The Forgotten (3 page)

He smiled at her, as he hefted Ramsey’s limp body onto his horse.

“You may call me Sir Lucan.”

He reached inside of his saddlebags and handed her the large hunk of cheese, four loaves of bread and two legs of lamb that the cooks at the Palace had prepared and packaged up for him.

“Take this food, and these coins,” he said, reaching for his purse. “There’s no need for you and your family to continue to starve. I will keep watch over you to make sure that Lord Ulwyn’s men don’t return to cause you unneeded grief.”

“It’s been thin pottage over the hearth for far too many moons for me to count, Sir Lucan. We have never eaten this well. Those days died with the old earl.” She descended into sobs that shook her whole body.

She threw herself at him, and he gave her an awkward pat on the back. He wasn’t accustomed to this kind of warmness, having been deprived of it for so long.

His eyes went to movement in the distance, seeing that it was no threat, as it was only a blue tabby cat, he returned his attention to the woman and her son, who now walked toward him with a shovel.

The boy looked up at him with wide-eyed admiration and handed him the shovel.

“Here you go, sir,” the boy said.

“Tell Sir Lucan how thankful you are, Brett. You owe him a life debt,” his mother advised.

“The boy owes me nothing. I did what had to be done, and served the honourable kind of justice—I am a Knight Mage of the Realm, it’s sort of what we do. No one should have to lose so much for doing something like trying to feed their family. Go inside and enjoy the rest of your day. I’ll be sure to remember you in the coming days. Change is coming to the County of Cambria, change that will herald in a new kind of life for all of you, and an old kind of life for me.”

The woman looked up at him puzzled and more than a little curious.

“You said that you knew my husband. Life has been like this for most of our married life. Of course, if he was still around, he would be happy to tell you tales of how the village was when the old earl was still alive but the earl has been gone a good twenty years. Lord Ulwyn is nothing like the old earl, at least not based on the stories my husband used to regale us with.”

“If he was anything like the 3rd Earl of Wythley, I’m quite sure he was a fair and just Lord, even if he had an ego bigger for his britches, and an eye for the ladies.”

Nell blanched. “Who are you, Sir Lucan?” she asked softly, a haunted look in her eyes.

“I’m a man who’s finally, after far too long, come home. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?”

“I know who you are,” Brett said. “You are the best man I’ve ever known aside from my Da. I hope you decide to stay.”

He winked at Brett. “I’ve been gone so long, that I think it’s time for me to finally settle down, and putting down roots where I was born, is just the right thing for me.”

“They won’t let you have any kind of peace,” Nell warned.

“I’m not the one worried, Nell. Lord Ulwyn is the one that should be restless with nervousness. I’m about to blow his entire world to pieces.”

“Bless you, Sir Lucan. May the Gods and Goddesses always watch over you and grace you with their protection!”

“They’ve been watching over me for too long to count but I thank you for your blessing, Madam. I guess I should take my leave and put this bastard into the ground where he belongs.”

With those words, he grabbed the reigns of his horse, and led him toward the Pauper’s Field.

He had taken one step toward reclaiming the county, and based upon what he’d seen with Ramsey and his mates, he would have to make great strides to succeed in freeing it from the tyranny that ruled over it with an iron fist.

Lucan would succeed, because he was damn determined not to fail.

Nerienda Kyneswyth watched as the new wolf shifter led his horse away from Chilton Farm. Nell and Brett went into their small stone thatched roof cottage and closed the door securely behind them.

The bright white fluffy clouds in the blue sky started to darken as the sun slid behind blackening clouds. A storm was coming. A storm caused by the return of a long lost son.

She shivered in her cat form, and considered following him. She hated to get wet and knew that rain would start pelting down from the sky any minute now.

Sir Lucan Wylde was a raw specimen of sheer masculinity. All of his time spent away had certainly wrought unbelievable changes in him. He looked far different from the way he appeared in the many portraits of him that hung in various rooms throughout the Tavern.

His mother, bless her, had been so proud of him—and she’d gladly kept his memory alive long after he’d been lost to the curse. The devil may care attitude he’d possessed in his portraits had vanished. Now, he looked like the old soul she was.

She wanted to reveal herself to him, but something told her to hold back and study him further.

Neri had no reason to suspect that he was anything like the other wolf shifters who ruled over this area like demons spawned from the Dark Underworld—after all, he was Elaine’s son, and Brandyn’s as well, and yet—she had to be sure he could be trusted.

True enough, his chivalrous actions thus far should already have earned her respect and undying loyalty. She was eternally thankful to him for saving Brett’s hand. She wouldn’t have arrived soon enough as her spies hadn’t been able to get down to the Tavern in time.

