by Sky Winters
“Wait,” Sadie said, holding her hand up. “That doesn't make any sense. How could that be me? I never left my little town. How in the world would I have ended up here?”
“As I said, lass, your dreams. Every leader of the clan has had extraordinary gifts. It takes a lot of power to find this rebel clan – we are masters at disguise. It's only through careless mistakes that we have been discovered over time. You clearly are capable of immense power, and now that the necklace found you again, no doubt in the future, right where Lord Lachlan left it, it summoned the whole of your body back to the time of your dreams, when you were the mysterious Highland specter.”
Sadie was glad he had invited her to sit for this story, because now she was feeling extremely tired. If she was standing, she was sure her legs would be shaking. She looked up at the top of the tent, unable to meet anybody's eyes, and exhaled loudly.
“It's important to tell you this now, because it marks another change for our clan,” Ivar said. “Now that the female leader has returned, allowing the bear clan's unique gene pool to thrive well into the future for generations to come, we must explain to you the role that you are expected to uphold in this clan. I do hope to help you discover a way back into your own time. It is a certain course of action. After, of course, you are mated with our leader.”
Sadie's heart lurched. Did that mean she would have an obligation to be with James? And he would be able to finally express his affection for her without worrying what the rest of the clan and the council said? She was sure that he still harbored feelings for her, secret, private feelings that he was scared and worried about for some reason. She caught his eye across the room, but for some reason he was staring at her with a hopeless, helpless expression. It almost looked, in that moment, as if he might cry.
“Broc will be back tonight, and you will finally meet your betrothed.”
“My be—” Sadie said in an exhale, her voice barely above a whisper. She was surprised and a sinking in her stomach suddenly overwhelmed her. She glanced over at James, who had his eyes squeezed closed and his face pointed up toward the ceiling. He was clenching his fist hard.
“I don't understand,” she said toward James, but it was Ivar who answered.
“As payment for us helping you to get back to your own time, where you so clearly belong, we would ask that you follow our customs. Once you have the child in your womb and give birth to a new heir to the clan, we will be able to open the portal. Returning to your own time should remove the necklace so that it can seek a new leader.”
“This is unbelievable,” she breathed. She could tell that James was having a hard time keeping his composure, but nobody in the council seemed to notice except her.
“Please stay in the council's tent for the rest of the day to prepare for the welcoming ceremony for our leader Broc. Gail will help to dress you in the appropriate attire.”
And with that, she was led from her chair and into the room where she had stayed during her first night in the clan.
Chapter 15
Sadie waited nervously beside the council, dressed in a fancy tartan dress, her buckle no longer brass, but silver. They were standing around the campfire, the rest of the clan seated and circled around them, quietly awaiting Broc's arrival. Gail had helped Sadie with the proper greetings and customary way to wear her hair, and sighed wistfully.
“It's such an honor, being the matriarch of the clan,” Gail said. “I used to dream of it when I was a wee cub. But of course, there's no way I could have done it. It makes sense for it to be someone like you. Me, I'm too excitable.”
“Is Broc nice?” Sadie asked, ignoring Gail and cutting right to the chase. She was nervous and grew even more so when Gail danced around the subject and began brushing her long red hair with a hum.
“Broc is very handsome,” Gail finally said with a faltering smile.
Sadie sighed, considering what might happen to her if she ran away. Lord Lachlan would most likely catch her, and if he didn't she would probably catch her death in the winding hills of Scotland. That was the last thing that she wanted. The worst part would be that she would be unable to get home. Had James known this the whole time?
“What happens if I don't want to be with Broc?” Sadie asked. “Are there any other men in the clan I could be with?”
“Only the Alpha,” Gail said thoughtfully. “Nobody else has good enough genes to carry on the blood line.
“Oh,” Sadie said, sorely disappointed.
James had kept his word and brought her somewhere that she would be able to get back home, but from the looks of it, he had been miserable about the whole affair, from the moment before they entered the camp and right up until the crowd of Highlanders stood in anticipation of Broc's heavy foot-falls. He must have been in bear form, because everything around her vibrated with the sound of a mighty roar as he marched into the camp.
His face was bristling with negativity, and he demanded food and drink at once. He didn't seem to notice Sadie standing beside the council, and she was happy to feel invisible as he sat down and tore into food, scowling around at the clan.
“What are you all staring at?” he asked, his mouth open and food spilling out as he spat at them. Nobody answered. “Make yourselves useful and get some firewood or something.”
Several of the men rose immediately and walked into the forest. It was dawn, and the light was beginning to leave the camp, cloaking them in an inky darkness somewhat illuminated by the low fire crackling in the center of the group.
