Warrior's Moon

“Yet you would have killed my children,” Shona said with more confusion than anger.

She was doubting her own words even as she spoke them.

“Chrechte do not kill children.”

“You said—”

“What I believed would undermine my opponent with emotion.”

“Oh.”

“Jon did not kill the woman.”

“Audrey.”

“He could have.” Shona had thought so at the time.

“Aye.”

“Vegar would not take the risk he might.”

“A man protects his mate.” Maon’s shrug should have been casual, but there was an air of grief about him.

And Shona remembered something from her old clan. “Jon was your younger brother.”

“Too young to come on this quest.”

“But Uven sent him anyway. And you defend the man.” Shona could not understand it.

“He was my alpha. It was not my place to question him.”

“You said was.”

Maon looked at Caelis and then away.

“A Chrechte of honor values all life. An alpha worthy of loyalty extends both his protection and his consideration to those who swear fealty to him.” Caelis spoke gutterly, but never had Shona heard him say words more humane.

“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.”

* * *

Caelis 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?”