Warrior's Moon (25 page)

“Members of our clan starve while Uven fills his belly with prey.”

Caelis growled, but made no other reply to that claim.

Maon looked at him. “To be
conriocht
, the stone had to find you worthy.”

“Maker of the stone, aye. The stone is but a way for us to connect to our Creator.”

“You used to be Fearghall.”

“I accepted truth when I heard it.”

Maon nodded. “Taking over the clan will not be easy. Some must die.”

“Fewer than if the clan stays in the hands of an unscrupulous man.”

“This is what you were talking about earlier, isn’t it?” Shona asked Caelis, certain in her heart she was right.

“Aye.”

“Da is alpha,” Eadan said.

“You’re sure of that, are you, boy?” Sean asked with a smile.

Caelis growled, though Shona did not understand why.

Sean flinched but smiled. “I wasn’t questioning your alpha status,
conriocht
.”

Suddenly, Shona found herself sitting alone with both children, her snarling mate towering over them all. “I warned you: I can smell a lie.”

Sean jumped up, shifting into wolf form between one blink of her eyes and the next. He didn’t attack Caelis, but ran in the other direction.

Caelis looked after him; she could see his entire body tense with the need to follow.

“Go after him,” she instructed.

“Nay.” The fury in his tone made the word more a bark than anything recognizable.

He would not leave her and the children unprotected.

“Sinclair’s soldiers will be here soon enough. I will go after him then.”

Suddenly another wolf streaked past, which she recognized as Maon. She’d thought he was coming around, but then she’d thought Sean was completely won over already.

The sound of a loud bark came through the brush, then breaking branches, snarls and yelps, followed by a howl cut off mid-vocalization.

Maon came trotting back a moment later, his muzzle covered in blood, his hackles still raised.

Caelis dropped to a crouch and met the wolf with pats from his oversized beast’s hands, growls and croons that could be nothing but praise and thanks. Though Shona did not pretend to speak
wolf
.

Caelis stood. “There is a stream that way. Go wash the blood of battle away.”

The wolf obeyed and Shona clamped down her desire to point out that he still hadn’t sworn fealty. Sean had as good as, but without conviction.

Caelis turned to the remaining two wolves. “Chrechte law states my mate and family are paramount. Speak your intentions to follow or defy me now.”

The man Shona had never met stood. “I am not of the MacLeod clan.”

“And yet you do the laird’s bidding.”

“I was ordered by my alpha to accompany the others on this quest.”

“To destroy me.”

“And the other Uven considers a deserter.”

“We were to bring you back,” the other MacLeod Chrechte said.

“To what purpose?” Shona had to wonder.

“To make an example of your mate and the other one.”

She frowned. “Why do you not name him?”

Did this man think he was too good to speak the name of another he considered a deserter?

“We do not know which of the warriors lives.”

“Oh.”

Caelis did not offer the name of his fellow soldier. He glared down at the two men. “Choose now.”

“I cannot swear fealty,” the non-MacLeod said, but raised his hand in supplication at Caelis’s growl. “I have been raised Fearghall from birth. You demand I abandon my brethren. My father.”

“He is pack alpha,” Shona guessed.

The man looked startled at her perception.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m a human woman, not an idiot.”

“I give my word that no harm will come to you, your mate or your family by my hand or instigation.” The man put his fist over his heart and bowed his head again. “You are
conriocht
, blessed by all that we hold sacred.”

Caelis nodded. “I accept, but you will not go free.”

The man did not look surprised at all by Caelis’s pronouncement.

“And you?” Caelis demanded of the other soldiers.

Both men dropped to their knees and bowed their heads, speaking vows in what her father had once told her was the ancient language. She’d thought it was ancient Gaelic. Now she knew differently.

’Twas no doubt the original language of their people.

Caelis relaxed marginally and barked something back at them she did not understand.

He turned to her. “There is no more danger.”

She did not ask if he was certain—not after the way he’d known Sean’s heart even when the man presented the face of a friend.

“What happens to them now?” she asked.

“They’ll be trained by me.”

*   *   *

C
aelis watched, unsurprised, as the Sinclair approached
, his countenance grim. Though Shona and even the other wolves had seemed oblivious, Caelis had heard the other soldiers moving quickly through the forest for the past several minutes.

His
conriocht
had sensed the approach of the alpha as well, though Talorc moved with absolute stealth.

Caelis turned to the laird. “You heard it all?”

“Aye.” Talorc’s frown was fierce. “You are
conriocht
.”

“You make that sound an accusation.” If Shona’s own glare were directed at him, it would have made even Caelis cringe. “He saved our lives.”

“He revealed his third form to humans and to Faol who are unaware of the return of our race’s protectors.”

Maon returned from washing himself in the stream, having transformed back to man. “I shifted first.”

Caelis wasn’t worried about the Sinclair’s anger, though he respected Maon for his honesty and willingness to have that ire directed at him. But nothing would have kept Caelis from shifting to his fiercest form when his mate and children were in danger; Talorc should have been well aware of that fact.

Dismissing the other alpha’s wrath from his mind, Caelis focused on regaining his human form now that his family was no longer in imminent danger. Heat suffused his body and the air compressed around him in a way it did not when he shifted back and forth from his wolf.

A moment later, he swayed on his feet, his perspective that of a man again. Shona rushed over and offered her arm.