“Welcome back, Lord Broc,” Ivar said with a low bow.
Broc ignored him and kept eating, leering at one of the women across the fire from him. She looked at Sadie nervously, but pleased with the attention.
“My lord, we have something of an unexpected surprise,” Ivar said.
Broc looked up at him, still chewing, waiting for him to proceed. Sadie's stomach churned – he was almost as disgusting as Lord Lachlan. James was nowhere in sight.
“Well, what is it?” he finally asked. Ivar smiled and nudged Sadie forward. Broc's eyes roamed her greedily and her heart thudded in her chest. Why was this happening?
“The pendant has returned. You may take a mate to ensure the survival of the Bear Clan.”
Broc opened his mouth in disbelief, food being exposed and making Sadie recoil. He stood abruptly and tugged her closer to him by the arm, looking her up and down, examining her in the same way her ex-husband might have examined an antique car.
“Looking for dents in the hood?” she asked coolly so that only he could hear.
“Huh?” he grunted. His greasy black hair fell in front of his dirty face, and his brown eyes looked into hers expectantly.
“Nice to meet you, my lord,” Sadie replied begrudgingly, remembering her manners and the greeting that Gail had pushed her to remember. He was stocky, meatier and less lean than James. Overall much less refined in every way, she decided, watching him shove another piece of meat into his mouth as he stared at her as if he had just won the grand prize.
“When do we mate?” he asked.
“Well, of course there would be the ceremony, but unfortunately she cannot stay with us for the long term, so it won't be necessary. But you will be able to mate with her as many times as you wish until she has conceived a child. Then we will send her back to where she came from. That was the deal we made with her, and we must honor that deal,” Ivar replied.
Somewhere in the distance, a loud cracking sound grabbed everybody's attention. They all stared out into the distance, startled, but the sound wasn't repeated.
Ivar smiled. “We still have some lads chopping wood,” he said. “I think it's enough to meet for tonight. In a week's time, we can schedule the first mating.”
“Why not tonight?” Broc demanded, licking his lips and leering at Sadie.
She shuddered.
“There is much to discuss and preparations to be made,” Ivar said firmly. “Until then, Sadie will stay in the council's tent
again.”
And with that, it was decided.
***
That night, Sadie lay in bed, wide eyed with horror. Broc was terrifying and aggressive, and there was nothing about him that she liked. What did they expect her to do? How had she gotten herself into this mess? What about this horrible place in the past made the men think they could have their way with women and give them no say in the matter? Of course, she wanted to get home, it would be safer and women were a little bit more empowered, but did she want to go home at a cost that high?
A moment of panic seized her and Sadie sat up suddenly, her heart thudding rapidly in her chest. She would have to escape. There was no way she would let them mate her with Broc.
She slipped out from the tent, surprised but grateful that there was such lax surveillance. If she could just disappear into the woods, maybe she could find a better Highlander clan, one that would help her, instead of limiting herself to the thought that maybe she would suffer a fate worse than death by being forced to wed Lord Lachlan or starve to death on the ground.
She snuck behind the tent, avoiding the bright campfire light, and ran into the inky darkness of the trees. She cried out when she ran into a warm, firm body.
“Oomph,” came James' voice from the blackness.
“James?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“What the – what are you doing out here, lass?” he asked.
His breath reeked of booze and she peered up at him, frowning.
“Are you drunk?”
“That's a silly question,” he said, cackling unkindly. “What bloody point is there in being sober?”
He lifted a glass to his lips and she saw a liquid glistening on his knuckles.
“Why is your hand bleeding?” she asked, frowning.
“Oh, I punched a tree,” he said, stumbling a little as he looked down at her. His handsome face was still contorted in pain.
“What's going on, James?” she asked. “Why haven't you been talking to me?”
“Isn't it obvious, love?” he asked. “The council would have my head if they knew I'd already been – you're supposed to be the savior of the clan.” His voice lowered to a stage whisper. “If they knew we mated, they'd have my balls for it. And I'm not keen on that. Mighty fond of the little buggers.”
He grinned at her before his face contorted back to the worried look he'd been wearing since they arrived at the camp.
“James,” she said, touching his face gently.
“You watch yourself around ol' Broc, lass. He's a scoundrel. Much worse than me, though I'm sure you'd doubt that if you're smart. Probably seems like I set you up to be our clan's baby producer.” He spat this out, and now she was sure that he was going to cry.
She sighed and leaned against a tree. “James, all I think is that if you don't like the rules, you should find a way to change them...or go somewhere with better rules.”
