Forbidden Fate (Sisters of Danu Book 1)

by Mia Pride

  He could not take his eyes off her as she stared intensely back, determined to keep his gaze. Even with so many witnesses, it was as if nobody else existed in that moment. Everyone else faded away into the background. She stood next to Liam and Aileen turned to hug Gwynneth with an excited squeal, then stepped forward to hug her son, who towered over her small body as he leaned in to kiss his mother’s flushed cheek. Abigael did the same and they stepped to the side as Ceara followed.

  Liam looked down to Gwynneth’s hand, still holding their oath stone tightly. The stone sparked the memory of their first night together and Liam gave her a knowing wink. She blushed scarlet as he took her hand in his, both of them holding on to the stone tightly, never unlocking their eyes.

  Her dress was billowing in the breeze as her hair rippled around her face. Duncan cleared his throat in preparation and everyone went silent and turned their eyes to him, except Liam and Gwynneth, whose eyes never shifted from one another.

  Duncan started off with a brief welcome to the guests, but he had been instructed by Liam to keep it short. He had waited long enough to call Gwynneth his wife and he would not draw out the ceremony any longer than necessary. When Duncan finished his introduction, he signaled Liam to give his oath to Gwynneth.

  Liam squeezed her hand containing their oath stone, as if willing his words to become part of the rock. “Ye are the blood of my blood, and bone of my bone. I give ye my body, that we two might become one. I give ye my spirit, ‘til our life shall be done.” He smiled sweetly at her and he saw a tear run down her cheek.

  With a sniffle and a smile, Gwynneth repeated the same vow. She looked at Duncan to wait for him to continue the ceremony, but Liam shot Duncan a look that warned him not to prolong things any more than necessary. In one swift move, without warning, Liam scooped Gwynneth up into his arms as she gave a surprised squeal of delight. He spun around and planted a soft, passionate kiss on her lips. Giving a playful tug to her lower lip with his teeth as he lowered her to the ground, everyone clapped at his public display of affection for his new wife.

  Gwynneth couldn’t tell if she was lightheaded from the spinning or the kiss, but she had to steady herself by leaning into his strong body, and she blushed even more as she saw all the people clapping and cheering around the tree.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw the raven haired woman who had grabbed Liam’s hand in a possessive grasp in her memory, and the look in her eye caused a brief chill of foreboding to run down Gwynneth’s spine. No matter what Liam thought, she could tell by Fiona’s gaze that she was far from accepting her loss of Liam. She saw Fiona’s brown eyes squint at her with malice as she disappeared into the crowd.

  The disconcerting moment floated away with the breeze, and she was once again swept up in the moment, her moment. Seeing the dimples flashing on Liam’s face as he took her hand in his, he started down the hill while holding tightly to her hand. “I’m taking my new bride to bed,” he said with a smug smile and a laugh as everyone cheered and clapped, watching their king walk off with his new wife.

  Once down the hill, Liam started to sprint, dragging Gwynneth playfully all the way to their new home.

  “Liam!” she was laughing and panting, trying to keep up with him, “Slow down!”

  Liam came to an abrupt halt and her body collided into his. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight, looking down at her glittering green eyes.

  “This is it, Gwynn,” he said with a rumble in his chest. “You’re mine now.” He smiled and placed a sweet, all too brief, kiss on her lips. “Are you ready to enter this home as my wife?”

  Looking up, Gwynneth saw the smile hiding behind his eyes. Although he tried his best to keep a serious look on his face, his mouth twitching at the corners. She gave him a silent nod and allowed a mischievous smile to spread across her own lips as she looked up at her new husband, the husband she should have always had. The only man to hold her heart.

  Liam swung open the door of their new home and picked Gwynneth up, slinging her over his shoulder as if she were a sack of grain. Gwynneth feigned a struggle, but she could not contain the anticipation throbbing within her body.

