“Aye, and there are images unfurling, but still too gritty and dark to make out. I shall check again later.” A stunning smile lifted her rose-pink lips, then she stood and ambled across to a washed-up log on the grassy verge. She eased down onto it, her booted feet wedged into the pebbly sand and the grass sprouting high behind her back. She patted the space beside her. “Come sit with me.”
He wasn’t turning that request down. He sat with his shoulder brushing her shoulder, scooped up a pebble and with his sight trained on the waves, head slightly angled, he sent the pebble skimming across the water. It tapped the surface, once, twice, three times, before disappearing into the white wash of a wave farther out from shore. He had so many questions for the woman beside him, and he needed to know more about her. He’d begin with the basics. “What’s your favorite food?”
“Strawberries. Yours?”
“Pork and bacon. What’s your favorite color?”
“Purple.” She handed him another pebble. “Yours?”
“Emerald, the same color as your eyes.” He sent the pebble skipping out across the waves, then when it got swallowed by the waters, he plucked another and sent it flying too. “Favorite time of the day?”
“Midnight. You?”
“There’s nothing quite like sitting under a midnight sky with the moon shining and stars twinkling, so I would have to say the same. Favorite book?” he quizzed.
“Oh gosh, that’s Weaponry, Sight and Skill. Have you ever read it?”
“I have. It’s one of my favorites too. We’ve got an early edition of it in the clan library.” It covered all the weapons across the centuries, the required skills needed to use them too. A woman after his own heart. “Have you ever kissed a man?”
“That would be telling.” Brow arched, she wriggled around, slung one leg over the other side of the log and facing him, pressed her hands against the mossy bark. “I have a serious question now. Since you came of age, have you ever sensed even the slightest urge when the full moon rose to begin the chase for your chosen one?”
“No, unfortunately I haven’t.” He straddled the log too, his palms on the bark and his fingertips a mere inch from hers.
“What of Liam and Levi?” She looked deep into his eyes, focused nowhere but on him, and that much intensity punched him in the gut. In a good way, a fascinating way. His bear loved the way she watched him so intensely, as if trying to see deeper inside his very soul. He’d let her dive right in if she wished, and lock her in place so she couldn’t escape.
“There have been no urges for them either, whereas I have a multitude all tumbling about inside me right now, and I have since I first caught the sound of your voice and your intoxicating scent from the battlements. I couldn’t get inside fast enough to find out who had arrived.” He breathed deep again, got another good lungful of her heavenly aroma and his bear fairly pushed against his skin to get closer to her. “Have you ever gotten this close to an unmated shifter?” he asked, all rumbly and rough.
She lifted her chin, licked her upper lip with a soft sweep of her enticing pink tongue. “There is Gilleoin and his sons, Kenneth and Ivan. I have spent a great deal of time with them, and I have known every chief of your clan since the beginning. Murdock has always been my favorite, although his and Cherub’s need for secrecy until now has meant my visits here were kept in private and unspoken of. Glad I am, that is no longer the case. That I can sit here and freely speak to you.”
“I wish I’d met you years ago, six years to be precise, when I first came of age.”
“You’re so young.” She giggled, her merriment both lightening his heart and soaking deep within his soul.
“You don’t look a day over twenty yourself.”
“Aye, we cease aging from our twentieth year, but I can assure you, I am very, very, very—”
“Okay, I get the point. You’re very old compared to me.”
“Nay.” She giggled again, wriggled closer until her fingertips touched his fingertips on the bark. She glanced between their hands and his face. “I was going to say very wise, and by the way, you should never call one of the ancient fae old. ’Tis rather disrespectful. My papa, if you’d told him that, would have sliced off your tongue.”
“Would Cian have healed it afterward?” He wriggled his tongue inside his mouth, her words making it tingle with pins and needles.
“That would have depended on how remorseful you were afterward. Cian is a powerful healer, is the second-born child of Ailbert, the King of the Fae. My grandfather raised all his children with a stern hand, and in so doing, my papa did the same with me.”