James quirked his eyebrow at her before his eyes suddenly grew wide. “You should get back into your prison cell, lass, one of the members from the council is coming back. They'll probably be checking on you to make sure you've kept your purity.”
“But I haven't,” she said, looking deeply into James' eyes, unapologetically aroused as they were both taken back to the blissful memories of their first encounter in the campsite James had set up after they escaped from Lord Lachlan's men. “And I wouldn't want to. Not for him.”
Sadie turned away, leaving James staggering as he stared behind her, his drunken mind reeling with difficult thoughts and feelings.
Chapter 16
As the days passed, Sadie grew more and more miserable at the idea of sharing anything, especially bodily fluids, with Lord Broc. He was a dim-witted, brutish man whose temper was short and demands on others high. She hated him with all of her might, but it didn’t matter.
On the morning before they were to be mated, she found Broc sneering at Gail.
“But please, I gave my rations to the lad next to my tent; he was nursin' a young fawn back to health and needed the extra food. I'm just asking for a piece of bread or something to stave off hunger ‘til supper,” Gail begged.
“You shouldn't have been stupid enough to give it away,” Broc said, deliberately pulling a handful of berries from a bowl beside him and eating them pointedly. “You learn, being an Alpha, that all you should be caring about is yourself. Who cares about the little deer when your own stomach will be empty? Your own survival matters just as much.”
Gail groaned loudly and turned away, shuffling quickly and hiding her face when she realized that Sadie had seen the interaction. Sadie was furious and ran to her own room in the council's tent to bring Gail a plate full of food. They had lunch together, quietly bashing Broc and lamenting the fact that they were to mate the next day.
Gail shook her head sadly. “I don't know whether to be happy that with you here, all our troubles will be over, or sad that it means you have to be with that...that thing out there.”
“It's all right, Gail. Please don't let my troubles weigh you down. I'm happy to help your clan,” Sadie said, inhaling bravely. That's all there was to it. She would do it for Gail, and the incredible bear shifters, so that they wouldn't be lost to time and only remembered by obscure paintings in castle museums.
***
The next morning, Sadie awoke with a groan, her heart fluttering with apprehension. This was the night she was going to be forced into mating with Broc. She had always imagined that her first pregnancy would end a little bit differently, but apparently it was her fate to give birth to a half-bear child. There were many things about the union that she found regrettable. If James had been the leader of the clan, the choice wouldn't have been quite so difficult...
But there was no point in thinking about that. Over the past week, he had been staring at her meaningfully whenever they passed each other, his eyes intent and his face alert. His handsome body still left her captivated as he passed her, and he was growing stubble, something she hadn't known could look so sexy on a man until he wore it and gave her that burning look.
As night fell, she looked again for James, who had disappeared as had become his custom. She was tired of trying so hard to get and keep his attention. He had been too worried about his life and her ability to get home to approach her, so what made her think he would show up and save her somehow from being forced into mating with the horrible brute?
She was to wait by the fire for Broc to approach and take her to his private tent, and she sat beside Gail, quivering in fear. She didn't anticipate that he would be very gentle or skilled with her body and felt very nervous about what might happen to her behind closed doors. He seemed very self-interested and she knew that if she stood any chance at all, she would have to try to stay in control of the situation.
Finally, he showed up to the campfire, his face contorted in a sickening leer that made her blood curdle. His stomach, somewhat droopy from a few too many pints of ale, drooped over his kilt with a blue symbol scrawled onto it – the one that the pendant bore as well. It looked much better on James, she decided, and cursed at him for getting her into this mess.
Suddenly, an earth-shattering roar quaked the ground beneath her feet. She could feel it pierce through her, and Broc's eyes widened. Suddenly, brown fur sprouted from his thick body, and his face strained as it morphed into that of a large brown bear. From the forest strode James; she would recognize his huge black bear form anywhere.
“What's going on?” Sadie asked Gail in a hushed voice.
Gail was speechless for a moment, watching as the bears began to face each other.
“James is challenging Broc,” she said in disbelief. “For the Alpha role.”
Sadie's heart melted as she realized what this meant. James had come up with a way to save her. He was willing to risk his life to be the man she laid with, the man to carry on the legacy of his clan. Her eyes filled with tears, and she covered her mouth with her hands, awed that James would be willing to go to such
measures to protect her from Broc, and knowing that this meant that the entire time they'd been in the camp together, she had been on his mind.
Chapter 17
The world quaked as the giant bears roared before lunging violently at each other. The council had come running upon hearing the challenging roars and were watching, rapt, as James and Broc fought. The battle was terrifying and exhilarating, and Sadie cheered for James to win. Every so often, his gentle bear's eyes met hers, and she would smile at him, cheering.
