by Kara Summers
“But are you sure? You were among your own kind,” Bella said, sounding troubled, the excitement of his kiss banished by the reality of what marriage meant. “Why should you leave?”
“I learned something at the dance. The prattling girls, the invitation to gamble, the meaningless talk about the battle. I found that I am not the one who is blind. You taught me to see, darling Bella, and having viewed the world as it is, I cannot return to a society that lives in a masquerade. I love you. Do you love me?”
Bella flung her arms around him. “I knew I loved you the day I left Laverly Hall for the last time. I have been so wretched without you.”
“You shall return to Laverly Hall as its mistress. And as my beloved Bella.” He returned her embrace with eagerness.
Bella’s father coughed gently. “Your manservant is outside, waiting for you.”
“Will! Yes, of course; I told him to return in half an hour.”
“Were you so sure of me?” Bella demanded.
“Not at all. I intended to abduct you and ride to Gretna Green if you refused me. I merely needed to obtain your father’s willingness to accompany us.”
He kissed her tenderly. She would be his Duchess, the woman who had returned his sight to him. Blindness, he realized, was admittedly a physical condition. But sight was a choice as well, and Bella had offered him the choice to see for the first time, love.
The Cursed Highlander’s Child
(Highlander Fantasy Romance)
Prologue
Laird Bhradain Drummond could feel the transformation begin to take over and slowly consume him. If it continued to build, his clan would have no choice but to kill him — if they could catch him. The transformation would turn him into a mindless, bloodthirsty beast.
They all hoped that it wouldn't come to that, that the curse would be lifted before Bhradain's thirtieth birthday. However, that hope was dwindling as the fateful day drew closer and the witch from the prophecy failed to appear and deliver him from his beastly fate.
Bhradain desperately hoped for salvation, but the bitterness of his fate began to consume him as time continued to run out. Nevertheless, he continued his nightly pilgrimage to the hidden silver lake outside of his family's estate, waiting and watching for the one woman that would be able to free him from his hellish fate.
Chapter: I
"Eva, can you pretty please play a game with us!" pleaded six-year-old Jamie, her youngest cousin.
"Not tonight, I have a big project for work that my boss needs tomorrow," Eva tried to explain. She was already stressed to the max with all the recent demands being placed on her. It wasn't easy trying to get noticed at a big publishing firm when she spent most of her time running menial errands, and Eva was starting to feel like a small fish in a very big sea. Eva didn't like the idea of admitting that maybe her job just wasn't working out, but at the moment, her financial prospects were the biggest incentive for getting her butt out of bed every morning.
"Pleeeeeeease," chimed in Maggie, Jamie's older sister by two years. The little girl furrowed her brow and wrinkled her nose as if she was about to cry.
Jamie took a look at Maggie's devastated expression and quickly followed suit with his own take on the puppy-dog look.
Eva chuckled before throwing her hands up in the air in an expression of surrender. "You guys are good, you know that?" she teased.
"Hurray!" Both Maggie and Jamie jumped up in excitement.
Eva quickly closed the book she had been working on and brushed a thick tendril of black hair behind her ear, before turning her full attention back toward her little cousins. "So what game did you have in mind?" she asked them.
"I want to play hide-n-seek," demanded the impetuous Maggie.
"No!" cried Jamie. "Manhunt, I want to play manhunt," he said with a decisiveness that was uncanny for a six-year-old.
Eva couldn't help but laugh at their exchange. She had been more like a big sister to her little cousins ever since her Aunt Marie and Uncle Mark had graciously taken her in when she was struggling to make ends meet. She adored little Jamie and Maggie, but she had already begun to suspect that they were more than a little spoiled.
"How about we play both?" she offered in an attempt to placate the two. "Which one do you want to —" she began.
"Manhunt!" Jamie interrupted enthusiastically. He turned to look at his sister; a disapproving scowl was already forming on Maggie's face. "Please," he added to both his sister and his cousin.
