Bound by Fate (Cauld Ane Series Book 10)

by Piper Davenport

  “You can let go of me now,” I ground out.

  “Just a second,” he whispered, giving my neck a squeeze again.

  I shoved his arm and stepped away just as Hershey leaned over and bit Arric on the thigh.

  “Fuck!” he snapped, jumping out of the stall, and laying his hand over the wound. When he pulled away, there was blood seeping through his jeans.

  “Holy shit, he broke the skin,” Dalton said, and reached over to stroke Hershey’s nose. “Good horse.”

  I rushed to Arric and laid my hand on his leg, healing him instantly.

  “Just what the fuck is going on?” he rasped.

  “Maybe if you spent more time letting us explain things to you, and less time being a complete dickhead, you’d know,” I returned.

  Once I’d done my mate duty and healed him, I rushed to my father who wrapped his arms around me and held me close, kissing the top of my head.

  “I don’t think I can face everyone tonight,” I whispered.

  “We need to have a conversation with Kade. All of us. Right now,” my father said, sternly.

  “Your father’s right, baby girl. Let’s get up to the house and have a chat with Kade,” Mum said. “Then we can go from there. You have apparently inherited my fire gift, but since you’re also an empath like your father, I’m not sure how that’s all going to work.”

  I nodded. “I’m scared.”

  “I know, baby. It’s okay, we’ve got you,” my father said.

  “Arric, honey,” Mum said. “I know this has all been a bit much, but you need to come with us.”

  I didn’t wait to find out if he was going to follow, just pulled away from my dad and stalked to the castle.

  Arric

  “HE’S YOUR MATE?” Kade asked, his eyes darting back and forth between me and Isla.

  We were currently in a small room off the library, and it was feeling a little crowded, in my opinion.

  “And that’s not all,” Connall Gunnach said. “He’s definitely an oracle.”

  Kade said nothing, which told me everything.

  “You knew, didn’t you?” I asked.

  “I had my suspicions, but I wanted Haddi to confirm them to be sure,” he said.

  “They were confirmed back in the barn,” Connall said. “Andi knew he was an oracle straight away. She was even compelled to bow to him.”

  “Bow?” Kade asked. “Is it typical of oracles to bow to each other?”

  “I don’t know, brother. Like you, until recently I thought all the oracles but Haddi were gone. Then Andi showed up and now this one.”

  “If you suspected Arric was an oracle, why not say something earlier?” Isla asked.

  “I didn’t want to burden Arric with any more information than necessary,” Kade replied with a weary look in his eyes.

  “You can feel what I’m feeling can’t you?” I asked, suddenly finding myself acutely aware of an empathetic connection between myself and Kade.

  Kade nodded. “It’s how I knew so much about you when we first met.”

  I let out a heavy sigh.

  “Don’t worry,” Kade said. “Your thoughts are not an open book to me. I’m simply aware of your emotional state.”

  “Is that because you’re the king and he’s an oracle?” Isla asked.

  “Possibly,” Kade said. “Haddi will be here soon and I’m hoping he’ll be as insightful as he has been in the past.”

  “Who is this guy?” I asked.

  “Just before we fled Iceland and emigrated to Scotland, I met what was believed to be the last of the oracles,” he said. “Days before we set sail, our mother took me and my brothers to the oracle in order to gain sight, or as our people call it, öðlast sjón.”

  “Like a fortune teller?”

  Kade shook his head. “It’s much deeper than what you’d think of as fortune telling. Both for the oracle and their subject, and each oracle is different. Some can see the future. Others the past, but more importantly, each of their methods for gaining sight is unique to them and only them.”

  “Andi is one of these oracles?” I asked.

  “She can see the past. Sometimes the future. But only if she’s touching you,” Isla said as casually as if she’d mentioned Andi worked at a bank.

