Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  ‘We should have been one of them,’ Duncan wept.

  ‘Let’s get away from this place,’ Craig said.

  ‘No!’ Duncan exclaimed, ‘He may be here. The laird. We must find him…and we must find the man whose voice we just heard.’

  ‘There may be others too – wounded men – some beyond help. How much can we do? We are just two men with no skills to heal broken bodies.’

  ‘We can comfort them in their final hour,’ Duncan said, more avidly combing the moor for traces of life. The two men fanned out, continuing their search. Lachlan came to again, focusing with difficulty, even speech seeming impossible. He saw someone pass him by and then turn back and peer into his face. He thought the man was familiar but he couldn’t be sure.

  ‘Duncan! It’s the laird!’ Craig shouted. ‘Duncan! Duncan! The laird! I’ve found the laird!’

  Duncan whipped about and sped to Craig’s side, chastising his partner for shouting loud enough to attract the redcoats, but when he saw Lachlan, he was as joyful as Craig was. They packed his wound with fabric torn from their sleeves and Duncan lifted him up onto his horse. But both were uncertain about their next course of action because Lachlan looked close to death.

  CHAPTER VI

  Duncan and Craig rode away from the moor, moving with as much speed as possible towards the closest hamlet. There they sought help from a local medic and had Lachlan’s wound cleaned and bound. The medic poured a homemade brew down Lachlan’s throat to revive him, while his wife fed him hot porridge and brought food for Duncan and Craig. The two watched over their laird, taking it in turns to sleep. In the half light before the next dawn, Lachlan surfaced from his unconscious state, aware at once of the pain in his side.

  ‘Where am I?’ he groaned.

  ‘My laird!’ Duncan exclaimed with relief, ‘You’re alive and well. We found you on Culloden Moor, half conscious, and brought you here where these very kind people have been caring for you.’

  ‘Take me home to Campbell Castle,’ Lachlan said and Duncan was quiet, uncertain of what to say.

  ‘We had to flee the castle,’ Duncan said.

  ‘You deserted Campbell Castle?’ Lachlan asked, alarmed.

  ‘Yes. We had to because we heard that the redcoats were laying waste to every castle and homestead in their path.’

  ‘And where is Ilisa? Take me to her.’

  Duncan said nothing and Lachlan tried to get up. ‘Where is Ilisa?’ he asked, louder now, so that Craig awoke, and the medic came running to help.

  ‘Rest now, my laird. You need to get better. Your wound needs to heal,’ Duncan said, trying desperately to ease the situation.

  ‘Where is Ilisa? Tell me!’ Lachlan had raised himself up, and was holding on to his wounded side, his voice ragged.

  ‘At Innis Castle…we think,’ Craig said, ‘and as soon as you are better Duncan and I will go and fetch her.’

  ‘Is she with her clansmen? Is she safe?’

  Duncan and Craig exchanged looks.

  ‘We hope so,’ Duncan said.

  ‘Hope so? Hope so? What do you mean? Is she or is she not alive and well?’ Lachlan began to cough as his emotions got the better of him, and Craig and Duncan eased him back onto the bed.

  ‘You must rest my laird. It is important,’ Duncan said.

  At Innis Castle Ilisa looked about her. The dungeon was dark and frightening, and Ilisa wondered if she would ever see daylight again or indeed live to tell the story of her incarceration. She could hear the occasional groan and wondered where it came from. For all she knew there were ghosts there. At length she made so bold as to call out, ‘Is there anyone else here?’

  Silence followed her question, but then she heard a groan again and wondered if perhaps the person who shared the dungeon was hurt, sick or dying. Her answer came in the morning when a trapdoor was opened and a sliver of light showed her the outline of a man lying on the stone floor. He looked more dead than alive, but as the light shone on his face his eyes flickered open and he looked at Ilisa.

  ‘Are you from Clan MacDougall?’ Ilisa called out.

  ‘And what if I am lassie?’

  ‘If you are, I am your distant relative.’

  ‘Why are you here?’ the man asked.

  ‘I was taken captive by the redcoats.’

  ‘Well, then you have only to wait.’

  ‘Wait for what?’ Ilisa asked.

  ‘To be taken out, raped, lashed and killed.’

  Ilisa grew pale. ‘Is that to be my fate? And what of you?’

  ‘I will be lashed and hanged.’

  ‘And is there no escape?’

