by Hazel Hunter
He had to find her.
The sunrise filtered through the rushing waters, adding dappled light to the cave as he rose to his feet and made his way out. Once outside the cascade, he shook the water from his dripping hair and dragged it back from his eyes.
“Gavin.”
The sound of Catriona’s voice stunned him so much the torch fell from his grip, and tumbled down to extinguish itself in the frothy pool. She stood only a few yards away from him, wrapped in a soft gray shawl over a spotless blue gown. Her hair flowed over her shoulders like a curtain of auburn satin, and she held two white blooms in her hand.
She looked like such a dream he couldn’t stop staring at her. “Where did you go?”
“No’ here,” she said, her mouth taking on a wry curve. “But I’ve come back. I’d have been here sooner, but I had to first see to Jester. I’ve so much to tell you.” She held out one of the flowers. “If you wish to listen.”
He crossed the distance between them in a handful of strides, and snatched her off her feet. Holding her against him, he buried his face in her hair. “I thought you’d left the island. That I’d finally driven you away forever.”
“You cannae do that, my lad.” She clutched him tightly, stroking him with her slim, cool hands. “I’ll no’ keep anything secret from you again.”
He drew back enough to look at her face. Though her eyes were underlined with dark circles, she was alive, and beautiful, and his, and that was all that mattered to him. “I’m taking you back to the cottage.”
Catriona smiled. “And there?”
“You’ll tell me everything.” He swung her up into his arms, holding her securely as he made for the trail.
She clasped her hands behind his neck, and sighed as if relieved as he carried her through the forest. Gavin caught the scent of mint and honeysuckle on her breath, and kissed her lips to taste it.
“More of that and we’ll no’ make it,” she whispered.
“Aye.” Already he wanted to fling her to the ground and strip her naked and have her over and over again. But he needed to first understand what had happened to her, and why she was so terrified of being found by her uncle.
Inside he set Catriona on her feet by the hearth, and stripped out of his wet clothes. He watched her as he rubbed his damp body dry with a cloth, and her cheeks pinked, but she didn’t look away. Once he was dressed he tossed some split logs on the fire, and drew her down to sit with him in front of the hearth.
Cradling her face, he kissed her brow, and then took in her dazzled expression. He didn’t want to ruin her delight by questioning her about the past, so he said, “We dinnae have to talk now. ’Tis enough to have you back.”
“’Tis time for the truth.” She climbed onto his lap, and took his hand in hers. “I was born here on Everbay, to the tribe of the Moon Wake people. They lived as druids do, apart from the mortal islanders, but always willing to help others. My father was a fine fisherman, and my mother a skilled herbalist. ’Twas from them I learned how to net and gather.”
He listened as she described her idyllic childhood on the island, and how much she had been loved. Only when she mentioned her father’s brother did her expression change.
“My uncle Daimh wasnae content to live on Everbay, so I saw him only rarely. When he did come he often quarreled with the others.” Her lips twisted. “I didnae like him, and not only because he angered my father. When he smiled, ’twas too wide, and when he talked, his voice scratched at my ears. Hunger always filled his eyes, and he never stopped moving, like the basker. He felt cold and dangerous to me, as the sea is where the currents run dark and hard. He made my mother afraid, and she feared naught.”
Catriona’s voice faltered a few times as she told him of raids on the other islands by the undead, and the spell barrier the Moon Wake used to surround and protect their village from such an attack. By then her uncle had fallen out with the rest of his tribe over his use of dark, forbidden magics, and had left the island vowing never to return.
“His leaving gave no ease to my mother. Soon after Daimh stopped coming to Everbay she made me promise to run away if he ever did. I was to go to the cave under the falls, and wait there for her. She put food and water and blankets there for me. Then she said if she didnae come, I had to leave the island alone.” She took in a deep breath. “One night she woke me, and bid me run. As I did I looked back, and saw the barrier fall. My uncle had returned, and with him hundreds of the undead. I hid at the edge of the glen and watched as they killed everyone.” Her voice broke on the last words.
