Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  ‘I must speak with Lydell myself, face to face, and tell him to leave us alone,’ Ashley said.

  ‘Then I am coming with you,’ Laren said firmly, and we will ask two of the clansmen to ride with us.

  ‘They may not agree as they wouldn’t want to displease their chief,’ Ashley remarked.

  Laren giggled. ‘I have reason to believe that at least one of them will accompany us willingly.’

  Ashley smiled despite herself, ‘Laren! Is there a young man courting you?’

  Laren nodded, blushing.

  ‘Ah, first love!’ Ashley said, thinking sadly of Tristan and wondering if she would ever feel the same about him again.

  ‘Enjoy the courtship, Laren,’ she said, ‘It’s always the best part of love.’

  They rode together over the moors and the weather was kind as the sun shone down on them. Ashley and Laren wore thick cloaks to protect themselves, but the young men who rode with them seemed quite comfortable in only their kilts and shirts.

  ‘We form a strange party,’ Ashley remarked, ‘I wonder what Lydell will make of us showing up at Dunnotar.’

  But they were not even out of view of Lennox Castle when Ashley heard pistol shots and the rising thunder of horses’ hooves. Laren screamed and pointed ahead, where an army of Mackenzie clansmen were bearing down on them. Ashley turned her horse about, shouting to Laren to gallop back to Lennox Castle, as the two young Kincaid clansmen rode behind with swords unsheathed, to protect the women.

  ‘Go quick and summon the other clans!’ Ashley urged the men who rode with them. ‘Laren and I will take care of ourselves.’

  The men rode away and Laren looked back fearfully, as she and Ashley galloped full speed ahead. Ashley prayed that the Kincaids who were on guard had spied the Mackenzies and that they were ready to defend the castle. The Mackenzies were almost on top of the two women, when the Kincaids, who no doubt had spied the army, reacted with admirable speed and rode to Ashley and Laren’s defense. Ashley heard pistol shots and the clang of swords and claymores, her heart hammering in her breast and her hand on her belly.

  ‘What is it my lady?’ Laren shouted to her.

  ‘It is nothing Laren. I am just anxious about our safety. It is as if Lydell will do anything to ruin my life with Tristan. But I am determined he will not take the life of my child.’ With that Ashley turned around, raced through the men guarding her, and rode valiantly into the fray.

  Laren screamed a warning, but Ashley turned around to reassure her. ‘They will not attack an unarmed woman!’

  The Kincaids fought harder, though they were outnumbered by the Mackenzies, but then, over the moor, the colors of other clan tartans appeared, and surged into the battlefield.

  Ashley took courage at the sight of them and screamed at Lydell. ‘You are a coward Lydell Mackenzie! You attack when my husband is away! But we will bring you to your knees because you seek to take our joy away from us! You may wield Rona like a weapon, but I will discover the truth about Bruce Mackenzie and we will see him reunited with Leana!’

  ‘You should have died on the moor, bastard child!’ Lydell sneered at her, ‘You think you carry an heir within your womb, but what you carry is only what Tristan Kincaid thinks will seal peace amongst the clans – a peace I will never allow.’

  ‘Why do you hate us so?’ Ashley asked, taking her horse right up to him as around them the battle raged. The Mackenzies cast one look at the combined strength of the clansmen bearing down on them and shouted to Lydell. ‘We must retreat! We are no match for the strength of all the clans combined!’

  ‘Take her!’ Lydell shouted to his men, ‘And we will use her to make negotiations in our favor. We will take Lennox Castle yet!’

  ‘You are a boor!’ Ashley screamed at Lydell, ‘I am so glad you did not accept me as your child!’

  From amidst the ranks of retreating men, some of whom had surrounded Ashley, emerged a man on a black steed. He had flaming hair and was tall, broad shouldered and handsome. He wore a kilt bearing the Mackenzie clan colors of blue and green, and carried a claymore.

  ‘What did you say, lady – did you call yourself his child?’

  ‘I do not call myself his child at all! I am ashamed I have his blood. He would have had me die then and he will have me die now. He even left my mother to her fate when she had me in her belly. I would never claim to be his child!’

  The man rode up closer and looked intently at Ashley.

