Authors: Lucy Monroe

Moon Burning (21 page)

BOOK: Moon Burning

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“He chose his victim poorly with his words this time.”

“He
thought
he was targeting Circin.” And the wily shifter would have killed the less-seasoned pup without remorse had Circin made the challenge instead of Earc.

“He meant Circin to challenge him. He was looking for a way to get rid of my brother.”

“Aye.” It had not been an overly clever move, but it would have been effective if Rowland had gotten away with it. Barr would never have allowed it, of course, but Earc had his own reasons for stepping in.

“I owe you so much. You saved my brother’s life; you saved my clan.” The approval in her voice gave him pleasure.

But he was not a man to take credit where it was not fully due. “Barr had no plan to let Rowland live after discovering his gross offense against Sorcha.”

Verica nodded, once again biting her lush bottom lip, turning it red and tempting him to taste. “He is a good man to train my brother to lead one day.”

“Aye, he is.” But Earc’s attention was not on his laird’s positive qualities. He was far too occupied with thoughts of how his mate’s mouth and the tender flesh behind her ear would taste on his tongue.

She looked up at him, her eyes shining with an emotion he had no name for. “But you are still the man who saved him.”

“By claiming you for my mate.” Simply saying the words made the craving between them grow until he could think of little else.

She looked down, hiding her expressive eyes from him, perhaps trying to hide her own desire, but the fragrance of her feminine arousal gave her away. “Yes.”

“The connection between us is strong.”

“It is.” The words were almost a whisper.

“Why do you hide from me?”

“I am afraid of you.”

The words were worse than any blow he had received in battle. He had spent the last month dreaming of this woman, growing more and more enamored of her until the move to claim her as mate this morning had seemed the most natural course to take.

And she feared him.

He stepped back, so that amazing connection no longer hummed between them. Perhaps it was more one-sided than he’d believed. Perhaps his wolf’s senses deceived him. “What have I done to deserve such?”

She clasped her hands in front of her, twisting them as anxiety surrounded them thicker than the morning mist. And twice as cold.

“Answer me.” He would have her words; he was no ogre to be feared by the woman destined to bear his children.

“I could love you,” she said, her voice so quiet, it was not even a whisper.

Were he not wolf, he would not have heard. But he
was
wolf and he
did
hear and still it made no sense.

“How is this a bad thing? Should a woman not love her mate?”

Her head snapped up at that, fire shooting near-irresistible sparks from her pretty blue eyes. “And what of you? Will you love me, too?”

“’Tis a man’s duty to care for his mate.”

“Care for and love are not the same.”

“Women may mark the distinction, a warrior does not.”

“Sabrine is a warrior. I’m sure she notes it.”

“Sabrine is a mystery Barr best solve before this clan is put in peril.”

“You think she puts us at risk? She is no Rowland, looking for power at the end of a fist.”

“She comes from a people who all believed were myth.”

“Not all,” she said, reminding him that Verica, too, was raven.

“How could your clan remain ignorant of your dual nature?”

“Éan are taught from childhood to mask their true scent.”

“But the Chrechte nature does not show itself until a body begins the physical journey to adulthood.”

“For the Faol. Ravens do not shift until that time, but the ability to mask emotion and scent is one we are born with.”

“All ravens?” For not all Faol had the gift.

“As far as I know.”

“And this other gift?”

“It is manifested after our coming of age ceremony.”

“You have a ceremony for such?”

“All Chrechte used to, but the Faol stopped performing theirs once they joined the clans.”

“’Twas too wrapped in violence and sexual mating.” He remembered the stories but could not imagine participating in the type of ritual his ancestors had done. Especially at the age the ceremony had at one time been performed.

“The Éan’s is more mystical.”

They had moved from the topic of her fear and he was not ready to let it go, even to discuss the fascination that was the Éan. “You have naught to fear from me.”

“I have everything to fear.”

“I already promised never to harm you.”

“But can you promise never to break my heart?”

“Nay.”

She jerked back and frowned, clearly upset by his answer.

“If you love me as you claim you might, my death in battle would break your heart and I canna promise that willna happen.”

“Oh.”

“I willna ever touch another woman.”

“If you are my true mate, you won’t be able to.”

He grinned. “If I am your true mate, you’ll know my heart though I’m not fond of talking about what resides there.”

The smile breaking over her features made her beauty glow from within. “You’d best watch out then, as the thing I feared most was that we were sacred mates.”

“Why fear such a gift?”

“Look at what it cost my mother.”

“Why do you say that?”

“My father was confident in his ability to protect her. He refused to allow her to hide her raven heritage. She did not tell him of Circin’s and my dual nature. It was something we had to hide from our father as we did the rest of the clan, but Mum was so certain to reveal it would put us at risk.”

How difficult that must have been, and continue to be, for Verica, a woman of rare honesty. “His belief his own warriors shared his honor destroyed them both.”

“Yes.”

“The decision of who to reveal your raven to will always be yours.” It was more than a promise, it was a vow.

She shook her head, the expression in her eyes one of utter disbelief. “No warrior is as understanding as you show yourself to be.”

He almost laughed aloud at that assessment of his character but saw she meant it, so bit back his mirth. ’Twas no understanding to choose to protect his mate with every defense at his disposal, including that of subterfuge when necessary. “I’m glad you think so.”

“You don’t.”

“I am not always a patient man.” A warrior had to have forbearance, but he was Chrechte and waiting did not come naturally to Earc.

“I gathered that.” She laughed softly. “When you announced our marriage was to be this e’en.”

“Are you reconciled to it then?”

She bit her lip but nodded.