  Gunnach continued, “When we arrived at Haddi’s thatched roof dwelling, dug into the side of a cliff-face, about ten miles from our home, I was gob-smacked. I remember as a child I felt like we were riding forever and feeling very cold. Not from the temperature, of course. But from the sense of isolation. I couldn’t understand why Haddi would have lived in a place so far away, as elders are typically elevated to almost god-like status.”

  “Why was he isolated like that?”

  Gunnach glanced at Connall. “During his reign as king, our father hunted down and killed the oracles after one foretold my mother’s betrayal of him.”

  “Our mother, for her own gain, hid Haddi away in a remote location and kept him as her private seer,” Connall said. “Since my father’s edict, Haddi had little choice to comply, and my mother knew this.”

  Kade nodded. “The first thing Haddi did when we arrived, was to motion for us to sit down in front of a small fire that was beginning to die in a pit in the center of the room. Do you remember, Con?”

  “Aye,” Connall said. “I remember the flames were bright blue.”

  “Haddi seemed to be purposefully letting the fire die down. It was as if he had been preparing the fire for some time before we arrived.”

  He continued with an expression of distance. Like he was reliving the moment. “We sat in silence while the last of the dying embers turned to ash and I was fascinated by how still Haddi was… I’d never seen anyone sit so still. Once the fire was reduced to ashes, he told a story of our ancestors and those that had the öðlast sjón before him. He spread the ashes on the floor and began sifting through them at an almost frantic pace, pausing momentarily every once and a while, then diligently going back to his work. After a few moments of this, he stopped and looked directly at me. He took both of my hands in his, covering them in ashes. As he darkened my hands, time itself seemed to freeze, and I was bathed in a warm, golden glow. It was a feeling of peace that I’d never experienced before or since. It was as if I knew that my life had a purpose. The last time I felt that way was when I bound Samantha… until I met Andi.”

  “When did you meet Haddi?” I asked, but I suddenly wanted to drag the question back into my mouth.

  “I believe it was around 1420.”

  “Please tell me that’s military time.”

  “Fifteenth century,” Isla whispered.

  “This ancient history stuff is messing with my brain. Not to mention the thought of living for god knows how long.”

  “You will live for potentially hundreds, maybe even thousands of years,” Kade said, matter of factly.

  “What the hell is a Kalt Einn?” I demanded. “Or a Cauld Ane, for that matter. Are we like vampires or zombies or something?”

  “The Kalt Einn are an ancient race of people who have existed alongside mankind since the beginning of time. We walk among humans but are not ourselves human. The original Kalt Einn stayed in Iceland, believing it to be the only safe place for their people. But in 1420, some of the Kalt Einn immigrated to Scotland, where they would come to be known by the local people as the Cauld Ane.”

  “Iceland?” I asked, my mind flooding with images.

  “Aye,” she said.

  “I lived moments of that night when I touched that sword,” I said, pointing to the display.

  “Aye,” Kade confirmed.

  “What about this whole mating thing?” I asked. “Don’t I have some sort of say in all this?”

  “Perhaps we should let these two speak privately on that subject,” Kade said.

  “Aye,” Connall said. “And I’ll find a bottle of good whisky.”

  “Good idea,” Isla’s mother said. “We’ll raise a toast to the occasion.”

/>   “Find your own bottle, woman. I’m going to get drunk. My daughter is to be bound to a tattooed American who’s as blank as a bloody check.”

  * * *

  Isla

  I closed the door, shutting my family out of the room, and turned to Arric.

  “Is there alcohol in here?” Arric asked, his voice almost begging.

  I shook my head. “I can ring for some, if you need me to.”

  “No, I think I’ll survive.” He crossed his arms and studied me.

  “When do you turn twenty-five?” I blurted, needing to fill the silence.

  “How do you know how old I am?”

  “I don’t. Only that you’re not twenty-five yet.”

  Arric narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that?”

  “Because, if you were, you’d already know what I know. So, when’s your twenty-fifth birthday?”

  “In two days,” Arric replied.

