Darkest Highlander (22 page)

She had underestimated him. A mistake she wouldn’t make again.

Deirdre blew out an annoyed breath and straightened. With a wave of her hand she sent two wyrran ahead of her to keep watch on Broc. He wouldn’t escape her a second time.

“I wonder, my dark Warrior, if you have discovered just how many burial mounds there are,” she said with a smile.

She didn’t know exactly which mound held the artifact. But she had no doubt she would find it. Even if Broc happened to discover the mound before her, there were ways to ensure her victory.

Deirdre continued onward, her gaze focused ahead. A few wyrran stayed close to her while the others spread out to alert her to anything.

All those years Broc had spied on her. Had she been as overconfident as he had said? She should have known he would betray her. She should have realized what he was about.

But she had learned her lesson. The only one she could trust was herself. And her wyrran.

Deirdre smiled as she recalled how agitated Broc became when she had mentioned making herself appear as anyone he wished. There was a woman he cared for. But who?

“No doubt someone at MacLeod Castle.”

Which meant this woman was a Druid.

Deirdre threw back her head and laughed. “How utterly perfect,” she said as she petted the wyrran’s head closest to her.

The creature tipped its face back and made a sound of pleasure at the back of its throat.

“Aye, my darling,” Deirdre murmured. “I’m going to find whoever this woman is. Then, I’m going to make Broc watch as I kill her and take her magic.”

The wyrran smiled, showing its mouthful of teeth.

Deirdre couldn’t wait to find Broc and his woman.

*   *   *

Broc didn’t give Sonya a chance to argue as he took her in his arms and flew back to the cave.

“There is still light enough to keep looking,” she yelled over the beating of his wings.

“Nay, there isna. We’ve searched enough for today. Hopefully by the morn the mist and rain will be gone.”

He landed outside the cave and released her. Sonya’s lips were pinched as she strode inside to the dying embers of their fire.

Broc watched her. He understood her frustration. He felt it himself, but she had been out searching for hours in the mist and rain. She needed to rest.

“I’m going to find more wood and hunt,” he said.

She lifted a hand in acknowledgment but didn’t speak. Broc blew out a deep breath and flew away. He had to travel farther away than he wanted to find wood for the fire, but he was lucky enough to locate that as well as two pheasants.

By the time he returned to the cave, the sun had already sunk into the horizon. Broc dropped the birds at the entrance to the cave and walked to the fire.

“You must have traveled out of the area in order to find dry wood,” Sonya said.

Broc grinned and jerked his chin to his wings. “They do come in handy.”

“Aye, they certainly do.” She smiled and dusted off her hands as she stood.

He built the fire up again and observed as she cleaned the pheasants. Broc loved to watch Sonya. Everything she did was poised and purposeful.

She glanced up and grinned. “You look bored.”

“No’ at all.” And he meant it. He shouldn’t get such pleasure from watching her do such a menial job. But he did.

She laughed and shook her head. “With that lopsided grin, I think I believe you.”

He hadn’t even realized he was smiling. It brought to mind the realization that as often as he had studied Sonya throughout the years, and as much as he claimed to know her, he didn’t know as much as he would like.

“Were you happy with the Druids?”

She cocked her head to the side at his question. “What?”

“The times I saw you, you looked happy. Yet I know there were long periods I didn’t look in on you.”

She finished with the second bird and took one in each hand as she strode to the fire. “I was happy. The Druids never mistreated us. Though I knew they weren’t my real family, they cared for us as if they were.”

“I’m relieved to hear it.” He had often worried about the girls.

“Just how often did you spy on me?”

He frowned at her words. “I wouldna call it spying.”

“What was it then?” she asked with a grin.

Broc took the birds and set them over the fire to cook. “I’d call it assessing.”

Her bark of laughter caused him to chuckle as he leaned back on one hand while he rested his other arm on his bent knee.

“Assessing, was it?” Sonya asked. “So how often?”

His smile faded as he thought of all the times the darkness had threatened to consume him, how easy it would have been to forget who he was and give in to Deirdre. “Whenever I needed to remember who I was.”

