Warrior's Moon

Uven had always maintained a posting of perimeter guards.

Usually paranoid, the Faol laird had grown so arrogantly complacent. According to Maon, the man had made it a practice in the last year to pull his perimeter guards into the feast. After the death of his second a year ago and the loss of the soldiers he sent north to fetch his daughter, Caelis would have thought Uven would want to increase security, not loosen it.

But apparently the laird believed showing disdain for his enemies was some kind of protection in itself.

He would learn differently this night.

There was only a single guard at the door and two who walked the grounds immediately outside the rough keep.

Vegar took out the two sentries with little effort, swooping in as an eagle and shifting to his human form to incapacitate without killing. He left each one unconscious and tied up behind the keep before returning to the others in the forest.

Uven was so confident the Ean lived in fear of the Faol, he had not trained his guards in defensive warfare against a foe who could fly. They didn’t even watch the sky for the approach of a possible enemy.

“Good work.” Caelis bumped shoulders with Vegar before turning to face Shona. “Remember the plan.”

She nodded, a small smile forming on her too kissable lips. “Stay out of sight with Thomas and the MacLeod soldiers until you give the signal.”

He bent down and kissed her. “Stay safe.”

“I will.” The dazed look in her eyes from the kiss was more comforting than her promise.

And Caelis took the memory of it with him as he approached the door sentry openly and alone.

Excluded from the revelry inside, the young Faol soldier had no doubt been assigned his position because Uven was angry with him. It was the way the laird ran his pack.

“Caelis?” the man standing guard at the foot of the steps leading up to the keep’s entrance asked, recognition warring with surprise on his youthful features.

“Aye, it is me.”

“Uven said the Sinclair had killed you.”

“Nay.”

“But…” The young soldier didn’t seem to know what to say.

“I will speak to Uven.”

The younger man nodded and then seemed to realize he should mayhap challenge Caelis’s assertion. “Do you have permission to be here?”

“I am MacLeod. I am Chrechte. What more permission do I need? Will you challenge my right to be here?”

“I…” The youth swallowed convulsively. “Where were you? If the Sinclair did not kill you, why have you not returned to your pack until now?”

“I had much to learn. The Sinclair, a great Chrechte leader, did not kill me. He trained me to be a true Chrechte of honor.”

“What does that mean?” the youth asked, sounding confused and strangely hopeful.

“It means that Uven has done naught but use this clan and pack for his own purposes. He has manipulated and twisted our sacred laws to serve his perverted goals,” Maon said as he stepped forward.

The youth’s eyes widened with shock. “Maon! You are on a special assignment for Uven.”

“I was, until that task killed my brother and revealed to me the truth of Uven’s twisted teachings.”

“You are going to challenge our alpha?” the young soldier asked with clear disbelief.

“No,” Caelis said, pushing the sentry aside inexorably but without anger. “I am.”

He let out a short low whistle and moments later, his other supporters stepped forward. They surrounded Shona, putting themselves between her and danger.

The gate guard looked around himself, his tension increasing as no other guards stepped forward to back him up.

“You can stay here, or you can come and see Uven defeated as laird and pack alpha,” Caelis told him before mounting the steps.

The others followed behind. He was not surprised when the scent of the gatekeeper joined theirs.

Caelis had a plan for how he intended to handle the challenge, but it would disappear faster than a challenging Chrechte under Eirik’s dragon fire if the safety of his mate was threatened.

He threw the door to the keep open and stepped inside, his senses on alert in a way those within clearly were not.

Uven sat at the main table, eating with his hands, laughing in the loud baritone so familiar to Caelis.

Memories assailed him of this man who had been stand-in father, only for Caelis to learn that his true parent had died at the power-hungry alpha’s hands.

“He stole much from you, but you are stronger than him. Even if you were not Chrechte, you would be stronger,” Shona said to Caelis over their mating bond.

He allowed her words to fill his mind and his heart so he could do what needed doing. Uven, pack alpha and laird, had to die.

The corrupted laird and his inner circle all seemed to realize Caelis was there at the same time, their revelry dying with the speed of a candle blowing out.

Uven stood, dropping the leg of mutton he’d been chewing on. “So the prodigal son returns.”

“I am no son of yours.” Caelis did not raise his voice, knowing his fellow Faol could hear his every word even if he whispered.

He would not whisper, but he would not give the laird the satisfaction of thinking he’d driven Caelis to shouting either.

“You say that, when I raised you like my own?”

“After you murdered my parents, you took the place that did not belong to you. But that seems to be your specialty.”

“You dare accuse me of murder?”

“You are guilty of it over and over.”

The mutters around them grew in volume and Caelis was shocked to realize he heard criticisms of Uven from several directions. How blind had he been to both Uven’s perfidy and the number of Chrechte already unhappy with the alpha’s leadership?

Uven might be oblivious to the risks surrounding his clan, but he was aware of his pack’s displeasure, as the there-and-then-gone-again grimace on his face showed.

“It is not murder when you kill the disloyal,” he announced with an ugly superciliousness Caelis would never allow himself to be guilty of.

“Disagreement is not disloyalty. You are alpha, not a god.”

“What are we but gods among humanity?” Uven countered.

Caelis did not answer, the scent of his mate coming nearer to distracting him. She would make a terrible warrior. She did not take orders well at all, but she made the perfect mate.

“You’re an idiot,” Shona said from behind Caelis. “A conceited liar who has no right to lead.”

Caelis felt a smile take over the fury on his face. His mate was outspoken and fearless despite all she’d been through.

“You find this human’s disrespect amusing?” Uven demanded, his own fury rising.

“My sacred mate only speaks the truth.”

“She is human. She is not your true mate. I told you this.”

“Oh, yes, you told me. You also told me she died, but both were lies.”

“Anything I said, I said for your benefit,” Uven claimed, sounding like he believed his own words.

But then, he’d always been adept at lying. Too adept.

“It is against Chrechte sacred law to withhold true mates from one another.”

Uven slammed his fist down on the table, sending plates rattling to the rushes. “I make the laws for our pack.”

“You are Chrechte subject to our ancient dictates, just as any other.”