“Aye, that is the David I speak of.”
“Did you know him? You almost speak as if that’s the case.”
“Of course, I did. Afore his death, he was a most youthful man, a strong warrior and defender of those who couldnae fight for themselves.” She’d never forget the great siege of the year 1194 which had involved David. She’d had a vision that one of his warriors, who held a touch of fae blood, was about to perish in battle and well before his time.
“Tell me. Is it true then?” Hunter leaned in, his words whisper-quiet.
“Is what true?” She whispered in return, not sure why they were whispering when shifters who held such good hearing were sitting so close by.
“Legend says David was Robin Hood.” He cocked one eyebrow as if waiting for her confirmation of the truth.
“Oh, well, David certainly took part in the great siege of Nottingham Castle where the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derby County was taken captive. I was called, through my skill, to ensure the survival of one of his warriors at that time. I have been to places and times you could only dream of.”
“That’s for sure.”
“Legend too says David’s son, Robert, who unfortunately died young, might also have been Robin Hood.” She cupped his cheek in one palm and smiled, the mischievous nature she occasionally held in check flowing forth. “Would you like to know which man was the true legend, and if I told you, would you keep it to yourself?”
Every ear of his clan was turned their way.
“Of course. Was it the elder, or the younger?”
She frowned and tapped her head. “Hmm, I suddenly have a memory block.”
“You do not.”
Giggling, she handed him her plate and collected another before wandering along the table holding an array of breakfast foods.
“You are incredibly annoying.” He stroked one hand down her back then settled his palm on her hip.
“I know. Get used to it.”
“I intend to.” Said with a snarl and a caress over her hip. “What tempts you here?”
“Everything.” Steam curled from a deep metal dish holding bacon and sausages, which released a heavenly aroma that made her belly rumble. Potato hash overflowed the next dish, and a lass in short skirts topped the last platter of scrambled eggs with more from a pan she held. “This looks delicious, and I have no’ eaten since lunchtime yesterday. We fae can get quite sidetracked and miss meals all over the place.”
“I’d love to enjoy a meal alone with you, just the two of us, perhaps a picnic lunch somewhere along the shoreline in a secluded spot, or if you prefer a meal at one of the quaint restaurants in the village. We could call it our first date.”
“Spending time alone with you could be dangerous. I also dinnae intend to be here for long enough to allow for a date.”
“I intend for you to be around for dozens of them.” He chuckled, his lips gliding across her neck as he crowded her from behind. “There’s warm toast and an assortment of cereals and fruits on the next table.”
“So I’ve noticed. Hold out your plate and I’ll serve us both.” She loaded their plates with the hot offerings and he plucked a hash brown from one dish and munched on it.
“I wish you’d serve yourself up on a plate for me,” he murmured around his mouthful.
“Would you stop making such comments.” She checked, and aye, they were still the center of attention. “Naught is going on here.” She waved to everyone. “Continue with breaking your fast.”
He chuckled some more.
She snorted under her breath and marched to the next table, poured puffed wheat into a bowl and sprinkled diced apricots on top. Breakfast in hand, she weaved around the trestle tables and when she spied Levi, she hurried across to him and set her cereal and hot plate on the table. She popped a kiss on his cheek, primarily to annoy Hunter, which it did going by the feral growl emanating from him back at the servery.
He hauled it across to her with lightning-fast shifter speed. “Hands off her, Levi.”
“I haven’t got my hands on her.” Levi thrust them in the air for proof.
“How are you this morn, Levi?” She smiled sweetly at the warrior.
“Almost about to get killed if you don’t give me some slack. If Hunter says you’re his mate, then you’re his mate. The rest of us have to accept that.”
“Well, whether we are mated or no’ is still undecided.” She added a splash of milk to her cereal from the jug in the center of the table, while Levi bit into his toast smeared in jam. “I have a request.” She smiled sweetly at him again.
“I can accept requests, provided they’re in line with clan rules.”
“I need you to keep Hunter busy after I’ve left.”