"Oh okay," Maggie gave in. It didn't take much for her to indulge her baby brother.
"Yippy!" cried Jamie. "You are it!" he tagged Eva abruptly with his hand before he turned on his heel and darted down the hall and out of the room.
Maggie gave an impatient sigh and a rather precocious eye-roll, before she too took off after her little brother.
Eva was left alone in the room before she had time to fully process what she had just gotten herself into.
She waited a few moments, allowing the children time to disperse off in the large house before she made her way down the dark hallway. She didn't have a lot of energy after a grueling day at work to run after them, but she didn't think she would have much trouble catching a six and eight-year-old. However, they were a lot more familiar with the old Tudor-style house than she was, as she had only been living there for a few months, which gave the children a decisive advantage in their attempts to evade being tagged "It."
As Eva began moving throughout the rooms in search of her cousins, she couldn't help but feel a little unsettled by the eerie quietness that descended upon the house; it was almost too quiet. She thought for sure she would hear the sound of the children running down the hallways, or giggling and giving themselves away. Instead, the only sound came from her own beating heart as it echoed loudly in her ears.
"Jamie? Maggie?" she called out, hoping that they might throw her a bone and respond. "Can I get a hint?" she asked. Eva wasn't the type of girl to be unsettled easily, but whenever she was alone, she sometimes had the feeling that she was being watched. Although she knew that her young cousins and aunt and uncle were somewhere on the property, she couldn't shake the feeling of unease. Eva wasn't necessarily a superstitious person, but this house had the ability to make her doubt that she was seeing the world with crystal clarity.
Eva's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a loud crash coming from a room upstairs. "Gotcha," she muttered under her breath. The distraction was welcomed, as it momentarily diverted her attention from the strange direction her thoughts had shifted.
She headed toward the stairs and made her way up as quickly as she could. When she reached the top, she found herself facing several different doors. She wasn't sure which one the crashing sound came out of. She moved toward the first, but before she turned the handle, she heard what sounded like a guttural moan emit from behind the door.
Eva paused, unsure if she should proceed. The sound was definitely not something that the children would be capable of making. Likewise her aunt and uncle were in the study on the main floor, which was quite far from where she was.
Eva wracked her mind for the obvious explanation for the noise, but came up empty. Eva knew that she should march downstairs, find her aunt and uncle and have them aid her in the investigation, but she didn't want to make a big fuss over nothing.
Eva shook her head in an attempt to clear her racing thoughts. "Get a hold of yourself," she muttered quietly. She hated that she was a timid person who often balked when faced with difficult prospects. It was why she was stuck in a job that she was too frightened to leave, why she was too scared to leave Brighton and finally make the move to London, and why she was still tragically single at twenty five.
Confident wasn't often a word used to describe Eva, but that didn't mean she didn't mean she didn't try to be. Eva, don't you dare run downstairs to get help! You are a grown woman and whatever you heard was just your imagination, she silently gave herself the feeblest pep talk. You have nothing to fea
r, she added for good measure.
Nothing to fear, she repeated in an attempt to drill the sentence into her head and hopefully infuse a bit of steel into her backbone.
With a determination that she hadn't thought she was capable of, Eva shakily opened the door and stepped inside, ready to face what lay within.
Chapter: II
A desperate cry pierced the air around Eva and reverberated in her own head. It only took her a sickening second to realize that the scream was coming from her own lips.
She screamed as the sensation of falling overwhelmed her. Darkness consumed what little light had remained around her body as she felt herself torn away from the door handle. She reached out to grab onto something to stop her fall, but she could only desperately claw at the air.
Eva stopped screaming the moment her body hit a pool of frigid water. The shock of the impact forced the air out of her lungs, and when she instinctively tried to draw a breath, her lungs filled with the cold liquid.
Eva flailed, moving her limbs in a final desperate struggle for survival.
At the last moment, when she had just about to resign herself to her watery fate, she felt large hands rip her from her would-be grave and draw her up.