He did not make the mistake of smiling at the gesture or refusing her help. The woman was half his width—even as a man—and more than a head shorter, but he leaned slightly on her shoulder regardless. The force of her spirit more than made up for what she might lack in stature. Had she been born Éan, Caelis had no doubt Shona would have become one of their guardians as the princess, Sabrine, had been before her marriage to the laird of the Donegal.

Shona directed him toward a tree. “Lean here.”

He stumbled forward, grateful when his back was against the solid trunk.

He was always dizzy after shifting from his
conriocht
…and hungry. He could eat a boar.

Talorc gave him a sympathetic look he was sure no one else saw—and if they did, would not understand.

But Talorc and the Balmoral pack alpha had also been chosen through the sacred stone as protectors of their people.

Not all on the Chrechte council were aware of this fact, which only went to prove that despite their efforts to live as a single people, trust between them all was not assured.

Thus far, there was only complete disclosure between the lairds of the Sinclair, Balmoral and Donegal clans. The others on the council only knew the barest facts about the Éan’s return to the clans.

None of them knew about Prince Eirik’s dragon form or about the return of the
Faolchú Chridhe
to the Faol.

Ciara, the newly appointed
celi di
of the Faol, followed advice given to her through visions by an ancient
celi di.
She was insistent the time had not yet come to reveal the sacred stone’s return.

Unlike the Éan who only had one protector in a generation, the Faol could have many.

Right now, they had three.

The Éan’s prince was a fearsome beast in his dragon form, more than capable of taking on an entire pack of
conriocht
, though.

It was a good thing they were all allies.

And if Caelis had his way, the MacLeod clan would join that group, its pack submitting to the authority of the Chrechte council as the others did.

As much as any Highlander submitted to another.

Most important, the MacLeod Faol would begin training in the true ancient ways of the Chrechte. His brethren would learn, as he had, that there was no honor in killing Éan simply because they shifted into birds.

Many would resist the truth that they were
not
superior to other Chrechte or humanity, but Caelis had faith in his fellow wolves.

Some would be like Sean, but more would shift their thinking just as they shifted forms.

“Are you well?” Shona asked, her tone filled with worry.

Caelis allowed himself to secretly enjoy the concern in
her demeanor and leaned more heavily against the tree. “Aye.”

“He’ll be hungry,” the Sinclair informed her, with a look of knowing for Caelis.

“Because of your transformation?” she asked.

“Aye.” His stomach gave an angry rumble. “It’s always worse after I shift back from
conriocht
.”

“Then let us get back to the keep.” She looked expectantly at Talorc.

The laird shook his head with a smile. “I’ve a feeling you’re going to be every bit as managing as Abigail.”

“Your wife seems all that is amiable to me.”

“Oh, aye. When she’s of a mind to be, there is no one more charming or pleasant.” The pride in Talorc’s voice was unmistakable.

“Women have to be strong in this world if we do not wish to be crushed under the plans of men.”

The laird grunted surprising agreement, though Caelis couldn’t deny Shona’s words, either. She’d paid the price for Uven’s machinations and then her own father’s plans. Whether the man thought his arrangements for her were for Shona’s benefit, they had caused her a great deal of pain.

They retrieved his sword and kilt on the way back to the keep, as well as the dead wolves. The Sinclair soldiers wrapped the bodies in MacLeod colors for transport, as was proper. There would be a joint funeral pyre lit that night on moonrise.

Sean’s carcass was left in the forest for the animals and carrion birds, his treachery bringing its own reward.

*   *   *

A
udrey watched the man Laird Sinclair had just
declared her husband before he would allow Vegar to accompany her abovestairs. Things had happened so fast, but then, they could between wolves.

The Faol understood the base drives in nature and didn’t fight those that were paramount, like that of mating.

Besides, Audrey preferred “wife” over
lehman
any day.

Vegar turned back from having dropped the bar on the door. Abigail had left some time ago, but she’d sent Ciara up with a healing tea, which Vegar had insisted on tasting before passing onto Audrey.

Thankfully, the laird’s adopted daughter, not to mention
celi di
to the Faol, had not appeared offended by Vegar’s precautions.

“She was not trying to poison me.”

Vegar’s brows drew together in confusion. “I did not say she was.”

“You insisted on tasting the tea before allowing me to drink it.”

“I wanted to make sure it was not too hot.”

“Oh.” That was…actually incredibly sweet.

And sweet was not a word she thought of in association with her mate.

“You are not as I expected from our first meeting.”

He grimaced. “I believe that is a good thing.”

She found herself smiling. “Yes, I do believe it is.”

“I am not a bad man,” he said, clearly offended.

Men could be so touchy. Her brother was more easily offended than either Shona or Audrey.

Deciding words were best left at present, Audrey took a sip of the honey-sweetened beverage made from what tasted like a combination of valerian root and chamomile. She would be asleep soon.

She wondered if Vegar realized what the tea was intended to do.

It would seem not.

He watched her, his hazel eyes dark with emotion she had never before welcomed in a man. Lust. She could not welcome it now, either. Audrey gripped the cup of hot drink with both her hands. She was not at all sure how he would respond to that knowledge.

“Y
ou nearly challenged the pack alpha,” Audrey remarked
, trying to understand Vegar’s irrational behavior and avoid her own contemplations.

His insistence on caring for her had led to a near challenge and a
very
hasty marriage.

“You are
my
mate. Mine to protect. Mine to care for.”

She could not deny his words. Despite the fact that Lady Sinclair had followed them to Vegar’s room and insisted on treating Audrey’s injuries, he had done most of the actual tending.