“Calm down, little brother. It was just for show,” Magnus groused. “I had to use a wee bit of theater to get these two away from the crowd they’d attracted. The rifles weren’t even loaded. I used the antique ones hanging on the game room wall.”
That calmed Iain, but only a little. “But you frightened her.”
Magnus shrugged. “You don’t think she could do with a wee fright then, Iain? After all, she had you damn near hysterical when you couldna find her back at her flat. You’ve been pining over this mouse for years, and after you risked everything, even going against our most ancient laws to tell her the truth, she refused to believe you. Not only that, she’s compromised all of us by coming here. So aye, to my thinking there’s no harm in scaring her a wee—”
Magnus’ defense of his actions came to an inelegant and abrupt end when Iain’s fist landed directly in his older brother’s face. And this time the king of Faoltiarn didn’t just flinch, he was laid out flat on the ground.
Not exactly knocked out, but not without injury, judging from the copious amount of blood flowing from his nose.
Milly gasped, unable to believe Iain had just punched his own brother in her defense. But Tara only shouted, “Woot-WOOT!” and cackled like this was all good fun.
“Careful there, Boss Wolf,” she said to Iain, “I hear it’s super against the law around here to punch a king.”
Chapter Twelve
Milly walked out of the castle hand-in-hand with Iain and in a complete daze. Her boss, Iain, was a werewolf who’d grown up in an entire village of werewolves. Her best friend was a werewolf. And now, so was she. Because of her new werewolf status, she no longer had cancer. Furthermore, pretty much every werewolf she’d encountered believed she was pregnant.
Pregnant! Her hand found her stomach. A baby was something she’d never dared to hope for. A miracle so far out of reach for a young woman with her medical history, she might as well have wished to grow a set of wings. But now here she was. A werewolf, healthy and strong enough to carry life within her womb. So yeah…lots to process.
And that was before she saw the crowd gathered on the other side of the bridge. No longer the original twenty or thirty who’d shown up in Iain’s backyard. Now the crowd appeared to consist of the entire village of Faoltiarn.
They’d been talking amongst themselves, but all conversation instantly ceased as soon as Milly and Iain appeared on the other side of the bridge. And once more Milly was subjected to that strange stare down. Not menacing, but so direct Milly could feel their eyes on her skin.
Both Iain and Tara cursed softly. “What do you want to do?” Tara asked him over Milly’s head.
“Flank her and follow my lead.”
“Wait, what’s going on?” Milly asked as the two much taller werewolves closed in on either side of her, and started forward across the bridge.
“Fucking Scotland, that’s what going on. Backward-ass country. I knew I should have thought twice before relocating here.”
Not really an answer, but Milly discovered the reason behind their protective stance soon enough.
The moment they stepped foot off the opposite side of the bridge, it started. First one hand, fingers brushing across her skin. Then several more. Someone cried out in Gaelic. And then the touches became a near flurry of fingers, the heavy silence erupting into a frenzy of shouts.
“Banrigh! Banrigh! Banrigh!” the villagers called out as they touched her skin, her hair, her clothes—anything they could reach.
Throughout it all, Iain said nothing, just grimly plowed through the crowd. And even Tara went uncharacteristically silent as she used her body to block as many of the hands as possible.
There was no talk about which car to take when they broke through on the other side of the crowd. They ran as one up the emerald green hill and jumped into Iain’s black Jag, which had been brought to what looked like a screeching halt on the dirt lane just beyond the bridge.
The crowd followed them, however. And by the time Iain had popped the clutch and pushed to start, the villagers were at the window of the back seat Tara had shoved Milly into, banging on the tempered glass. Still shouting that strange word.
“Hold on to her!” Iain yelled at Tara. He jerked the gearshift to the left and slammed it forward. The car reversed so fast, Milly would have fallen into the seat in front of her, if not for Tara’s strong grip.
Iain shifted again, one hand whipping the wheel as he did a dramatic 180, reversing the car’s direction as they sped away back toward the main road out of town.