The moment Eva's body broke through the surface, she felt an impact against her chest, which caused her to expel the water from her lungs. She coughed reflexively, sputtering and gasping as her airways cleared and she was finally able to take a few shaky breaths. She collapsed into a heap upon the muddy embankment and continued to gulp greedily on the air around her.
"Quite the entrance," interrupted a deep male voice with a thick Scottish burr.
Eva was suddenly acutely aware of the man standing over her. Her eyes widened as she took in the impressive sight of him.
The man was well over six and a half feet tall, muscular, heavily tattooed, and sinfully handsome. He had dark, thick hair tied back from his face, the hint of a beard lining his chiseled jaw, and intense black-brown eyes that were currently focused on Eva with heated curiosity.
Eva could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. She had never been under this level of scrutiny by such an impressive male before. She felt a little intimidated by the intensity with which his gaze roamed her body. But as she watched his eyes, Eva felt the twinges of something else spark deep within her, like a flame that had been simmering her whole life had finally been ignited.
The man's features softened. "I thought ye would never come," he said gently.
Eva gaped. "What?" she sputtered. It was in that moment she realized that she was no longer in her aunt and uncle’s home. I better not be dead, she thought grimly. Her mind struggled to wrap itself around what exactly had happened that had brought her to this point. Did I hit my head? Am I hallucinating? Did I die and go to some weird purgatory with a handsome highlander as the gatekeeper? She looked around her, it appeared that she was in some kind of forest. It doesn't look like purgatory, she thought darkly.
The man cocked his head as he studied her with a curious intensity. "I'm here to claim my promised witch," he said with a glow in his eyes.
Eva, for the second time that evening, gaped with bewilderment at the handsome stranger. "Shit! It is purgatory! I knew copying Calvin's homework in fifth grade would come back to haunt me," she rambled nervously. She had no idea what happening, but hoped that there was some logical answer hidden among the craziness of the past ten minutes.
The man chuckled softly. The melodious echo of his voice sent shivers down Eva's spine and pooled deep in her belly. Her mind quieted as the man's calming presence began to affect her.
"My luck the gods would send me a strange one," he said in a hypnotic voice. "But since I've been waiting for ye long enough, I think we should proceed," he stated as he took a step toward Eva.
Instinctively, Eva backed away as her anxiety returned. She still wasn't sure what was going on — if she was dead and stuck in some weird purgatory, or perhaps if she had hit her head and begun to hallucinate strange highlanders in the woods.
The man sent her another one of his curious looks, but he stopped just within an arm’s length. With careful movement, he knelt before Eva and met her gaze at eye-level, his brown eyes locked with Eva's blue ones.
"Stunning," he breathed sensually. Slowly, he brought his hand up to brush a stray lock of dark hair out of Eva's eyes and away from her face.
Eva didn't shy away this time, so entranced was she by the dark swirling depths of his gaze. She shivered under his heated touch.
"This will nae be difficult" he whispered as he brought his lips to meet Eva's.
Eva wanted to ask him what he meant by “nae be difficult”, but at the precise moment that his mouth brushed against her own, all rational thought escaped her. She was consumed by the delectable taste of his lips, the intoxicating aroma of his masculinity, and the arousing urgency by which he claimed her mouth. It was both a little overwhelming, and yet not quite enough.
"Wait," she said breathlessly as she brought her hands flush against the mysterious man's strong chest. "I don't even know you." She looked wildly around her at the darkened woods, "Or where the hell I am." Kissing strange men in the woods wasn't exactly how she thought her night would end up.
The heat in the man's eyes was replaced by confusion. "Are you nae the promised one?" he questioned suddenly, his brogue deepening.
"Your, wait, what?" Eva sputtered. What was this man talking about?
The man leaned back and studied her, his eyes taking in every inch of her from her bare feet to the sopping mass of black hair clinging to her face. "Aye, you are my promised mistress, I ken it," he stated.
