Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  Lydell’s guards on the ramparts saw the clans approach and sent out a call to arms, but none of the Mackenzie clan appeared. Lydell was both frightened and livid as his men deserted him, leaving him open to the attack of the combined clans who broke through the flimsy barriers and stormed into the grounds of Dunnotar.

  ‘Lydell Mackenzie!’ a Kincaid clansman called, ‘My lady Ashley wishes to speak with you!’

  ‘I have nothing to say to her,’ Lydell called down from the ramparts.

  ‘If you do not come down and welcome my lady into your castle, then we will attack you without mercy!’ the clansman warned.

  Lydell looked down at the sea of men that swarmed below, all of them armed with claymores, swords and pistols and all of them aware that Lydell had only his castle walls for protection and nothing else. All his men were staging a mutiny that left him defenseless.

  ‘If you come down and listen to what my lady Ashley has to say, then we will not attack and after the negotiations, we will leave your castle intact and be on our way.’

  ‘How do I know this is not a trap?’ Lydell asked and Ashley answered, ‘Because unlike you, we have principles. Because, unlike you, when we make a promise or a declaration, we honor it.’

  Moments later Lydell emerged, standing in the doorway, his hand on his pistol, ready to defend himself to the death. Ashley was assisted off her horse and accompanied by the Kincaid clan to the doorway to speak with him.

  ‘Hand over your arms, Lydell Mackenzie,’ Ashley commanded, beckoning to a clansman to take his pistol and sword.

  ‘And now we stand on even ground,’ Ashley said.

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘Only what is due to me according to this letter.’ Ashley held out the letter but did not let Lydell take it from her hand. ‘You have not acknowledged me as your issue, and the only reason you kept Bruce close was to prevent him from discovering his relationship with me.’

  ‘What do you want woman?’

  ‘You will accord me due respect,’ Ashley snarled uncharacteristically. ‘And you will accord this letter due respect and give me what you owe me. You will also give Bruce what you owe him.’

  ‘And why should I do that when I have children born within wedlock?’

  ‘Because you will burn in hell if you don’t. And also because these men behind me will most certainly send you to an early grave.’

  ‘What if I told you there is nothing due to you or to Bruce?’

  ‘My mother said there is something due to me and I will claim it. What is it?’ Ashley snatched a sword out of a surprised clansman’s hand and advanced menacingly on Lydell. He laughed, ‘You do not know how to wield that weapon bastard child, so do not play your games with me.’

  The remark only served to incense an already angry Ashley and she waved the sword threateningly at him. ‘I have been trained in swordplay, believe it or not,’ she said, ‘and I will not hesitate in using my skills on you.’

  Lydell retreated a few steps, but the clansmen pulled him out of the door and held him, trembling, before Ashley. ‘I want what is due to Bruce and to me, you hear?’ Ashley screamed into his face.

  A voice was heard from the ramparts, where Lydell’s wife and sons stood, watching the proceedings with growing consternation.

  ‘Give it to your bastard, Lydell! Give it to her or she will kill us all!’

  Ashley looked up at the woman standing there, hair flying about her. ‘Do you know anything of what is owed to Bruce and me?’

  ‘Castles – Duffries and Glamoos which belonged to your mother’s family. Your mother’s sapphire necklace, which Lydell took from her and gave to me. Duffries Castle was to be your dowry.’

  Ashley’s heart was pounding and her eyes flashed. ‘And how did you take all this from my mother, Lydell? How?’ She raised the sword. ‘How did you get it from my mother? Tell me!’ Ashley roared.

  Lydell fumbled with words, wondering how to save himself, but fear had loosened his wife’s tongue. ‘He blackmailed her!’ the woman called out from the ramparts. ‘He said he would tell the Englishman she married that you were not really his child.’

  ‘Who does Dunnotar Castle belong to?’ Ashley asked, addressing the woman on the ramparts.

  As Ashley looked up, Lydell lunged at her. With a speed that surprised everyone gathered there, but Ashley most of all, she flung out the sword, injuring Lydell’s arm. A cry went up from the ramparts. ‘Don’t make me a widow! Please don’t make me a widow! Dunnotar Castle belonged to your grandfather’s family.’

