War of Hearts

by S. Young

  Thea bristled, her own energy building, matching his and then overwhelming it. Her indignation overpowered his, and her feelings now impacted every one of his pack. And that never happened to an alpha and his pack unless someone more powerful came along. But usually it had to be an alpha wolf.

  Thea didn’t even realize her affect. “If your sister weren’t in trouble, I would so take up that challenge.”

  The pack murmured but Conall could feel the excitement humming from them. Thea might not be a werewolf, but they knew they were in the presence of an exceptionally strong being. If she was a wolf, she’d be the alpha of all alphas.

  Conall leaned down to whisper in her ear, “You’ll just need to take that anger out on me once we’re alone, Thea love.”

  She shivered, and he pulled back to find desire mingled with anger flashing through her eyes. “Oh, I intend to.”

  26

  The pack dispersed. They sent warrior members on a reconnaissance to see what they could learn about the defenses Ashforth had set up at Castle Cara.

  Everyone else had been sent home to await orders.

  Thea waited near the main exit of the Coach House while Conall had a private word with the Canids. She felt off, not herself. For many reasons.

  One was the unreasonable jealousy clawing at her insides at the thought of Conall speaking with Sienna Canid. From Thea’s impression of the werewolf, she could see Sienna was potentially a good match for Conall.

  A little hiss escaped her at the idea, and she turned away to lean against the wall, wishing Conall would hurry. Being left alone to her own thoughts was not a good thing.

  But she couldn’t help it.

  It wasn’t the fact that Sienna was a tall, athletic, gorgeous blond. It was her manner. She was cool, calm, and Thea could see the intelligence behind her lovely blue eyes as she listened and observed patiently. She was exactly the kind of woman she imagined Conall would have been happy to end up with.

  The thought made Thea want to punch something.

  Or jump Conall to remind herself that he wanted no one but her.

  The utter vulnerability that settled over her since baring so much of her past to the pack probably heightened her feelings of jealousy. For years Ashforth’s torment had been a secret she’d guarded. Now these people knew what had been done to her. She did it for Conall, for his sister and best friend, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t one of the most difficult things she’d ever had to do.

  It was like she’d been walking around with metal armor covering her whole body for years and within the space of fifteen minutes, she’d shed plate after plate, until there was hardly anything shielding her. And her skin felt sensitive.

  Raw.

  All Thea wanted was to hide somewhere and instead she was stuck waiting in the Coach House while Conall talked with Peter Canid.

  Thea liked Peter. He had honor, like Conall. Hopefully, her existence hadn’t ruined that alliance. It would be a worthy one. Even if it meant Sienna Canid would still be around. And Richard Canid. Thea didn’t get a great feeling from him. He bristled with impulse control issues.

  “Conall will be along soon.”

  Thea started at the voice and turned to watch Grace MacLennan approach. She braced, not comfortable in this woman’s presence despite her relationship with Conall. It wasn’t just that she’d been willing to throw Thea back to Ashforth in exchange for Callie. There was distrust in Grace’s eyes, and the feeling was mutual.

  Thea nodded. Wary.

  Grace glanced behind her, as if to check she was alone. Then her expression hardened. “What was the cat-o’-nine-tails made of?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Dinnae be coy, lass.” Grace took a step toward her. “It was iron.”

  Thea’s heart began to pound. Grace had guessed. How had she guessed?

  The older wolf nodded slowly. “My mother was a very religious woman. I grew up on her stories of the fae and how they birthed our species. She told me of their remarkable gifts and their one weakness. I never knew if I believed as she did until today … because there is nothing else in the world that explains your existence.”

  Thea didn’t speak, refusing to answer in the affirmative without first discussing it with Conall. They both needed to agree to tell the pack the truth about her.

  Grace cocked her head. “If you’re fae, then the danger you ran up against on your journey here … it’s still out there. You need to tell Conall what you are … and then you must leave for the sake of our pack’s safety.”

