by Lucy Monroe
“He’s your mate, then?” the Balmoral asked.
Caelis took a deep breath, surprised at the tension filling him that he had to force himself to ignore. The time had come to declare his intentions before her family.
Shona looked up at him, her emerald gaze questioning.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead before stepping back and facing Lachlan. “You are her closest kin, are you not?”
The Balmoral stood, clasping his hands behind his back. “Aye.”
“Shona is mine.”
The laird did not reply, but his expression challenged Caelis’s claim without words.
“I will marry her.”
Vegar made a snorting sound and turned away. Caelis glared at him, only to shift that scowl to Thomas when a sound very much like a laugh came out of his mouth as well.
“Will you?” the Balmoral asked, the challenge in his tone unmistakable.
Caelis opened his mouth to set the man straight when he caught sight of Shona in his periphery. He was doing this for her, to show her she had value in his sight.
“I am declaring my intent to you to make Shona both my mate and my wife.”
The Balmoral inclined his head, but did not answer. Instead, he turned to Eadan. “Is this MacLeod soldier your father?”
“No.”
Caelis felt that word with the power of a dragon’s blow. He had to lock his legs in place, or he would have stumbled from the pain of it.
“He is not?” Lachlan asked, surprise in his tone.
“He is not a soldier. He is laird, and soon the whole clan will know it.”
“Ah…and is this soon-to-be laird your da?”
“Yes.” Eadan crossed his arms, his mouth set in a stubborn line. “He and Mum are mates.”
Lachlan nodded, his own expression thoughtful. He focused his attention on Marjory. “What of you, little princess, do you call Caelis ‘Da’?”
“I calls him Daddy,” Marjory said in her high-pitched little girl’s voice. “He’s a big dog.”
Caelis found himself smiling at her view of his conriocht, though they would have to teach her discretion in how she referred to him.
Still ignoring Caelis, Lachlan turned to Shona. “You are my cousin, a Balmoral by blood if not by birth.”
“Thank you,” Shona said.
What did that mean? Why was she thanking him? Did she want to be a Balmoral? She’d said she would marry him. She would not go back on her word. Even if he had six years ago.
He would freely admit to himself, if no one else, that Shona was made of stronger stuff than even a Chrechte warrior could lay claim to.
“There is a story behind a Chrechte of honor who did not know he had a mate, or a son, much less a daughter to claim, the last time I saw him a month ago.”
Shona nodded. “There is.”
“That this same man I have considered both friend and courageous warrior somehow executed the bond between sacred mates and then allowed you to become separated is an unarguable truth.”
Caelis would not deny it. “Aye.”
“He intended to marry me,” Shona offered, surprising Caelis. “Our laird denied Caelis’s request for permission to do so, however.”
“And rather than leave with you, he stayed with the Fearghall.” Lachlan gave Caelis a look that made him feel like squirming.
But nothing compared to that moment he thought his son had denied him.
“Aye,” Caelis answered, though the question was not for him. “By my own stupidity, I lost my true mate for six long years.”
It got no easier to admit upon repeating.
“That would explain your celibacy. I wondered if you were not simply a more dedicated warrior than most,” Lachlan mused.
Shona made a small sound of distress. He looked down at her. “What is the matter?”
“That time is over. We are to be wed now. This is the matter of importance, not the past.”
“Is it?” Lachlan asked.
Shona nodded most earnestly at the Balmoral laird. “It is.”
“You would accept his suit for your hand?”
“I already have.”
“And yet he still brought his intentions before your family.”
Shona looked up at Caelis, her eyes shining with gratified pleasure. “Aye.”
Finally, he had done something right.
Lachlan nodded and met Caelis’s gaze. “You have shifted from Fearghall to Cahir, embracing every sacrifice necessary, training with total dedication to protect all Chrechte. Your plans and destiny are to serve our people with your life, but none of that justifies dismissing the needs of your mate. Remember that.”
Lady Emily nodded, giving her husband and true mate a loving look.
Caelis could not disagree with the sentiment, but questioned his true dedication to it. Shona had agreed to marry him, but she had also made it clear she had no desire to return to the MacLeod clan.
Could he turn away from one destiny for the sake of another?
The simple answer was that if he honestly intended to put Shona’s needs foremost in his mind, if he were to honor the sacred mating he had been blessed with, Caelis did not have a choice.
“No!” Shona spun to face him. “Stop thinking in this manner, Caelis. I insist!”
“What are you talking about?” Audrey asked, looking askance at both Caelis and Shona.
Shona was wringing her hands and frowning. “He believes that in order to serve our mating best he must give up his destiny to take the MacLeod clan from Uven, but that is not true.”
Caelis expected Lachlan to get angry that he would even consider such a thing, but the older laird merely asked, “Why do you believe this?”
“Shona does not want to return to the MacLeod.” And finally, he must stop ignoring that truth.
“That is not true,” his mate immediately and vehemently disagreed.