  Ashley gasped. ‘And how did it fall into Lydell’s hands?’

  ‘He told your grandfather that he would marry your mother and Dunnotar was given to him as the dowry he demanded before the wedding.’

  ‘But of course you never ever intended to marry my mother. Why?’

  ‘Because I hated her family,’ Lydell spat out, holding his injured arm from which blood gushed onto the flagstones.

  ‘Bring me writing materials,’ Ashley instructed her clansmen, who entered Dunnotar boldly, ‘And bandage Lydell’s arm. I don’t want him to die. I want him to live to see ruin.’

  ‘Will you turn us from our home?’ Lydell whined.

  ‘You turned me away from this castle didn’t you?’

  ‘He was afraid you would find out it was yours, that’s the only reason why,’ Lydell’s wife moaned from the ramparts.

  ‘The only reason you say?’

  When the writing materials were brought to her, Ashley pushed them into Lydell’s trembling hands.

  ‘Now set this down in words,’ she said, ‘I give to Bruce Mackenzie Dunnotar Castle and Glamoos Castle. To Ashley Mackenzie, wife of Tristan Kincaid, I return Duffries Castle, the sapphire necklace and all other items of value that belonged to her family.’

  Ashley snatched the document from Lydell’s hand when he had finished stamping it with his seal. ‘And now, tell me, who was my mother? Was she the common wench you made her out to be? Someone of low birth that you had no use for once she was with child?’

  Far from contrite, Lydell said, ‘She was a Mackenzie. Her family was wealthy and she was spoiled. I grew up fighting for my rights.’

  ‘And so you used my mother and took what was hers, in order to make yourself feel better?’

  ‘She was easy, was your mother. Like you,’ Lydell said contemptuously. At that, Ashley threw herself at him, pounding him with her fists, the discarded sword clattering to the flagstones. A Kincaid clansman pulled her away and another aimed a blow to Lydell’s jaw and another to his belly.

  ‘Leave Dunnotar now, and be on your way,’ Ashley said.

  ‘Where will we go?’ Lydell’s wife wailed.

  ‘I have been told you have land and property three days’ journey from here. Go there, away from us, and let there be peace amongst the clans.’

  As Lydell and his family were marched out of Dunnotar by the Kincaids, Ashley addressed them one more time. ‘You may each take a horse and as many clothes as you need. You see, I have more decency than you will ever be capable of. And don’t ever return to these parts or all the clans will turn on you and tear you limb from limb.’

  Laren was distressed to see Ashley weeping as they rode back to Lennox Castle.

  ‘My lady, what distresses you so?’

  ‘The fact that I could treat my father like that.’

  ‘But consider how he treated you…and your mother.’

  Ashley wiped her tears with the back of her hand. ‘Yes, but I never thought I could be so…so…cruel.’

  Laren looked at her with admiration, ‘You discovered your strength and it comes from the life within you.’

  Ashley smiled through her tears. ‘Tristan said I carry a conqueror within me.’

  ‘You sure do, my lady,’ Laren said, ‘Look, how you reclaimed your birthright.’

  CHAPTER VI

  The Abbey was perched on the top of a hill and Tristan, Bruce and the two men accompanying them, had to do all th
ey could to stay on their horses as their mounts slipped and slithered on the way up to the top. When they reached the Abbey it was cloaked in darkness, almost sinister in the moonlight, but when they knocked on the door and entered, a strange peace enveloped them.

  Tristan left the others and went into a windowless room to speak to a veiled lady about Leana.

  ‘We cannot allow one of our wards to be taken away just like that,’ the lady said.

  ‘I am her brother. Perhaps she has mentioned me.’

  ‘I know who you are Tristan Kincaid.’

  ‘Then please, let me speak with Leana.’

  ‘You must wait until morning,’ Tristan was told. They were conducted to a small dormitory with sacking on the floor and left to a meal of bread and milk which they ate by the light of a single oil lamp. Tristan slept fitfully, his mind unable to rest. He thought of Ashley and hoped she was safe in the castle and he thought of Leana and felt regret at all that he had put her through.

  ‘Bruce,’ Tristan called out, ‘Are you asleep?’