“What concerns you now?” He did not mean to sound provoked, but affairs with a female Chrechte were no less complicated than if she had been human. And after seeing his former laird and lady struggle to make their mating a success, he had hoped if he ever mated, doing so with one of his own kind would make things simpler.

“You make it sound like I have a basketful of them.”

She did, but he suspected saying so would not encourage her to reveal this latest one, so he merely gave her a look he hoped inspired confidences. It worked for his little brothers.

“I am untouched.” She made it sound shameful, instead of the gift he considered it.

For both of them.

“So am I.”

The black pupils of her eyes nearly swallowed the blue surrounding them.
“You are?”

“Aye. Talorc discouraged wolves from sex outside of mating.”

“By
discourage
you mean?”

“He is strongly opposed.” What did she think? That Talorc had levied severe punishments if his advisement went ignored? Perhaps with a past laird like Rowland, such a thought was not so darkly fanciful. “Barr ignored Talorc’s strictures, but I did not. He was my laird.”

Barr said a laird had no right to dictate such personal matters, but Earc did not agree. So long as the laird was not a piece of filth like Rowland.

“So, you have never . . .” Verica’s soft voice trailed off, but the pink of her cheeks told what she was referring to.

“Never.”

“Not even kissed?” The shock in her tone would have been amusing if it did not make him wonder the same.

Not liking the possibility any other lips had ever touched hers one wee bit, he asked, “No. Have you?”

“No, of course not!” She frowned at him and then bit her lip. “So, how will you know what to do?”

“My da had a talk with all of us boys when we came of age to mate.” Humans might have found his father’s frank descriptions and unrestrained answers to questions embarrassing.

He was of the Faol, however. While sex was no longer part of the coming of age ritual, the discussion of it was and no details were left for the guessing.

“Is that usual? Among our kind? Wolves I mean.”

Her question tugged at his heart as he was forced to face the truth she’d lost her father before she’d come of age.

“It is.”

“The Éan are not so forthright, I think.”

“Mayhap they are, but your mother did not have the opportunity to discuss such matters with you.”

The pink on Verica’s cheeks deepened and the pulse in her throat fluttered. “I could ask Sa . . . someone, I suppose.”

“You were going to say Sabrine. Do not ever attempt to dissemble with me.”

“I . . .”

“Barr shares with me like a brother. He told me you were the raven in the sky when I killed Rowland.”

“You cannot tell anyone else about her.”

“I know. To reveal her secret is to risk yours.” He reached out and pulled Verica to stand in the circle of his arms. The oddly wonderful connection linked them more tightly than his hold. “You are my mate; I will never put you in danger. Besides, she is mate to my laird. It is my duty to protect her; mysterious secrets do not change that.”

“I do not think she sees herself as Barr’s mate, though there’s no denying the physical bond has been seen to.”

Earc smiled at the residual embarrassment in his mate’s tone. “Aye. Barr considers it so and it will be; I only hope not to this clan’s detriment.”

“Sabrine will not hurt the clan.”

“Why is she here then?”

Verica’s sweet blue gaze filled with confusion. “Barr found her wounded in the forest and brought her to us.”

“And you think Sabrine was near our hunt without purpose?”

Verica tried to break away from him, her eyes going stormier than the sky before a summer rain with lightning. “Are you impinging her honor? She is my friend.”

He would not let his mate go and tugged her until her struggling body pressed against him. “You have known her one night.”

“And a day.”

“She saved your life.”

He bristled. “You do not think I would have sensed the arrow?”

“You are not God.”

“I am a Chrechte warrior.”

Verica shook her head, but let her body relax against him. “You are very arrogant.”

“You are very tempting.”

Once again, her eyes widened, but the shock was tempered by the scent of her own arousal. “We can’t do anything. Not here. Not now.”

He did not agree about the here part, but the now was truth. He’d promised to help train soldiers with Barr.

“It will wait for tonight.”

All of her angst came crashing back, surrounding them and filling her body with rigid tension. “Will we have a Chrechte mating ceremony?”

“Do you want one?” The truth was, he had not considered it since his family was not to be present for the wedding.

She looked into his eyes and then dropped her head against his chest, effectively hiding her expression from him. “We are not as free about our bodies as you Sinclairs seem to be.”

“Ancient tradition dictates I can cover you with the furs of my kills.” Doing so symbolized his ability to provide for his mate and his prowess on the hunt.

He did not know if the Éan had similar traditions. There was much about the bird shifters they would need to learn, including how best to protect them from those still bent on enmity.

“You would do that?” She was back to meeting his gaze and the expression in hers made him feel like the winner of all challengers.

“Aye.”

“But are your furs here?”

“I sleep in them.” It was an ancient Chrechte tradition many of the Sinclair pack still adhered to, even Talorc.

“Barr has a Sinclair plaid on his bed.”

Earc shrugged. “He reminds himself this clan is not his.’Tis for your brother’s sake he does this.”

“He’s a man of rare honor.”

“He is.”

“So are you.”

“I am pleased you think so.”

“There is a cave, where Connor hid among the rocks earlier today. The few Chrechte who choose to honor their mates with the ancient ritual go there.”

Ah, so she did consider the Chrechte mating ritual an honor and clearly wanted to participate in the rite. Modestly. He almost smiled, but suppressed the urge and asked, “Not to the sacred caves with the hot springs?”

“It is nearly a day’s journey and Rowland discouraged our clan from making the trip.”

“After the clan is more settled, we will travel there for a second ceremony with my family.” It would please them and help his parents accept Earc’s choice to make his life with the Donegal clan going forward.

“Thank you. I would like that very much.”

“Now, can we return to the keep? I have soldiers to train.” And if they stayed there much longer, he would forget responsibility in favor of a very private mating ceremony just between him and the healer.

Chapter 13