GUNNER: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 4)

by Samantha Leal

  “I didn’t run away,” she whispered. “I was murdered.”

  The color drained from his face and Moira almost collapsed with terror as she recounted what had happened…

  She had been out in the woods one morning, gathering firewood, even though this was not a task expected from her. Moira had always been a simple and kind girl and had never felt the need to have people waiting on her. Elizabeth had grown cold and tired, so Moira sent her back to Kincaid Tower to warm herself by the hearth. As Moira ventured deeper into the woods, she heard the crunching of twigs underfoot. Someone was following her.

  She darted deeper into the forest and attempted to hide behind a fallen tree trunk, but she wasn’t fast enough to outrun her assailant.

  As the shadow closed in on her and she looked up into the eyes of her killer, she noticed the brandished coat of arms of the Fraser Clan. Someone had been sent to kill her. The Frasers knew what they wanted, and it was for their eldest daughter Annabelle Fraser to wed Sir Hamish of Kincaid… Their alliance would unite the families and they would become a powerful force in Scotland.

  ***

  The blood returned to Hamish’s face as she recounted the tale and he turned scarlet. He looked so angry, it almost seemed like his head was about to explode.

  “The Frasers took you from me,” he stated. “But my love, how did you return?”

  Moira asked for Elizabeth to leave the room and for them to have a private moment. She knew time was of the essence if Hamish was to go to battle and avenge her death, but she needed time with this man. She needed to reconnect with her love and tell him everything. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer to her, and the feeling of him against her was enough to almost make her cry with happiness. She had missed his touch so much and now they were together again, she never wanted to let him go.

  “The Frasers will pay for what they’ve done,” he vowed.

  Moira touched his face tenderly and Hamish bent forward to kiss her. When their lips touched, any remaining forgotten memories all came flooding back and united them in the most magical reunion of love.

  “I’ve been so far away, Hamish,” Moira whispered. “You really have no idea.”

  He looked at her with adoring eyes, and she knew that the truth would blow his mind, but how else could she explain returning from the dead?

  “I believe the wolf pelt brought me back to you, Hamish,” she said. “I found it in Lennox Castle when I arrived in Scotland yesterday. However, my yesterday was not your yesterday. I have been living in another time… I was reborn to another mother and lived another life, but when I returned to Scotland to discover my ancestors’ history, I stumbled across something that allowed me to return to you. Somehow, the universe has made it all possible.”

  Hamish nodded seriously. He believed her, and she believed that it was truly the only explanation.

  “Lennox Castle?” he asked.

  Moira nodded warily. She didn’t want to tell Hamish that eventually Kincaid Tower would crumble and another castle would rise in its place.

  “Aye,” she said, her Scottish accent returning. “One day, a long time from now… Kincaid Tower will be no more and Lennox Castle will rise in its place,” she said with a heavy heart.

  “No,” Hamish said with disbelief.

  “Fight now, my love,” she told him. “You need to protect our home for as long as we can… Our children must be born here, and we will both die here.”

  She touched his face and Hamish swept her up in his arms again. His breath was short and heavy, and he had a familiar look in his eyes that Moira recognized as pure animal lust and need. He threw her down onto the bed and climbed on top of her. He was so big and powerful, Moira lay beneath him and let him have his way with her right there and then. She wanted him to take her. She wanted to feel the touch of his skin against hers. She wanted to run her hands though his thick, red hair and nibble on his muscular arms and shoulders. She opened her legs and could feel the hot and stiff bulge of his member pressing against her and she moaned with pleasure.

  After he ripped away her undergarments and removed his armor until he was naked before her, Moira gasped at the sight of his impressive manhood.

  He held onto her legs and gripped her by the thighs as he pulled her to the edge of the bed and penetrated her with one long thrust. He groaned as he pumped himself in and out of her, gaining speed with each stroke and becoming harder inside of her. Moira threw her head back in pleasure and felt so opened and filled by him it wasn’t long until she was on the verge of the most incredible release of her entire two lives.

  Hamish grunted as he powered into her once more and she felt his seed explode inside of her. The feeling of him emptying himself into her pussy was so intense that she too came hard and fast.

  Hamish collapsed down onto the bed next to her and took her hand in his.

  “I love you so much, Moira,” he whispered, “I can’t wait to start my life with you.”

  Moira nuzzled into him and kissed him. She had never been so happy and so scared in her entire life. Because before that could happen, she knew Hamish was going to have to go out there and defeat the Frasers.

  8.

  When he left her up there in the tower, Moira had no clue whether he would return to her or be killed in battle. She wept with her head on Elizabeth’s knee as Elizabeth stroked her hair and told her that everything would be alright.

  Moira couldn’t believe how much had changed since she had boarded the plane to Scotland. She knew it was her fate to be there and everything had happened at just the right time to take her back to her long lost love.

  She thought about the death of her parents, and of how if it weren’t for them, she may never have made the journey to Scotland in the first place. She thought of the taxi driver and his willingness to let her explore Lennox Castle. She thought of her instant attachment to the wolf pelt which clearly possessed some magical quality that had allowed her to travel through time and back to where she was meant to be.

