Warrior's Moon

mating bond. “I love you.”

“And I you. One day you will believe it.”

She might believe it now, but he gave her no opportunity to tell him as he began making love to her again, proving that a six-year wait was entirely too long for man or wolf to finally claim his mate.

They continued to make love into the early hours of the morning, falling asleep under their mating fur as the sky began to lighten.

* * *

Shona and Caelis did not join the Balmoral clan until the nooning meal the next day, and still Shona found herself stifling a yawn as they approached the head table.

Audrey smiled knowingly. “Good morning, sleepyheads.”

Shona knew her young friend’s transition from innocent to married woman would take some getting used to, but she smiled anyway. “Thank you for rising with the children this morn.”

Audrey waved off her thanks. “Eadan and Marjory enjoyed getting to know their new family. Gail and Feth made them feel very welcome.”

Shona had barely met the laird and lady’s ten-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son the day before, though both had attended her wedding.

She smiled at them now. “Thank you.”

“They are very nice children,” Gail said with the maturity of budding womanhood.

She had years yet of her own childhood, Providence willing, but the reflection of the woman she would become was there.

Feth shrugged. “I like Eadan all right. He listens better than Brian and Drost.”

“Don’t speak ill of your cousins,” Emily admonished.

“I’m not.” Feth frowned. “The truth is not speaking bad of someone is it, Da?”

Shona bit back a smile as she took her seat, glad she wasn’t the parent having to answer difficult questions right that moment. She was too sleep-deprived to be as politic as that sort of parenting required.

“When are we going home?” Eadan asked. “We need to go soon. The bad man has to be stopped, Da.”

“Home?” Shona asked, trying to make sense of the words her son had spoken.

“Our keep.” Eadan turned to Lachlan. “Yours is very nice, laird, but we need to go home.”

“The barony?” Shona asked, at a complete loss.

No doubt more to do with lack of sleep than her son not making sense. He was a very practical little boy.

“The barony is not our home, Mum. We are MacLeods.”

“You, your sister and your dam will come to MacLeod land once I have confronted the laird and defeated him,” Caelis answered, proving he was more cognizant than Shona about Eadan’s meaning.

“Nay, Da. We have to come with you now. We should leave today.” Eadan spoke with great earnestness.

And although she agreed their children needed to be kept safe, Shona also felt a nagging need to leave for MacLeod lands immediately.

“You canna come with me, son. ’Tis not safe,” Caelis said firmly.

Eadan’s features took on a stubborn cast Shona knew only too well.

“The dragon will protect us.”

“Dragon?” Shona asked faintly, quite certain there was yet more of the Chrechte world she did not know.

“He is mate to the celi di, Mum.”

“Eadan—” Caelis said warningly.

“The celi di must come, too. The conriocht in my dream said so.”

Caelis frowned at their son. “Eadan, have a care what you say.”

“No one who is not to hear will understand our words,” Eadan said with such certainty that Shona felt a chill of affirmation climb up her spine.

She looked around them and noted that none but the laird, his wife and their small group paid any heed to their conversation at all. Not even the laird’s second and his wife sitting at the same table.

How could this be?

“I’m doing it, I think,” Audrey said, looking frightened and awed at the same time. “I felt something strange and wonderful when I touched the Faolchu Chridhe, but I did not know what it meant.”

“How?” Shona asked.

“I’m not sure. There are stories about Chrechte gifts. Mother said they were myths, but now I’ve touched the sacred stone and I can feel it working in me.”

“But how did you do it?” She still didn’t understand.

“I was just sitting here wishing no one would hear Eadan’s slips of the tongue.”

“Why?” Shona asked.

Audrey shrugged, looking apologetic. “Mother ingrained in me the need for secrecy.”

“So, no one but those privy to the discussion can hear it?” she asked, just to confirm.

Audrey looked hesitant to answer, but Eadan said with all the authority a five-year-old boy who was certain of his facts could muster, “Right.”

“That is impossible.”

“So is reading minds,” Caelis said to her with a significant look.

“You said that was the mate bond.”

“What we experience goes beyond the mating bond.”

Unwilling to consider the implications of his words right then, Shona turned to her son.

“You saw a conriocht in your dreams?”

“Yes, Mum. He is from long ago, but said he would help me when I needed him.”

“There is an ancient celi di who guides me,” Ciara offered, the look she gave Eadan full of wonder. “I did not see her for the first time until last year.”

“There is much to be done before I am of age,” Eadan said as if quoting another and sounding much older than his five years.

“I…” Shona did not know if she wanted her son to be destined for such things, but then what choice had she?

She was mother, not Creator.

“You can all come to MacLeod lands once I have defeated Uven.” There was no give in Caelis’s tone.

“No,” Eadan said with authority no child should have in his tone. “We must go with you.”

“Why?”

“The conriocht said so.” Now, at least, Eadan sounded like a child.

“You will be safer here, among the Balmoral.”

“Nay. You must keep Mum with you or you will lose her.”

Caelis blanched. “You cannot know that.”

“You must protect Mum.”

“The Balmoral will not let any near her. Here on the island…” For the first time in memory, Caelis sounded uncertain. “You are all safer here.”

“Percival knows bad people.” It was a child’s way of putting things, but there was such certainty in Eadan’s voice that Shona could not doubt his pronouncement.

“Percival would not come this far north, surely,” Audrey opined with more hope than conviction.

Suddenly Eadan shrugged, looking exactly like the small boy he was. “We must go to the MacLeod holding together. Mum will be safe in the sacred caves.”

“Besides, Shona must be with Caelis when he confronts Uven, or more will die because they will doubt their fellow Chrechte’s claims.” Ciara sounded no less certain than Eadan.

Shona felt the pressure of need pushing against her as well. “They are both right. I do not understand it, but I am sure the children and I must be with you to confront Uven.”