They were miles away from the keep. It was a good thing that Duncan had been full of angst this night. Had he not been, they may not have found the woman freezing to death in the woods. He thought about the way she looked with her long golden hair and large blue eyes. Every muscle in his body clenched at the thought of her natural beauty. His cock ached and his balls actually grew heavy. No woman had ever made him feel like this. What did it mean? Did it mean that she was the one destined to be his mate?
He thought about Duncan, knowing that any woman he took to bed would have to accept Duncan as well. He wasn’t certain he could live without the other man now that he thought on it for any length of time. He wondered how Duncan felt about the matter.
What do ye think of this woman, Duncan?
I’m not sure what ye mean, Jamie. I think she’s freezing tae death and needs our help.
Taking a deep breath, Jamie tried to find a way to explain his feelings to his friend. I wondered how ye felt about the lass. I cannae seem tae get her out of my head. Thoughts of her body pressed against mine and imagining the heat of her woman’s flesh pressed against my back is nigh driving me wild. I cannae think of little else as long as she sits on my back, her legs wrapped about me like a lover.
I know what ye mean, old friend, I feel it, too. What do we do when we get her back tae the keep? Everything inside me screams tae keep her as my own, yet you seem tae feel the same.
Jamie wasn’t certain how he felt about that. Part of him liked the fact that his best friend wanted her, too. He’d never thought about what it would be like to take a mate and have to leave Duncan behind. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to after all. What do ye think of sharing her, old friend?
Duncan grunted behind him. I’m not sure she would want that.
What else could they do? If they wanted it and they didn’t want to live without each other, wouldn’t it make sense to share her between them? We may nae hae a choice in the matter. If she’s destined tae be mate tae both of us, which one of us would ye hae living the rest of his life alone? He knew he didn’t want it to be him, but he also knew he didn’t want his best friend left out in the proverbial cold either.
His friend was silent for a few minutes. I know we’ve shared women a time or two in the past, but do ye think we can live that way for the rest of our lives?
I dinnae know, old friend, but I would rather try that than live without you or a mate. Hell, Duncan, I dinnae even ken what has me thinking like this. What if we feel nothing more than a healthy lust for this woman?
If that’s all it is, we keep her for as long as she’ll let us and let her go when we’ve sated it.
Jamie sighed. One thing was certain. Whichever way the lass led them, it would be a merry chase indeed.
* * * **
Lara woke slowly, reluctantly. Blessed warmth surrounded her as the bed swayed back and forth with a strange rhythm. On her stomach, she almost felt as though she was draped over some great beast that was so warm, she was tempted to sit up and take off her coat. Surrounded by warmth at her front and her back, Lara felt limp, relaxed. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to sit up and remove her coat. Besides, after being so cold for so long the warmth felt good.
Burrowing deeper into the warmth, Lara rubbed her nose against the soft fur beneath her head. She frowned. Soft fur? Blinking her eyes open, Lara tried to see what kind of bed she was on. It was as strange as it was warm, the way it kept swaying back and forth.
“Shh, you’re safe now, lass, and warm I’d bet,” a deep voice with a wonderful Scottish burr whispered against her ear. “Are ye warm now, lass?”
Strong arms tightened around her and Lara realized the heat at her back radiated from the man pressed so tightly against her. Lara stiffened and tried to sit up.
“Dinnae fash yourself, lass. You’re safe. Jamie and I wouldnae let any harm come tae ye.”
There was that deep and delicious voice again. Lara shivered more from arousal than fear or cold. Something deep inside her told her if they wanted to harm her, they wouldn’t have bothered to rescue her in the first place.
“I heard you talking before, didn’t I? Your name is Duncan, isn’t it?”
“Aye, lass. My name is Duncan.”
“Where are you taking me?” At least she had a name to put with the voice.
“We’re taking ye tae our home, lass. Soon, you’ll be inside and out of the cold where ye can rest in front of the fire or soak in a hot bath.”