Gavin held her for a long time without speaking. Then, in a soft voice, he said, “You drew what happened that night on the walls of the cave.”
Catriona nodded tightly. “I thought if Daimh found me, then the cave would tell the story. Only he didnae come, and neither did my mother. I waited so long for her, Gavin. I waited until I had naught left to eat, and even then.”
Staring at the flames in the hearth, she told him how starvation had finally driven her from the cave. How she’d watched from the forest as strange druids arrived to bury the dead, and place a new barrier around her village.
“The last to go was an old man with the softest eyes. He looked kind, like my father, but my uncle was with him. Daimh pretended to be sad, and wept over the graves. He spoke of loving my parents, and despairing that they had been murdered so cruelly. That was when I understood why my mother had told me to run. My uncle would kill me to hide what he had done. So, I left Everbay.” She smiled wanly. “A man named Ennis found me, half-dead in a ditch. He and his wife Senga took me in, and became my new family.”
Caring as they were, living with the very protective mortal couple had still been a painful adjustment, Catriona admitted, and she began making visits to the island in secret. As she grew older she finally entrusted them with the truth of her past.
“They would have me with them always, but they ken that I am no’ like them.” She sighed. “I’ve tried to be content there, for coming here is dangerous. If Daimh ever learns I live, I do not know what he will do. Maybe bring the undead back to the island to finish what they started.”
Gavin clamped down on the rage billowing inside him. “No’ as long as I draw breath, my sweet Cat.”
She brushed his mouth with her fingertips. “I ken you will protect me.” She closed her eyes. “’Tis the work of the warrior in you.”
Gavin thought of everything he still kept secret from her. He wanted to tell her about his time in the service, and what he’d learned while fighting in the Middle East until his disease had forced his discharge from The Black Watch. But how could he explain to her that he was not just a warrior from the highlands, but the twenty-first century?
The soft purr of her breath told him he didn’t have to say anything more now, for Catriona had fallen into a deep sleep. Gently he lifted her and carried her over to his bed, where he stretched out beside her. She turned to cuddle against him, and he pulled his tartan over them. Finally able to relax, he wrapped an arm around her and closed his eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
THAT MORNING CAILEAN finished packing for the journey to Everbay, and studied the contents of his satchel before strapping it closed. He knew not what to expect when they arrived, and the sinking feeling in his belly had only grown worse since dawn. He’d tried to meditate away the despair, but his mind kept toying with the possibilities of what awaited them. They jabbed at his calm like sharp stones, hurled at him from a dark past.
When he emerged from his modest cottage a smiling druidess came to greet him.
“A message for you has just arrived, Ovate Lusk.” She offered him a small scroll before she bowed and went on her way.
The small slip contained nothing good, for just the feel of it seemed to burn his fingers. He went back inside before he read the contents, and fell to his knees as Bethany Gordon’s frantic plea tore at his soul.
Danyel is gone. Whoever took him killed all of the guards in the
family wing last night, and left a Roman word scratched on the wall above his crib. UMQUANSINUM. Please, Cailean, help us find our son.
A knock came on the door of his cottage, and he staggered to his feet to find Lachlan and Kinley McDonnel on his doorstep. Their smiles vanished, and Lachlan reached out to catch him as he reeled backward.
“Forgive me,” Cailean gasped. He could hardly form the words, and when he met Kinley’s concerned gaze new horror sliced through him. “I’ve had dreadful news.”
“Easy now, lad.” The laird helped him inside to a chair, while Kinley fetched a cup of water from his kitchen. He tried to take a sip, but his hand shook so badly he merely spilled half the contents down the front of his robe.
“Should we send for a healer?” Lachlan asked gently.