Another fierce growl and Hunter thumped his plate down on the table across from them. He stared Levi in the eye, the kind of stare that could slay a man without even the need for touch.
“Except that one.” Levi pushed his chair farther from hers, the screech of wood across wood pitched high, Levi’s answer too.
“There’s no need for me to dally here now I know who I need to protect, that being Hunter, in case I didnae make that clear. I must return to the warrior encampment where I came from. My sisters await me in Gilleoin’s time.”
“Are they mated? Sassy like you?” A flirty spark lit Levi’s eyes. “Fierce and protective too?”
“They arenae mated, and aye, they are sassy, fierce, and protective, just like me.”
“Can I come with you? I want to meet them.”
“Nay, I need you here to look after Hunter.”
“You’re not leaving through a portal without me.” Hunter fisted a bacon strip and tore into it. He gnawed away like an angry bear who’d gone a week without food.
“I am.” She poured cider into her mug and gulped. “Colin MacKenzie is waiting to strike. I can sense it to the depths of my bones. He has always desired this land and the strategic position held by this clan where the waterway between us and the Isle of Skye joins. Taking control of the main sailing route this keep overlooks is a prize to behold and that’s what he is after. He willnae give up that desire.”
“The MacKenzie has always been a thorn in our clan’s side.” Levi stirred sugar into his coffee, took a gulp and made a face while blowing out hot, steamy air. “Hot, hot. I don’t know why I always have to scald my tongue.”
“Good morning, all.” Cherub breezed in and squeezed her shoulder, the long draping sleeves of her regal burgundy gown accented with gold satin fluttering over her wrists. “Did you sleep well, my dear?”
“Nay, Hunter is a beast to lie beside.”
“You’ll need to get used to that.” Hunter stabbed a wedge of his sausage, smeared it through the ketchup on the side of his plate and chewed with a look that said, Try and change that and we’ll be having words.
“Here are the facts,” she stated to Cherub, ignoring Hunter entirely. “Hunter is the warrior from my vision. He’s also certain we’re mated, no’ that he can know such information this soon. The full moon is some weeks away as you’re aware, and until that time when he senses the urge to begin the hunt, then his declaration is mere speculation alone.”
“Interesting, and aye, ’tis too soon for him to know if a bond has been forged, although”—Cherub thumbed her chin, her golden locks pinned back in a braid and her sparkly skin shimmering as she switched her gaze to Hunter—“Kirk’s brother, Finlay, did in fact first sense his bond taking form with Arabel afore the full moon arose. Of course, he’d been searching for her for years, always being led to a place where he couldnae find her, and all because she didnae reside in this twenty-first century time but instead far in the past. Hunter, you’ve no’ once sensed that kind of urge, which means either Ailith was beyond the veil every time the full moon rose these past six years, or you’re no’ actually mated.”
“We’re mated.” He gave Cherub a firm look. “A man knows when he is.” Then he leaned lazily back in his chai
r, stretched his legs out under the table and hooked one foot around Ailith’s foot. “Goldilocks, I’ve been enamored by you from the moment we first met. Try to deny it.”
“I—I—you are so annoying.” She pushed her chair back and disengaged her leg. “Cherub,” she bit out as she hooked one arm through her aunt’s. “We need to speak. In private.”
“As you wish.” Cherub walked with her out the front door and they got enveloped in a mist which had thickened significantly since she’d last seen it rolling in out her chamber window. Now, she could barely make out the warriors training across the far side of the courtyard.
Eyeing her aunt, she asked, “Where’s Kirk? We need to get out of here, as quick as we possibly can.”
“Kirk and I stopped by Murdock’s solar to speak to him afore breakfast and Kirk remained there for a chat, while I came downstairs to seek you out. Murdock mentioned his vision, that he saw you removing Hunter’s memories by the loch then Hunter chasing you back inside.”
“That certainly happened, and I had no choice but to remove Hunter’s memories. He believes we’re mated and he’s insistent about returning with us to the past.” She crossed the bailey and passed underneath the arched entrance, just as a guardsman waved to Cherub from his spot next to the two-story gatehouse. Cherub waved back, and she did too. “Is it possible for us to leave as soon as Kirk is free?” she asked her aunt.