  ‘No. Sleep eludes me,’ Bruce said, ‘I am anxious to see Leana.’

  ‘I am too,’ Tristan replied.

  ‘Is there a way out of this room?’ Bruce asked, ‘I feel stifled. I need fresh air.’

  ‘It will be cold outside,’ Tristan warned as Bruce slipped out of the room.

  Bruce walked through a lamp lit passageway, through what appeared to be a refectory and then found a door that led into a kitchen garden. He stretched his arms and flexed his shoulders, taking large gulps of fresh air and filling his lungs with the sweet fragrance of the herbs that grew in the garden. From the shadows a figure emerged and Bruce jumped back, alarmed. He had heard of ghosts that resided in buildings like this, and he began to pray as the figure drew closer.

  Bruce was rooted to the spot, his nerves on edge, a chill creeping up his spine when the figure came even closer and he saw that it was a woman wearing an arisaid and cloak. His heartbeat accelerated.

  ‘Leana?’

  ‘Bruce!’

  They ran into each other’s arms, kissing each other with despair and abandon. ‘Oh Leana!’ Bruce gasped. ‘Why did you run away from me?’

  ‘I had to get away from my brother, Bruce. And I had to preserve my honor. This was my one recourse.’

  ‘And me? Didn’t you ever consider how I would feel when you ran away without telling me why?’

  ‘I’m sorry my love, I needed to get away to see whether our love would survive us being apart. I needed to know whether what my brother kept saying was true.’

  ‘What did he keep saying?’

  ‘That our love wasn’t love at all and was just my own rebellious nature coming to the fore because I fell in love with someone who was not from our clan.’

  ‘And what did you learn from running here?’

  ‘That my love for you is true. Not rebellion. Just love.’

  ‘I love you Leana!’ Bruce whispered, kissing her again.

  ‘And I love you, Bruce!’

  CHAPTER VII

  The servants scurried about at Lennox Castle as Ashley issued frantic orders. The tables outside were laden with delicacies that Ashley had personally ordered the cooks to prepare. She had had the seamstresses over to put together Leana’s trousseau and chosen the lace for her wedding dress.

  ‘It feels wonderful to have a sister!’ Leana whispered, as Ashley pinned the veil to her hair.

  ‘I can say the same. Imagine, not so long ago I was weeping because I had no family and now I have you and Bruce!’

  They walked out together and joined the procession to the Abbey, following the solitary piper - the scene reminding Ashley of her own wedding day. Later, during the ceremony, Tristan stole a look at his wife as Leana and Bruce pledged their troth to each other, and took her hand in his. ‘I love you my Ashley,’ Tristan said.

  ‘And I love you, Tristan.’

  ‘You are the strongest woman I know,’ he said later as they danced, ‘I can’t believe you confronted Lydell and reclaimed what was yours. Who knew that all the property he owned actually belonged to you?’

  ‘And that’s why he wanted me dead, I suppose,’ Ashley said.

  ‘So what will you do with Duffries Castle?’

  ‘That is my dowry…which I give to you!’ Ashley dimpled up at her husband, happy to have something to give him.

  ‘I want nothing from you but what you’ve given me already, Ashley Mackenzie,’ Tristan said. He pulled her closer and whispered into her ear, ‘and perhaps a few other things which don’t involve castles or property.’

  Ashley gave him an impish look, ‘The arbor awaits, my laird.’

  Tristan shook his head, ‘No, I will wait. I will torture myself, but I will hold out until we are well and truly alone.’

  As Leana and Bruce left the banquet to go to Dunnotar Castle which was to be their new home, Tristan could wait no more to enjoy his own bride.

  ‘Come with me,’

  ‘Where to?’ Ashley asked, eager for her husband again.

  They climbed up the stairs, Ashley holding her growing belly, and Tristan carried her over the threshold and set her down. Behind closed doors he undressed his wife and marveled at her beauty – her body like a full blown flower. He kissed her full lips, his tongue probing the depths of her mouth. Then he knelt down to kiss her swollen belly and gently lifted her up onto the bed.