“No, ’tis only a bad shock.” He looked around, his humble room seeming to close in on him now. “The Gordon’s son, Danyel, has been stolen from their stronghold. They came for him last night, and killed the guards.” He looked up at the laird. “’Twas the undead. They left a Roman word etched into the wall, but why? Why take the boy when they might have the laird, and his lady lay sleeping in the same hall?”
“We’ll summon the clan,” Lachlan said.
“Diana can track whoever took Danyel,” Kinley told him firmly.
Cailean couldn’t look at her. “You cannae fathom what this means.”
“Do we no’?” Lachlan said. “In a stronghold where of late a druid attends to the lady, she bears a bairn within a year.” When Cailean would have denied it all, the laird held up his hand. “We ken Bethany’s son wasnae sired by Gordon, for the laird’s lover is his bodyguard, no’ his wife.”
“That, and Danyel has your eyes,” Kinley said gently.
Cailean glanced down at the message he still clutched tightly. “My lord, you ken much of the Roman language. Danyel Gordon is an innocent bairn. Do what you will to me, but please.” He held out the scroll. “Please help me find my son.”
The laird took it and read the message. “This word left on the wall isnae one. It is two, run together. Apart they mean always, and cove.” His mouth tightened. “’Tis how they would write ‘Everbay.’”
Cailean felt his fear expand a hundredfold. “We must speak to Master Flen at once.”
Chapter Fifteen
WHEN GAVIN OPENED his eyes again the cottage had gone dark. Easing off the bed, he went to build the fire, and then went outside to relieve his bladder. From the position of the moon he knew it was near midnight. They’d slept through the entire day and half the night. When he returned inside he saw his bed was empty, but Catriona’s gown lay beside it. The tartan and his lady had gone out the back door into the woods, likely so she might answer the same call of nature.
He stripped out of his tunic, washed out his mouth with some whiskey, and then found some ripe sand pears that would serve as a midnight snack. He was considering making a brew when Catriona slipped back inside, wrapped up in his tartan and nibbling on a sorrel leaf.
The firelight danced in the red tones of her hair, making her tousled mane look as if it had been strewn with tiny garnets. She’d draped the old blue tartan around herself like the gown of a goddess, and it wrapped around her slender body like the finest of silks. It struck Gavin then, just how beautiful she was—and completely unconscious of it as well.
“I would have hunted for berries, but ’tis too dark.” She came to him, the scent of the sorrel perfuming her like tart strawberry, and let the tartan slide a little from her bare shoulder. “And then I left my gown and clogs here. ’Twould no’ be wise to scamper about the forest wearing only your plaid.”
“About that.” He tugged at the fold over her breasts. “’Tis a cold night. I’ll want it back.”
She pouted a little. “How shall I keep warm?”
Gavin grinned. “I ken a man who can help you with that.” Just as he made to take her in his arms, she sidled away from him. “He’s very good, Cat.”
“Och, right, for I’ve met him,” she said gravely as she stole one of his pears and nibbled at it. “He kept me warm on the shore one night, as proper as you like, save for one kiss that fair curled my toes.” She eyed him. “I’d have the other. That great, grand beast of a man who seizes me and touches me and doesnae stop with one kiss, even in the pouring rain. Can you persuade him to warm me?”
“That beast is no’ very good,” Gavin warned as he went to her, and threaded his fingers through her hair to tip back her head. “He wants only to have you naked, under him in his bed, where he can have his way with you.” Her eyes had gone dark, and her lips glistened with the juice from the pear. The combination made his blood burn. “I wouldnae tempt him.”
“But he makes me feel such things.” She moved her shoulders, loosening the tartan, and watched his face as it slipped down. “He’s only to look at me and I grow hot and restless. And see now.” She let the tartan fall to her waist, baring her red, tightly-puckered nipples. “What he does to my body.”
Their first time together had been so passionate and emotionally-charged that Gavin had lost complete control. Now she was offering herself to him again, teasing and playful, with complete trust and openness. He didn’t deserve her, but he’d spend the rest of his days trying to.