“Cherub isn’t stern, and she’s Ailbert’s firstborn.”
“She can be when she wishes to, particularly when the safety and protection of her people are at risk. She will attack without any hesitation if need be. Have you ever witnessed her might and strength in battle? She commands the very element of air, can whip it into a mighty storm unlike any you’ve ever seen. She can and does call forth wrath and destruction when pressed to. Unfortunately, though, my aunt and I must also take great care no’ to kill those we meet while traveling through time. To do so can cause an adjustment, like ripples which can alter the very fabric of the future itself, which we try our hardest to steer well clear of doing, unless there is no other choice.”
“But Cherub’s such an adorable sprite, with her golden locks and glittery skin. She dresses like a lady at court, in fine gowns and such. One wouldn’t think she could hurt a fly.”
“You clearly have a lot to learn about Cherub. My aunt can be underestimated like that, but mark my words, she is a warrior through and through, the same as my sisters and I are.” Leaning forward, she placed both her hands on his bare knees, her fingers curling into the hem of his Matheson plaid hooked around his waist and looped over one shoulder. “Do you believe in magic, Hunter?”
“It’s hard not to considering the abilities and skills held by my clan, and the fact that we’re shifters. I would say that you’re rather magical to be around as well.” He cupped her face in his hands, stroked his thumbs gently back and forth across her soft, creamy cheeks. “I also believe in love at first sight. That happened for my parents, and before the full moon rose too. They’d always gravitated toward each other as cubs, as teens as well, then once they reached adulthood, no one and nothing could halt them from completing the bond the first night the full moon declared they were soul bound.”
“That is a rarity though. Never forget that.” She pulled away from him, stood and ambled back down to the water’s edge. She wandered along the shoreline, right where the waves washed in and left a line of foam before washing back out. She didn’t stop, but kept walking and he bounded to his feet and jogged after her.
Coming in beside her, he asked, “Regarding your vision, have you seen when the Chief of MacKenzie intends on killing this warrior, the exact day and time?”
“Nay, but ’twill be soon. That is the way of my visions. Also, from their conversation, I’m aware the warrior perishes no’ long after his torture begins. An hour to be precise, with the loss of his head. I hope future visions will alert me to more details. That is how they unfold.”
“I’m sorry you saw such a…difficult vision.” It had to have been heart-breaking to witness.
“My visions are all difficult to watch.” She slowed her pace and stopped, then searched his gaze as if trying to see right into his heart, the moon lighting her golden hair like a halo over her head. “You must understand, Hunter, that I only ever see visions of war. That is the way of my combat skill. I shall also know if what I’m doing here in your time has a chance of altering the warrior’s future simply through those visions.”
“How exactly?” He lifted one of her golden spiral curls and wrapped the length around his finger.
“If I continue to see his death occurring, then I’ll know I’ve changed naught, but if I see him alive and well instead, then I’ll have fulfilled the purpose of what I’ve been called to
do.”
“Have you ever failed in fulfilling that purpose?”
“Never.” She shook her head as if she never would either, not if she had her way. “This warrior I seek might be my mate. He said so in my vision of him, although only the full moon can truly verify such a bond. Still, I’ve been waiting over eight-hundred years for him, and if he is mine, then I willnae lose him afore our lives together have even begun.”
If she was his mate, then he had no intention of losing her either. “War is damn destructive, no matter what era in time it occurs.”
“Aye, war always lurks on the horizon though, for those on Earth.” She watched him as he continued to play with the curl he’d wound around his finger.
“Sorry. I can’t help but touch you. The urge is strong.”
“’Tis all right.” She waved his apology off. “I need to learn more about you in particular. I’m aware of course that your clan works high-level government cases which requires your specialized fae-shifter abilities, and that those cases can take you and your kin into places of war, both within your own country and across the seas. Are you a part of one of these teams?”
