by Alice Wilde
Her Highlander
The Royal Shifters Book 2
Alice Wilde
Contents
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Thank You!
Her Viking
The Lioness of Egypt
About the Author
About the Publisher
Red Empress Publishing
www.RedEmpressPublishing.com
Copyright © Alice Wilde
www.AliceWilde.com
Cover by Cherith Vaughan
www.shreddedpotato.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recoding, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the author.
Prologue
Screams filled the room as women hurried about, the scent of warm blood and sweat heavy in the air.
“Hush, my lady,” the midwife said as she wiped the sweat from Lady Artair’s forehead. “The child will be here soon. Breathe.”
“It has to be a boy. It just has to be,” Lady Artair whimpered softly.
“All we can do is hope.”
Lady Artair panted as she wiped a strand of raven black hair from her forehead and then cried out as another contraction overpowered her senses.
“Push, dear, push! I can see the child’s head!”
Silence fell over the room as everyone froze in place with whatever task they had been carrying out a moment before, and then a baby’s cry rang out. The tension that had been building over the past several hours broke with a collective sigh of relief.
“What is it, Jenny?” Lady Artair asked as the midwife twisted and cut the umbilical cord and then reached for a clean cloth.
“It’s a boy,” Jenny replied.
Lady Artair smiled as she closed her eyes and leaned back to rest. “Good. My husband will be pleased.”
The midwife walked away to wipe the babe clean, admiring the velvety softness of his red hair and fair skin. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet, but she was sure they would be just as beautiful. Jenny had delivered a great number of children, but this was the first boy for the Artair family. And the only one with red hair. Finally, they had an heir. Not that the daughters were unloved, but these were dangerous times, and a man-child would strengthen the family name. Now, he just had to survive to adulthood.
Cleaning the last of the birthing fluids from the baby, Jenny crossed the room to return the child to Lady Artair. “What will you name him, my lady?”
But before Lady Artair could answer, the baby’s eyes fluttered opened to reveal the most piercing green eyes Jenny had ever seen. She gasped in surprise and tripped, sending the small child tumbling out of her arms. Time seemed to slow as mouths flew open in fear and astonishment.
The sound that should have come next never came.
There, lying on the hard floor, was a small bundle, but the bundle was no longer a red-headed baby. It was a snow leopard cub pressed safely against the stone on its four large paws. Not a second later, the cub was once again the small babe, now lying naked atop his swaddling clothes.
Jenny snatched the child off the floor, quickly re-wrapping him in the cloth.
“I…My lady…” Jenny stumbled over her words.
“Bring the child to me,” Lady Artair snapped, but out of fear rather than anger.
Jenny stepped to the bed and placed the babe in Lady Artair’s arms. Her eyes roved over the child’s body expertly, calculating the damage.
Lady Artair caressed the child with her fingers, as only a mother does. “He’s perfect. No harm done.”
Jenny sighed along with the rest of the women in relief before small whispers began twittering about the room.
Lady Artair’s eyes flashed in anger. “None of you shall speak of what happened. Magic may run deep within this country, but I will not have my son’s inheritance stolen by it. If one of you so much as breathes a word of this, I will have you sent to live among the Fae.”
The lady’s heads dipped in acknowledgment and they returned to their tasks in silence.
“What of his name, my lady?” Jenny asked to break the tension.
Lady Artair was quiet for the space of a moment before replying with a soft smile on her face. “His name is Roan. Roan, my little redhead.”
One
Annalise
Life didn’t prepare me for any of this. The novelty of running away has been replaced with dire needs. Besides the clothing on my back, what little is left of it, I brought nothing with me. Now, I realize just how unprepared I was for life outside the castle walls.
Li, Ero, and Roan have been more than gracious toward me, carrying me when my feet can no longer handle the stress of walking and the blisters on my heels grow too painful to bear. We travel far faster when they carry me, and I know they’d hold me all the time if I would let them, but this is as much my escape as it is theirs, and I am determined to play my part.
We’ve hardly rested in days, and it’s starting to show. I’m not even sure how many days we’ve been traveling at this point. As soon as we try to catch our breaths, we can hear Damien’s men closing in on us. I don’t know if it’s because they actually are or if I’m just paranoid…or if there’s another form of dark magic at play. In any case, we have to find a village or town soon. I need more sensible shoes and we all need new clothes. And a hot meal.
My stomach growls at the thought. The smell of roasting pheasant from my wedding feast has been haunting me for days and suddenly wafts around me once again. I try to shake it, but I can’t. I exchange a look with the other three before we all start sniffing the air like hungry dogs.