“What the hell was that?” Milly demanded, looking back over her shoulder at the crowd still standing on the road. They were waving at the retreating car. Like a celebrity had just left their midst.
“The creepiest shit I’ve ever seen,” Tara answered, voice frank.
Iain glared at her best friend through the rearview mirror. “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“I didn’t bring her here, idiot,” Tara shot back. “I accompanied her because I didn’t know how to stop her without breaking several international Lupine laws. I mean, do you know how much easier my life would have been all these years if I could have just straight up told her what I was like you did?”
Iain sliced a grim look at Tara through the rearview. “Does it look to you as if telling her the truth has made my life any easier?”
“Normally, I’d say no,” Tara answered truthfully. “But getting banished from that asshole’s pack sort of seems like a win-win to me.”
“I’m only banished for a little bit. This is Scotland, not Canada mind you.”
“Yeah, that sucks,” Tara conceded with a quiet shake of her head. “Sorry you’re from such a backward-ass country.”
“Okay, I am sick of not understanding anything that’s going on!” Milly shouted. “Will you two just tell me? Now? Before I completely lose it?”
Chapter Thirteen
By the time they got back to Edinburgh, Milly almost wished she hadn’t demanded to know a thing. And as Iain’s car pulled up in front of the terraced apartment she shared with Tara, she thought wistfully of how innocent she’d been the last time she’d walked through her front door. Back then, she’d thought Iain was just an extremely difficult boss. Last Wednesday, she hadn’t understood what he was, or how much he’d risked to save her life.
But now she knew. And though she got out of the car with Tara, she only did so to give her best friend another hug, and to thank her for coming with her to Faoltiarn. “I’m really sorry for all those bad thoughts I had about you and Brian. If I’d known ‘Brian’ was really your full moon cover story…”
Tara laughed. “Girl, stop! Seriously, having a human best friend has been one of the highlights of my life so far. Thanks for putting up with me. And you know, whatever happens after this, I’ve got you. I’m on your side. Now that I don’t have to worry about you finding out what I really am, I give zero birds about this country’s crazy-ass laws. I will ride or die if called upon.”
Milly laughed and hugged Tara again. It all made so much sense now. Insane sense, sure. But sense nonetheless.
However, all too soon the good-bye was over, and Milly watched Tara disappear into the apartment she already knew she’d never live in again. When she turned back around, she found Iain standing below on the curb. As close as he could get without invading her private time with Tara.
With a deep breath, she walked down the steps to stand in front of him. Iain. Her mate. The father of her child. The man who’d saved her life, only to have her ruin his in return.
“Dinna cry. You know I canna bear it,” he said when her shoulders began to shake. But this time instead of handing her a tissue, Iain drew her trembling body into his arms. “You’re wrong. None of this is your fault, chridhe.”
“Can you read my mind, too?” she asked, sniffling into his shoulder.
“Aye, but only the stronger thoughts. It’s the mate bond. Normally, we’d be able to read each other’s m
inds, and you’d be able to control what I do, and dinna hear. That’s the wolf way when it comes to mates. But from what I understand so far, turned wolves don’t have the capacity for it.”
“In the pub, it was like I could feel your anger. Like it was my own. Was that the bond?”
“Aye, and that’s just the start of it. Over time it deepens until you don’t even fight anymore because you understand exactly how your mate feels. But in my parents’ case…”
Now he sighed. “…I reckon it must have been incredibly hard on them both toward the end. My da understanding exactly how unhappy my mother was. My mother unable to abide life in the Highlands. Wolves mate for life—at least we’re supposed to. But my mother left, which is why it’s been so hard for me to forgive her all these years. It nearly tore Da apart when she ran off, and that’s the main reason Magnus got the throne so young. But in most cases, the bond is a good thing, meant to keep two wolves happy and mated for all of their lives.”