  ‘Come away!’ Lydell shouted at the man, ‘These Kincaids will ruin you!’

  The Mackenzie ranks closed in on Ashley but the combined clan armies expertly dropped the men from their horses with their claymores, leaving them to stumble away, some injured by the fall. However, Lydell and a few of his men held firm on their horses and surrounded Ashley.

  ‘We will not let the lady go until you retreat and cease your attack on us!’ Lydell shouted.

  A Kincaid clansman shouted back, ‘We will kill you all to save our lady!’

  Lydell drew his sword. ‘Take one step towards us and I will plunge my sword into the heart of Tristan Kincaid’s heir. And you know I have no value at all for the life of this bastard woman.’

  The red haired man faced Lydell. ‘This lady here – is she your child?’

  ‘A bastard. What is that to you?’

  The man drew his sword. ‘You know what that is to me, Lydell Mackenzie,’ he said.

  ‘You are a fool to cross swords with me you half-blood bastard!’

  ‘I am no fool!’ The man said, his sword glancing off Lydell’s. Lydell fought him viciously, calling for his clansmen to rally around him, but the clansmen stood back, their support for the young man apparent in their demeanor.

  Ashley studied the man’s face, her heart beating with disturbing rapidity. ‘Who are you?’ She shouted above the clang of swords.

  ‘The man you plan to search for. Bruce Mackenzie!’

  Lydell swung at Bruce and the effort threw him from his horse. Bruce ignored the man as he fell and rode across to Ashley.

  ‘This lady is one of us and I invite you all to pledge not to ever attack the Kincaids again.’

  ‘Why did you attack us?’ Ashley asked breathlessly.

  ‘Lydell has just been waiting for an opportunity to strike without warning. I came along because I was curious about the woman who tamed Tristan Kincaid. The woman who has inspired Tristan Kincaid to bring his sister back and unite her with her lost love – me.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And what I found out was that you are a Mackenzie too. And that we are related.’

  ‘How so?’ Ashley’s breath came so fast that she thought she would pass out on the horse.

  ‘I will tell you everything you need to know in just a little while. Wait here!’

  Bruce rode back to his clansmen and conferred with them.

  ‘I will have you all killed for mutiny against your chief!’ Lydell bellowed, but the Mackenzie clan paid little attention to him and rode away, leaving him to retrieve his horse and follow them.

  Bruce rode back to Ashley’s side as Laren looked at him in wonder.

  ‘Don’t you see it?’ Bruce said excitedly, ‘Our resemblance to each other? Didn’t you guess when Lydell Mackenzie called us both bastards? I am his illegitimate son, and you…I have only just discovered, because it has never been revealed to me in the short time that I have been back…are my half-sister!’

  Ashley’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Where have you been all this while?’

  ‘Living close to the Abbey where Leana has taken shelter…and waiting for such a time as this.’

  ‘When did you return and why are you with fighting against us?’

  ‘I returned as soon as news reached me that Tristan was sending out a search party for his sister and me. I planned to come to him myself, but a castle without its laird is fair game for one as unscrupulous as Lydell.

  Ashley slid off her horse and Bruce swung himself off his steed and came to stand i
n front of her.

  ‘My brother? You are my brother?’

  ‘Yes! And I am proud to call you my sister. You showed such spirit, riding unarmed into the battlefield to confront our so called father.’ Bruce gazed at her admiringly.

  ‘My brother!’ Ashley exclaimed, as if the knowledge had just struck home. ‘I have a brother!’ She threw her arms about Bruce and they hugged each other.

  Laren looked from one to the other, from red hair to flaming locks; from green eyes to green eyes and she drew a deep breath. ‘So it was my lady’s brother who was in love with my laird’s sister…and what a to-do there has been.’

  She took Ashley’s arm, ‘Come, my lady, we must take you back to the castle or my laird will have my head for allowing you to exert yourself so.’

  Ashley looked at Bruce. ‘Where are you staying?’

  ‘I have lodgings near Dunnotar. Lydell will not let me live in the castle.’

  ‘I’m glad he didn’t send you out alone on the moor in the icy rain,’ Ashley said.

  ‘He kept me close because he was afraid I would go to Tristan and reveal who I was.’