  ‘None.’ The man sat up groaning and Ilisa saw that he was chained to the wall. She sat back in the shadows and began to weep, but soon her tears were dry and she slept, waking to someone harshly shaking her. She cried out and a hand was clapped over her mouth.

  ‘Sssh!’ a man’s voice said.

  ‘Who are you? What do you want of me?’ Ilisa asked, fearful for her safety and remembering what her fellow prisoner had said of her fate.

  ‘I want to help you escape,’ the man said, and Ilisa saw that he was the more sympathetic of the two soldiers who had captured her. ‘Come with me,’ he said, ‘I know a way out from the other side that nobody else knows of.’

  Ilisa followed the soldier through the cavernous dungeon, as he felt his way through, with his hands on the walls. They seem to have walked a long way in the darkness when all at once Ilisa saw a light in the distance.

  ‘What is that light?’

  ‘The sunshine,’ the soldier said.

  Ilisa’s heart leapt at the thought of being set free, but she wondered what the soldier would demand in return for his kindness.

  ‘Why are you setting me free?’ she asked him.

  ‘Because I don’t want another needless death on my hands,’ the soldier said. They were walking straight towards the light now and the soldier turned around and lifted Ilisa up onto the edge of a rock. She stood up and gasped. Before her was the most beautiful loch.

  ‘Go quickly!’ the soldier urged, ‘and keep running until you get as far away as possible from here.’

  Ilisa took only a moment to look up at the sky and take a deep breath of fresh air before she began to run. She kept to the wooded paths, hiding herself in the shrubbery each time a redcoat passed by. It would seem that the highlands were aflood with them, and Ilisa thought longingly of the days before the war. She was uncertain of which direction to take; trying to pick out wagon tracks, hoping they would lead her to a friendly homestead. She stopped by a loch and drank water and washed herself, glad of a bannock she had concealed in her shawl. Though days old, it still tasted good to one as hungry as Ilisa was, and she wolfed it down… and then lay back amidst the bushes, weariness claiming her. She was roused from her light slumber by the sound of horses’ hooves and hushed voices. Ilisa drew further back into the bushes that lined the banks of the loch, springing out joyfully when she saw who the voices belonged to.

  ‘Duncan! Craig!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Mistress!’ Duncan said, his face breaking into a relieved smile. ‘You’re alive and safe!’

  ‘And so are you both!’

  Craig’s smile disappeared and his face fell. ‘We are sorry…for leaving you like that. And we’re glad that the redcoats didn’t take you captive.’

  ‘Actually they did,’ Ilisa said, ‘but don’t look so crestfallen. One of the soldiers was good enough to let me go.’

  ‘Did they hurt you?’ Duncan asked, concerned.

  ‘No…but they put me in a dungeon, and that wasn’t very pleasant. The soldier who helped me escape was really kind, though.’ She paused for breath. ‘Duncan, Craig - I know the way back inside the dungeon from the outside of Innis Castle – and there’s someone who I believe must be MacDougall there. Perhaps we could go back and rescue him?’

  Craig and Duncan exchanged glances. ‘Mistress, you need to come with us and not delay. The laird…�
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  ‘Is the laird alive? Did you find him?’

  ‘Yes, we found him but he lies injured in the house of a kind and helpful stranger – afraid for your safety. It was at his behest that we came in search of you and we are so relieved that we found you.’

  Ilisa was staring at them with tears of joy in her eyes. ‘My husband is alive!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Alive but injured and desiring to meet you without delay,’ Craig said, bringing one of the horses around so that she could climb on.

  ‘Duncan,’ Ilisa said, ‘If I return to my laird with Craig, and if I tell you how to enter the dungeon, would you rescue the man who lies there waiting for certain death at the hands of the redcoats?’

  Duncan hesitated only a minute before nodding. Ilisa climbed onto one of the horses behind Craig and Duncan watched them ride away before he made his way to the dungeon entrance near the loch that Ilisa told him lay behind Innis castle.

  CHAPTER VII

  It was a historic day when the Campbell clansmen led by Lachlan rode south to Innis castle and reclaimed it. The pipers played loud and long that day, celebrating Lachlan’s return to health, to life and to the former home of Clan Campbell. Later that day Lachlan and Ilisa strolled on the moor, turning to look back at their new home.