It’s not imagined. The juicy aroma of roasting meat is twirling through the air. I start walking almost blindly toward the scent, but a large hand wraps around my upper arm, holding me back. My heart flutters at the touch.
“Slow down, lass,” Roan says. “It could be a trick.”
“Or it could be our first real dinner,” I quip, tugging my arm out of his grasp. “You’d think the three of you would be better at hunting, being half animal and all.”
“You should know by now we’re rather tame for the beasts that we are,” Li says. “At least we try to be.”
“It’s your own fault that we’re struggling with our beasts, princess,” Ero chimes in. “We don’t know how dangerous we’ll be if the scent of blood is heavy in the air from a fresh kill. Not when we’re this hungry.”
“Speak for yourself,” Li snaps.
“Hey, you’re the one who nearly killed Annalise when she fell,” Ero snaps back. “And that was when we were well-fed.”
“Hush. And stop calling me princess,” I interject. “We’re all starving. Let’s not rip each other’s heads off now. I shouldn’t have blamed you for our lack of food, but we do need to find sustenance, and the sooner, the better. I’m starting to worry you won’t be able to control yourselves at all if we don’t eat soon.”
“In what way, princess?” Ero asks with a smirk, and I send dagger eyes at him. I can’t decide
if Ero keeps calling me princess to irk me or because he genuinely thinks it’s cute.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Li says, ignoring Ero’s innuendo but giving him a dirty look. “Annalise is right. We need to keep ourselves fed and in a stable state or we might do exactly the kind of damage we’re trying to avoid.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” says Ero. “So, what exactly do you propose we do?”
“We could at least find out where the scent is coming from,” I say. “You three might be massive, but that doesn’t mean we have to go around barging in on people. For all we know, we’re near a small town or perhaps a traveling caravan.”
“For all we know, Damien’s men are trying to lure us out,” Li grumbles, but I pretend I don’t hear.
“Shall we?” I ask, although I know I’m going to investigate further whether or not they agree.
Li shrugs, Ero strides ahead, and Roan takes my hand in his.
“As you wish, lass.”
Together we move as quietly as possible through the trees and underbrush toward the delicious scent. It’s further than I had anticipated, but that might be in part due to how slowly I’m moving. For their massive size, Roan, Li, and Ero move as silently as their leopard counterparts, at least when they’re trying to be stealthy—another reason I can’t understand our lack of food.
They’d make excellent hunters in either form, but not one of them has strayed far from me since the night in the clearing, except to relieve themselves. And Papa had complained about how clingy I was when Mama was alive!
Papa.
I haven’t had time to grieve. Haven’t even thought of Papa since I ran away. Not until now. The sudden thought of him lying cold and forgotten forces a lump to my chest. I clear my throat.
“Who goes there?” a voice shouts.
“Damn,” Ero growls.
“So much for trying to stay out of sight,” Li mumbles in a show of exasperation, although his eyes shoot toward me worriedly. Li is the most frustrating of the three. At least Ero openly tries to annoy me.
Roan doesn’t say anything as he gently pats my back. But a gentle pat from him is more like a shove from anyone else. I lurch forward, tripping over a tree root. Roan realizes what he’s done before I can hit the ground and I find myself jerked back by my hand, my feet now dangling in the air and a sharp pain shooting through my shoulder.
I cry out, “Gods, Roan. My arm!”
Just then, six men thrust their way through several nearby bushes.
“Unhand her!” one of them yells, raising his crossbow at Roan. The other men raise their weaponry as well, and we find ourselves surrounded by a crescent moon of drawn swords, bows, and daggers.
Roan lowers me carefully to the ground, and I raise my uninjured arm in the air toward the men.
“Wait, please. Stop. It’s just a misunderstanding,” I say, a grimace crossing my face as the pain in my arm intensifies. My stomach twists and I force myself not to look at my injury, but at each of our aggressors’ faces in turn.
“Explain yourselves,” the man holding the crossbow says, edging slightly forward.
“I tripped,” I say. “Roan was merely saving me from a fall.”
“That’s not what it looked like.”
“I swear, the only danger I’m in is from your armed crossbow.”
The man blinks, confusion showing on his face. He lowers his crossbow nervously, his eyes shifting from Roan to Li and then to Ero, whom I realize is no longer in his human form. The rest of the men remain in their defensive positions.
“And the leopard?”
“He’s harmless…unless I command otherwise,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
Ero shoots me a look that I can only guess is his way of letting me know I have no real control over what he may or may not do next.
I lean against Roan and immediately realize my mistake when excruciating pain surges through me once again and I yelp.