"Excuse me?" Eva interrupted. "I'm sorry mister, I ken you have the wrong girl," she said in a poorly attempted Scottish accent. Eva had no idea what was going on, but she was already fed up with it. She had a work deadline to meet and whatever strange hallucination she was having, she needed to snap out of it. "I need to go," she said abruptly. She attempted to stand, but she still was a little shaky from almost drowning and she wavered a bit.
The man steadied her by bringing his strong hands protectively to her hips. He rose up with her, his impressive height towering over Eva's curvy frame. "I dinna ken what you mean by ‘wrong girl’, but I have waited too long for ye to let ye go," he said firmly. In one swoop, he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
His actions took Eva by surprised, and she was already over his shoulder before she had time to think of a comeback. Her hair fell into her eyes and her large breasts pressed up against her face. She could feel him hold her tightly in place with his large forearm, while he used his free hand to steady her by keeping it pressed against her ample bottom in a possessive gesture. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this situation, or his stronghold.
"Put me down!" she demanded as she squirmed in his arms.
Eva's words did nothing; her captor appeared not the least bit bothered by her movements. He continued to stride through the dark forest at a leisurely pace, as if he were taking a late night stroll. It infuriated Eva that he acted pleased with himself.
"Put me down!" she repeated, but with more force this time. She pounded her small fists on his back and tried to kick her legs.
"Hush lass, dinna fret. We will be at the castle in time," he calmly replied.
"Castle?" Eva asked, utterly bewildered. Over the course of the past thirty minutes or so, she had almost drowned, was saved by a handsome highlander, kissed by said highlander, and then thrown over his muscular shoulder to be carted off to his castle. I must have hit my head pretty hard or something, because there is no way this is actually happening, she thought. Although, as Eva tried to rationalize what was happening to her as some weird dream, a part of her had already begun to accept the truth — she was far from home.
"Aye," the highlander replied cheerful. "And soon —" his words broke off suddenly as his body stilled and he came to an abrupt stop.
"What is it?" Eva asked, her heart p
ounding with the fear of the unknown.
"Hush," he whispered.
And then Eva heard it. In the distance, the low howl of wolves echoed through the night. Eva sucked in her breath at the thought of the beautiful, but terrifying creatures.
Before Eva could ask the highlander what they were going to do, he took off running, knocking the air out of her.
"W-w-w-what," she tried to say through the rough jostling, "is going on?"
The highlander didn't reply, but instead increased his strides.
Eva wasn't so much afraid, as she was confused. She kept waiting for the moment when she would wake up in bed, completely rested, and not the worse for wear. But she wasn't able to rationalize away how real everything seemed and, as a result, she started to wonder if something more supernatural had happened to her the moment that she walked through the door back at the house.
The wolves' howls again pierced the night, but this time they sounded a lot closer. Eva was filled with the dreaded realization that they were being chased.
The moonlight lit their path as the man carried Eva out of the woods and up a steep embankment. When he finally set her down, Eva was so dizzy from the jostling that she was barely able to focus her eyes or her thoughts. She blinked a few times in an attempt to bring her gaze back into focus, but the moment that the fog lifted, what she saw seized her with terror.
The man's handsome face had transformed somewhere between the forest and this grassy knoll. Gone were the gentle, handsome features, and what remained was an intense feral look.
The man's eyes met Eva's; she sucked in her breath as the reflection looking back at her was no longer a soft brown, but a frightening red. Eva was sure that the man-turned-beast would devour her on the spot.
But instead of devouring Eva from where she sat on the grass, his expression — albeit a bit terrifying — conveyed emotions Eva was not expecting to see under the beastly features. He looked at Eva with an intense longing that ached to be satisfied, a sadness that could not be comforted, and a pain that saw no relief. Eva's heart went out to the tortured man before her. The fear she had felt upon seeing his face evaporated, and instead was replaced by a gentle compassion that longed to ease his suffering.