There it was again, that deep, sexy Scottish accent breathed into her ear, driving her wild.
“Wasn’t there two of you before and what are we riding?”
There was a short pause. Lara got the feeling he spoke to the other man, but he couldn’t have. She would have heard him. Instead, she heard a strange hum inside her head and the sway of their conveyance almost lulled her to sleep once more. Almost.
Lara stiffened and tried to sit up again. “I know we’re riding some kid of animal. I can feel us swaying. What are we riding, some huge plow horse or something?”
Duncan chuckled. “Aye, you’re riding an animal.”
The way he said it almost made her wonder what kind of animal. She loved the warmth that radiated from it, but she didn’t want anyone laughing at her and she had the feeling that Duncan was doing just that.
“Stop this animal right now.”
“Why would we want tae go and do that when we ken it would only frighten ye, lass?”
Why would it frighten her? She had a faint memory of seeing a giant white bear before she fell asleep and dismissed it as ridiculous. “Why?” she asked with a laugh. “Are we riding some giant, gleaming-white polar bear that would eat me if he found out I knew he existed here in Scotland?”
“Believe me when I tell ye, lass, if Jamie or I decided tae eat ye, you’d love it.”
God, that seductive voice did things to her insides that should be illegal. Lara shivered again. Gooseflesh covered her body at the thought of the two men she’d thought she dreamed up doing things to her that she had no business even imagining. What was with her these days? Ever since she got to Scotland, she’d done nothing but dream of staying here with not one but two men. Never had she even thought of having an affair with two men at the same time. Her face heated at the memory of the dreams that started to plague her almost the minute she stepped foot in Great Britain. She wasn’t a loose woman. Hell, she’d only been with two men in her life and at almost forty years old, that was saying something. Maybe it was just because she was horny. After all, she’d just broken up with John a little over a month ago.
John, the jerk, had been a fixture in her life for the last two years. She’d even had dreams of settling down with him and having a baby before it was too late. However, while Lara’s biological clock had been ticking away, John had other ideas and, apparently, more wild oats to sow. She’d kicked him out the night she came home from work sicker than a dog to find him in her bed with another woman—a younger woman. Lara wasn’t sure what hurt the most, the betrayal or finally realizing that she was nearly over the hill and had no prospects of ever finding the one man who could give her a family and make her life complete.
Maybe it wasn’t one man ye needed, lass, but a pair of them tae keep ye happy. The sound of Duncan’s voice in her head, followed by that low, whiskey-rough chuckle made her jerk and try to get away from the man.
“What’s the matter, lass? You’re acting as though you’ve seen a snake.”
She didn’t just hear his voice inside her head. It was her subconscious trying to make her do something outrageous and totally out of character while she was on vacation. She needed this vacation after John’s betrayal. Maybe she needed a torrid affair as well. “No, I was just thinking about a snake.” That was a good description of her ex if she’d ever heard one. She turned her head, her lips coming precariously close to his. “What’s it to you?” God, that sounded rude! She should be ashamed of herself. She felt her face grow warm once again.
Or ten. Lara had three months, three glorious months in Europe before she had to return home. Most of that time she had planned to live out of the car she’d rented, but if they were offering her a place to stay, she might just take them up on it. After all, if they’d wanted to hurt her, they would never have picked her up out of the cold forest in the first place. She had half a notion to throw caution to the wind and agree to stay with them right now, but decided to think about it for a while first.
“That’s a good lass,” he whispered in her ear. “Think on it a bit and rest.”
Something about his voice made Lara think he knew what was on her mind. No matter how ridiculous it seemed, she wondered if he did. “Whatever I decide, I want to know what kind of animal we’re riding when we get to where we’re going. That’s a condition of my thinking about your invitation…” She paused for a moment. “Deal?”
“Aye, lass. We’ll show you a lot of things when we get tae the keep.”