Caelis turned to her in shock. He had never known her to lie, but she’d made no secret of her feelings. So, how could he believe her words now, no matter how his senses told him she spoke the truth?
“I did not wish to return to the clan with Uven as laird. Even in my own mind, I had not made that distinction until now, but Caelis, you must believe me. I loved our clan, I love our people and I would serve them with you, by your side.”
“So, you would marry this man despite a past that left you alone with a child by him?” Lachlan pressed.
Caelis would knock the laird back on his ass, but for the fact he appreciated Shona’s newly discovered family showing such protectiveness toward her.
Shona nodded, her small, feminine body held tight with sincerity. “I would.”
“Our priest will bless your union before the evening meal,” Lachlan announced.
Caelis expected Shona to balk. Tradition dictated marriage Masses be performed in the morning. She was one who liked to make her plans and she’d been appalled by the speed and lack of ceremony associated with Audrey and Vegar’s wedding.
But she smiled wide. “That would be lovely. Will the priest speak a blessing over Vegar and Audrey’s wedding as well, do you think?”
Audrey sucked in an excited breath. “Oh, would he?”
Lady Emily smiled, her brown eyes sparkling. “I am sure he would. He is quite accustomed to unorthodox weddings.”
Both Shona and Audrey showed delight at this answer.
“Why do we need a blessing?” Vegar asked, looking bewildered.
Audrey crossed her arms and gave a glare that no doubt did Shona proud. “So we can tell our children about something other than a laird’s words while you stood ready to come to blows on the stairway.”
* * *
Shona stood before the Balmoral priest, ready to speak her vows with Caelis. Meeting Lachlan had been amazing and wonderful. To know she had family that cared, to know her children had had options for safety even before fate had brought Caelis back into her life gave her such a sense of peace.
But she d
id not want to stay on Balmoral Island, despite the beauty and obvious closeness of the clan, or the fact that their laird claimed her as family.
Her future and the future of their children lay with Caelis and his destiny to protect his people and the humans of the MacLeod clan from the false doctrines of the Fearghall. It was her destiny as well. She could feel the truth of that deep in her soul.
It would take those not of the Faol to turn the thinking of the Chrechte among the MacLeod clan from the misguided teachings of the Fearghall. Those wolf shifters would not come to see humans or the Éan as individuals worthy of life, much less respect if Uven succeeded in pushing all but the Faol from the clan.
She and her children would make the Faol stop and think about all they had been taught by that deceiving blackguard. Vegar’s strength and honor as a warrior would challenge their beliefs that the Éan were the ones to be despised as lesser Chrechte.
But in this moment, her destiny was not paramount. The vows she would speak were. And everything within Shona longed to make these promises before God and man with her warrior, to bind them together with the ties of law and honor.
The priest said the wedding Mass with warm feeling, his attitude that of a friend though they’d never met before Lachlan had introduced them.
The homily he spoke about marriage was both moving and funny, but all laughter faded as he led Caelis to speak first his vows and then Shona to utter hers.
Caelis maintained eye contact through each word, reminding Shona that no matter who was there as witness, the ones who truly mattered were her and him.
The priest spoke his blessing over both newly married couples before the clan celebrated the marriage of their laird’s newly discovered cousin.
* * *
Shona faced Caelis in the tower room Lady Emily had offered for their wedding night.
His big body glowed golden in the firelight, his muscles rippling with power and strength that both excited and soothed her.
This man, this shape-changer, was her mate, her husband. And she loved him.
Now and forever.
“You are my gift,” he said quietly. “The blessing I never deserved but could not live without.”
“You did live without me.”
“I survived without happiness, without pleasure. Every day of the six years we were apart, I ached for you. The years I believed you lost to me through death, I was little more than a shell. My one purpose with any meaning was to serve my brethren, but I had no hope of anything for me, or for the future. You give me a future laced with joy, filled with pleasure, worth living not just for my people, but for my own life as well.”
His words fell on her heart like rain on the parched summer ground. “Our future is what we make it. The past no longer has any bearing.”
“Do you truly believe that?” he asked. “You have forgiven me?”
“Yes.” She meant it with every fiber of her being, too.
He nodded and moved forward until he stood directly in front of her, his body heat reaching out to wrap around her like a touch. “This is the last time you will dress an English baroness.”
“I am a laird’s lady, but no baroness any longer.” He could not know how much that pleased her.
Chapter 23
Ignore the sacred teaching and the lessons of the past at the peril of all Chrechte.
—ANCIENT CELI DI
“Exactly.” Caelis set about undressing Shona with efficient movements, as if the sight of her in the English garb was too much for him to bear one moment longer. “’Tis a lovely dress, but I’ll be happy to never see it again.”
“I still have my MacLeod plaid.” She’d kept it all these years and brought it with her from England, though she would never have admitted so before tonight.
He stopped, staring down at her, his expression arrested and lit with an inner joy she never wanted to see extinguished. “You knew.”
