Warrior's Moon by Lucy Monroe Page A

betrayals.
    “She loved us, but fate picked poorly in her true mate,” Thomas continued in a quiet voice as he directed the children’s play. “Our father is a hard man with no love in his heart for those he uses so cruelly.”
    “How did she die?”
    “Fever. She was pregnant again, but too old to carry mayhap. Anyway, she and the babe died. That was five years ago. Father took a fee from the Baron of Heronshire for us to come into his household as personal companion and servant to his lady wife.”
    “The ways of the English are beyond my ken,” Caelis said with disgust.
    “It was Shona’s father who instigated the transaction. As I said, he wanted us to be near if his grandson made the change.”
    “Eadan will,” Caelis and Talorc, laird of the Sinclairs, said in unison.
    The others had remained in the great hall, watching the children play, remaining quiet amongst themselves, though Caelis did not doubt Abigail and Talorc had conversed across their mate bond.
    Ciara nodded her agreement. “His wolf is already strong in him.”
    “Shona is still ignorant of the Chrechte’s existence,” Caelis observed.
    “She is.” Thomas didn’t sound happy about that. “There was no pack nearby, but our mother taught us that we could not share our secret unless there was dire need.”
    “Mating constitutes dire need, in case you are wondering,” Abigail said with more sting than she usually spoke, and a look of old censure at her husband.
    “Aye. Though how you could not realize she was your true mate when it is clear you shared in the physical bondsof love…” Talorc let the criticism trail off, but there was no doubting his disapproval.
    “My laird told me she wasn’t and I didn’t believe her when she told me she thought she was pregnant. I asked Uven and he said that it wasn’t possible. That Shona could not be my true mate; as my alpha, he would know if she was. I knew matings between humans and Chrechte were rare, but I had hoped so fervently. I was very angry I had to let her go; I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.”
    The admission was hard to make.
    Ciara frowned. “Unless he had the gift, an alpha has no more hope of divining one’s mate than any other member of the pack.”
    “I know that. Now.” It would have been a great benefit to have known this truth of their heritage six years ago.
    There were too many things Uven of the MacLeod had kept from his people in his quest to control the clan and the pack so completely.
    “You made one hell of a mistake,” Niall observed without rancor but without pity either.
    “I did.” But Shona would forgive him once she understood.
    His sweet mate’s forgiving nature was every bit as ingrained in her as her stubbornness.
    He turned his attention toward getting to know his children while the woman he and his wolf ached to claim slept upstairs.
    *   *   *
    S hona woke to the absolute dark of the wee hours on
a moonless night.
    It had been so long since she had slept well and deeply, comfortable in a bed she knew would not be disturbed.
    She wasn’t sure why she knew this bed was an absolutely safe one, but she did, in that place in her brain not too influenced by waking. So why the urge to get up?
    The next question her brain always conjured upon waking answered the first.
    The sensation of something not being
right
pushed her into full wakefulness when her body wanted to settle back into sleep.
    Where were her children? She remembered coming to the guest room in the Sinclair keep for a much-needed nap, but that had to have been hours ago.
    She must have slept through the evening meal, her children’s bedtime and into the night. Though Shona could not be sure of how late it was without seeing the stars position in the sky, how refreshed she felt indicated she’d slept away all of the afternoon and a good deal of the night.
    She reached out to feel around for the edge of the bed and realized two things at once. The first was that she was in