  Liam carried her through the door and walked straight past the roaring central hearth, turning left to enter the corridor leading to their new bedchamber. He ducked his head upon entrance and unceremoniously plopped her body onto the bed. She landed on her back with her silvery waves framing her face. One small yellow flower fell out on impact and Liam delicately picked it up and brought it to his nose. Inhaling deeply, he looked down at his wife with a feeling of contentment and awe that spread through his body like a fire.

  He dragged the flower’s delicate petals down her neck and over her chest. “I have another vow for you, Gwynn. One that is private, just for us to know.”

  Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at Liam, the man who she had thought forbidden to her all these years, and broke out in gooseflesh all down her body. “I vow to be an ever faithful husband to you.” He placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. “I vow to cherish every single day that I wake up next to you as your husband.” He caressed her hair with his fingers as he placed another kiss upon her eyelids.

  “I vow to always value your own choices and honor your wishes.” He kissed her forehead. “I vow to treat you like my equal in all things. You are now blood of my blood, and I vow to protect you with my life. I vow to love you tenderly as often as you will let me, but I vow to never force myself upon you. I give you my whole heart, body, and soul and I pray you love me every day of your life, for I shall only love you more with every rising sun.” Tiny tears ran down the sides of Gwynneth’s cheeks as she trembled with overwhelming happiness. His face shifted into a smile that melted her insides and he kissed her lips tenderly, then pressed his forehead against hers, their hot breath mingling together between them.

  “But for now, my beautiful wife, I have about five years of love making to make up for…” and he melted his body into hers as she wrapped her arms around his waist, claiming his lips with a sigh.

  Epilogue

  Gwynneth stretched her body out, wiggling her toes near the warmth of the fire as she held a clay mug of hot herbal tea in her hands. The steam was rising luxuriously up to her face, warming her skin where it landed. A contended smile crept across her face as she rubbed her swollen abdomen affectionately over her green dress with her free hand.

  “Have you felt the babe quicken yet, Gwynn?” Ceara asked as she lay equally content next to her sister by the fire, both of them with their dresses pulled up to their shins, allowing the warmth to seep in. It was a brisk early spring morning and the days were warming up, but the mornings still contained a chilly bite and snow still covered the earth. The hearth fire was maintained continuously, day and night, to provide adequate heat for Gwynneth and Liam’s home.

  “I have! Only a few times, but it feels like butterflies fluttering in my stomach.” Her face warmed as she tried to describe the amazing feeling of her unborn child moving within her. “Tis the most wonderful feeling. How about you?”

  Ceara smiled and rubbed her slightly rounded belly, matching the motions of her sister. “I have, but only just recently. Who would have thought we would be with child at the same time? Isn’t it amazing?”

  “A lot has happened in the past few moons that I would never have imagined.” Gwynneth gave her a sideways glance and a wry smile.

  Ceara shrugged and lifted her tea to her lips. “It has been a very strange, yet wonderful, few moons. You know,” she lowered her tea and turned towards Gwynn. “According to Patrick, we have until the eve of Beltane to find our other sister. That is only two moons away. We must start searching. I wonder what will happen with our control of the elements when we are all together…” her face looked nervous as she considered the possibilities.

  Liam walked over to the fire with Garreth trailing behind. They looked down at their wives both wiggling their toes and rubbing their swollen bellies in uni
son. The men both bit back amused smiles as they looked at each other.

  “We’ve already started our search for your sister. Patrick said another druid delivered your sister to her relocation. When he reached the faery mound for guidance that night, they insisted the sisters be raised in opposite corners, thus preventing Patrick from taking both.” He looked over at Garreth, who had been able to speak with Patrick after Liam and Gwynn left Coraindt.

  “We need to seek out the faeries. Hopefully they will willingly tell us which tuath your sister was sent to.” Garreth was rubbing his chin as he tried to ponder all of the information they had collected.

  Gwynneth was slowly shaking her head in disbelief. “Faeries, I still can’t quite believe it. I have never seen one, and now I find out I am of the same blood. And as for our powers, I nearly drowned in the sea! If Liam hadn’t saved me, I would have died…in water. How can I be destined to control the same element that almost killed me?”