  “Really?” I asked, completely taken aback. “That’s… so… soon.”

  “Of all the cosmic shit currently swirling around us, the proximity of our twenty-fifth birthdays is most interesting to you?”

  “You don’t understand,” I said. “It usually takes years, decades or even centuries for mates to find each other. This is…strange. At least I think it is. I’m not really sure.”

  “What do you mean, you’re not sure?”

  I groaned in frustration at my inability to communicate with Arric. How could I possibly be expected to be the one to explain Cauld Ane mating to him? Him of all people? The man I could barely stand to be around one second, then be unable to think of no one else the next.

  “I think we should wait,” I said. “In two days you will understand everything.”

  “What will I understand?” he asked, gently cupping my face. “Isla, just breathe and talk to me.”

  I took a few deep breaths and started over.

  “You know the Cauld Ane live a lot longer than humans, right?”

  Arric nodded. “I’m still getting used to the idea, but yes.”

  “Well, we also mate for life.”

  “Like lobsters?” he retorted.

  “Contrary to popular belief, lobsters don’t mate for life. More like penguins.”

  “You are aware that penguins are prostitutes, right?”

  “What?” I squeaked.

  “They will trade sex for rocks for their nests… aka, prostitution.”

  “Well then Puffins or Gibbons.”

  Arric raised an eyebrow. “You’re comparing us to birds and monkeys?”

  “Well, it’s better than comparing us to seahorses,” I ground out. “Are you planning on giving birth to our babies?”

  “Jesus, now, we’re not only together forever, but we’re having kids as well?”

  “You’re not ready to have this conversation,” I rasped, my heart breaking.

  “I’m not ready, or you’re not ready?”

  “Like I said, on your birthday, you’ll understand. I think we should just wait until then to talk.” I couldn’t stop tears from forming behind my lashes.

  “I’m trying here, Isla. You’re just gonna have to give me a second.”

  “The bottom line is, right now, you can’t feel the way I do and that hurts. By not feeling the same way I do, it feels like you’re rejecting me which cuts deeper than you can imagine.”

  “But why? You only just met me a few days ago.”

  “That doesn’t matter. Today when I look at you, I know you as my mate. Even if you wanted to be with me, you won’t feel the same until your birthday,” I ground out. “We’re deemed to be together for eternity, but you won’t know that in your soul until you turn twenty-five. That’s the ár mökunar, which means, year of mating.”

  “So, I’m like one of your breeding horses or something?”

  I sighed, pulling away from his touch. “I need to get ready for the party.”

  “Wait,” he begged, reaching for my hand. “I’m sorry, but maybe I’m just not crazy about the idea of arranged marriage.”

  “I can’t do this with you,” I said. “You’re too… too closed off. I can’t get in.”

  “I’m drawn to you, Isla, and I want to let you in, but I just can’t seem to override my head telling me to back off.”

  “I’m picking up on that.”

  “I feel like I’m literally being pulled in ten different directions. Since the moment I got here, people have either been trying to control me, or I’ve somehow been controlling them. First, I’m told I’m part of some sort of elite group of immortals and now you’re telling me I’m not even human. So, yeah, maybe you’re right. I’m not ready. But when the hell could you expect someone to be ready to hear all of this?”

  “When they turn twenty-five.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll go through magic puberty. Trust me, it already started the moment you first touched me, but you’re gonna have to give me a second to wrap my brain around being cosmically ‘betrothed’ to a woman I barely know.”

  My heart twisted in my chest and I bit back a sob. He was right. He didn’t know me, but I knew him. Knew him in my bones… in my very breath.

  He must have seen the look of hurt on my face because his voice lowered and softened. “Look, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything. In all honesty, if we’d just met out in the ‘real world,’ you would have knocked me out. And I definitely would have asked you out.”

  “Don’t do that,” I said.

  “Do what?”

  “Use words to try and placate me.”