“Nay, and I’ll explain why. Murdock also reported to me and Kirk of a secondary vision he had this morning. He insisted we remain here for a little longer, even insisted ’twas imperative, that we must wait until you and Hunter have fought a battle, one which you must both undertake in order to reach a joint resolution.”
“What kind of battle?” She shivered against the chilly wind.
“One that leads you to Faodail.”
“A lucky find.” Frowning, she translated the Gaelic word with ease, then continued, “We’ve already battled.”
“Aye, but only with words. Murdock has seen you two battling with swords.”
“Well, I’d love to take my blade to Hunter’s backside. I’d strip a bit off here and there.”
Cherub laughed. “That I cannae wait to see.”
“I could show you right now, then we could be gone.” She weaved past the stables and horses grazing at the feed trough, then veered along the grassy trail leading down to the loch. Waves crashed into shore and the tall pines swayed and creaked. A hawk squawked somewhere high overhead and with another gust, her hair whipped across her face.
“Since we’re here, on the shore”—Cherub motioned to the sand and pebbles underfoot—“you should seek out with your senses and see if another vision is close.”
“Aye, you’re right. There might be an update.” She longed to have a vision which no longer showed Hunter’s death. If that happened, then she’d most certainly set his path back on the right course. She crouched and the ground moved and surged under her feet, a clear sign a vision awaited her. She planted her palms down and images rushed forth. Blood-red splattered across her sight.
“Ailith, what do you see?” Cherub wrapped one arm around her shoulders as she hunkered down next to her.
“Naught yet, but ’tis coming.” Through the bloody haze, the Chief of MacKenzie emerged and she clutched ahold of the image and followed him as he stormed down the center aisle of a war galley in black boots, his claymore holstered to his back and his beady gaze pinpointed on her. A jagged scar sliced through his left eyebrow, his long war braids whipping about each side of his shaggy brown head. He leaned over her where she lay on the hard planks in the hull, then kicked her leather-clad legs apart and planted one foot between them.
Water sloshed about her and she searched amongst the thirty or so warriors seated on the benches all around. The men slashed their oars through the rolling waves, the wind filling the sail and a mist lingering in the air. Why the hell was she on board MacKenzie’s vessel? She eyed him, face to face. “Where are you taking me, MacKenzie?”
“To my stronghold.” MacKenzie snapped his teeth together and snarled. “I willnae be defeated, and certainly no’ by the fae who’ve aligned themselves with Gilleoin. You Mathesons are well aware I want control of the waterways along this loch and for that I need Gilleoin’s lands on the tip. I will hold dominion over these Western Isles and you’re going to aid me in gaining the power and authority I seek.” He spat on the boards beside her feet. “The warriors at the encampment were guarding you well during the battle. Particularly that one.” He jabbed a finger over her shoulder, although she didn’t turn.
Never had she given her enemy her back, and she didn’t intend on beginning now. She needed to spell herself free of this place and be done with him. She grabbed her pouch, but MacKenzie snatched it from her hand and tossed it overboard. She had no weapons either, her sword and daggers gone.
“You’re now mine,” he bit out from between gritted teeth.
“I belong to no one.” She shoved to her feet, wobbled on a loose plank and fell back into a large bundled lump. Two booted feet stuck out one end of the rolled plaid and, oh goodness. Those boots. They had silver buckles with the engraved head of a bear etched into them. Hunter’s boots.
She heaved the rolled bundle over, the tartan unwrapping and the damp folds of wool falling away. Blood and dirt covered Hunter’s chest, an arrow sticking out, the tail end snapped off and the head protruding out his side. It had surely taken his life. She grasped his chilled face in her hands and screamed his name.
“Ailith!” Cherub squeezed her shoulders. “What have you seen? Tell me.”