  ‘And that you would be united with Leana and then there would be no question of a truce between the clans?’

  ‘And because he knows that the Mackenzie clan’s respect for me grows. I grew up amongst them, you see, and nobody knew I was Lydell’s bastard until I was old enough to make enquiries myself.’

  ‘Come home with me, brother.’

  Bruce grinned. ‘I like the sound of that. I will accept the invitation because as your brother I swear to protect you.’

  They rode back together with Laren and her young man.

  CHAPTER V

  Meanwhile Tristan and the two Kincaid clansmen he had taken with him rode into the dawn, their bodies impervious to the cold, clad only in kilts, shirts and tartan cloaks which they threw off when the sun emerged. About the time that the Mackenzie’s attempt to storm Lennox Castle and take Ashley hostage, had been foiled, Tristan was still only a few miles away, and had stopped at a wayside inn to eat breakfast before they continued on their way.

  The air was thick with conversation as they entered the inn and took their seats at a rustic table where they were served tattie scones, black pudding and thick slices of bread with freshly churned butter. Tristan was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t see Rona enter the door and come up to his table.

  ‘Tristan!’ she said, and the two men with Tristan looked from her to their chief, wondering if they should leave them alone.

  Tristan’s face grew red with suppressed rage. ‘What do you want? Stay away from me and my wife, you hear?’

  ‘Oh,’ Rona said huskily, ‘I only came to warn you that I have received news not minutes ago that Lennox Castle was attacked by the Mackenzies and your dear wife almost taken hostage…until she made away with one of the men who is even now enjoying her hospitality at your table and probably your bed as well.’

  ‘You will stop at nothing to ruin us, won’t you?’ Tristan said, rising to his feet.

  ‘I only wanted to help you by warning you,’ Rona crooned as Tristan brushed past her and strode towards the entrance asking people he encountered on the way if they had heard anything about an attack on Lennox Castle.

  ‘Come!’ He called to his men, when his enquiries revealed that at least part of what Rona had told him was true. They sprang to their saddles with haste and spurred their horses on, never slowing down until they reached Lennox Castle. Fearful of what he might find, Tristan rode through the gates calling out to Ashley in desperation.

  ‘She is safe my laird!’ a guard reassured him, ‘and Lennox Castle is safe too.’

  Relieved, but still anxious, Tristan burst into the dining room to find, as Rona had said he would, Ashley dining with a strange man. Ashley sprang to her feet and ran to her husband, throwing her arms about him as he took her face in his hands, concern for her safety filling his anguished eyes. Then he turned to look at the man who had risen when he entered the room.

  ‘Bruce! Bruce Mackenzie?’

  ‘Yes!’ Bruce answered.

  ‘How did you find him?’ Tristan asked Ashley who could scarce contain her happiness at discovering she had a brother.

  ‘On the battlefield. When we were attacked.’

  ‘You speak so glibly of the attack, my love? Why were you even on the battlefield? How could you show such little concern for your life and the life of our baby?’ He pulled her back into his arms and held her tight; burying his face in her hair, momentarily oblivious to the presence of the man he had launched a search for. Bruce coughed significantly.

  ‘My lord Tristan,’ he said deferentially, ‘Your wife showed such courage today. She has just told me she was on her way to confront Lydell Mackenzie.’

  ‘Why my love, why?’ Tristan turned a pair of agonized eyes on his wife.

  ‘Because I am convinced he was behind everything that has caused us so much distress lately. I also wanted to ask him face to face about Bruce…because we suspected he knew something about him that he wanted to hide from everyone.’ Ashley threw her husband a triumphant look. ‘And now we know what he wanted to hide from us!’

  Tristan looked confused as Ashley left his side, walked over to Bruce and took his hand. ‘Tristan, allow me to introduce to you Bruce Mackenzie…my half-brother!’

  Tristan sank down into a chair, looking stunned.

  ‘How did I not see it?’ he murmured, looking from Ashley to Bruce and back again.

  ‘If you are my wife’s brother, how could you ride with Lydell to attack us when I was away?’

  ‘I had no idea of Ashley’s relationship to Lydell,’ Bruce said, ‘None whatsoever. It came as a shock to me when Ashley referred to the fact that she had no wish to be called his child even if she was of Lydell’s blood…and then I looked more closely at her and I knew.’

