unfasten his breeches, and as soon as his cock sprang free, he slid inside her. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. Lucan buried his face in her neck and held still, loving the feel of her slick heat surrounding him.
When it became too much, he started to move with short, slow thrusts. As their passion built, he plunged deeper and deeper into her, their rhythm increasing each time.
Cara’s nails dug into his neck as her body stiffened. He claimed her mouth, drinking in her moans of pleasure as she peaked. He held off his own climax as long as he could to draw hers out, but the feel of her clenching around him was too much. He gave one final thrust that buried him deep.
She held him, stroking his back and shoulders as his body jerked with the force of his orgasm. She whispered his name, of how much she loved his touch.
He lifted his head and looked into her mahogany eyes. He wanted to show her how much she meant to him, but he wasn’t sure how.
“Lucan? What is it?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
She ran her fingers down one of the braids at his temples and smiled. “It is something, but if you don’t want to tell me, that’s all right, too.”
Reluctantly, he pulled out of her. He moved to the doorway as he fastened his breeches to keep anyone out who wanted to come into the kitchens while she fixed her own clothing.
“Are you sure we cannot stay in the chamber?” she asked with a smile. “I don’t think I’m done with you.”
Lucan walked to her and lifted a strand of her hair to his nose. “When this is over, Cara, I’m going to take you somewhere where we can be alone. Just the two of us.”
“That sounds nice, but what of your brothers? They need you.”
“And I need you. They can survive without me for a couple of months.”
She tilted her head to the side. “You really want to take me somewhere?”
“Aye. I’ve been alive for over three hundred years and I’ve seen nothing but Scotland. Maybe I’ll take you to London.”
Her laugh was
beautiful and pure. “I’m not sure I would know what to do in London, but then again I don’t care where I am. As long as I’m with you.”
“Then maybe I’ll lock us in the chamber.”
“That would be nice.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest.
Lucan ran his hands over her head and down the length of her hair. He might be a fool for caring for a mortal, since he knew there could only be heartache, but the feelings filling his chest were enough to last an eternity.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Deirdre looked at her nails and regarded the long tips. She kept them filed to sharp points for certain occasions. She sighed and drummed her nails on the arm of her chair as she looked at William.
“Mistress, I don’t understand,” he said.
“Of course you don’t.” Sometimes she wanted to scream, she got so frustrated.
William shifted from one foot to the other, his royal blue skin shining in the flickering light of the candelabras that hung from the ceiling of her palace. “You don’t want us to bring back the MacLeods?”
“If you can catch one, aye, bring him. However, I want the Druid above all. And I have something special planned for one of the brothers.”
“Oh?”
That had gotten William’s attention. He hated the MacLeods because they occupied Deirdre’s thoughts when he would prefer her mind be full of him. William was a wonderful specimen, but he didn’t compare to Quinn MacLeod. No one did.
“Take six wyrrans and dig a trap. A hole big enough that it will daze Quinn and give you time to get him back to me.”
William nodded. “How do you propose we get Quinn to this trap?”
“He’ll follow a wyrran, of course,” she said with a smile.
William grinned, his lips pulled back over his fangs. “And with Quinn here, the other brothers will follow.”
“Exactly.” She blew out a breath as anticipation of having Quinn with her once more took hold of her. “Get moving, William. I want Quinn in my mountain within the next two days.”
“Aye, mistress.”
“And William,” she called before he walked out of the chamber. “You better have the Druid with you when you return.”