Fletcher
The Cursed Clan: Book 4
Melissa Schroeder
Harmless Publishing
About Fletcher
A man who can seduce any woman.
Through the centuries, Fletcher has learned a thing or two about seduction. He has no problem with most women, and if they rejected him, he was happy to move on to the next infatuation. That is until he met Serena Fay. She’s become an obsession for him, and when the mission for the next jewel is revealed, he jumps at the chance to pair off with the Fae.
A Fae with revenge in her blood.
Half-Fae/Half-Human Rena has had her share of loss. Her family was butchered by mad man, and her fae family turned their backs on her. She swore revenge on the man who stole her happiness. Now, she has a new family, which means she’s involved with the McLennans and their quest to break the curse. That includes Fletcher, the one man who has tempted her like no other.
A passion that could destroy them all.
One kiss leads to more than either of them expected. As they delve into their roles, their feelings move past lust to something more, but the madman from Rena’s past is in control of the next jewel. Both of them will need to choose between love for each other, or honor their commitment to their families.
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note about The Clan
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
A Note from Mel
Anice
About the Author
Also by Melissa Schroeder
eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Edited by Noel Varner
Cover Art by Scott Carpenter
(c) Melissa Schroeder, 2018
First digital release August 2018
Acknowledgments
This book is the first completely post diagnosis book. A Little Harmless Faith was in process when I found out I had breast cancer. I don’t know if it changed the way I write. It definitely made me appreciate my career as a writer and it made me value my readers even more.
And, through it all, I found out who my real friends were. A big shout out to Scott Carpenter for his beautiful cover and to Noel Varner for helping me edit this book.
Joy Harris and Brandy Walker, you both rock. You kept me going with funny texts and support through all those months. I don’t know what I would do without you two.
Special thanks to the Harmless Addicts and my Rough ’n Ready Review Crew. You helped me in more ways than you will know.
And, thanks to Les and the girls. You went through this all with me and saw me at my worst. I know I wouldn’t have made it without you.
Mel
To Tina Dowds
For all of your binge watching suggestions, your sarcastic humor, and your love of the Clan.
PS Writing that made me ill. I really hate being nice to you.
PPS Will you shut the hell up about the Clan now? At least for a week?
A Note about The Clan
This is the fourth book out of five. It is best that you read the books in order. The romances are all individual, but the mystery and suspense is threaded throughout the five books.
Remember, the world knows them as the Lennons, not the McLennans, as they have to hide their true identities.
Callum is laird of the Clan and the CEO of Lennon Industries. His heroine, Phoebe, came to help them with the diary and they fell in love. She is pregnant with the first McLennan in two centuries. Their jewel was the diamond.
Angus is the bookworm and researcher. He traveled to New York to hire Maggie a witch, with ancestral ties to the diary, to help them steal the emerald.
Logan is the artist who found himself desperately in love with Meghan, Maggie’s friend, who is another witch but possesses siren abilities. Their jewel was the sapphire.
That brings us to Fletcher and the ruby. His heroine is Serena Fay, friend of Maggie and Meghan and a half fae/half human.
This December, the series concludes with Anice and her search for the amethyst. There are more secrets to reveal with her and her hero Brody.
If you have any questions about The Cursed Clan or any of my other series, be sure to join The Harmless Addicts. It’s a private fan group where I do early cover reveals, exclusive excerpts, and live videos. I chat one on one with readers on a regular basis and I would love to see you there!
Prologue
Fletcher felt the slap across the back of his head the moment he stepped through the door.
“Och, what the bloody hell?” he bellowed as he raised his hand to rub at the spot. He turned and found Nanny.
Bollocks.
“Watch yer language. Where ye been, boy?”
He sniffed in irritation. “Out. I’m old enough to do what I want.”
She eyed him with considerable irritation. “No, ye are not. Tis dangerous times, sir. Ye would make a nice hostage for the Sassenachs.”
He wanted to roll his eyes, but he dared not. Nanny would definitely smack him in the head again.
“Ye were out seeing that Godfrey girl.”
He shook his head.
“I know ye were. Only trouble can come that way, Fletcher. Ye have to understand that she’s not for the likes of ye.”
His cousin Callum had said much the same, but Fletcher ignored them. Ignored all of them. Laire and he were meant to be together.
“She has lowlanders in her family. She’s not to be trusted, especially in times like these.”