  Now she was high in the tower of Kincaid and waiting for her man to avenge her death. Annabelle Fraser and her whole family were going to pay the price. If Hamish hadn’t killed them in battle as they came to storm the castle in revenge for him canceling the wedding, he would have made his way to them and taken them with all the force he had.

  “His army will win,” Elizabeth soothed. “He will be back to you soon.”

  Moira prayed to any and every God that would listen for her to be right, and as the day turned into night and then again into morning, the sounds of horse’s hooves could be heard galloping across the highlands.

  “Moira,” Elizabeth shook her awake. “Come quick!”

  Moira jumped to her feet and ran to the small window. In the distance she could see the army coming back to them. It was Hamish! He had won!

  She collapsed into Elizabeth’s arms and sobbed with joy. She was going to have her man back and now his baby. She clutched her stomach knowing that his seed was inside of her and being sown at that very moment.

  When Hamish burst back through the tower doors and took Moira in his arms, he kissed her with such passion and adoration she never wanted it to end.

  “I did it all for you,” he whispered. “I don’t know how I lived without you.”

  Moira clung to him and confessed that she didn’t know how she had either. Back in 2015, she had lived almost twenty-five years without him and now she didn’t want to lose another minute.

  “I love you, Hamish,” she cried. “I never want to be parted from you again.”

  “You never will be. Now the Frasers have gone, no one can try to destroy our love.”

  They headed back down to the main corridor of the castle and Hamish led her into his bed chamber. While she washed his war wounds and groomed his long, lovely hair, she realized how amazing her life was going to be living in ancient Scotland with her soul mate. A soul mate that had stood the test of time.

  She had thought gett
ing on the plane and venturing out on her own in the world was the most exciting adventure she could ever have, but she was wrong…

  Her adventure was just beginning.

  THE END

  Beyond the Highland Gateway

  Leela Ash

  Copyright ©2016 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Table of Contents

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  8

  1.

  Alisa Craig heaved a heavy sigh as she shelved the books left over on the cart. It was the end of the day, so everybody had left the library, which was normally a good thing. Today though, it wasn't. It meant that she was alone with her thoughts, none of which were particularly pleasant.

  Things hadn't been going well at home. She had married her high school sweetheart, and had believed that they were the perfect couple. She was a librarian and he was an accountant; two boring, meticulous people who only had eyes for each other.

  Lately though, she wasn't so sure. She had been getting a lot of signs that Carl might not be as honorable as she thought. He was being secretive and strange. She wondered if he might have hit his midlife crisis early. It was beginning to make her nervous. He had begun to surprise her with random gifts.

  In most relationships it would be a nice way to spice up the marriage, but it just made Alisa nervous. She couldn't help but wonder if he was feeling guilty about something. Carl was a man who held on to every penny that came into his grasp, and to see him parting so easily with his money on trivial things like flowers and jewelry was a huge warning bell.

  Alisa sighed. Where had she gone wrong? They had been married for six years, ever since they were both twenty. Maybe they had married too early after all, just as her mother had told her. But then, her mother had never really liked Carl. She said he was bad news, and claimed she knew through a mother's intuition. She took her Scottish roots seriously, and had a lot of superstitions that Alisa never really understood.

  Normally she would be able to take comfort in her appearance. If he was being fishy because there was another woman, did he think she was slacking off with it? The thought was absurd. She still turned heads wherever she went. Her long, golden blonde hair fell over her shoulders, making her look glamorous even on the worst of days. And most men couldn't take their eyes off of her full pink lips, even though she never painted them in seductive shades of red. And she could always rely on her soulful blue eyes to hold others rapt in her attention for as long as she wanted them there. Her beauty wasn't a gift she had found particularly useful though, and thought it attracted too many questionable people to her.

  She had been happy to settle down with Carl. He was the sweet, quiet guy of her dreams; a man she believed could see past her beauty and into her truest self. That was something he liked to pretend he could do, while the rest of the male population were busy tripping over themselves to check out her ass.

  No, she hadn't slipped up on her appearance. In fact, she found that she was getting more attention than ever lately. On a daily basis she could count on at least three library patrons complimenting her or trying to get her phone number. Most of the men didn't care that she had a wedding ring on. She knew it made Carl madly jealous. Maybe he had finally become so paranoid that he convinced himself that he wasn't worth her full attention, so she must be having it off with some other man who was more worthy of her than he was.

  It would make her furious if that was the case, and he was using it to justify cheating on her. She pushed a book into its place hard, nearly cracking the binding. She felt suddenly irresponsible as a librarian and pulled the book back out to make sure she hadn't damaged it, at least not too badly. When she saw the cover of the book, she was startled by a vibrant image of Scotland, a place she knew well from lore and paintings.

  She had been craving tales of Scotland lately. She used to curl up with her mother for hours and listen to her speak about the mystical and mysterious place. She would have done anything to listen to another tale about her distant highlander relatives.