  Thea didn’t speak. Hurt, stupid hurt, burrowed its way inside her, but that wasn’t why she stayed silent. She was silent because she’d felt Conall’s almost imperceptible approach as Grace issued her demand. Her eyes moved over Grace’s head to where the alpha stood, his pale gray eyes blazing with disbelief as he stared at the back of Grace’s head.

  The woman tensed and turned slowly to face him. “Conall,” she whispered.

  Thea sensed Conall was attempting to control his emotions. Finally, when he seemed to have gotten a hold on himself, he bit out, “There is only so much lenience I will give you, Grace.”

  “You dinnae know what she—”

  “I do.” The wolf rumbled up from his gut, vibrating in his chest. “I know exactly what she is. It’s not your concern. It is mine, and it is Thea’s.” He took a step toward Grace. “I dinnae care you’re hurting for Callie … I care that a woman who is supposed to be my family would try to send my mate away from me. That she would do that, knowing what it would cost me.”

  “Conall—”

  “When this is over, when we have Callie and James back, you’ll have many amends to make to my mate.” He moved to stride past her to Thea when Grace reached out to touch him. Conall jerked his arm away and glared down at her. “You have no idea how close my temper is to the surface, so I wouldnae if I were you. And if you breathe a word of this to anyone, there will be consequences. You keep this to yourself, Grace. That’s an order from your alpha, and I wouldnae dare defy me. You speak of this and you’re as good as banished from the pack.”

  Hurt suffused Grace’s face.

  Dread filled Thea’s gut as Conall took her hand and led her out of the Coach House. His grip on her was bruising, and she had to hurry to keep up with his angry strides.

  She was already infecting his pack, damaging one of his closest relationships.

  He led her to a Range Rover Defender, rather than the SUV they’d arrived in, and opened the passenger door for her with a yank. Trembling a little, Thea got in.

  The inside of the Defender was utilitarian, a four-by-four built solely for traversing rough terrain. Conall got in and started the engine.

  “Seat belt,” he grunted.

  She pulled it on and waited for him to drive.

  Instead, he turned to her, the muscle in his jaw ticking. “Dinnae even think about using this as an excuse to leave me.”

  Thea was silent a minute, her stomach churning. “You’re choosing me over a woman you’ve known your whole life.”

  The four-by-four jerked as Conall drove away. The silence was thick and heavy and horrible as they drove along the single-track road toward Inveralligin. There was the Coach House, a grocery store, and a camping site in Torridon, but beyond that nothing much else but little white cottages dotted along the coastline.

  When they reached a fork in the road, Conall took the left, the one that spiraled down toward the water, and the trees gave way to reveal a modern-looking home that sat back from the rocky beach of the loch.

  It was all gray and clean lines, at complete odds with the traditional white crofters’ cottages she’d seen.

  Conall parked in the empty driveway.

  The entrance to the house was a wide white door set in between gray brick. There were two long shallow windows on either side. It was masculine and a little cold for Thea’s liking.

  “I cannae keep doing this.”

  Thea’s heart stuttered as she turned to
look at Conall.

  He glared at her. “I cannae keep reassuring you I need you above all else.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t believe that, Conall. I believe it because it’s what I feel for you. Do you think I would have bared myself to a room full of strangers for just anyone? No. So I believe you feel what I feel. But I have nothing but you. You have a family and a pack that depend upon you … and you can tell me until you’re blue in the face you’d choose me over them, but you cannot tell me that choice wouldn’t chip away at the core of who you are. That abandoning your pack wouldn’t fester inside you.”

  The muscle in his jaw flexed, and he looked away, glowering.

  They both knew what she said was true.

  “We need to sleep,” he bit out. “We have a big day tomorrow.”