“You’re hurt!” the man exclaims, stepping forward once again and motioning for the rest of the men to lower their weapons, which they do, although they don’t sheath them. He must be their leader.
Roan growls and Li and Ero move nearer to me, blocking the strange man from getting any closer.
“It’s nothing,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Don’t move,” Li says as he moves next to me without taking his eyes off the men surrounding us. “Now breathe in deeply…and out.”
I see a flash of light and everything goes momentarily dark as Li expertly grabs my arm and shoulder and snaps them back into place. The agonizing pain in my shoulder turns into a numb throb, the pain nearly altogether diminishing under Li’s fingertips.
“What…how?” I ask dumbly as my vision returns and I dare to look down at what I can see of my arm. I don’t know what I expected, but I’m almost surprised to see I still have an arm at all.
“Roan dislocated your shoulder,” Li says. “There will probably be bruising.”
“Sorry, lass,” Roan whispers before slinking a few steps away from me but still within arm’s reach.
I instinctively want to hug him and let him know everything’s fine, but I shake the thought immediately. No. He, as well as the others, needs to know he can’t just go around manhandling me.
“She’ll need a sling,” Li says, directing the words toward the man with the crossbow whose mouth is agape at what just happened.
“Oh, yes, of course,” he says waving a hand at one of his men, who immediately steps forward, ripping a long strip off cloth off the bottom of his own shirt and handing it over. “My name is Louis, and you’re all practically naked!”
The remark throws me and I can’t help but burst into laughter. A moment later, Louis and his men are laughing with me, the tension finally breaking.
“How kind of you to notice,” I say when I can finally catch my breath. It feels good to laugh. I honestly can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. Louis is rather short, but not unpleasant to look at. His brown hair is shoulder-length and tied at the nape of his neck with a few wavy strands springing out around his face. I’m not sure how old he is, but if I had to guess, I’d say around his mid-thirties. He’s quite thin, but sinewy in a way that suggests he has a hidden strength.
“Forgive me, but my first concern was for your safety,” Louis says as he hands the strip of cloth over to a stony-faced Li. “Judging by the state of you, I doubt many would blame me.”
“We’ve had a rough time of it. I don’t suppose you would happen to have a spare set of clothes…or three? And my name is Annalise. This is Li and Roan,” I say nodding my head toward them.
“We don’t have much, but you’re welcome to see what we have,” Louis says with a nod of his head. “If you and your companions wouldn’t mind following us back to camp.”
I look over at Li, who shrugs as he wraps the sling around me.
“Lead the way.”
Two
Roan
It hasn’t been easy traveling with Annalise. Not that the lass is a pain in and of herself, but she is more than a little headstrong. She insists on walking on her own two feet as much as she can, which has slowed down our progress significantly, not to mention I’d rather she let me hold her as much as possible. I may not be able to have the lass, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting her.
Ero may have been teasing Li about stealing her first kiss, but I hated Li for it. Not a true hate, but enough to wish him ill luck with the lass. Although he seems to be doing a pretty good job of pushing her away himself.
The stress is starting to wear on us all. It’s been brutal traveling in human form. Our feet are painfully aware of our lack of shoes and the speed at which we run. At least when Annalise lets one of us carry her, we are able to run, which helps keep our minds off our feet and reduces the worry of being found. Something I’m dying to tell her, but can’t. I admire her strength and will to persevere. I won’t be the one to stifle that or take her freedom
away if I can help it.
She has a habit of walking longer than she should and then trying to hide the fact that she’s limping. It’s difficult for me to restrain myself from sweeping her off her feet at those times, but I do.
I smell the meat almost instantly—we all do. It doesn’t take long for Annalise to assert herself once again. At least she can get away with it. Li tries to control her as much as possible, but he never gets very far once she’s made up her mind.
I know Li is just trying to be cautious, and I can’t fault him for that, but I’d rather watch and see what happens. It isn’t long before I’m forced to eat my own words, even if they were just said in my head. Like an overprotective parent, I made the mistake of snatching at Annalise as she tripped. Instead of her ending up with a bruise, I literally yanked her arm out.
The last thing I meant to do was hurt her, and I’m going to have to wait awhile before I get a chance to properly apologize and hopefully mend things between us. Food should help.
Three
Annalise
The campsite is farther away than I had expected. Louis explains that he and his men had been scouting the area when they heard me clear my throat, but what’s really bothering me is the distance the scent of their dinner has traveled. The very fact that we were able to smell out and pinpoint the direction of their camp from so far off is what has me worried. I’m certain we won’t be the only ones drawn toward it.