The keep. Now that was an antiquated phrase she didn’t think people, even in the highlands of Scotland, used anymore. She wondered just what the keep was. Was it some old, broken-down shack, a manner house on top of a hill or an ancient castle that was falling down around their ears? Whatever it was, Lara was certain that it wasn’t what sprang to mind when he first said the words. What sprang to mind was a glorious castle kept in its glory for hundreds of years. Since she knew how impossible that was, especially in Scotland after all its wars, she dismissed the idea as ridiculous.
“I could be less than a gentleman and take ye up on that offer, but tae be fair, ye won’t hae much time tae think on it.” He pointed to a place over her head. “The keep is just over the hill.” Duncan sat up behind her. Reaching down, he pulled her back against his chest. “Ye might as well take a good look now, lass. We’ll be there in less than five minutes and ye may as well get your screams out afore we arrive.”
What screams? Lara frowned as she looked up at him. “I don’t—”
Gently, he turned her head forward. In front of her, the top of the hill gave way to a vision of beauty below. A large castle loomed up out of the misty darkness, lights in nearly every window as the people inside obviously awaited the arrival of their missing men. The moon shone down onto the stone, making it gleam in the silvery light like a glowing mountain of gray-white stone. A chilled breeze ruffled Lara’s hair and she shivered. No longer sandwiched between Duncan and the animal they rode, her upper body was exposed to the weather and the moist air bit through her clothes and chilled her to the bone.
With a triumphant grin, Lara turned her gaze to the animal beneath her and gasped. “Oh, my God! It is a giant polar bear. What…how?” She glanced up at Duncan who stared down at her with an amused expression. He smiled, showing her gleaming-white teeth that, at least in her mind, elongated to that of a large predatory animal. At that point, Lara had had too much. “Holy smokes, Santa! I’m riding a frickin’ polar bear.” She barely felt herself pitch forward as she fell into an embarrassing faint.
Chapter Three
Duncan looked down at the girl in his arms and smiled. She was a bonny lass, indeed. She hadn’t even screamed when she got a good look at Jamie in his animal form. Duncan had even tried to make her scream when she looked at him. He had partially shifted, showing her his elongated incisors. They needed to know just how strong willed she was. There were legends about shifters taking humans as mates, but every one of them told an exhaustive tale about the human’s bravery before being confronted by their shifter mates.
He looked down, brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and stared at the long lashes making golden crescents on her cheeks. She was more beautiful than he could have ever imagined and she was strong. Even her fainting had little meaning. Humans lost consciousness when they reached a point where their brains couldn’t process the information given to them, but the weak always screamed. Of that, he was certain.
She’s a strong one, isn’t she, Duncan?
Aye, Jamie. That she is. She’s not one tae run away from the things that frighten her.
What do we tell the others? Jamie continued to walk toward the keep.
We tell them the truth. We found an angel in the woods and we intend tae keep her. Duncan wasn’t about to let anyone chase her off. She may be human, but what she said, a mere hour and a half after meeting them, was proof enough that she had the courage to face all of the clan without backing down. He had no doubt she could and would do it, just as soon as she came to grips with the fact that they were shapeshifters.
They continued slowly toward the keep, Jamie’s large feet padding over the newly fallen snow. The men at the gates gaped as they walked through. They must have made quite a sight, Jamie in his animal form with what appeared to be an injured Duncan riding on his back.
“What happened tae ye, Duncan?” His mother raced from the keep, worry in her eyes. A wounded man was the only reason any of them changed outside of the safety of the keep. No one would risk discovery otherwise.
“I’m fine, Mother.” He sat up, revealing their precious cargo and his mother gasped, her eyes wide.
“What are ye doing?” She studied the girl for a bit before she whispered. “She’s a human, Duncan. Have ye both lost your minds?” She waved her arm toward the girl. “The lass could leave here. She could tell others of Jamie now.” She crossed her arms and frowned.