  Weary beyond weary, Thea got out of the car and followed Conall into the house. Surprise rocked her back on her feet when she stepped inside. In front of her was a staircase that led upstairs to a mezzanine. Downstairs was wide-open space, light flowing in from the other side of the house, which was just wall-to-wall glass.

  To Thea’s left was a small wood-burning stove set between two large bookshelves filled with books. There was a massive leather armchair and stool, big enough for someone of Conall’s dimensions, and opposite it a sofa with a chaise longue. In between was a coffee table. It was a snug little area, despite the lack of walls.

  Beyond it, Thea could see the modern gray and white kitchen. It seemed to wrap around the entire back of the house, moving into the space to her right. At the top of the long length of the room sat the dining table with a bench fitted into the wall. Directly to Thea’s right was a humongous seven-seater corner sofa; opposite that was a huge flat-screen television mounted to the wall.

  His place was clutter-free.

  Conall gestured for her to follow him.

  He led her through the TV room. In the corner where the wall jutted out slightly as a partition between the TV room and the dining room, there was a much larger wood-burning stove with baskets of logs stacked beside it.

  However, what really made the house special was the rolling glass doors that took up the entire back wall of the kitchen. They led out onto a deck where Conall had a table and chairs set up for alfresco dining. From there, a small garden led onto the rocky beach and the loch beyond.

  Views of tranquil Loch Torridon surrounded them.

  Despite the turmoil between them, Thea felt soothed by the sight.

  “Conall,” she whispered, staring out at the glass-like water and surrounding mountains. She could see little white dots of the houses that sat along the opposite coastline.

  “You like it?”

  She felt strangely emotional. “How could I not?”

  He led her upstairs and pointed to their left. “There’s a guest bedroom down there. I use it as my office.”

  The bedroom he took her into was on the right, and even more awe-inspiring than downstairs. It too had a sliding glass door that led out onto a balcony overlooking the loch.

  Thea gazed out, unable to tear her eyes away when the view gave her so much peace. She couldn’t explain it. It just ... it felt like they were at the end of the world, a place that had been left untouched, unspoiled. And in living there they too would be safe from harm.

  Finally.

  “Let’s get some sleep, lass,” Conall murmured.

  She nodded, bemused as he began to undress her. Not wanting to argue with him about anything else, she let him remove her shirt and pants and raised her arms to help him slip his giant T-shirt over her head.

  It hung off one shoulder, the hem brushing her mid-thigh. Conall’s eyes glinted with pleasure to see her in it, and more than a little desire. She thought for a minute he’d make a move on her, but he pulled back the white duvet on the super king-size bed and nudged her in.

  Thea sank into it, smelling Conall on the sheets, and nuzzled into the pillow. The mattress was like a cloud.

  Tiredness weighed her to the bed and her eyes fluttered closed. Sleep was good. Sleep would take away all her worries for a little while. Aware of the whisper of Conall’s movements, Thea only fully relaxed when the bed dipped as her mate got in beside her.

  Then his heat hit the length of her back as he snuggled into her, wrapping his arm around her waist. He nuzzled her neck like she’d nuzzled the pillow, and he breathed in deeply.

  Thea melted against him.

  Why couldn’t it be like this always?

  Just him and her, a bed, a view, and no one else to bother them.

  Fear filled her, quick and unexpected, as she realized she was going to lose Conall. It wasn’t a worry. It was a knowing. She knew deep in her soul that her grip on Conall was tenuous. He was slipping through her fingers.

  Her mate grew rigid at her back. “Thea?” He pressed down on her shoulder, forcing her to turn and open her eyes.

  Concern marred his brow. “I can smell your fear.”

  Damn him and his wolf senses.

  “It’s just everything,” she whispered, trying to assure. “It’s been a long few days.”

  His expression was determined. “You have nothing to fear from my pack or from Ashforth. You know I willnae let anything happen to you.”

  Thea reached up to smooth her fingers across his bristly cheek. “And you know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  He grasped her hand as if he understood more than she was saying. “Thea?”