“’Tis Hunter.” She shoved the blood-red of her vision away. “I’ve still seen his death. He’s on board Colin MacKenzie’s war galley, which means nothing I’ve done so far has altered his future. He still ends up in the past with me, although this time he perishes in another way. An arrow to the chest.”
“Of course, I’ll always end up in the past with you.” Hunter bounded in, his dark hair blowing in the wind and his shifter eyes blazing a fierce golden hue.
Chapter 7
“Your visions prove we are soul bound.” Intense and fierce emotions barreled through Hunter as he aided Ailith to her feet. “Nothing you can say or do will halt me from remaining at your side, whether here in this time or far in the past.”
“Nay, my visions prove that war and destruction is about to unfold, that death is coming for you, one of my own fae-blooded kind. My responsibility is to ensure your protection, which means leaving you behind here in your own time. There’s no other alternative.”
“You’ve tried to leave me behind by removing my memories, yet my bond with you continues to grow and it won’t be denied.” When he’d awoken that morning at movement beside him, a woman with golden spiral curls had snuck out of his bed, her heavenly scent surrounding him and his memories missing from the night before. He’d hauled on some pants and tiptoed after her, then waited in the shadows of the bathroom while she’d opened her chamber door to Isla. He’d heard their conversation, had pieced together all that had happened, then when he’d come face to face with her, she’d invoked emotions within him he couldn’t deny. Touching her, holding her, kissing her. It had been all he’d desired to do. Now though, he needed to protect her, to keep her close, to ensure their bond had time to gain in strength so he could convince her of exactly why they needed to remain together.
Instead, she appeared ready to run again. With her forest-green skirts in hand, she trekked up the grassy embankment then over her shoulder, muttered, “What are you doing out here? Spying on me?”
“I live here, and the weather is turning.” He snorted and stomped after her. “From this moment forth, we shall remain at each other’s sides.”
“We willnae.”
“You need to cease arguing with me.” He strode past her, turned around and blocked her path.
“Out of my way.” She glared at him, one hand fumbling to find the hilt of her sword within her long skirt
s. “Gah, this is why I rarely wear gowns.”
“You are one very frustrating woman.”
“And you are one very vexing man.” She slid her wrist dagger free instead and pointed the razor-sharp tip in front of his nose. “Step clear, right now.”
“Excuse me, you two.” Cherub cleared her throat and tapped her head. “Kirk calls out to me along our merged link and I must go to him. I’ll leave you both to sort out your differences. Dinnae forget though, Ailith, there shall be a battle of swords. We cannae leave until after that.” Cherub dissolved into a mist and streamed away, her essence becoming as one with the haze shrouding them.
There was no other choice left to him. He needed to get Ailith away somewhere quiet, where the two of them could continue bonding. He’d promised her a trip to the village to see the restoration work underway and there in that place, they could be alone. No teams worked on the site today. First though, he needed to learn about this latest vision she’d had since it had riled her up all over again.
“This is so frustrating.” She slid her dagger away.
“It doesn’t have to be, not if we take the time to listen to each other.” He grasped her hands and thumped them against his chest, then covered them with his hands to keep them pinned in place. “Nothing feels right unless I’m with you, Ailith. Tell me about your vision so we can come up with a plan. What have you now seen?”
“You still die, but this time in a different way, and ’tis all my fault.” She scrunched her fingers into his navy tunic, bumped her forehead against his chest and released a low growl that spoke to the very heart of his inner bear. “I’ve always longed for a mate and if you are mine, then I have no intention of losing you at our enemy’s hand.”
“You feel it too, the mated bond tugging us closer together?”
“Nay.”
“Be honest with me.”
“What I feel is frustration, deep and intense frustration.”
“So do I.” Sliding his arms around her, he kissed the top of her head and tried to ease her distress. With her this close, his own frustration slowly dissipated, and in its place wonderful, serene satisfaction hummed through him. Losing her to another time wasn’t an option, not now he’d finally found her. “We need to work together to alter this difficult future you see for me.”
Highlander's Claim: Time Travel Romance (The Matheson Warriors Book 2) Page 7