“You put yourself in a situation which helped to fight Deirdre. It proves how strong you are that you survived.”

The only reason he hadn’t submitted to Deirdre was because of Sonya. How he wanted to tell her the truth. It had begun because of his pledge to the girls.

He had vowed to make sure they were safe. He had kept to that vow by looking in on them from time to time. Whereas Anice had been content to be by herself, Sonya had been vivacious and so alive surrounded by others. Anice had faded into the background while Sonya shone as bright as the sun.

Broc sometimes forgot how quickly time could move when he was stuck in Cairn Toul. There were times Deirdre didn’t allow him to leave, as if she knew he had a secret.

There was one occasion he had seen Sonya as a girl of six summers, laughing with her red curls streaming behind her as she ran through the forest. Then the next time he saw her she was much older, her body already showing the curves of womanhood.

That’s when everything had changed for him. No longer could he look at Sonya and think of her as his ward. Lust had flared strong and true.

Every time Broc returned to Cairn Toul after seeing Sonya, he would think of her when things became too dismal, when he began to forget who he was and who he was supposed to be spying upon.

“Broc?”

He jerked and raised his gaze from the flames. He hadn’t realized how lost in thought he had become. “My apologies.”

“You are free of her now.”

“I doona think I will ever be free of Deirdre until she is well and truly gone. There will always be a part of me that is in her damned mountain, a part of me that knows I must make amends for the things I’ve done.”

Sonya moved to kneel in front of him and took his hand in hers. His heart missed a beat as she freely touched him. He had made it a point in Cairn Toul not to touch anyone he didn’t have to, nor did he wish to be touched by anyone in the mountain. Least of all Deirdre.

But Sonya’s touch was … wonderful. She caressed up and down the length of his fingers before she lifted her gaze to meet his.

“You have atoned for any deeds you think you need absolution for by standing with the MacLeods.”

“If only it were that simple.”

“Then let me make it easy,” she whispered and leaned toward him.

The first touch of her lips sent a rush of driving need straight through him. He wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss as he slowly fell backward, taking her with him.

Her lips were as soft as silk and tasted as good as sin. Broc let his hands glide up and down her back, over her buttocks and along her hips, to the indentation of her waist.

He claimed her breast with his hand and gently squeezed. Her moan filled his ears and urged him onward as her fingers tightened in his hair.

The taut bud of her nipple pressed into his palm through her gown. He wanted to rip the clothes off her and feast upon her breasts and have her screaming his name as he thrust inside her.

His claws began to lengthen just thinking about it. And before he knew it, the tip of one had already cut the material at her neck.

Broc instantly ended the kiss before he hurt her. He’d never forgive himself if he did.

She blinked down at him and smoothed his hair away from his forehead. She then took his hand and put a finger where his claw had ripped her gown.

“You will not hurt me, Broc. Do not hold back. Please.”

Her words tore through his mind, and his god bellowed inside him, urging Broc to take Sonya again, to devour her as he so desperately wanted to. The need to flip her onto her back and show her how effortless it would be for him to let go of everything.

But did he dare?

He would be giving a part of himself to Sonya he had never given anyone before.

A part of the man he had once been.

TWENTY-FOUR

Sonya saw Broc’s hesitation and felt a resounding ache in her heart. The years with Deirdre had left scars on Broc that no one could see, scars that might never go away or mend.

All Sonya knew to do was heal him as her magic urged her to do. It wasn’t an open wound she was healing, but the man himself. If he would let her.

She twirled a lock of his long blond hair around her finger. “Do you think I fear you?”

“Nay,” he answered without pause.

“Have you changed your mind about wanting me?”

“God’s blood, nay,” he said through clenched teeth. “Sonya, I fear I will hurt you. No’ even the threat of the curse can hold back my need for you. Whenever we touch or kiss, I begin to lose control in ways I cannot explain.”

She smiled and urged, “Try.”

He closed his eyes and sighed, but his hands never stopped touching her, caressing her. “If you knew the things I had done, you wouldna allow me to touch you.”

