Warrior's Moon

“But why?”

“There is a cost to the calling I have been given.” Ciara put on a bright smile Shona did not quite believe. “Sabrine has already provided the next generation for the Ean’s royal line.”

“But you crave motherhood.”

Ciara looked startled at Shona’s perception. “I thought I did a fair job of hiding that fact.”

“You do not wear your desire on your sleeve, but I am a mother and I know the sparkle of that dream.”

“Not all dreams may come to pass.”

“This one will.” Shona was certain of it. “You may never give birth, but you will be a mother.”

Ciara’s stared at her for a long moment before her entire face transformed with a stupefied kind of wonder. “That is what she meant. When the time is right, Eirik and I will adopt. Just as my parents claimed me for their own when I was without family.”

Shona did not ask who Ciara referred to as she. Even a fully human woman could put two and two together to reach four. The celi di was talking about the ancient Chrechte woman she saw in her visions.

“Thank you for revealing the nature of my mentor’s words. She is sometimes obscure.”

“My mother could be that way.” Memories of her mother before and after Shona’s unexpected pregnancy assailed her.

Circumstances had changed so much for both of them. Shona was the first to admit that it had not been easy on her mother to make a new life in England, where she was cook in the house her daughter had been named baroness.

She had loved being a grandmother, no matter what she had thought of her daughter for catching pregnant with no husband in sight.

Ciara’s face was filled with compassion. “She hurt you very much with her disapproval.”

“I am sure Mother thought she was doing right, protecting me from myself and tendencies she thought were damaging.”

“She was wrong.”

Shona almost smiled. Even Audrey had never stated it so baldly before. “Mother wanted what was best for me.”

“Her love was best for you. Withholding it could not alter your course or the woman you had become.”

“With that attitude, you will make a fine mother yourself one day.” It was one Shona shared.

God willing, her children would never doubt her great love for them.

“Thank you.” Ciara beamed. “For your insight and your affirmation.”

The celi di left then, to rejoin her husband. The blinding grin that overtook the man’s intimidating features moments later would imply that Ciara had shared Shona’s belief that they would indeed one day parent children they would call their own.

“You are a very special woman,” Caelis said from beside her as his great warhorse nuzzled her mare.

She turned and smiled at him and Eadan, who was riding for this part of the journey in his da’s lap. “I am pleased you think so.”

Eadan grinned back proudly, clearly thrilled to be where he was.

“I am not the only one. Thomas and Audrey sing your praises; even the Lady Abigail is as protective of you as one of her own.”

The words were gratifying, but they brought up another worry Shona had been doing her best to ignore.

“Will Thomas stay with the Sinclairs when we leave?” she asked, her heart twinging at the idea.

Caelis shook his head, the depths of his gentian gaze telling her without words he understood her feelings. “I offered to complete his training and he has accepted. He will wear MacLeod colors.”

Emotion clogged Shona’s throat, but she forced out a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

Caelis had made no secret of the fact he did not like Shona’s closeness to the young Chrechte, but he had still taken care that she would not lose Thomas from her life.

His next words confirmed Caelis’s understanding of the matter. “He is important to you.”

“As if he were my own brother.”

“You have a big heart, Shona.”

“For a long time, I tried very hard not to acknowledge my heart at all.”

“I do not think you were ever successful.”

Looking back at the way she’d accepted Audrey and Thomas into her affections as well as the love she had for her children, which grew daily, Shona thought he might be right.

But she had tried.

“I never loved the baron.”

“How could you? Your heart was full of me. Besides, he was a bastard.”

The baron had been neither kind nor considerate, but he could have been much worse and so both her parents took pains to remind her on any occasion they deemed it necessary.

“I refused to even speak your name aloud.”

“But you never forgot me, just as I never forgot you.”

“Even when Uven had convinced you of my death?”

“Even then. I did not try to make love to another woman even then. I would have known you lived if I had done.”

She was sorry for the pain of loss he’d suffered, but couldn’t regret he’d never been tempted by another woman. Even if he did not love her as she loved him—and she was not as certain of that fact as she’d once been —she was definitely his mate.

The only woman he wanted. The only woman he needed physically.

And that was pretty special, as he’d said, even if that was not exactly precisely what he had meant.

* * *

The mating ceremony was beautiful beyond imagination and yet more natural than any wedding Shona had ever attended.

It took place deep in the caves the Chrechte had named sacred, in a chamber redolent with the power of millennia’s worth of spiritual ceremonies for the Chrechte. The chamber glowed with an inexplicable light emanating from the walls. The Clach Gealach Gra on the stone pedestal in the center burned brightly like it was lit from within by a flame so hot it burned white.

The light shimmered red as Prince Eirik led Vegar and Audrey to lay their hands on it and in speaking vows to one another in the ancient language of the Chrechte.

Shona did not understand, but Caelis translated the vows for her via their mating bond. The mutual promises of lifelong care, protection, respect, fidelity and honor brought tears to her eyes even as she imagined repeating them with Caelis.

They uttered their last vows and then a profound silence fell over the cave, the air so still Shona could hear her own heartbeat in her ears.

The stone glowed a deep, dark red like a blood ruby and both Vegar and Audrey released a simultaneous breath before looking at one another with a connection so strong, Shona could feel its power from where she stood.

“Your heart is pure,” Vegar pronounced of his mate.

Audrey dipped her head. “It is yours.”

It should have been too soon for such declarations, but Shona was certain she was not the only witness there who felt the absolute sincerity of their words.

“I will treasure that gift always,” Vegar replied in a tone every bit as solemn.

Ciara stepped forward, another stone held aloft in her hands, this one glowing like a dark, translucent emerald. She invited Vegar and Audrey to lay hands on it as well before speaking a blessing over their union, which once again Caelis interpreted for Shona inside her head.

The blessing had the sound of a prophecy and Shona stored her joy for her friend in her heart.

The green light seemed to reach out and surround the mated couple and the Faol’s celi di, swirling around all three of them like a glowing mist.