Another point of guilt for Milly. By mating with her, he’d never get that soul connection. He’d given up his chance to mate with someone like him. A born wolf who he could communicate back and forth with—
“Don’t be daft, Millicent,” he said, voice chiding as he pulled back to peer down at her with an irritated expression. “It’s just a feature. Like the Bluetooth in my car. I don’t really need it, do I? And the USB cable’s more dependable anyway.”
She smiled sadly and shook her head. “But Bluetooth’s standard in most luxury vehicles.”
“I’m just as happy with talking,” he answered, a tender smile in his voice.
“But why did you do this?” she asked. “Give up so much to help me?”
He blinked down at her as if her question had taken him by surprise. Then with a tight-jawed shake of his head, he said, “Ach, I’ve really gitted this up, haven’t I? Kept so many secrets that I’ve confused you at every turn. Well, let me tell you the all of it, Millicent.”
He cupped the back of her neck then, stroking it with his thumb in a now familiar way. “That first day you came into my office to interview for the position, I knew you were mine. Knew you were the woman I was meant to mate at first sniff. Felt it so powerful, I assumed you were a wolf. But then I noticed the scent that was missing on you. The wolf pheromone, and then I knew…”
Iain let out a shaky breath as if the memory still pained him. “I knew I couldn’t have you. Not even as a girlfriend. That’s fine in the States where they’ve plenty of werewolves running about. But here in Scotland, my village isn’t the only one suffering. The number of new births has dropped dramatically all over. And after our first zero birth year ten years ago, the Council of Kings strictly forbid long-term relationships with humans. So though I wanted you from the moment I saw you, I knew I couldn’t have you. But I couldn’t just let you go, could I? So I hired you on anyway, and vowed to my brother I’d keep my hands off you.”
One side of his mouth lifted in an apologetic smile. “And even though I made you wear that ridiculous fragrance to cover up your intoxicating scent, that vow’s put me in a right terrible mood for nearly three years on. You see, my heart still knew what my nose could no longer smell. I think that was why Magnus was so keen to flirt with you. He was most likely hoping if he turned your head and got you into bed, I’d lose interest. But you never gave him a second look, did you? Which left me to love you from afar, trying to forget you with other human women—but it never worked. The more time we spent together, the more I discovered how smart you are, how clever. My brother thinks you’re a mouse, but to have survived what you did and put up with a cranky bastard like me—well, I know what strong mettle you’re made of, Millicent. Which is why I nearly lost it when I smelled how sick you were last week. Like I said, we wolves can’t contract human diseases, but humans…”
“Humans are so fragile,” she quoted, remembering what he’d said in the waiting room at the ECCC. “It makes it hard to form connections.”
He gave her as sad nod agreement. “I couldna do it, Millicent. Couldna let you die when I knew turning you would solve everything. I suppose it also didn’t hurt that if you became a were like me, then I’d be allowed to mate you.”
“You can only mate with another wolf, but you live in an island nation. That’s probably why your fertility rates have dropped so drastically,” Milly pointed out. “If you can only mate with each other, your gene pool has got to be majorly compromised.”
He nodded. “Our numbers had been reducing for a while before they hit null. Back when my father was a young prince, the Council of Kings started encouraging our young wolves to leave the villages and head to the cities and even outside Scotland and the U.K. That’s why my father decided to attend university in Italy. And the plan worked at first, but not for long. As times changed and she-wolves became more independent, many of the wolves we sent out didn’t return with wives like my father did. But as you can see, it’s become a severe problem, which is why they finally created the Rule of Succession back in the 90s.”
Milly nodded, understanding if not liking the rule Iain had told her about in the car. The one that declared if a king’s sibling brought forth an heir before the king successfully mated a she-wolf, then the king would be deposed and the sibling—regardless of gender—would take over as the rightful ruler of the specific kingdom towns.
“How many kingdom towns are there in Scotland?” Milly asked.
Iain shook his head. “There used to be at least two hundred or more, but now we only have nine left in the entire British Isles.”