“I know you saved me and Anice when you didn’t have to. I know you betrayed Deirdre and stood with the MacLeods when you could have run. That’s all I need to know. The things you did for Deirdre are in the past. Let them go.”

His eyes opened, and his brown depths searched her amber ones. “And you would absolve me of the sins of my past?”

“I would.” She kissed first one cheek, then the other. “Let go of your past. It’s only through the sins you hold yourself accountable for that Deirdre still has a hold on you. You’ve seen she isn’t as all-powerful as she has told everyone.”

“She isna all-powerful, but I’ve seen the things she can do.”

And that’s when Sonya understood what really drove Broc. “You’re afraid of what she’ll do to me.”

“I am. If we’re still here when she arrives, she will do anything to take you from me. You have no’ seen what she does to Druids. I have. I willna have that happen to you.” His hands came up on either side of her face. “I couldna live if she took you.”

She didn’t want Broc to know how scared she was of Deirdre. What Druid in their right mind wouldn’t fear someone who hunted and killed them?

“We will find the tomb and the artifact,” Sonya declared. “And we will be on our way to MacLeod Castle before Deirdre ever arrives in Glencoe.”

“What makes you so sure?” he asked as the corners of his lips began to lift.

“I have you.”

His thumbs caressed her skin near her mouth. “Is that so?”

“It certainly is.”

Broc looked around her and chuckled. “Our meal is burning.”

Sonya would rather have forgotten the pheasants and kissed Broc again, but they had to eat. Or, at least, she did. She rolled off Broc as he sat up and lifted one of the birds over the fire. He handed it to her and took the second.

She tried to peel of a section of meat and burned her fingers. Sonya blew on them before she did the same to the meat in an effort to cool it down enough so she could eat.

Finally, she was able to tear off some of the meat and bit into it. She glanced up to find Broc watching her. She stopped, startled by the intensity of his gaze and the longing that flared in his depths.

If there had ever been a question of whether Broc desired her or not, she had her answer right then.

*   *   *

Fallon MacLeod paced the battlements. There was still no sign of Broc or Sonya. He had a bad feeling in his gut, a feeling which told him Deirdre was somehow involved.

“Don’t even think about it,” said a feminine voice behind him.

He turned to his wife and forced a smile. “I doona know what you’re talking about.”

Larena put her hands on her hips and raised a blond brow. Her golden locks where pulled back in a braid, and she wore her usual tunic and breeches. As the lone female Warrior who had the power to turn invisible, it was easier for her to fight without skirts hindering her.

And Fallon needed all the Warriors he could find. Even if it meant putting the most precious thing in the world to him in harm’s way.

Besides, Larena had a mind of her own.

“You know exactly what I speak of.” She dodged his hands as he tried to pull her against him. “You think Deirdre has Broc and possibly Sonya. You’re contemplating, even as I speak, about jumping to Cairn Toul to see for yourself.”

Fallon grimaced. His wife knew him entirely too well. “Aye, I’m thinking of doing just that. I cannot leave either of them in Deirdre’s hands. You know that.”

“I do,” she said in a softer tone. She closed the distance between them and took his hands in hers. “I also know how deeply Broc feels for Sonya, even if he will not admit it. I have no doubt he’s found her.”

“And if Deirdre has Sonya, Broc went after her.”

“Precisely. If anyone knows their way about that mountain as well as Deirdre, it’s Broc.”

“How long do I give him before I begin to search?”

Larena turned her smoky blue eyes to the distance before she looked back at Fallon. “Another day. We’re all worried, Fallon. Sonya is like a sister to me, to all the women. And the only Warrior able to find her is with her.”

“I ken we have no idea where to begin searching, but I have to try.”

“We all have to try. They are family.”

“I knew I chose you for a reason.”

She playfully punched his shoulder. “You chose me? If I remember correctly, Fallon MacLeod—and I always remember correctly—I was the one who picked you. You wanted nothing to do with me.”

“I was a fool,” he admitted as he wrapped his arms around her. “But it didna take me long to realize my mistake.”