  ‘Your breasts are so much bigger,’ Tristan said, cupping them gently. Ashley arched her back, offering him the two engorged globes, and Tristan bent over to pay homage to them with his lips and his tongue, tasting sweet spurts of early milk as he sucked the taut, rounded tips of her bosom. He lay back against the pillows and began to lift Ashley onto his erection, but she held back, choosing instead to take his hardness into the warm hollow of her mouth. As she ran her tongue down the impressive length of his massive organ, Tristan groaned. ‘I want you…so badly…so so badly,’ he moaned, as Ashley licked the salty stickiness from the arrow like head of his unsheathed weapon. Tristan reached out to massage the bud that sprang from the lips between her thighs and Ashley moaned and pushed her pelvis against his groping fingers, teasing herself even as he tweaked and pulled at her bud, parting the lips to place his own lips around that tiny pulsating part of her. Then she lifted herself onto his erection, letting him inside her inch my inch, slowly unleashing an almost excruciating pleasure so that Tristan bucked and thrust against her pelvis with mounting urgency. She lowered her breasts to his eager lips and brushed the hard tips against his tongue as he hungrily filled his hands with her flesh, trying desperately to be gentle.

  ‘Harder!’ Ashley cried out, and Tristan obliged, his rhythmic thrusts more frenzied as Ashley cried out for more. She felt his searing passion burst inside of her in an ecstatic relay of spasms that never seemed to end until Ashley cried out his name, and raked her nails across Tristan’s back as she lay on top of him, breasts crushed against the hardness of his chest, her red hair covering his face, her pelvis convulsed in agonizing pleasure, raging furiously against Tristan’s member even as with one frantic, deep thrust he took her to another climax and she cried out his name again, arching her back and throwing her head up so that her chest was lifted off his and her breasts were revealed again, driving him into a further frenzy of raw, unrelenting passion. He took her again, as she rode him, holding his outstretched arms like reins, her eyes locked in his, her great breasts bouncing so that the mere sight of them rocked his body with a climax that seemed to emanate from deep within him. He thrust his organ deep into the well of her desire, holding her wide hips and moving them up and down the length of him until she climaxed again, and collapsed on top of him. As Ashley lay against Tristan, her heartbeat merging with his, her chest rising and falling in perfect rhythm with his, she felt suffused with the glow she had missed for so long. She turned her face to kiss his chest and then his lips.

  ‘I love you so much Tristan Kincaid,’ she said.

  ‘And I lov
e you so much, Ashley Mackenzie,’ Tristan breathed.

  CHAPTER VIII

  Tristan was flanked by Leana and Bruce as they waited outside the room where Ashley was giving birth. Laren ran back and forth with towels, hot water and cubes of sugar.

  ‘It’s been hours,’ Tristain said, raking his fingers through his hair.

  ‘Patience, brother, you have a fighter in there and nothing can possibly go wrong,’ Bruce assured him.

  ‘Yes,’ Leana agreed, fighting to conceal her own nervousness.

  Outside in the gardens another banquet was laid and the grounds were awash with the colors of different clans. There would be feasting and drinking once the birth was announced.

  ‘I can’t stay here and do nothing,’ Tristan said, when he had watched Laren scurrying back into the room for what seemed like the hundredth time, carrying more hot water.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Leana asked.

  Tristan sped down the stairs and into the gardens, filling his arms with all the flowers he could find. He was like a wild man, tearing up the blooms from their beds, and unleashing his strength on wild grasses and tufts of heather as he hunted down floral offerings for his wife. When he reappeared, breathless, Bruce and Leana looked grim.

  ‘Where did you go?’ Leana scolded, ‘We’ve sent out search parties for you!’

  ‘I went to get these,’ Tristan said, holding out the rough, gigantic bouquet.

  ‘Flowers? For a boy? I think a claymore would be more appropriate,’ Bruce said with mock gravity.

  Tristan looked from one to the other and then hurled himself into the room, startling the midwife and making the bundle in Ashley’s arms emit a loud cry.

  ‘Tristan Kincaid, here is your heir,’ Ashley said, tears of joy spilling down her cheeks.

  ‘What are all those flowers for?’

  ‘For you my darling! All for you!’ Tristan said, scattering the flowers around Ashley and taking her and his baby into his arms.