Her spies were loyal to her, while working under the pretense of paying fealty to Lord Ulwyn. By reporting back to her, they risked death on a daily basis. Fortunately, the wolf shifters that were in Lord Ulwyn’s pack were not the most brilliant men and women in Cambria, and so they had the upper hand when it came to outsmarting them. Their brutality however, completely made up for their lack of wit.

She carefully picked her way around the mud puddles, mindful to not get her paws wet, while she continued shadowing him. He hadn’t observed her yet, or if he had noticed her, he wasn’t paying her any mind.

He talked in a low voice to his horse, calling him by name, and if she’d heard him correctly, his horse’s name was Mason. She liked the sound of Lucan’s voice, low and throaty with a calm assuredness to it that told her he had never been a man quick to temper, though she could see his temper would get riled fast by men like the sort who worked for Lord Ulwyn.

The thick Cambrian accent he’d once had had mellowed over time, making his voice sound even sexier.

His gait was an easy one. He looked like he could swagger with the best of them but his relaxed saunter at the moment told her what she’d already suspected, he might have risen through the social ranks but he’d never quite forgotten where he’d hailed from.

His mother had loved him so much—she’d been determined to live long enough to be reunited with him one day. Alas, she hadn’t gotten her dying wish, and the changeling blood in her had been too diluted to lengthen her life past the point of two hundred years.

She wondered if Elaine had ever confided her secret to her son, or if he blithely went through life not realizing that his great-great-grandfather had been born in the Crown City of Avonry to a well situated Changeling family there.

They’d lost their wealth through a series of tragedies, and Elaine’s grandmother had been forced to flee Avonry when her family had been labeled as traitors to the Crown. She’d built a nice little life for herself with Elaine’s grandfather, even if it was a far cry from the wealth and privilege she’d been born into.

If only Elaine had been blessed with the nine lives that Neri had been blessed with when she’d been born. She was young for cat changeling standards and would live for several hundred more years, unless she found a man with whom she was willing to share her lives with—if she did, her years of life would be halved. 

She surveyed the depressing graveyard ahead of them. Barely used before Lord Ulwyn came to power, it was now teeming with the graves of those who had fallen on the wrong side of his temper—not that there was a right side.

Ramsey Snodgrass had been a rotten soul, and she’d evaded his lecherous eye and wandering hands for far too long. She was relieved that she’d never have to deal with him again, and even happier that his cruel ways would not be exercised against any other person or animal.

He deserved death in a way that most men didn’t. She could only pray to her Gods and Goddesses that he would dance in the fires of hell.

Lucan took his cloak off and carefully draped it over his saddle while he dumped Ramsey’s body onto the ground. She winced as his large limp form made a tremendous thud.

Howling wind swept through the valley, stirring up leaves that had fluttered to the ground. Thunder and lightning would soon follow, and then the dreaded rain would fall. She wanted to leave, she wanted to dash back to the Tavern and yet, she was almost transfixed. It was as if he commanded her silently to stay. She just couldn’t take her eyes off him.

He took a break from digging and cast his eyes toward her. They made eye contact. His dark brown eyes touched her right down to her soul. He looked so wounded, and yet she could almost see the carefree boy he’d once been.

He gave her a playful wink and then turned his attention back to finishing off the grave digging. To watch a man like him do something so menial, it got her blood pumping in a way she’d never been aroused before. She could definitely take him to her bed and enjoy every single second of it.

No other man in the village or surrounding area could even compete with Lucan. Ava had been right when she’d told her via their weekly communications through the looking glass that he was a man unlike any other. She’d told her she wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes off him, and she’d been correct in that assumption.

Neri made a mental note to thank Ava for telling her about Lucan before he came. She jumped up onto the stone fence that surrounded the field and continued to enjoy him as he bent and dug. He must have finally finished because he’d dropped the shovel and was coming back for Ramsey’s body.

“Would you like to say a few words for this bastard?” he asked her, catching her off guard.

Had he guessed who she was? Did he know that she could easily change back into her human form?

She continued to regard him silently, as she lazily wagged her tail, content in the knowledge that they now had hope in the form of Lucan.

“I guess not. He’s not worth it, anyway,” Lucan muttered, dumping his body into the grave he’d dug.

Lucan might not think Ramsey was worth it and he was right. Lord Ulwyn, on the other hand, would be furious to know that one of his prized enforcers had been dealt with by a complete stranger.

She might know that he was native to these parts but others didn’t, and Lord Ulwyn would view him as an interloper that had to be put down as quickly as possible. She hoped he was a fierce a warrior as Ava told her he was because hell fury was going to come to his doorstep within the next few days.

“That sorry deed is done. One more evil man has been cleansed from this world,” Lucan muttered, walking back to his horse. “Will you be coming with me while I give this shovel back to Nell and Brett or do you have other things to do, Kitty Cat?”

