Highland Stone (25 page)
Authors: Sloan McBride
She stepped toward him. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you everything but I was afraid of what would happen."
He clenched his jaw. "I understand." He forced the words through tight lips. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he continued. "The tale convinced me that you were gone forever, so I quit looking."
Kara yearned to hold him. The pain he had gone through radiated through her as well because it was the same pain she'd felt after waking up on the plane and realizing she had returned.
"A fortnight had barely passed when word came to us there be trouble on the northern boundaries. My father sent me and Iain to investigate."
Enthralled by his telling, she couldn't help but smile at the way he kept slipping into the Highland brogue. "What happened?"
"We were attacked by renegades."
She inhaled a sharp breath and clasped her fingers tight with his.
"My clansmen fought them back but we'd lost three men and I was wounded."
Her stomach churned, remembering how horrible it had been to see those men come back from battle. She wondered about the men who were lost and hoped none were men she had known while there.
"By the time we returned to Dunvegan, I had lost too much blood. There was naught they could do. My will to live had withered the day you disappeared."
The catch in his voice brought tears rushing to Kara's eyes and overflowing. "Oh, Alaxandar." She wrapped arms around him and rested her cheek on his solid chest, atop the place where the heart beat strong. "But how did you end up here?"
"I don't know. My
máthair
cried at the bedside, my
bráthairs
held the women. I closed my eyes but I didn't fade. I felt warm and comfortable, not at all how I expected dying to feel." He grinned then reached out and took her hand in his. "The next thing I knew, you were falling at my feet."
She slapped him on the shoulder. His grin widened.
In a thoughtful gesture, she frowned. "What about Alex?"
He tilted his head. "Parts of him are here as well. I seem to know the things he knew. I remember his childhood, his family. I have his body and his face."
Kara placed her hand upon his cheek. "It's a good face. But it is you?"
"Aye."
"This is so bizarre." She swept hands through the air. "I don't understand how it could happen."
He hugged her close. "We are meant to be together, in this life—in every life."
"Yes," she whispered.
"I won't let you go again. We will be married immediately. You will bear the MacLeod name and my children."
She sighed. "There you go ordering me around again."
"And what do you have to say about it?" His brow hiked questioningly.
"I can only say… yes." She jumped into waiting arms. "I love you Alaxandar MacLeod."
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Sloan McBride is a multi-published romance author who lives in the paranormal. Her current otherworldly fascination is the Time Walkers. These stories blend Sumerian Mythology with the past, present and future. This army of warriors battles the King of the Underworld, demons, and some fallen gods. Check out Book One, "The Fury." It will entice you to beg for more.
Sloan currently has five books in the making, three of which are for a new trilogy. These heroes are sexy daredevils, who will steal your heart and leave you breathless.
She belongs to a critique group with two other writers. They are known as the Sassy Scribes.
She lives in the Midwest with her husband of 30 years, two children and two dogs.
"If I had to choose one word to describe me it would be CHAOS. I never stop doing. Hyper you say? Perhaps, but not the kind that needs medication to control it. I am a life junkie. I want to experience everything life has to offer and go about it in my own way. My way generally involves music and dancing.
When I was young, I created stories in my head taking me to all the places I dreamed of visiting, and I always had a handsome someone to go with. As I got older, the places got more exciting and adventurous, and the someone became more rugged and gorgeous. What can I say, I'm a dreamer. I'm also a hopeless romantic. In that vein, my stories took on a romantic flare and though I never wanted them to end, they always ended happily.
In between my regular jobs as legal assistant, mother of two kids, wife, cook, washer woman, chaperone, taxi driver, computer tech, and part-time creative designer for homework jobs and school projects, I write full length romance novels with strong heroines and fractured men who need a good woman to heal them."
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