  ‘Of course Lydell tried hard to get Bruce to stand with him, but Bruce didn’t …and the rest of the Mackenzie clan defied Lydell and sided with Bruce when he said he didn’t want to fight the Kincaids anymore,’ Ashley explained.

  Tristan went up to Bruce and took his hand. ‘I am sorry for keeping Leana and you apart. It was wrong of me and I admit that I was selfish. I give you my word, Bruce Mackenzie, my…brother in law…that I will do all I can to bring Leana back and celebrate your union if you are still in love with her.’

  ‘Bruce has been living close to the Abbey where Leana has taken shelter,’ Ashley said, ‘Of course he still loves her.’

  ‘How did you come to be here at this time?’ Tristan asked, still mystified.

  ‘I heard you were looking for me and I decided to come to you. But Lydell got to me first and seemed anxious not to let me meet with you…or your wife. The reason is now clear, of course. He knew my loyalties would be divided the moment I discovered Ashley was my half-sister.’

  Tristan turned to Ashley. ‘Come here,’ he said, and Ashley came to him. He swept her down onto his lap and held her close again. ‘Oh my love, my love, you were in such danger and I wasn’t with you.’

  Ashley held his face in both her hands, ‘Yes, but I wasn’t afraid, Tristan. I had no fear at all even when I rode into the fray to confront Lydell. And then Bruce came to my defense.’

  Tristan placed his hand on her belly. ‘For certain you carry a conqueror within your womb, my darling. I cannot leave you now.’ He turned to Bruce.

  ‘Bruce, would you go in all haste, taking as many of my men with you, and bring my sister home again?’

  ‘Would the Abbey allow her to leave just like that?’

  ‘I will send her old nurse with you and a letter for her. I would go myself as I attempted to do this morning, but now I realize I cannot leave Ashley. Not after her ordeal today.’

  ‘Tristan, you must go too,’ Ashley said, ‘I will be safe here, I promise. I will not leave the castle and I know the other clans will not refuse to grant us protection. Besides, I will have my hands full – org
anizing the castle to receive your sister and readying a room for my brother to stay in until he has a place of his own.’

  Tristan looked at Ashley, noting the heightened color in her face, the determined set of her shoulders, and the strong thrust of her chin and knew something had changed her; transformed her from a girl to a woman. He wanted to take her up to their bedroom, to make love to her before he went, but she urged him to eat and then to depart without delay so that they could return soon.

  The moment the men were off, Ashley sent messengers out to the other clans and within the hour the grounds of Lennox Castle were swarming with men from different clans – Gordon, Agnew, Chisolm, Baxter, Wallace, Campbell, Dunbar, Lumsden...

  Ashley looked at the array of kilts, identifying each clan by their colors, and then she called for their attention.

  ‘Men of valor! Allies of the Kincaid clan! I know I go behind my husband’s back, but when I am done with what I intend doing, I am certain he will be well pleased. Alone I am vulnerable, but with you riding with me, I am protected and strong. Today I beseech you to ride with me to Dunnotar Castle where I intend to confront Lydell Mackenzie.’

  ‘What is it that you need to speak with him about?’ a clansman asked.

  ‘I have a letter to him from my dead mother. Lydell has shown only contempt for its contents. The letter reminds him that I am his child and that I am to be given what is due to me. I wish to confront him not on my behalf but on behalf of Bruce Mackenzie, who, I have learned only a few hours ago, is my half-brother. I wish to get what is owed to him and to me, and ensure that when Bruce is married to Leana, he will have an inheritance to fall back on.’

  ‘We will ride with you!’ the clansmen chorused.

  ‘I thank you for doing me this honor!’ Ashley said, and beckoned to Laren and her young man to ride with her.

  ‘My lady, please be careful,’ Laren cautioned, ‘I am concerned for your health.’

  Ashley gave her a reassuring smile, ‘My dear Laren, I have never felt better.’

  As they approached Dunnotar Castle Ashley couldn’t prevent a slight shudder as the memories of her time there came flooding back. But she squared her shoulders, determined to put those memories to flight and instead concentrate on giving Lydell the fight of his life.