  “Get some sleep.” She pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. “Like you said, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

  How she’d slept through Conall waking and showering, Thea didn’t know, but she had. She’d rolled over in bed to an empty place where her mate should have been and found a note scrawled in his handwriting.

  * * *

  I didn’t want to wake you. I’m at the Coach House but I’ll be back soon. There’s food in the kitchen. Eat. Rest. Then we take this fight to Ashforth.

  Conall

  * * *

  The thought of facing Jasper Ashforth sort of killed Thea’s appetite but she got up and used Conall’s impressive shower room with its two rainfall showerheads. She realized that everything in his house was a little oversized to accommodate her mate.

  Downstairs she puttered around in the modern kitchen with its matte-gray cupboard doors and glossy white-tiled walls and floor, and ended up forcing herself to eat a banana, yogurt, and some granola. It was raining so she couldn’t dine on the deck, but she could sit at the kitchen island gazing out at the water bouncing off the loch. The gray clouds had turned the loch gray and the greenish-brown mountains looked darker, more formidable.

  Even then the place was stunning.

  An hour passed and Conall still hadn’t returned. Thea pored over his book collection, discovering he was a man of varied tastes. There were classics by Charles Dickens and Jonathan Swift, mainstream thrillers, cult classics, and quite a bit of sci-fi.

  No surprise there, she’d thought, amused.

  Thea flicked through his TV to see his recordings filled mostly with sports, history channel stuff, and comedy.

  Good to know.

  Realizing it had stopped raining, Thea ducked outside, hoping the fresh air would temper her impatience. If Conall didn’t return soon, she would run to the Coach House to see what was happening. He was not leaving her out of the battle plans.

  Thea didn’t know how long she stood on the rocky beach, staring out at the water, listening to the gentle, relaxing lap of the loch against the shore. She talked herself out of thinking too hard about what awaited her and Conall beyond their fight with Ashforth.

  So lost in trying not to think, she took a moment to hear the rocks move behind her. She whirled, alert, and relaxed only marginally when she found herself face-to-face with a familiar wolf.

  Thea frowned. Had something happened to Conall?

  “What—”

  She felt the prickle of warning on
her neck.

  But it was too late.

  The warning came too late.

  The wolf had already closed the distance between them and plunged the needle into her neck.

  Fire burned through her veins and Thea crumpled, in too much agony to think of anything beyond hoping for the darkness to claim her.

  27

  Callie stared across the dining table at James, her worry and impatience obvious. He felt it too. She could tell.

  The great hall of Castle Cara was small, but they were in a medieval castle. Proportions were different back then. This size of room would have been more than adequate. There was a large reconstructed gothic window with wrought iron tracery and stained glass built into its original two-meter recess, highlighting the thickness of the castle walls. It allowed in only marginal light, so the room was lit artificially. Electricity had been installed years ago, and candle bulbs illuminated the great hall perched upon two large wrought iron chandeliers above the table.

  Paintings of previous owners and beautifully woven tapestries covered the brick walls. Rugs were placed carefully around the hall to break up the uneven wooden flooring.

  At one end of the room the large fireplace had been reinstated, and it crackled to life, the smell of burning logs filling the hall. Callie usually enjoyed the smell and was sure the human guards were grateful for a fire on a dreary spring day such as this.

  But everything about Castle Cara chafed.

  Although she’d never say so to Conall, she’d felt like a prisoner from the moment she’d entered Jasper Ashforth’s domain. Guards, werewolves, and humans during the day, vampires at night, followed her and James everywhere.

  It hadn’t been so difficult to endure when they were in contact with Conall but they’d heard nothing from her brother, and Ashforth wasn’t telling.

  He’d stationed guards at each end of the hall, eyes and ears every bloody where. Callie knew from a visit to Eilean Donan that these medieval castles usually had little spy holes in the great hall, so the owner could listen in on his or her guests.