  “I’ve been burned by fire before, Gwynn.” Ceara quirked an eyebrow up at her sister. “I do not yet understand what we are capable of. But whatever it is, I do not think we are impermeable to our own elements. Perhaps once we are all united, we will better understand what this all means…” her voice trailed off as she sighed in resignation.

  “Aye, well we know a few things. We know you both did, in fact, marry kings, as the legend said you would. We know that she was sent to a tuath on the opposite corner of Coraindt, which means she must be to the west. We know she will have brown hair and green eyes. If we can find a brown haired, green eyed woman married to a king somewhere to the west, that narrows our search parameters extensively.” Liam was scratching his head, deep in thought.

  “Furthermore,” Ceara chimed in, putting up a hand as she remembered a detail from the legend. “Gwynneth, do you remember the names of the kings who Patrick spoke of? I believe you men missed this detail, as Liam had stormed off into the woods in a fit of rage and Garreth was thoroughly inebriated.” She turned around and winked playfully at the men, who were both holding their hips with impatience.

  “Oh, aye!” Gwynneth shouted, louder than she meant to! “There were three last kings of the Danann, all brothers. One king was named Mac Cuill, like you,” Gwynn nodded to Liam. “The second had the name Mac Cecht, like Garreth. So it would make sense if our sister married a king with the same last name as the third king of the legend---“

  “My surname is the same as one of the last kings of the Danu?” Liam’s jaw dropped and he shook his head in disbelief. “Why have I never heard this before?”

  “Patrick said nobody knew the entire story, until that night,” Ceara shrugged. “What did he say the last king’s name was?” She and Gwynneth were silently tapping their abdomens in sync as they tried to remember the last king’s name.

  “Mac Greine!” both women shouted at once, making the men jump with a start. Looking at one another, they started into a fit of giggles, holding their stomachs as they shook with laughter.

  “By all the bloody gods, are we in trouble when we find the third sister,” Garreth mumbled sarcastically.

  Liam rolled his eyes in agreement. “Aye, that we are. Well, now we know to look for a king in the west with the name Mac Greine. Many tuatha lay to the west. Let us hope those wee sneaky buggers living in the faery hills will cooperate and not live up to their reputation as spiteful, flying, mischief-making insects!”

  “You and I should leave soon, Liam. We haven’t much time.” Garreth was running his fingers through Ceara’s hair and she was purring in contentment with her eyes closed.

  “You men are absolutely daft if you believe for one moment you are leaving without us,” Ceara said in a calm, clear voice, eyes still closed as she enjoyed the sensation of Garreth’s hands running through her hair.

  “You women are absolutely daft if you believe we would allow our breeding wives to travel with us into unknown territory!” Garreth shouted back with more emotion than he meant to, letting out a harsh, long breath. “Nay! Tis taken me three years to get you with child, Ceara! I will not risk it!”

  “Garreth,” Liam put a hand on his shoulder, trying to reason with him. “To be fair, this involves them just as much, if not more, than it does us. They’ve heard the whole legend. I want nay harm to come to my wife, or yours. But I don’t want Gwynneth out of my sight, after what she has been through. I promised to protect her every day of my life, and I plan to do so. Besides, I don’t trust Fiona. She has been causing trouble. She is with child as well and claiming me as the father. I don’t trust her to behave if Gwynneth is left alone.”

  Gwynneth’s made a sour face as she remembered the day Fiona showed her round belly and proclaimed Liam to be the father. It was impossible to know for certain, but the timing would be accurate. It was possible to be another man’s babe, mayhap even Baine’s. There was no way of knowing until the babe was born, and mayhap not even then. It was a major cause of worry in Gwynneth’s life, feeling an intense distress when she imagined her babe having to share Liam’s affections with another child, not of her own. It made her stomach clench with waves of nausea and anxiety. But she had no right to be angry, though she very much was, internally. Being the mother of Liam’s child was an honor she wanted sole claim to.

  “I’m going with Liam. And I want Ceara with me.” Gwynneth reached over and grabbed her hand with a smile, pretending that her insides were not in torment at the thought of Fiona’s child. Being away from the Tuath would do Gwynneth some good.

