Dangerous Highlander

Galen kept his gaze on the ground. “Sorry to interrupt, but Fallon wants you to bring Cara into the hall.”

“A pity.” Cara rested her cheek on Lucan’s chest and fingered one of the braids at his temple.

Lucan was torn. He wanted to tell Galen to go away while he took Cara down to the beach and made love in the sea, but he knew too much was at stake to disregard their visitors.

He tilted her face to his and gave her another kiss. “Later,” he promised.

“I’m going to hold you to that, MacLeod,” she said with a smile.

He turned toward Galen and took Cara’s hand in his own. “The men know we have a Druid. They don’t know whether you’re drough or mie.”

“You want me to keep it that way?”

“For now.”

She shook her head. “Lucan, you’re going to have to trust people one day.”

“I do. I trust you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Cara’s body was so caught up in the desire Lucan so quickly had kindled that she didn’t realize her hair was loose until she walked into the great hall.

Lucan’s knowing smile brought forth a chuckle from her lips. She leaned close and whispered, “I didn’t know you had removed the binding of my braid.”

“Then my kisses were doing what they were supposed to.”

She reached back to braid her hair, but his hands stopped her.

“Please,” Lucan said. “You have such beautiful hair. Let me see it.”

How could she refuse such a request? His sea green eyes held hers, a silent plea in their depths. “Aye,” she whispered.

One side of his mouth lifted in a grin. The sight made her heart melt and her blood heat. Lucan always managed to bring such delicious emotions swirling inside her. She couldn’t imagine a day without him, didn’t want to imagine a day without him. He had become her life.

She forgot everything and everyone as she rose up to kiss him. One of his hands cupped her face while the other held her against him.

“You have no idea how much I want you,” he whispered against her lips. “But I don’t enjoy others looking while I’m kissing you.”

Too late, she remembered the visitors. She closed her eyes and groaned in embarrassment.

Lucan’s thumb caressed her cheek. “I will protect you, Cara. Never forget that.”

She opened her eyes and gave him a nod before she turned and faced the table. Galen, on the one hand, stood off to the side and smiled at her. Fallon, on the other hand, simply stared at them from his position at the foot of the table.

But it was the other three men sitting at the table who drew her attention. Two faced her while the other turned on the bench to look at her.

Lucan placed a comforting hand on her back. “The blond is Hayden Campbell.”

Cara’s gaze swung to the big man. He looked to be even bigger than Lucan with his huge shoulders and massive arms. He nodded in greeting, his dark eyes regarded her with doubt and worry.

“The one next to him is Logan Hamilton,” Lucan said.

Cara looked to Hayden’s left and into hazel eyes. Logan’s dark hair had strands of gold throughout, and she had no doubt that with Logan’s good looks he had women falling all over him.

Lucan shifted his feet and motioned to the man turned on the bench. “This is Ramsey MacDonald.”

Ramsey’s gray eyes missed nothing as he looked her over. She found no censure in his gaze, just curiosity. He was handsome but aloof, with blue-black hair shorn to his collar.

“And I am Cara,” she said.

Ramsey rose from the table and walked to her. She felt Lucan stiffen by her side, but she didn’t fear anything, not with Lucan near her.

Ramsey stopped in front of her. “You’re the Druid.”

“Aye,” she answered, “though I only recently learned of it.”

He gave a small nod and turned his gaze to Lucan. “Do you think Deirdre wants Cara bad enough to come for her herself?”

Lucan shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”

“Deirdre doesna leave her mountain,” Hayden said. “The last time she left was almost two hundred years ago. She sends Warriors and the wyrran in her stead.”

Cara wasn’t sure she wanted to meet Deirdre, not after everything she had heard of the woman.

Fallon moved to stand on the other side of Cara. “Deirdre wants Cara, and from what the Warriors said, Deirdre will stop at nothing to get her.”

“What makes her so special?” Logan asked. “Deirdre wouldn’t go to this much trouble for just any Druid.”

Cara looked up to find Lucan and Fallon exchanging glances over her head. Lucan didn’t want the men to know, but Cara realized the more information they had the better they would understand what they faced.

“My mother was a drough,” she said. She pulled out the silver vial, the Demon’s Kiss, and let it rest between her breasts. “Deirdre killed her and my father when I was just a child. I was hidden and therefore overlooked.”

Hayden got to his feet, his gaze narrowed on Cara. “A drough?” he spat.

“Cara isn’t a drough,” Fallon said. “She was raised in a nunnery.”

“Cara had no idea what she was until we told her,” Galen said.

Ramsey drummed his fingers on his leg, his expression calm and patient, so different from Hayden’s. “Has she done the blood ritual?”

“Nay,” Cara answered. “I’m not a drough.”

Logan blew out a breath. “Drough or not, she needs to be protected from Deirdre. I don’t want that evil bitch to get her hands on any more Druids.”

Hayden shook his head. “She has drough blood in her. She’ll turn.”

Lucan’s nails lengthened into claws, and Cara knew things would erupt into a fight if something wasn’t done.

“I’m not a drough,” she repeated. “I’m just learning of the Druids, but I’m not going to follow in my mother’s footsteps.”

“You canna know that for sure,” Hayden argued.

Cara sighed and opened her mouth to convince him when Hayden’s skin shifted and turned a deep, dark red. He snarled at something behind her, his lips peeled back to show his long fangs.

She turned to find Quinn standing in the doorway of the kitchen staring at Hayden. Quinn growled, his arms held out to his sides and his claws extended as the rest of him transformed.

“Cara is under our protection,” Quinn said. “You have a problem with that? Leave. Or die.”

Hayden took a step toward Quinn. Cara blinked, unsure if she had seen the small red horns that stuck straight up on the top of his head through his blond hair.

“You don’t know what evil the droughs can do,” Hayden said. “If you did, you wouldn’t allow her in your castle.”

In the next heartbeat Lucan transformed and put himself between her and Hayden.

“You don’t understand!” Hayden bellowed.

“Nay, Hayden.” Galen’s skin had turned green. He walked to stand between Quinn and Lucan. “It’s you who don’t understand.”

Hayden shook his head. “You know, Galen. You know what the drough can