  Unfortunately for her love of the old tales, her mother had shared the same love and succumbed to the deep, burning desire in her heart of hearts to use her retirement fund to move back to Scotland. This left Alisa alone, and saddened by the fact that she would no longer be able to listen to her mother weave the tales she loved so much.

  Maybe this book would help her to fill the void. It also gave her a comforting thought. Maybe, if worst came to worst with Carl, a visit to her mom's wouldn't be such a bad idea. If her suspicions were proven true, it would be a nice excuse to escape life for a while and soak up the intoxicating tales her mother shared with her.

  She flipped through the book, her eyes hungrily taking in the words. It seemed like a romance story, one that was captivating and engaging. It wouldn't hurt anything to take the book home. She could see to any repairs that might need to be made and use it as a way to distract herself from the emotional toll she was dealing with as a result of her suspicions of Carl's cheating. There was no way to know for sure, and sometimes she felt guilty for even considering it, but she was only human.

  ***

  That night, Alisa sat in her study, fingering a piece of ancient tartan cloth that her mother had given to her. Her mother had always kept a huge sheet of it close in a wicker basket beside her chair. It was a family heirloom, she had told Alisa, and although she wanted to keep part of it for herself, she had cut it up and divided it among Alisa and her four brothers and bestowed it upon them with its tale when they each turned sixteen. She had been the last to hear the tale from her mother, and had kept the cloth close by her ever since.

  As legend had it, a handsome Highland devil, Lord Blane Wyndham, had been traveling for days, hoping to wreak havoc on the lowland settlement that liked to try policing his clan's ways. He was rounding the bend, nearly there after his long journey, when he ran into a beautiful woman. She was unlike any he had ever seen, and her clear eyes held him still in his tracks. She saw he had a mischievous glint in his eyes. He could tell she was not highland stock, for she was scrawny and pale. Still, he had never seen anyone more beautiful.

  “You up to no good, highlander?” she asked him.

  “Aye,” he said with a charming smile.

  As it happened, the woman was a noble lady, daughter of Blane's most hated enemy. They began a forbidden, elicit romance, one that nearly started a war between the highland clan and the lowlander's settlement. Finally, highlander and lowlander came to an agreement – a peace treaty, if the two young lovers would be allowed to live in their own way.

  Everything was going well until, one day, the young woman was approached by a group of huge men.

  “You're making a mistake, getting involved with Lord Blane,” the leader told her. “He is already engaged to be wed, and to a highlander. We don't need lowlanders contaminating our stock.”

  “Nothing you can say will dissuade me from marrying him,” the plucky lass said, unintimidated by the three men. “He is my true love, in any time, in all ways.”

  “This is Lord Todd,” the leader said, gesturing to a stern man. “His clan outnumbers Blane's by hundreds. If you don't make yourself scarce, he will attack, and the blood will be on your hands.”

  The three men left, and the lass was left to ponder their threat. She wanted to speak to her betrothed about it, but before she reached him, she was intercepted by Lord Todd.

  “You'd best keep your mouth shut lass, or we'll take care of you and your family. They'll regret making peace with the highlanders.”

  The lady returned to her family home in the lowlands, where she tossed and turned, before finally falling into a fitf
ul sleep. She had been having dreams of a faraway place, somewhere strange and different but so vivid that it seemed she could reach out and touch it if she tried.

  The wedding was set for the next day, and she awoke feeling scared and concerned. There was nobody whose counsel she trusted, and so she held the terrible secret in her breast. When she walked toward her beloved to tie the knot, he looked at her with such love and tenderness that she almost fainted with worry. His life was in danger if she said yes.

  The lass approached Lord Blane, touching his cheek gently, silently telling him her good byes. Tears streamed down her face and her hands trailed down his body, until they rested on his waist, fingering his tartan kilt. She knew she couldn't marry her beloved, not if it put his life in danger, but there was nowhere she could go, and no explanation she could give him that would be sufficient to break the peace treaty.

  She heard a faint noise behind her beloved and looked up to stare into the fierce eyes of Lord Todd, who was hiding in the trees. He was gripping a broadsword, and she paled. In her fear and disdain, she remembered the vivid images she had seen while she slept and closed her eyes tightly. If only she could go where nobody would make such impossible demands on her, and keep her lover and his clan safe!

  Suddenly, she disappeared before everybody's eyes and was brought into the world of her dreams.

  Lord Blane went nearly crazy with worry as he searched for his lost love, unable to explain the event that had happened right before his eyes. He spent his life obsessed with following her, and sought help from oracles and sorceresses. Finally, one asked him to bring her the last item his lost love had touched. He thought immediately of his kilt, and she charmed it so that what was lost would quickly be found. Unfortunately, before the kilt could bring back his lost love, Lord Blane was killed. His clan was under attack by Lord Todd, despite his word that they would leave him alone if the lass left. Apparently he was jealous that such a beautiful woman would be interested in Lord Blane, and not himself. He took it out on the lot of them.