  ‘It seems like a dream,’ Lachlan said, ‘That you came back to me unharmed; that Duncan saved your fellow clansman and that he returned the castle to Clan Campbell after the redcoats were forced to leave. Who would ever have thought all of that possible?’

  ‘He was so grateful when Duncan saved him.’ Ilisa said. ‘But what of Campbell Castle?’

  ‘Burned, pillaged, razed to the ground,’ Lachlan said regretfully. ‘I am glad you left before the redcoats got there.’

  ‘It was all due to Aggie’s foresight,’ Ilisa said, ‘I wonder where she is – and if she is alive.’

  ‘I have only one misgiving – that she left you alone with Duncan and Craig.’

  ‘She must have done that with good reason. Perhaps she felt she would slow us down.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Lachlan said, his eyes softening as they fell on Ilisa’s face and caressed her body.

  ‘Come here, my bonnie lassie,’ Lachlan said, drawing Ilisa close and kissing the top of her head. ‘You have been much too busy turning Innis castle into a home, that you seem to have had little time for your husband,’ he teased.

  ‘Since my husband recovered from his injuries I have scarce had much sleep,’ Ilisa laughed, turning her face up to his for a kiss. His tongue curled around hers as his hands cupped the cheeks of her buttocks and drew her pelvis up against his.

  ‘Maybe we should go inside and up to our bedroom,’ Ilisa said.

  ‘Or maybe we should just stay here, hidden by the shrubbery,’ Lachlan replied, releasing one of her breasts from the bodice of her dress. He held it in his hand, cupping and squeezing it gently, his thumb brushing her nipple so that it stood erect like a ripe bud. Lachlan released the other breast, crushing it softly against his palm while Ilisa stood on tiptoe and thrust her pelvis against his. She leaned back to look into her husband’s eyes, and he leaned over to kiss her. The kiss deepened and the pressure of his hands on her breasts intensified. She raised his kilt as they stood there, and lowered herself to her knees to plant a kiss on his rampant manhood and fill her mouth with as much of it as she could. Lachlan threw his head back and groaned, arching his pelvis against her mouth to give her better access to him. Then he dropped down beside her and tumbled her over, pulling her dress up to reveal the exquisitely moist nest between her rounded thighs. He kneaded the flesh and kissed the insides of her thighs, nibbling the lips that concealed her core and sucking at the bud between to release a startling flood of passion. Ilisa moaned and whimpered, pulling Lachlan’s head down further between her thighs and cradling his head as he continued to pleasure her. He came up for air, his lips seeking and finding her breasts again.

  ‘Oh but I love these,’ Lachlan said hoarsely, ‘and this,’ he said, running his lips down to her core again, ‘And this,’ he said, burying his face in the hollow of her neck, ‘And this,’ he said, gently nibbling her earlobes and sending sparks of desire shooting down to her pelvis. He turned her over, kneading her buttocks, kissing them and trailing his hot tongue over her flesh so that she bucked and ground against his lips.

  ‘Take me Lachlan, oh take me!’ she begged, trying to turn over and draw him in. But he raised her body up so that her buttocks were in the air and then he drew her pelvis against his manhood. His hardness sliced through her and she ground against his embedded manhood, moaning with pleasure. Her body was rocked with every stroke of his ardour, her breasts jerking and swaying with the movements of his passion, until he seemed peaked and erupted. She felt the molten surge released in a series of spasms inside of her – waiting only till the last spasm before she turned over and took him in her mouth again, feasting on the remnants of his spill and watching him grow hard and eager again. Then she guided his substantial organ into her core.

  ‘I just want to watch you as you enjoy me,’ she whispered as his face contorted with pleasure and effort. She wiped the beads of sweat off his brow as he rode her to another burst of ecstasy, his frenzied movements and the heat of his spill taking her to a new level of bliss.

  ‘Oh Lachlan!’ Ilisa groaned, and his heart overflowed with joy to hear her cry out his name.

  ‘I love you Ilisa,’ Lachlan said.

  ‘I love you Lachlan,’ Ilisa replied, as his head dropped to the side of her neck and his flaming hair covered her face as their bodies convulsed together. She held him against her, loath to let him roll over to her side.

  ‘I want you to crush me till I cannot breathe,’ Ilisa said, ‘and till your breaths are mine and mine are yours.’ Lachlan kissed her lips as she spoke and lay atop her till the pounding of his heartbeat returned to its even rhythm.