“What?”
“That you were still mine.” And he set about proving it by removing her clothes and touching her in ways only he had ever done.
This time, though, she was determined to do the same. Moments later, they both stood naked in the center of the room, his hardness jutting into the air between them, her body showing its own obvious signs of arousal, too.
Her nipples were pebble hard, tingling with the need for his touch and his mouth. She ached deep in her womb and moisture had gathered between her legs, the scent of her need obvious even to her human…or mostly human senses.
He sniffed at the air, inhaling deeply and smiling with a feral light in his blue gaze. “You are ready for me and we have barely touched.”
“I am not the only one.” She jutted her chin toward his weeping purple erection.
He growled low. “No, you are not.”
“That is a good thing.” To be together in their desire more amazing than he could ever know.
“Tonight we consummate our marriage and our mating.”
“Yes.” She reached up to kiss him, needing the intimate connection.
He did not hesitate to give it to her, taking control of the joining of their lips with gentle but inexorable force. His tongue swept inside her mouth and an image of his sex invading her body in a similar fashion flashed through her head.
She knew that image had not come from her. It was too intense, too aggressive…too male in its perspective. “Caelis?” she asked across their mental bond.
“Hmmm…” he hummed against her mouth.
She lost the thought she meant to pursue as his big hands cupped her backside and lifted her firmly against him. The feel of their naked flesh touching for the first time with the knowledge that they were legally bound sent chills of pleasure throughout her body, leaving goosebumps behind.
“Mine,” she heard in her head. “Mo toilichte. Mo gra.”
The sense of possessiveness emanating off of him wrapped around her and filled her with inexpressible delight, adding to her excitement. More images of lovemaking between them, her body wrapped in his, his nestled in hers, played like the most precious of dreams across her mental landscape.
She did not know how he was giving her these mental pictures, nor did she care in that moment. Seeing what he wanted, what he dreamed about, made her realize this physical connection between them was every bit as important to him as it was to her. That it went beyond the physical to souls intertwining.
She spread her legs, wrapping them around his hips, allowing Caelis to fit her body to his so his hardened sex rubbed against her most intimate flesh.
She saw an image in her head of her body taking his inside while she leaned back, her breasts completely revealed to his gaze, their bodies moving together in perfect harmony. She shifted to make it happen, both of them groaning in deep pleasure as they connected in the most intimate way possible for the first time in six years.
The kiss broke; she knew not which of them made it happen, but she leaned back as she’d seen in her head, her breasts heaving as he made love to her standing.
’Twas the most incredible experience she could have imagined, his passion so honest and true, so tempered by emotion it could never be compared to the selfish, lustful groping she’d endured with the baron.
“You are mine!” Caelis shouted, his tone intense, his body straining hard and his eyes glowing as they did when he was conriocht.
He swelled inside her. Already large, he grew so that she could barely move on his sex, her swollen folds stretched taut around his conriocht cock.
“You are shifting.”
Sweat beaded his brow, his face contorted with his effort to control his form. “Nay.”
“Parts of you, surely.” No matter how misted the memory, she would not have forgotten if he had been this large six years past.
He did not answer, simply moving her on his huge arousal, causing her pleasure that bordered on pain. But no pain came and the pleasure only grew until it exploded through her and she screamed her completion even as he
came inside her, his seed hot and strong as it pulsed against her cervix.
“My mate, my wife,” he said in the guttural tones of the conriocht as his body increased in size and she felt another climax build on the astonishing pleasure of the last one. There was no breath for her climax when it came this time.
Her body shuddered, convulsion after convulsion tightening her flesh as clawed hands held her with intense care. His face did not shift, he did not grow hair…it was Caelis, but with the body of a near giant and the sex to match it.
“You will carry my child again,” he promised her. “And I will be there every day of your confinement.”
She had no breath for words with which to reply, but she could say the only three that mattered across their mating bond. “I love you.”
“And I you. One day you will believe it.”
She might believe it now, but he gave her no opportunity to tell him as he began making love to her again, proving that a six-year wait was entirely too long for man or wolf to finally claim his mate.
They continued to make love into the early hours of the morning, falling asleep under their mating fur as the sky began to lighten.
* * *
Shona and Caelis did not join the Balmoral clan until the nooning meal the next day, and still Shona found herself stifling a yawn as they approached the head table.
Audrey smiled knowingly. “Good morning, sleepyheads.”
Shona knew her young friend’s transition from innocent to married woman would take some getting used to, but she smiled anyway. “Thank you for rising with the children this morn.”
Audrey waved off her thanks. “Eadan and Marjory enjoyed getting to know their new family. Gail and Feth made them feel very welcome.”
Shona had barely met the laird and lady’s ten-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son the day before, though both had attended her wedding.
She smiled at them now. “Thank you.”
“They are very nice children,” Gail said with the maturity of budding womanhood.
She had years yet of her own childhood, Providence willing, but the reflection of the woman she would become was there.
