Warrior's Moon

She needed that, even if she no longer realized it. Mayhap, he did as well.

“I said I would marry you.”

“Aye, and we will be married with a priest speaking his blessing over us.”

“Why do you not join with me then?”

“Because it will come after.”

She smiled at that, an expression deep in her emerald depths that said mayhap she was fully aware that waiting was what she needed.

“Will you…” She blushed again, her gaze dropping.

“What, mo gra? What do you want?”

“Not your heart,” she slurred without near the conviction she’d shown earlier when claiming he did not love her. “I want you to do what you did last night.”

He wanted that, too. So much. He moved up her body so he could rub his aching sex against her sensitized flesh.

She writhed, but did not push him away. “Yes, like that. Feels so close.”

“Aye,” he said across their mental bond.

“So intimate.” She pushed up against him despite her evident lethargy.

He would have agreed but he was too busy coming against her body just that quickly, his seed marking her again and causing his wolf to howl with triumph. They had wanted her too much and for too long to last once her pleasure had been ensured.

He collapsed beside her, his hold on her tight despite his sense of relaxation.

She cuddled into him. “I am not going anywhere.”

“Tomorrow, you leave for Balmoral Island.”

She tensed. “What? You are refusing me now?” she asked, though sounded like even she could not believe that.

Good. “Dinna be daft, mo toilichte. We will leave after we break our fast. The day after tomorrow.”

“We?” she asked, sounding both hopeful and still slightly worried. “Why the day after?” came out as a clear afterthought.

“How can you doubt it after what we just shared? And because your dearest friend is to be mated with the traditional Chrechte ceremony tomorrow evening.”

“I’d forgotten.” Shona’s fingers worried against his chest. “How could I have forgotten?”

“It has been an eventful day.”

“It has. And I don’t doubt you.”

“Good.”

“When did you decide to come with me?”

“As soon as you announced your intentions of going.”

She made a scoffing sound.

There had been no real decision to make. “I would trust your safety to no one else for the journey.”

“Oh.”

He surged up to lean over her, his warrior’s heart catching at the expression on her lovely oval face. “You will make yourself known to your family. I will state my intentions toward you to them. But heed my words, mate, no one—not even you, my dearest Shona—will keep you from me ever again.”

Her smile was like the sun coming through an unexpected break in a heavy gray sky.

* * *

Waking held tight in Caelis’s arms was much more comforting and enjoyable than Shona would have admitted, even to herself, the day before. It seemed so normal to be cuddled together under a fur, their naked limbs entwined.

She didn’t remember a fur being on top of them the night before, though. Hadn’t it been one of the Sinclair plaids on her borrowed bed?

Caelis must have moved the one he’d brought with him from beneath them to cover them, but she could not remember him doing so. Though she’d been less than sensate when he finally declared the time for sleep had come.

In the morning light coming in through the high window, she could see more details of the fur and she realized she’d seen it before.

And not just the night before in the hallway.

She pulled the corner of the fur up to look at the soft leather underside; sure enough, there was an S and C burned into the leather with an intricate Celtic knot joining them.

It was the same fur they had made love on six years ago. Tracing her finger over the lines of the symbols, she tried to fathom what it meant that he had this fur with him at the Sinclair holding.

The tension in the body beside her told her that Caelis had woken up.

She looked up at his long-beloved face. “This is the same fur.”

He did not ask the same as what; he simply inclined his head in agreement. “It is.”

“How?”

“I use it as my bedroll, always.”

“Even when you are going to another holding to bring back Uven’s daughter?” Though the proof was covering her with delightful warmth.

“Even then.”

“But why?”

“It is our mating fur.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Chrechte tradition is that special furs are prepared for the joining of a Faol and his mate.”

“But you did not make me your mate.”

“Oh, I did. Our bond was formed when you gave your body to me.”

“You really thought I would stay and that Uven would change his heart.”

“Aye.”

“You were stupid.”

“Aye.”

She smiled. “I love you.”

“You said so last night.”

“I thought you might like hearing it this morning, too.”

“I do.”

“Good.” Even if he did not love her, so long as he did not take her love for granted, she could find contentment with him.

She was certain of it.

She had lived with worse and could feel only gratitude her past would never be her present.

Chapter 21

Raise a Chrechte child with knowledge of the sacred laws and he will grow into a man of honor.

—CHRECHTE SACRED LAW, FROM THE ANCIENT SCROLLS

Shona was delighted to find Audrey waiting in the great hall with Thomas, the children and Vegar when she and Caelis came down to break their fast.

The daughter who had been so shy when they left England was ensconced contentedly on Vegar’s lap,