  They walked slowly back to the castle, but when they reached the doorway, they turned to each other and rapidly climbed the stairs to their room. Lachlan had grabbed her before the door even closed behind them and he lifted her up as she freed her breasts and dropped them between his eager lips. He backed her up against a wall and threw off his kilt while she pulled her clothes off her and opened herself to him – wrapping her legs around his waist as he took her possessively, eagerly, fully.

  They left the room to eat a hurried meal but saw a laden table and suddenly realized that their energies needed to be restored. They fell upon the goose and pheasant, eating from one plate and feeding each other in between kisses. A maid burst in, giggling with embarrassment that she had caught Lachlan and Ilisa sharing a passionate kiss.

  ‘My laird,’ she said, coughing to attract Lachlan’s attention, ‘Ye have surely not forgotten the banquet that the clansmen have planned in your honor.’

  Lachlan turned to the maid, his confused expression revealing that he had indeed no memory of any banquet.

  ‘I must confess it slipped my mind too,’ Ilisa said, ‘What with my mind being on other things.’ She gave Lachlan an adoring look and the maid looked embarrassed.

  ‘The banquet is at Cawdor Castle,’ the maid said, curtseying and backing out of the doorway, ‘Tonight!’

  ‘Cawdor? Why Cawdor?’ Lachlan said, and Ilisa shook her head as stood up.

  ‘I need to find something to wear,’ she said.

  ‘Maybe it’s not clothes you should be thinking of right now,’ Lachlan laughed, pulling her down onto his lap and kissing her. ‘I want you so much,’ he whispered. Ilisa placed a finger on his lips. ‘Later,’ she said.

  That evening Lachlan looked resplendent in his clan tartan. Ilisa wore a dress of pale gold taffeta and her dark hair was wound up and around her head.

  ‘You look so beautiful I can scarce take my eyes off you,’ Lachlan said when he saw her. He took her hand and his eyes fell hungrily on the rise of her breasts above the bodice of her dress. She looked fuller, riper. Lachlan planted a kiss between h
er breasts, lingering over the kiss and inhaling the fragrance of her body.

  ‘Ok, just a taste,’ Ilisa said, unlacing her bodice and offering him a breast. Lachlan released the other, cupping both breasts and squeezing them together, bouncing them and kneading them. He kissed one nipple and then the other, sucking them eagerly until she pulled them away and restored them to the safety of her bodice.

  ‘We will be late if you continue to do that,’ Ilisa warned, backing away from him.

  When they arrived at Cawdor Castle they were greeted by pipers and fanfare. Then they were conducted inside the castle where a lavish feast awaited them. A flamboyant Scotsman came rushing forward to greet them.

  ‘Ilisa,’ Lachlan said, ‘Meet my cousin Angus – laird of Cawdor Castle.’

  Ilisa extended her hand, looking about her as she did so – at the clan heraldry that adorned the walls and the exquisite furnishings and tapestries.

  ‘You have a beautiful home,’ Ilisa said, allowing Angus to guide her into a luxurious room where the banquet was laid.

  ‘What is the occasion for the banquet, cousin?’ Lachlan asked.

  ‘I will reveal the reason soon, Lachlan. Now come, why don’t you and your lovely wife join in the dancing?’

  Lachlan took Ilisa’s hand and they joined the dancers. Ilisa felt dizzy with happiness as she looked into her husband’s eyes. As they finished a dance and walked over to the banquet tables, they heard Angus calling for attention and the guests gathered around to hear what he had to say.

  ‘The highlands have been through the hardest of times – fighting a war that caused more bloodshed than we ever imagined. We all have lost properties, suffered injuries and endured substantial emotional turmoil as loved ones were felled by the redcoats’ guns and our homes were laid siege to, burned and plundered. But Cawdor Castle stood firm through all this – thanks to the clansmen who fought valiantly and guarded it day and night. I may have survived the war, but I have no wish to continue to remain in the highlands, beloved as they are to me. I have made plans to leave for France at the earliest – a country sympathetic to the cause we fought for, and a country that I wish to make my future home in.’ He paused as a ripple went through the assembled gathering. ‘So what will become of this elegant home, you may wonder. Cawdor Castle will pass on to someone who has as much right to own it as I do.’ There was a hush as the guests began to exclaim in excitement, and some in envy. ‘I have held this banquet today as my farewell to Cawdor Castle and to all of you. And from henceforth, the laird of Cawdor will be my cousin Lachlan!’