“Aye, war is ugly and brutal. Peace is what we’re after, and we fight to ensure that peace for those who can’t fight for it themselves.”
“A noble cause, which is how I live my life as well, how my sisters and Cherub live it too.” She caught his hand and turned it over before studying the lines across his palm. She traced across the deepest of the three most prominent lines before lifting her gaze back to his. “You hold a long life-line, but it has an intersection first afore it continues.”
“What does that mean?”
“That your death is about to come, but it shall be circumvented. A good sign, one I pray remains true.”
“Interesting.”
“You, Hunter Matheson, might be the very warrior I’m seeking. In fact”—her gaze narrowed as she eyed him—“the longer we’ve talked, the more it makes sense. You must be the one I need to protect.”
“Does that make me your future mate as well?”
“Only the full moon can confirm that possibility.” She dipped two fingers inside her pouch and tossed her fae dust. It swirled all around him, then she uttered words he strained to catch, something about being very still, then something about forgetting all that had passed between them. Something more about forgetting her.
He blinked twice, hard, and turned in a slow circle.
His mind, incredibly fuzzy, throbbed as if he’d taken a hit to his head and gotten knocked out.
He plucked the sleeve of his white tunic and shimmery golden dust flickered in the moonlight then fluttered to the shoreline. Why was he down here?
2:00 AM glared back at him in red digits on his watch from under the backlit light.
His shift had finished an hour ago, yet he couldn’t remember even one minute of the time that had passed since.
Growling low under his breath, he strode back toward the keep, bounded along the pine-needle strewn trail and caught an elusive fragrance drifting on the breeze. He halted and drew in a deep breath. Unmated female. Fertile unmated female. Shock slapped him hard in the face.
How was that possible? But more than that, why did the scent raise every hair on his arms and send his gut churning into a terrible mess?
He picked up his pace, loped through the postern gate then jogged across the inner bailey along the cobbled pathway. He skidded inside the front door of the keep, and caught a glimpse of a woman with golden spiral locks wearing battle leathers and a sword at her side. She disappeared up the stairwell.
Chase, his bear growled from deep inside him.
Gritting his teeth, he pounded up the stairs two at a time.
On the second floor, he halted, her elusive fragrance tickling his nose. She was close, incredibly close, and his bear rumbled and demanded he continue the hunt. The paneled hallway stretched out before him, although devoid of even one soul. He marched to the first chamber door and sniffed. Her scent didn’t end here, but continued onward. Door after door, he checked for the fragrance he was after, then caught Cherub and Kirk’s scent which surprised him. They must have arrived without him sighting their arrival. They certainly hadn’t been here for the evening meal, just before he’d gone on duty. He passed his own chamber door, reached the last door along the passageway and snapped his teeth together as the woman’s aroma ended directly at his feet.
He stepped back, until his back touched the wall across from the guest chamber, then he shucked his plaid, shirt, and boots before giving his body to his bear. Bones popped and a moment of pain flared through him as he made the Change.
His bear was riled, and he needed answers.
They both did.
Chapter 3
Gulping air, Ailith leaned against her door after she’d raced back from the beach and whipped inside. That had been one close call. She’d barely kept ahead of Hunter after she’d spelled him by the loch. She hadn’t had a choice in removing his memory of their first meeting and conversation by the water, not when her duty was to ensure his survival. Aye, she was certain he was the warrior from her vision. His lifeline had indicated a great deal, and the way he’d spoken to her had tugged at her heart. So too, if she was being honest with herself, that tugging had begun back when she’d first met him in the great hall. The connection between them had built swiftly, progressing as they’d walked down to the waterfront, then surging ahead during their conversation. He’d captured her attention immediately, unlike any other man before him. That wasn’t to say they were mated, but she hadn’t been able to cease touching him, and he’d been much the same way with her. She’d loved it when he’d sat next to her on the log and given her his undivided attention, then played with a lock of her hair as they’d walked along the beach.