“I’m your man, then.”
He stepped back to strip off his trews, and reached to push the tartan over her hips, letting it fall to the floor. Drawing her closer, he ran his hands from her shoulders to the tight, delicious curves of her buttocks. She wriggled against him as he clamped hold and lifted her, his cock pressing into her belly like a twitching iron rod.
A sigh of longing stuttered out of her. “Do you never do this in a bed, my fine beast?”
The last woman he had taken to bed had been Thora, but the memory no longer made him feel miserable. He had started his life over, and Catriona, who was as honest and loving as Thora had been deceitful and full of hate, would never betray him.
“Mayhap you should teach me that, too,” he told her, walking with her plastered against his chest to drop with her on the bed. “How do we begin, my sweet Cat?”
“You must do as I show you.” She climbed over him, straddling his belly as she pushed him back against the ticking. “Close your eyes, and dinnae peek.”
Gavin obeyed her, although he grumbled over being denied the sight of her lovely, flushed face and pretty, tight-peaked breasts. She lifted up, shifting down to graze his cock with the damp softness between her thighs, before she settled on his legs. Her hands swept over his chest, stroking his muscles with tantalizing caresses. The brush of her hair joined her fingers as she put her mouth in the space between his collarbones, and used her tongue there to trace the hollow.
The touch of her lips made his shaft swell, and then he felt an odd, sharp sensation spread over his upper arm. “What do you now to me, sweet Cat?”
“I mean to cover you with kisses,” she murmured as she moved her lips to the flat pebbles of his masculine nipples, laving one and then the other. “That makes you shake.”
“You make me crazed.” Gavin almost opened his eyes as he felt the needling sensation in his bicep grow more intense. “Do you use your nails on me?”
She murmured a no before sliding down to his belly, where she tongued his navel and circled it with kisses.
“I’m here.” The soft curve of her cheek rubbed against the throbbing swell of his shaft. “You’ll want to look now, I ken, but– Gods, Gavin.”
Light filled his eyes as he opened them, and saw a gilded blue haze. He dragged Catriona up onto him, holding her as power surged through his body. He felt something clawing at his arm now, and turned his head to see the inked lion staring back as it crouched, as if to spring.
“Lovely Cat.” The words came out of his mouth in a low, feral growl of a voice that was nothing like his own. “I’ve lain in wait for you, watching and wanting. Give yourself to me, and I shall make you my queen.”
She should have shoved
herself away and fled, but Catriona only stared back at the lion. She reached for his arm, and ran her fingertips over the ink as if to stroke the bristling back. “The beast awakes in you.”
Gavin struggled with the power, fighting for control. “Cat, get away from me before it hurts–”
“’Twill no’ harm me,” she whispered. “’Tis part of you. I can feel him now. He wants us both. He wants to share our pleasure.”
A rumbling groan erupted from Gavin as he rolled Catriona under him, pinning her beneath his weight. His cock felt as if it might explode before he could get inside her, but still he tried to be gentle as he fitted his straining dome to the wet ellipse of her opening.
She arched under him. “Dinnae keep it from me, please, Gavin, please. I need you.”
Seeing Gavin’s skinwork come alive with light had been startling, even a little frightening, but as soon as Catriona sensed the presence of the beast his purpose flooded hers. He had slumbered deep within the highlander until Gavin had come to the island. What they had shared at the falls had roused him from his sleep, and now he wanted everything.
From the rigid set of his shoulders Gavin still resisted the beast, but she could feel his will wavering. Deliberately she stroked his ink again, this time with the edge of her nails, and spread her thighs wider. Her folds splayed over his swollen dome, drenching him with her silkiness as she lifted her hips.
“There,” she whispered, tugging his head down to hers as she moved against him. “’Tis where you belong. Inside me, loving me. You cannae hurt me when I want you so much. Give me all of you, my man, my beast.”