“Dinnae fash yourself, Mother.” Duncan sighed as he slid from Jamie’s back and gathered the lass in his arms. “She was freezing tae death in the woods. Would ye hae had us leave her there tae die?”
His mother sighed. “Now, ye know I wouldnae.” She turned to Jamie who still had not shifted back to his human form. “Change yourself back, man, afore the lass awakens. Perhaps we can salvage the situation and make her believe she dreamed the whole thing.”
“It’s too late for that, Mother. We’ve shown her what we are. We dinnae want her tae believe it was a dream. We want her tae know what we are, tae choose tae stay here with us.”
“With who, Duncan, you or Jamie?” his mother asked, her arms still crossed.
“The both of us, if she’ll hae us.” Duncan met his mother’s gaze without flinching. He wasn’t a boy any longer. If his mother didn’t approve, it was just too damned bad. They needed mates, all of them, and if she couldn’t understand that they intended to grab onto this girl and hold on tight, she would just have to go on not understanding.
His mother raised a brow, her blue eyes gleaming. “It’s a wonder ye finally found a lass that interested ye, Duncan.” She grinned, slapped Jamie on the ass and laughed. “Change tae your human form, Jamie, before I give ye a real lashing for scaring half my life from me when ye carried Duncan through the gates.”
In a flare of blue-white energy, Jamie flashed back into his human form and grinned sheepishly at Duncan’s mother. “I’m sorry, Mam. It was Duncan’s idea after all. Besides,” he paused to wink at Duncan, “as your son says, the girl was dying in the cold. We couldnae just leave her there.”
“As ye both say.” She sighed and shook her head. “Bring her inside. She needs some hot soup and a warm bed.” Turning, she scowled at the two men. “A warm bed that doesn’t include two randy men waiting tae make her theirs.” She lifted her skirts a bit, revealing her bare feet and led them into the castle.
Duncan followed his mother up two flights of stairs and into Jamie’s room. It seemed his mother was behind his decision to keep the girl after all. The chamber was connected to his by a shared bathroom. A few girls followed them in, changed the sheets and placed a thick velvet mantle on the bed. Gently, he rested her on the bed after Moira, his mother’s dressing maid, pulled the thick mantle back.
“Now l
eave us,” his mother said as she pushed them both from the room. “We hae tae undress her and while ye wish tae lay claim upon her, the lass has a right tae refuse and it’s not fair tae her tae hae ye kenning all of her secrets this early in your relationship.”
That his mother alluded they may have a relationship in the future was a good thing. Along with being the caretaker of the castle, she was also a seer. She foretold his father’s death three hundred years ago. Any sign of their future success was a good thing. Smiling, they both left the room.
* * * *
Blessed warmth seeped into Lara’s bones. She stretched, reveling in the heavy warmth that surrounded her. On her back, she realized she was in a real bed, not on the back of a swaying animal.
Cracking her eyes open, Lara looked around the room. It was beautiful! Sky blue walls gave way to dark walnut trim. Large windows graced the walls on two sides of the room and a hand-carved bureau and armoire sat side by side on the other, a door set between them. A large dresser that matched the other two pieces of furniture sat opposite the foot of the bed with a large beveled mirror over it. Oil lamps, strategically set on furniture throughout the room, provided light through the darkness.
Lara turned her attention to the huge bed where she rested. It matched the other furniture in the room. Four high posters supported a large canopy draped in rich blue velvet. It was like something out of a fairy tale.
Like something from a children’s story where the damsel in distress wakes up in a king’s castle surrounded by luxuries she hadn’t dare dream of before. Large logs burned merrily in the deep fireplace between the windows, keeping the room warm as toast. Lara couldn’t help it. After her experience the night before, she snuggled down into the warmth of the soft mattress and closed her eyes. She was dreaming, that was it. This was her last dream before she died out in the cold, sitting on a tree stump beneath the starry night sky.
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