The moonlight had cast his handsome features into firm determination, highlighting the strong line of his jaw and casting a shimmery glow over his furrowed forehead and flaring nostrils. Aye, they’d flared because he’d been breathing so deeply in order to take in more of her scent, and she hadn’t missed that. She likely should have spelled the removal of her scent once her last spell within the great hall had worn off, only with him dragging in her scent like that, it had made her belly flutter with such excitement.
Aye, it still fluttered now. She squeezed her hands into fists and tried not to open the door and bound back out. She both wanted to be with him, and didn’t. His safety was only assured if she set these rising emotions for him aside though, and returned to the past. She couldn’t take him with her, and he wasn’t permitted to follow. That was the only option moving forward, until she no longer saw a vision of him perishing.
The cracking of bones echoed under the door then the heavy thump and scratch of paws resounded. Shifters could be incredibly territorial and if they were mated, he would be even more territorial due to their bond. Somehow, he’d already tracked her down. Drat it all. She jiggled from foot to foot, so unsure as to what to do. Let Hunter come in and spell him to forget her again? Or ignore him?
More thumping and scratching, a bear’s muzzle pressed to the gap under the doorway and a snort and growl rumbling through. Ugh, he wasn’t leaving, not until she’d dealt with him again. Heart squeezing in on itself, she opened her door and leaned against the doorjamb, then tried her best to assert as much authority into her voice as she could. “What do you want?”
A big bear prowled back and forth, Hunter’s clothing scattered across the floor of the passageway. He’d shifted in a hurry, and boy, did she have her work cut out for her with him. His bear’s golden shifter eyes drilled into hers, his beast holding a stunning brown pelt with white-tipped paws.
He rumbled another grizzly growl, then padded past her into her chamber before turning around in a slow circle in the middle of the room at the end of her four-poster bed. He sat on his rump on the white rug, his front legs straight and ears alert as he observed her like one did when examining a bug under a m
icroscope. Aye, and she was currently the bug.
“It appears we need to talk. Give me one moment.” She didn’t need to alert his clansmen to what was going on, which meant she needed to collect his clothing and remove any sign of his shift. She scooped his boots up, got one finger stuck under the large silver buckle on the front, a buckle engraved with the head of a bear. She pulled her finger free and sliced it almost to the bone. A hidden knife, a small one, was tucked underneath the silver. A warrior always carried a weapon on them which no one else could find. This must be his, the blade small but incredibly sharp. She sucked on her finger as she picked up his tartan and tunic, sword belt and weapons. Another finger wag at him. “Remain here.”
Thankfully, he stayed put as she walked through the connecting bathroom and placed his weapons and clothes on the trunk at the end of his bed. She hurried back, her finger thankfully already healed, the skin having drawn together over the cut.
Across from her, Hunter maintained his state on full alert, his gums pulled back and sharp white teeth gritted together as he snarled, his golden gaze on her finger rather than her face. She held her finger toward him. “See, already healed. I’m an immortal. Never forget that, Hunter. I cannae be killed, whereas you can.”
Carefully, she turned a touch and snuck more dust from her pouch, then tossed it over him. “Listen to me well. No more shall you recall why you’re in my chamber, or the chase you’ve made. You shall instead feel sleepy, your eyelids weighing you down. Sleep now, Hunter, rest and recover from your night. You willnae awaken until after I have.”
His bear blinked slowly, struggled to keep his eyelids open, then he slid down and slumped onto the mat.
She brushed her hands against her legs, a job well done. No one should ever mess with one of the ancient fae. Only now he lay sprawled across her chamber floor, cutting off her path to her bed. Oh well, she’d simply sleep in his bed instead. It mattered little where she did, only that come the light of the new day, she got out of here as quickly as she could. Home to her warrior encampment.
Highlander's Claim: Time Travel Romance (The Matheson Warriors Book 2) Page 4
