Moon Awakening

'You do if you want the clan to stand behind you.'

'You are a fool to believe that.'

'Am I?' Ulf asked, his expression taunting. 'There is also your own honor, which would not be satisfied unless you can be absolutely sure I had done the deed.'

'But I am.'

Ulf just shrugged.

'There are also the many insults, heard by witnesses, you have subjected my mate to.'

'You are not mated.'

'I soon will be. Emily is my betrothed.'

Ulf staggered as if Lachlan had landed him another blow. 'You are going to marry a human?'

'Yes.'

'I thought you were afraid of having human children like our father.'

'If they are as fierce and loyal as their mother, it won't matter if they are werewolves.'

Warmth suffused Emily despite the tension of the situation.

'She has tricked you with your lust.'

'I'm not so easily deceived. I have told you this. You should have listened.'

'Aren't you? You believed me about Susannah.'

'I believed the evidence of my own eyes. Susannah was married to Magnus and I knew I had not given her permission to leave the island. Therefore I believed she had been taken without the permission of her clan.'

'Now you know I sent her to Sinclair land.'

'Why?'

'I wanted you to declare war on the Sinclairs. I could have led you into a trap. It's what our father would have done, but you are not enough like him. You're too soft.'

'You're a fool if you believe that. You are the weak one and Father saw the lack in you. He knew you craved power but did not have the character to lead. He should have banished you, or sent you to serve under another laird, but he was too soft-hearted toward you. He loved you too much to let you go. You are my brother, but I am strong enough to see you get the punishment your crimes deserve. You were a fool to believe you could manipulate me.'

'I wasn't. I had it all under control. If those two whores had not gotten out of the keep, you would not be playing ally with the Sinclair now.'

Lachlan backhanded Ulf and the other man slammed against the wall beside the fireplace.

Chapter 21

'Speak respectfully of my intended, or die where you stand.'

Ulf wiped at a trickle of blood from his mouth. 'I pity her, but most of all I pity the children you might have… children that could be like me.'

'We will have children if God wills it. If some, or all, are fully human, I will love them.'

'Our father loved me until I didn't make the change, but not after. I was his favorite; he trained me to be his next in command, but he dismissed me from the moment it became obvious I was not a wolf. Stupid bloody animal.'

'It is not your lack of an inner wolf that makes you unsuitable to lead, but your lack of honor. I believe our father saw that.'

Ulf attacked Lachlan, but within seconds he was insensate once again. 'Lock him in the west tower,' Lachlan ordered, his voice harsh.

Cait took Drustan aside for something. The warrior looked furious for a moment before giving instructions to another soldier. Emily couldn't dwell too long on what had been said by her friend to make her new husband look so angry because Lachlan had just called for the priest.

Which was how Emily had ended up where she was now, facing a priest and hearing the wedding mass spoken for the second time since coming to the Highlands. She'd seen the defeat and pain in Lachlan's eyes. He had lost a brother in the last hour and her heart had gone out to him. She had been incapable of adding to his torment by opposing him, but how could she allow Lachlan to make this sacrifice? How could she make it herself? He did not want to wed a human and she did not want to wed a man who saw her as less than she was because she was not half-wolf. Yet, he had agreed to the marriage, had not argued at all in fact. She didn't believe for one minute that was because Talorc had threatened war. Lachlan was too strong to be so easily cowed. No, he had his own reasons for marrying her, but she could not understand what they might be. She loved him so much, but she knew her feelings could never be returned, not while he thought her so inferior.

Only when they had touched it had not felt like he thought of her as inferior. It had not felt merely like an expression of lust either, and she did not think that was entirely the work of her fantasy. He had never treated her like she was 'only a human' in his eyes, no matter what he said with his mouth.

When he was talking with Talorc, Lachlan had spoken of her as if he truly admired her. She could do worse than to marry a man who thought that highly of her. Couldn't she?

But when the time came for her to repeat her vows, she opened her mouth and nothing came out.

Lachlan looked down at her. 'Is it so hard, lass?'

Mute, she nodded. Too many thoughts vied for supremacy in her mind; she could not give vent to a single one.

'I do not see why. You love me. You told me so. I will make you say the words again later, when I am satisfying your curiosity.' He winked at her.

She almost swooned right then and there from shock and embarrassment. It would serve him right if she married him and made his life a misery, the fiend!

'Hush,' she hissed.

'It is not a thing to be ashamed of.'

'Says you,' Talorc said from the other side of Lachlan.

'You don't want this,' she whispered, finally getting her throat to work.

'If I did not, the priest would not be standing in front of us.'

'But you wanted to marry Chrechte.'

'I want to marry you.'

'I could not stand for you to reject our children like your father rejected Ulf… that is assuming we can even have children.'

'I told Ulf it was God's choice whether or not we have children. Do you believe that?'

'Yes.'

'If we have children, I will love them no matter what. I promise you this.'

'But—'

'Do you trust me, English?'

Tears wet her eyes. 'Yes.' He was not a man given to breaking his promises.

'Then speak your vows.'

'But…' she said again, only she didn't know what she wanted to say after.

She would love Lachlan all the days of her life. She had come to the Highlands prepared to do whatever was required to save her sister a dismal fate. She was now being offered a marriage much more hopeful than the one she had contracted to make. Why was she balking?

She could have a measure of happiness while keeping her sister safe. According to the Highlanders, they only obeyed their king when they wanted to. As long as she wasn't returned to England in disgrace, Abigail should be safe. Her father had paid the price his king demanded of him, and by all accounts, it was unlikely the Scottish king would check to make sure his laird had.

But surely, even if he did, he would be as content to have the wild Lachlan 'tamed' by marriage to an Englishwoman as Talorc of the Sinclairs.

Still, she wondered if this was the right thing to do. She cast a sidelong glance at Lachlan. He looked so sure.