Dangerous Highlander

do.”

“I do,” Galen admitted. “I also know it is a choice each Druid makes. Cara hasn’t been raised as a Druid, much less a drough.”

Fallon took her arm and tried to move her behind him, but she yanked out of his grasp and walked to stand between Hayden and Lucan.

“Enough!” she shouted. “We have a common enemy, Hayden. Deirdre. You cannot fight her alone, and neither can we. Either side with us or leave, but make your choice.”

“Now,” Lucan growled.

The hall was tense, everyone waiting for the others to move. Ramsey sighed and walked around Hayden before coming to stand beside Fallon.

“Cara is right. We need to stand together to defeat Deirdre,” Ramsey said.

Logan slapped his hands down on the table and rose. “I know your pain, Hayden, but Cara hasn’t done the ritual. She isn’t a drough. We need to protect her.”

Cara watched as Logan walked past his friend, cuffing him on the shoulder. Logan didn’t stop until he stood next to Lucan. Hayden shook his head and closed his eyes. She could see his pain, knew he was conflicted. Whatever a drough had done to him in the past had left deep scars.

Finally, Hayden changed back into a man and lowered himself on the bench. All but Quinn reverted back. Quinn gave her a nod and stalked out the castle door into the bailey.

“Good choice, Hayden,” Galen said.

Lucan’s fingers wrapped around her arm before sliding down to her hand. His heat surrounded her, comforted her. She had never expected to see men have to decide whether to defend her or not. She knew without a doubt Lucan and his brothers would have fought along with Galen to protect her. It was a good thing the other three had realized they were better as a team than individuals.

She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding and leaned against Lucan’s calming strength.

“Since there are seven of us, I’d like five men posted on lookouts while two guard Cara,” Fallon said.

“I can stay in my chamber,” Cara volunteered.

Lucan shook his head. “Nay. A Warrior could get to you too easily. You need to be somewhere safer.”

“The hall,” Galen said. “Keep her here. It’s centralized, and with us standing guard, she’ll have added time to prepare herself for when they get through.”

“Good idea,” Lucan said.

Cara wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in the great hall in front of everyone, but she wouldn’t argue with them. They were trying to protect her. The least she could do was make things easier on them.

Fallon glanced at Lucan. “You will be with Cara always. The rest of us will take turns being the second guard.”

Lucan gave a quick nod of his head. “Agreed.”

Cara didn’t stop Lucan when he pulled her out of the castle.

He released her and walked down the steps to pace the bailey. She swallowed and lowered herself onto the top step.

“That was close with Hayden,” Lucan said.

Fallon sat beside her. “Too damn close.”

She hadn’t heard Fallon follow them, but she wasn’t surprised to find him there.

“I don’t trust him around Cara.” Lucan shook his head. “I don’t want him alone with her. Ever.”

Cara clasped her hands together in her lap. “We don’t know what happened to Hayden, Lucan.”

“It doesn’t matter, not when he threatens you.”

Her heart swelled. She had just been Cara, alone and unwanted, until Lucan. He wanted her, had safeguarded her since the moment she fell into his arms. When she looked into his eyes, she saw desire, yes, but she saw something else, something deeper.

Fallon sighed. “Until we know what is going on with Hayden and why he reacted so strongly to Cara, we might want to make sure he’s watched.”

“I’ll make sure I’m not alone with him,” Cara said.

Lucan winked at her in response. “Thank you.”

The castle door opened and Galen stepped out. “Is supper ready? I’m starving.”

Cara laughed and looked over her shoulder at him. “Aye, it’s ready.”

“Galen,” Lucan halted him before he could return inside the castle. “We’d like to know why Hayden reacted the way he did to Cara.”

Galen leaned back against the door and crossed his arms over his chest. “We all have a story to tell. Hayden is no different.”

“Maybe,” Fallon said, “but none of the others wanted to harm Cara.”

“I don’t think he would have hurt her.”

“You don’t think?” Lucan asked. “I saw his eyes, Galen. The word drough made him go daft.”

Galen was silent for long moments before he blew out a breath. “Hayden’s story is his own, but I will tell you that at one time Deirdre used the drough for her own purposes before she began killing them. The drough did truly horrific things in their quest to find Warriors.”

“Thank you.” Cara stood and faced Galen. “I’ll gather the food for supper now.”

Galen moved and opened the door for her. Something tugged the end of her hair, and she glanced back to see Lucan wrapping a strand of her hair around his finger.

She was saddened for Hayden, for all of them. They couldn’t help the anger and hate that fed them. She held the same hatred for Deirdre for her parents’ deaths. The difference was Cara didn’t have a primeval god inside her giving her added powers.

But you do have magic.

Aye, she did have her magic.

* * *

Hayden clenched his hands into fists. It had never entered his mind that the MacLeods had a Druid, much less one with drough blood in her—and around her neck.

The need to kill her, to end the existence of any evil, burned him. It was fitting that the god inside him was Ouraneon, the god of massacre, since that’s what the droughs had done. And it was what Hayden wanted to do to Cara.

Yet when Ramsey, and even Logan, had chosen to stand with the MacLeods and the Druid, Hayden’s ire had cooled. For the time being.

The Druid was correct. They did have a common enemy. But once Deirdre was dead . . .

* * *

Supper had gone much smoother than Lucan had anticipated after Hayden’s outburst. Hayden himself didn’t look up from his trencher. Nor did he have much to say. The others, however, spoke freely.

Lucan learned that Ramsey had his god unbound shortly after they did. Ramsey had been taken by the wyrran while traveling. Though Lucan was curious, he didn’t ask Ramsey how he had escaped from Deirdre’s mountain.

Logan told them even more. “I met Ramsey in the mountain. I was there for a score of years, and he was there before me.”

“How long did Deirdre have you?” Quinn asked Ramsey.

Ramsey set down his goblet. “Too damn long.”

Logan chuckled. “Ramsey isna much of a talker.”

“How did Deirdre find you, Logan?” Lucan asked.

Logan paused in his chewing. “I was returning home from meeting a lass who had caught my fancy. My brother saw the wyrran take me. I feared they might hurt my family, so I went with them willingly.”

“A good thing,” Fallon said, and pushed his empty trencher away. “The wyrran would have killed them.”

Lucan glanced at Hayden but realized the big man wouldn’t answer any questions. Yet the more withdrawn he became, the more worried Lucan got.

“I think you should have built a bigger table,” Fallon said. “We’re squeezed in here.”