He came toward her, narrowing the distance between them in two long strides.

She held her ground where she was perched on the fence, her tail continuing to move lazily, and waited until his face was close to hers. She lost herself in his eyes, drowning in the wave of emotions that flooded him. She wanted to give him comfort. She wanted to ease his worries, and relieve him of the immense burden her carried.

He took his glove off and gingerly extended his hand toward her. He must have expected her to hiss, scratch or bite at him. Instead, she allowed him to touch her.

His hand rubbed the top of her head, and she purred and leaned into the gentle caress. He moved his hands to scratch at her ears. He obviously had a soft spot for animals, because he hadn’t attempted to harm her in any way.

This was a feather in his cap, for a man that could be kind to animals could be trusted, at least in her experience anyway.

She allowed him to massage her a little more, reveling in his gentle touch. He would be lovely in bed, he would make her reach heights that no other man could.

When he started to reach out for her with his other hand as if he wanted to scoop her up, she knew she had to bolt but he’d lulled her into such a drowsy state that she didn’t react quickly enough and before she knew it, he held her up cradled to his chest.

That was it, she’d just used up a life as she fell into ecstasy in his arms. She purred and moaned like she’d only done for one other man.

When sanity once again settled over her, droplets of rain hit her fur. Soon, it would be teeming from the sky and it would drench them both.

Thunder claps crashed through the clearing and lightning danced through the sky in the distance. It was so loud it was as if twenty cannons were firing. It wasn’t a good time to be at the mercy of the elements.

They had wicked storms in this area of Shardizar. And it was going to get worse before it got better.

He looked to the sky and frowned.

“It looks like we’re in for a hell of a raging one,” he muttered. “My dear mother mused to say the Gods and Goddesses were warring in the heavens when it sounded like this.”

Holding her with one hand, he somehow managed to get the cloak draped over his shoulders and tucked part of it around her.

She shivered and plastered herself closer to him. Neri clung to him as if her very life depended upon it. She didn’t welcome the storm any more than he did. It was one of the things she detested most about Cambria but then, she had little place else to go.

The only life she had was within the village of Glynneath. She cuddled into his chest and sighed, as he got up onto his horse.

This was sheer madness. She should have slipped out of his arms before they could get this far. She’d never allowed another man to have such control over her before in her changed state.

In fact, she wondered if he could detect the scent of magic on her.

He was a Knight Mage after all. Perhaps, he’d already guessed that she was a changeling, in which case, she was in deep trouble.

She didn’t like anyone else having the upper hand when it came to connecting her cat guise to her human guise. It didn’t bode well for her. Whenever men had her at their mercy, she danced close to the fires of death. She’d already been burned by one man who betrayed her to save his own skin, she couldn’t take being hurt by another.

He was the reason she now lived in exile. He was the reason she constantly feared being hunted down and murdered in her sleep.

He was the reason she could never live in peace—and he was the reason that men like Lord Ulwyn made her out of her mind mad.

No, she’d never let her guard down like that to another man. She would never ever put herself in that kind of a vulnerable position again.

She’d vowed to never open her heart to another man when she’d arrived on Elaine’s doorstep, near death and not even caring if she did die because her life was so shattered.

Elaine had given her hope—Elaine had encouraged her to never stop fighting and Elaine had told her to never allow anyone dominion over her again. She’d told her she was free—but deep down, Neri knew better.

She had Hunter and Changeling blood running through her veins—free was something she’d never be.

For one brief moment, while he held her in his arms, sheltered from the world, she did believe that she was safe.

But all good things have to come to an end.

She knew he would be headed for the place where he was born, once he’d returned the shovel, and she had to get away from him before he came into spitting distance of the Tavern.

Neri summoned all of her strength, and let out a hell of a scream, which spooked the horse, and allowed her the ability to jump out of his arms. She went flying through the air and landed gracefully on all fours in all of things, a puddle. Water splashed up around her, and she coughed as the muddy stuff hit her nose.

She could hear his laughter—he must have thought her a very entertaining sight. Shaking the water off herself, she dashed toward the Tavern, going so fast that she would be a blur to most eyes.

Just as she neared the back door into the Tavern, she changed back into her human form. Her silky black camisole that was enchanted to work with her changings was not sufficient cover against the damp that the rain had brought.

Shivering, her teeth chattering together, she slipped into the Tavern and made her way up the back staircase to the living quarters above the bar. The storm continued to shake the building, as wind buffeted against it, the howling like a Banshee from Avonry.

A deep ache resonated inside of her, an ache that would not leave her until she could couple with Lucan.

Why he had to be the only man in over a hundred years to arouse her so completely, she didn’t know. Fate was playing a hell of a prank on her!