He opened his mouth to argue with Nanny, but knew he would not win. The sun would be up soon and he would have work to do. He also did not want to deal with the questions from his grandmother.
“I talked to the witch, the one at the edge of the woods. She’s warned of hard times ahead.”
Nanny made the comment as if she were saying the sky was blue, but he knew better. He knew that she did not normally like to see the future. Many of them were just trying to survive. The clearances had made it difficult, and now there was talk of gathering forces. Every day, he felt as if he was gasping for breath due to the gloom that had settled over the Highlands. He had wanted to do nothing more than lose himself in Laire, and she had let him. He didn’t want to worry about tomorrow or next week. He had wanted to escape.
“I forget how young ye really are.”
He hated her sympathetic tone. He knew he was the youngest of the male cousins, but it didn’t mean he was a boy in short pants. “I’m a man grown.”
She shook her head as her eyes turned sad. “Go get yerself cleaned up. And stop worrying about that girl. She’s trouble and will ruin yer life.”
Chapter One
“Good God, Fletcher, are you paying attention to me?” his sister Anice asked him.
Fletcher tore his gaze away from the beautiful fae sitting on the bench outside the McLennan home office and smiled. “Not really. Yer blathering on ab
out something I could care less about.”
Her eyes narrowed, and her face flushed with anger. “I don’t know why I’m forced to work on presentations that none of you are courteous enough to pay attention to.”
His twin sister rarely threw fits, so he knew this was important. He glanced at his cousins, then back to Anice. Before he could respond, Callum broke in.
“You have my complete attention, Anice, as well as Logan’s and Angus’. The only person who is inattentive is your twin, and that’s because he is infatuated with a woman.”
“I’m not infatuated.”
The withering look Callum gave him would normally make Fletcher laugh, but he didn’t like the idea that people might be thinking the same thing. Fletcher McLennan didn’t get hung up on a woman, they were hung up on him. He did have a reputation to uphold after all.
Angus chuckled. “Clearly you aren’t. That’s a fetching yellow dress Rena is wearing today.”
“She’s wearing white.”
“What?”
“White, her dress is…” his voice faded when he realized what his cousin had just done. “Bugger off.”
Angus just smiled. Bloody hell. His infatuation with the fae had reached a tipping point, and all of his cousins knew it from the way they behaved. Each time they mocked him, he rose to take the bait and ended up looking like a fool. He had been doing a lot of that since he met Serena Fay.
“If you two are done, I have a few meetings to attend,” Callum said. He was Laird and head of their company. Meetings were a way of life for him and he lived for them. They drove Fletcher batty—unless it was a meeting over a pint.
Callum stood as did everyone else, but Fletcher stayed seated. He had situated himself at the opposite end of the table facing the window that looked out on the garden. It gave him an excellent view of Rena.
She was sitting on a bench along the path that twisted around their mansion. Fletcher had never been this fascinated with a woman, but she drew him in simply by existing. He knew part of it was her beauty. Light brown skin and ever-changing eyes—what man wouldn’t be intrigued? When he first met her, they had been blue. Then, they slowly transitioned to green, and now hazel. He didn’t know if she did it on purpose or it was just natural for her kind. He didn’t know a lot about faeries. Even with over two hundred years on Earth, Fletcher knew little about the world of magick. He had two witches as cousins-in-law now, but before they came into their lives, he had no idea there really were faeries in the world.
On top of it, her Scottish accent was now in full force. He’d heard from Maggie that she had pretended to be from London most of the time for work—which meant con jobs. None of the women did that anymore.
“So, brother dear, why haven’t you asked Rena out?”
He wrenched his gaze away from Rena as Anice eased her hip onto the conference table. Did he admit the truth? He had asked her out to dinner, twice. She had been kind, almost too kind, when she refused. If he asked her again, it would be a little stalkerish. Fletcher McLennan did not do that to women, but his gaze strayed to her once again. It was always like that with Rena. He couldn’t seem to break the connection he felt with her.
“Bloody hell, Fletch, you need a good shag to get her off your mind.”
He blinked and looked at his sister. She had never been a prude, but this was not like her at all. She had never talked this bluntly about sex in front of them that he knew of.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s been what…at least a month?”
He said nothing. Actually, it had been almost three months. That was a long time for him to go without sex. He tried to hide that fact, but Anice caught on.
“Oh, bloody hell, it’s been longer? Don’t tell me that the legendary Fletcher Donald McLennan has lost his touch.”