“Oh…”
Her breath caught. She’d guessed the answer would be bad, but not that bad.
The memory of all those villagers reaching out to touch her came back in a new light. Banrigh! Banrigh! Queen. That’s what Iain had said the word meant during the long car ride back into Edinburgh.
And she had to ask, “So when you turned me…”
But he started shaking his head before she could finish. “Nay, impregnating you wasn’t my intention at all. My plan from the start was to bring you back to Faoltiarn when the full moon came round. I would’ve kept you safe while you changed. Trust me, Millicent, I wanted to do right by you. Get you through your first transition without burdening you with my notion of us being together. But then you went into heat, and I couldna keep my hands off you. But I also couldna tell you what I really was.”
And he really couldn’t, she realized now. Because it was the law. “But me becoming queen won’t solve anything. This is just one baby. And you don’t even want the throne.”
“I dinna desire it, that’s true. Magnus was born to the role, and I’ve never had an interest in ruling like he has. But I canna just turn my back on it, and on my people. Also, what else am I to do if I’m banished from my city of business?”
“So you don’t want Magnus’s throne, but he’ll have to officially mate a she-wolf before our child is born if he wants to remain in charge? Until then, the only reason you’re allowed to remain in Scotland even though me carrying the next queen or king of Faoltiarn is the only reason you’re allowed to stay in Scotland after telling me?”
Iain nodded gravely. “The punishment for revealing yourself to a human is banishment. That’s precisely why I chose to bite you as a wolf: wolves are not held responsible for things that happen while they are in wolf form. So the only thing I did wrong was to invite you to Faoltiarn. But that rule is frequently broken by our kind—especially with the rise in popularity of Amazon Prime. Now, any wolf can pay a penalty fee of three hundred pounds and voila, they qualify for a year’s worth of Prime two-day delivery. Low price to pay for saving the woman you love at any rate.”
He smiled down at her, but she looked back up at him, beyond stunned. “You truly love me? I mean, you’re not just with me because I went into heat before you were able tell me you turned me into a werewolf?”
“Of course, I love you, you daft woman! Like I said, my nose knew you as soon as you wal
ked through my door. And though I never would’ve wished that diagnosis on you, I hope you eventually come to see it as I do: as the thing that allowed us to be together. Without it, I would’ve spent the rest of my life pining away for the woman I couldn’t have.”
“Oh, Iain…” she said, breathing out his name like a prayer of gratitude. “You don’t need to wait for me to realize how lucky I am, I already know. Thank you. Thank you so much for loving me enough to save my life.”
Milly kissed him then. Sealing in the gratitude. Making the kind of apologies that cannot be conveyed by mere words. I’m sorry for not falling in love with you sooner. I’m sorry I wasted nearly three years not knowing you for who you really are. I’m sorry I only have one life to make it up to you.
They kissed, and then drew back to smile at each other. And for the first time since her long ago interview with Iain, Milly felt like they were on the exact same page.
But then he became serious once more and said, “Now we need to talk about New Zealand…”
Epilogue
“What. A. Dick.”
“Tara…” Milly began, tilting her head at the woman now filling up her phone’s FaceTime screen.
“No, don’t ‘Tara’ me! First, he bites you…”
“Saves my life,” Milly edited.
“Then he mates you without telling you what he is.”
“After I begged him to,” Milly noted.
“And then he goes crazy on you when you attempt to go to New Zealand…”
“Because he’s my bonded mate, and he didn’t know how to handle my leaving. But I’m here now, aren’t I?”
Boy, was she ever. Milly looked around the Queenstown hotel room, hardly able to believe she’d be meeting up with the Milford Track tour group in just a couple of hours.
Tara ignored Milly’s arguments to point out, “You say bonded, I say crazy obsessed stalker. And I think we can all agree after everything that’s happened over the last month that Tara is always right.”
Her Scotttish King_Loving World Page 26