  “Isla, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. Nothing could blind me from that, not the lightshow that goes off inside my head half the time you touch me. But I’m a straightforward guy and I’m gonna need some simple answers in plain English or else I really am gonna put as many miles as I can between this place and me. Even if it feels like it would kill me.”

  I settled my hands on his chest and I could feel his fear even as he struggled to open up to me. I knew he’d never been this vulnerable with anyone and I did my best to honor that.

  I knew my touch comforted him, so I kept my hand on him as I led him to the chair by the window, guiding him into it before kneeling in front of him and taking his hands.

  “It would kill you,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Not claiming me as your mate,” I said. “It would kill you. Eventually. Definitely earlier than you should die.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I’m not sure exactly how it would affect you, because you’re an oracle, but Cauld Ane without their mates begin to age, and die almost as quickly as humans.”

  He frowned and I squeezed his hands.

  “Abela,” I said.

  “Who’s Abela?”

  “She’s Brodie’s mother.”

  “Wait, I thought Brodie was your uncle.”

  “He is,” I confirmed. “My biological grandparents were not mates. They married for politics and had Kade and my father. Then, apparently, grandaddy met his true mate, Abela, and bound her. She was human, and back then, it was forbidden to bind a human because the ancient ones believed humans were not worthy of us. But, like I said, when you find your mate, you cannot be apart, so my grandfather bound her, and she gave birth to Brodie. My grandfather took him to the castle to be raised by my grandmother, Alice. Grandad told Alice he was an orphan.”

  “No shit?”

  I nodded. “My grandmother knew who he was, however, and got herself pregnant with a human man’s baby. That’s my auntie, Fiona.”

  “How very medieval.”

  “You have no idea,” I breathed out. “When my grandparents were exiled—”

  “Why were they exiled?” he interrupted.

  “My grandfather fancied himself the ‘true king,’ and tried to stage a coup to overthrow Kaspar’s father in Iceland. He failed. But when they landed on Scottish soil, he presented himself as king, and those who followed him from Iceland didn’t
dispute it, so Kade was the natural heir.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sorry to derail you there.” Arric smiled. “Continue.”

  “Well, they sailed here and Abela discovered she was pregnant again. That’s when she ran. She managed to hide from my grandfather, but it was at the cost of her health. It’s why she looks so much older than all of us. She will more than likely die much like humans do, and that’s because she refuses to be connected to her mate.”

  “So, was your grandmother mated to a human man?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She was just angry my grandfather had an affair with another woman. Cauld Ane women cannot bind men, so her true mate couldn’t be human. My grandparents are currently imprisoned on an island in Micronesia.”

  “So, you’re saying I’ll grow old if I refuse to bind you.”

  “Aye.”

  He sighed, sinking deeper into the chair. “I don’t like that, Isla.”

  I pulled away from him, standing with a scowl. “Well, I’m sorry the thought of being bound to me—”

  “Baby, settle,” he ordered, reaching out, grabbing my hand, and tugging me onto his lap. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

  I huffed. “Then what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I want this to be my choice.” He linked his fingers with mine. “I want to know that when you and I fall in love that it’s because we chose to do that.”

  “You said ‘when,’” I rasped.

  “Well, yeah. I think we have staying power, baby. I want to explore this. We’re two really fuckin’ hot young people and I can’t wait to bury my dick inside of you.”

  I shivered. “Romantic,” I droned.

  He grinned. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life, and I feel more for you than I ever have for anyone. I believe, in time, this could be something permanent. I’m just not willing to say it won’t be my choice when it happens.”

  I smirked. “We’ll see.”

  “We will see, baby.” He slid his hand to my neck. “Now, kiss me.”

  “Bossy,” I growled, even as I lowered my mouth to his.

  His tongue slipped inside my mouth as his hand cupped my breast, his thumb whispering over my already sensitive nipple. He intensified the kiss as he stood, lifting me with him, and laying me on the large chaise by the window, stretching out beside me.