“Bugger off,” he said as he pushed away from the table, unhappy with the situation. He stood and wandered closer to the window.
Having a twin was not as comforting as many people thought. After several hundred years together, they tended to get on each other’s nerves. They also knew exactly what buttons to push because they probably sewed them on.
“Come on, Fletch. Why haven’t you asked her out? Although, I will say,” she said walking toward the window to stand beside him, “she isn’t exactly your type, now is she?”
“I have no idea what you are blathering on about. She’s beautiful…and well…”
“Exactly. These last few years many of them have been beautiful, but most haven’t been very bright.”
“What the bloody hell do you mean?” he demanded frowning at her.
“I’ve met rocks smarter than some of the women you’ve been with these last few years.”
Fletcher didn’t get annoyed that often, but Anice definitely knew those aforementioned buttons. Anger soared, fueled by embarrassment. She was right, and he knew it. Unfortunately, humiliation left him defensive—always. He had a nasty temper and he knew how to maim—especially Anice’s tender heart.
“Better than someone who is openly plotting against our clan.”
The moment he said the words, he wanted to call them back. Anice’s smile faded, as her eyes turned cold and the usual rosy color drained from her cheeks. A lump rose in his throat as he felt her pain even when she said nothing to retaliate. He knew that meant she was wounded.
“Anice, I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “No. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
But he could see the memories from that night long ago darkening her eyes. He walked toward her, but she moved past him to the door.
“I’ve a lunch date.”
“Anice.”
“No need to worry, Fletcher.” She didn’t look at him before she slipped out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.
Dammit. He scrubbed his face with both hands then threaded them through his hair, trying to deal with the uneasiness in his gut. He could deal with an angry Anice, but even after all of these years, he could never handle her being sad. It was the thing that had led them to beat the living hell out of the McWalton bastard when he had tried to seduce her. She had been broken after McWalton’s attack. All of the male cousins had been hurting afterwards, unable to reach her, but he had felt it the most. It had been the one time in their lives he didn’t know how to make her feel better.
He walked to the window again, even knowing that he shouldn’t be this obsessed with Rena. She was still there, sitting on the bench, enjoying the rather balmy morning. He smiled as he watched her raise her face to the sun. She was beautiful, but as his sister had remarked, she was also smart. Brilliant actually. It was one of the most attractive things about her. He could almost hear her plotting when she would sit alone like this. His cousin Angus had called her lethal, but Fletcher was convinced she was only lethal when she protected someone she loved.
She was such a solitary soul, seemingly alone in the world except for her friends Meghan and Maggie. There was never a mention of family; although, she did disappear at times. He could not imagine living without his irritating family surrounding him, but Serena seemed perfectly happy without that.
No, that was wrong. There were times he sensed a sadness in her. The rest of the family didn’t seem to see it, but he did. Or rather…felt it. With that thought, his nerves itched beneath his flesh. He barely knew the fae, other than what he could glean from her friends. Still, there was a connection there he could not seem to deny.
Fletcher shook his head and turned away from the window. Anice was right. He needed to get Rena off his mind and usually that meant another woman. He’d call around to Simone in town and see if she had time to grab a quick bite, and maybe talk her into bed.
Yes, that was what he needed. He had learned a long time ago that allowing a woman to get into his head and heart would spell disaster for the family. He would never fail them again.
* * *
Serena drew in a deep breath of fresh fall air and then released it. The routine w
as one she had used for decades. Whenever she felt nervous or apprehensive, the rhythmic breathing never failed to compose her. It allowed her to reclaim control over whatever situation had left her feeling unsure of herself. She had been using it more lately, mainly because she was living in a house with so many people.
She loved her friends, and she had grown fond of the McLennans, but she didn’t do well with people for a long period of time. She had been in Scotland for longer than she expected. Her homeland always called to her, but her pursuit had pulled her away. Now that her quarry was rumored to have returned to the Highlands, she could spend time in the land of her birth. That meant spending a lot of time with the McLennans.
One of them, in particular, was causing her to use her coping exercises to a greater extent.
Fletcher McLennan was a beautiful man. He had a smile that melted most women’s hearts, and she knew he’d been with hundreds of women throughout the centuries. She could not be one of them. She had more important things to accomplish. A man like Fletcher would complicate that quest.
She glanced back at the window where she knew the cousins were meeting that morning. She had thought to find him there, but she was wrong. That should calm her nerves, but it didn’t. He left her off kilter, and she did not like it one bit.
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