Warrior's Moon

sound coming from his conriocht throat, but amusement glittered in his eyes. He was clearly not offended by being referred to as a dog.

Eadan frowned. “He’s not a dog, Margie. He’s our da.”

Marjory did not look overly concerned by her brother’s chastisement.

There was no joviality in Caelis’s expression when he fixed his gaze on the MacLeod Chrechte. “We will go into the forest and await the other soldiers.”

“Why? You’re just going to kill us anyway.” It was Maon, of course.

Incredibly, Caelis laughed again. “Do not presume to speak for your fellow Faol. They have already kneeled to me. All that is left is for them to speak their vows. You are no longer their leader and you were never their alpha. They were taught lies like you but recognize the truth when they see it.”

Maon shut up then.

At Vegar’s insistence, Audrey agreed to leave with him. He would see her wounds tended to immediately. The young Sinclair soldier also took his departure, his fervent praying finally ceasing, an expression of pain twisting his untried features.

Caelis laid his hand on the soldier’s shoulder and the Sinclair man earned even more of Shona’s respect when he barely winced at the contact. “Tell the Sinclair I owe a debt of gratitude and honor to this man.”

The soldier looked up at the massive conriocht with shock.

Caelis met his gaze. “You put yourself between my mate and danger. ’Tis not a debt that will ever be fully repaid.”

“Teach me to fight the wolves,” the young soldier said.

“Why?”

“To better defend my laird and our clan.”

“In time, you will train with the Chrechte, just as all his soldiers do.”

“’Tis not the same. We don’t know their true natures when training.”

“You believe you can learn to best a Chrechte warrior in his beast form in battle?”

“If you teach me, I do.”

“You have the heart for it. I will train you.”

“You cannot do that!” Maon exclaimed.

Caelis spun around and glared at the man, his hand clenched at his side. “Do not challenge me. My patience with you is at its limit.”

Maon fell silent, his expression mutinous.

Shona could not help admiring the stubborn determination of the other man, even if he was more wrongheaded than her stepson, Percival, and his father combined.

Shona took Audrey’s hand and led her toward the forest, surprised and yet not when the others followed her, Caelis at the rear with Eadan still perched on his arm.

Despite the men’s apparent submission, Shona kept Marjory well away from the MacLeods who had been willing to kill them.

Her head was too filled with her own thoughts to listen to Caelis as he spoke in that strange guttural voice to the men he used to call friends. She was peripherally aware that he talked about things like sacred Chrechte law, the Fearghall and something he referred to as the Cahir.

The three who had already shown Caelis submission in their wolf forms listened with a great deal more attention than Shona. Maon argued and insulted and yet, Shona began to realize he wanted to believe.

And that is when she put her own worries aside and started listening, too.

“A time is coming—’twill not be in our lifetime, but that of our children’s children—when a great blight is coming up on the people of our nations. An illness so great it will wipe out entire packs as though they’d never been. Without our sacred stone and the help of healers, the Chrechte will cease to be.”

Maon frowned. “We have healers among the Faol.”

“Not enough. We will need the Ean and the Paindeal.”

“The Paindeal,” Maon scoffed. “They are legend and nothing else.”

“That is what most of the clans believed about the Ean before they learned the truth,” Caelis said.

“What do you mean?” Shona couldn’t help asking.

“Until a year ago, the Ean lived like ghosts in the remote forest.”

“Why?”

“Because of the Fearghall,” Maon answered, though he did not sound as proud of that fact as she would have expected.

“Aren’t they safe, now that they are among the clans?”

“The Ean are only safe when the Fearghall cease to exist.”

“That will never happen,” Maon scoffed.

“You think not?” Caelis challenged.

“He is right.” Shona moved cautiously around the Chrechte men so she and Marjory could sit on the other side of Caelis. “As long as there is hatred among men, people like the Fearghall will exist.”

Caelis gave an unhappy rumble of agreement. “But we will do our best to expose them among the Chrechte and help those who have been taught the lies to know the truth.”

It was a laudable goal, but she did not think every Fearghall was just misguided. Uven was a prime example.

That man got entirely too much joy out of believing himself superior to others. He would have been a terrible laird even if he’d been entirely human.

“The Paindeal disappeared before the Ean stole our sacred stone and the Fearghall was created to find it and return it to the Faol.”

“The Fearghall spend too much time hunting Ean to be hunting the Faolchu Chridhe.”

“The Ean destroyed it.” But even Maon did not sound convinced by his own argument.

Of course, according to the man, Caelis could not be conriocht without it. So, his very existence was proof this sacred stone still existed and was indeed accessible to the Faol.

“Both the Paindeal and the Faolchu Chridhe exist.” There could be no doubt that Caelis believed what he was saying. “Just like the Ean.”

“But we have always known the Ean exist.”

“And the Ean have never forgotten the Paindeal, nor have some of the Faol.”

“So, what? We are to chase after a myth?” Maon demanded.

“Aye, and find them if we hope to save our children’s children.”

“You say Uven held you back from your true mate?” Sean asked.

Maon glared at the forest floor. “He says you were just too stubborn to do your duty by our people.”

“How can I, a Chrechte man, do this duty once I have mated and forged the sacred bond?” Caelis asked.

“You could not,” one of the other men said. “And Uven knew this.”

Apparently, from the man’s tone, this was a well-known fact among the Chrechte.

This proof that Caelis had not lied to her about his last six years of celibacy was something she set aside to contemplate later.

“’Tis why he ordered me not to couple with Shona, but it was already too late.” Caelis huge arm settled across her shoulder.

“You lied to him,” Sean said in a tone that Shona did not understand.

It was almost as if he admired Caelis for doing so.

“Aye. And he never knew my deceit.”

“That is impossible,” Maon asserted. “Our alpha could smell your deceit no matter how you tried to mask it.”

“He is no longer your alpha.”

And Shona began to understand Caelis’s intentions and his need to return to the MacLeod clan. He was not going back to merely exact vengeance on a laird who had lied and put his people’s needs last. Caelis wanted to