  Garreth looked angry, yet resigned, having been outnumbered three to one. “I don’t like it one bit, Ceara. But I suppose it is your choice and I will keep you and mo Leanbh safe.”

  “I’m going,” is all she said in reply and he gave her a curt nod with a serious look on his face. He spun on his heels and walked up closely to the fire, staring into its depths.

  “Then, tis all set. We will prepare for our journey to the mounds to seek out your final sister. May the gods guide us on our way, keep us safe, and may the third sister prove to be less of a pain in the arse than her sisters.”

  With a derisive snort, Liam mumbled, “not likely.” Then, he turned and held his mug of ale up to the others and they all raised their mugs in response. “To the Sisters of Danu.” He said with a shaky hand, and they all drank in silence, anxious with uncertainty about the journey ahead.

  Prologue of Book 2

  Thank you for reading Forbidden Fate! I hope you enjoyed Gwynneth and Liam’s story! Please read on to catch a sneak peak of the second book in the Sisters of Danu series: Foretold Fate, coming soon!

  Foretold Fate

  Sisters of Danu Series

  Book Two

  By: Mia Pride

  Prologue

  Ériu (Ireland)

  May 56 AD

  “There you are mo chailín stór! I have been looking all over for you. I thought for certain you would be in the byre gathering buttermilk by now.”

  With a sigh of frustration, Una sent the unruly chestnut wave covering her sweaty forehead flying to the side. Hands covered in oat flour, she used her elbow to swipe away the remainder of hair blocking her face. “Nay, I am almost done grinding the oats in the quern for tomorrow’s bread. I promise to get the milk soon.”

  Isleen’s warm hand wrapped around Una’s slim waist in an affectionate embrace. “Tis alright, child. I will grab the bucket and aid you. No sense in tiring yourself out before the Beltane festival tonight. Which reminds me…” Isleen’s warmth left Una’s side as she turned and grabbed a leather wrapped package off of the table. “I have a gift for you. You turned eighteen summers yesterday, after all,” she said with a wink.

  “Och, nay! Isleen, I had not even thought---“

  “Tis why I thought for you, child. Go on, open it.” Una’s emerald green eyes bore into Isleen’s soft hazel ones, taking in the woman’s soft beauty and the fine lines around her mouth and eyes, evidence of the love and laughter she shared with her family.

&
nbsp; How Una had always wished she were a true member of the Mac Greine family. Aye, she loved her mama fiercely, but to have a true family with a father and siblings would have been a dream. It had only ever been her and her mother. Her papa had died before she had been born and her mother struggled to raise Una on her own. Teaching her the trades of running a home and working the fields had proved far too tedious for Deidre, Una’s mother. Deidre had always been plagued with an ailment of the chest, preventing her from fully thriving, and by the age of five, Una had been sent to the home of the Mac Greine’s to start her fosterage.

  The Mac Greine’s were a noble family within their tuath of Darini. Isleen’s husband, Neil, was the king’s brother and their son Brocc, four years older than Una, was their only child and a true warrior from birth.

  After thirteen years of fostering within their home, Una had never fully become comfortable around Brocc’s intimidating presence. Aye, he was her foster-brother, but nothing about Brocc felt brotherly. Especially with those piercing hazel eyes that bore into her back when he thought she was not looking. Or his jet black mane of hair that glimmered in the light of the sun as he practiced with his weapons in the field. And the muscles flexing under his tunic as the fabric stuck to his sweaty chest…

  A deep red blush ran up Una’s cheeks as she looked at the leather-wrapped package in her hand. Isleen was trying to present a gift and here was Una, daydreaming about the woman’s son! For shame! With shaky fingers, Una pulled on the wool thread that held the soft leather around the gift. As she unraveled it, the object within sparkled in the light of the hearth fire. With a gasp, Una lifted out a small hair pin glittering with amethysts set together to resemble a row of three flowers with five purple petals each and one ruby set in each center. “Isleen…” Una’s mouth popped open and her free hand came up to her heart as she shook her head. “Tis too much.”