Highland Shifter (MacCoinnich Time Travel) by Catherine Bybee

landscape sped past the open windows on the car. Everything looked bigger. Busier. People drove with cell phones to their ears completely disregarding everyone around them.
    Anxiety prickled his skin when he and Helen walked through a department store to purchase a few things. People stared. As men eyed the woman at his side, Simon inched closer to make certain the men doing the staring knew she and Simon were together.
    Simon wasn’t the scrawny preteen boy he’d been in this century. Scotland and the MacCoinnich family had made him into the man he was now. This century would never have grown him as big. He knew the power of his body, of his mind. He took comfort in his Druid gifts. They were always there, even when he wasn’t using them. He may not have his broadsword strapped to his hip, but he could protect Helen.
    Protect.
    That single word ripped through his mind when he witnessed her standing before his family’s enemies with only a dagger to protect herself. When the energy of a time traveling vortex began engulfing her, Simon didn’t hesitate and jumped in.
    The Ancients had their way of placing the people in his family directly in harm ’s way, but always for the greater good.
    Helen Adams needed his protection and he was honor-bound to deliver it.
    The task wasn’t difficult when his charge was as stunning as she was. Simon caught her staring at him several times. He’d catch a surge of desire bouncing off the lass, but she’d pull it back nearly as soon as she released it. Why?
    Why did she deny her obvious attraction?
    “You’re staring at me.”
    He turned his torso toward her and continued his perusal.
    Her hand twitched on the steering wheel.
    “Didn ’t your mother tell you it was impolite to stare?” Her cheeks started to grow a rosy color.
    “Aye.”
    “Then why are you doing it?”
    “You ’re a bonny lass.”
    Her cheeks were full red now.
    She opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it. Her lips turned down and her jaw tightened.
    “ ‘Twas a compliment. Meant to bring a smile to your lips, not a frown.”
    “You ’re flirting with me.” She sounded surprised.
    “I am.”
    Helen took her eyes from the road and shot a dagger from her eyes.
    “The problem with that is?”
    “Won’t your wife have an issue with it?”
    “My wife?” he laughed. “Did I marry when I wasn ’t looking?”
    Helen ’s knuckles turned white on the wheel, her gaze moved to the road. Now the blush had returned but it was marred with embarrassment.
    “I-I assumed when you talked about getting back to your family…I thought….”
    Simon leaned forward and placed a hand over hers. The spark he’d felt the first time they’d touched, rekindled, leapt, and ignited with the contact. Helen jumped, assuring him she’d felt the same ember. Perhaps the Ancients were bestowing Helen upon him and there wasn’t evil lurking.
    “I ’m not married, love. Far from it.”
    “Oh.”
    “The family I talk about is the clan MacCoinnich. My mother’s husband, my father by choice, is from a large family. All of us live in MacCoinnich Keep. We live, laugh, fight, and love each other.”
    “All of you live in the same house?”
    He laughed again. “We call it a Keep. ’Tis the size of a castle.”
    “Oh.”
    Helen held her questions as they drove the rest of the way in silence.
    Mrs. Dawson ’s modest home was behind gates and in a more remote part of the county. Helen announced herself to whoever answered the call and the gates opened.
    “How do you know Mrs. Dawson?”
    “Her husband was a collector of antiques. She’d commissioned us to sell a few things over the years. She and I hit it off.”
    Helen parked the car, and the two of them walked the short path to the front door.
    Mrs. Dawson greeted them herself. The older woman had to be in her eighties. The cane in her hand helped her stand to a maximum height of maybe five-foot-three. A pair of kind eyes sparkled when they landed on