Charlotte Boyett-Compo- Wyndsheer (22 page)

Though the creature never showed itself to anyone except Jamie, and Baxter was perhaps the only other human who had seen its face and lived to tell the tale, it made its presence known to the villagers in ways that showed its intentions were to protect, not scare or intimidate. Yet still no one dared impinge on the beast’s territory beyond the cairn of stones.

No one save the man whose life Ad Fear Liath Mor had returned to him.

Jamie turned from his work and leaned back to look past Baxter. He put up a hand to acknowledge his mate, a killer smile taking over his sweaty face. “I think I’ll take a break,” he said.

“Yeah,” Baxter acknowledged.

Unbuckling his tool belt and dropping it by the opening where the front door would stand, Jamie reached into his back pocket and drew out a bandana to wipe his glistening face. He came over to the blanket and dropped down, taking the frosty glass of lemonade from Mairi’s hand.

“Gods, it’s hot,” he said before taking a large gulp of the tart liquid.

“You okay?” she asked, searching his face for any tell-tale sign of weakness.

“Never better,” he replied and rolled the glass over his hot face.

“You sure?”

He grinned. “Yes, Mommy. Jamie’s fine.” He tipped the glass up again and drained it, then set it aside and stretched out with his head in her lap. “I think we’ll be ready to move in by the end of next week.”

“No big hurry. I kind of like living over the general store,” she said.

Jamie reached up to tug playfully at a lock of her hair. “You make a damned fine shopkeeper, little lady,” he told her.

“Somebody’s gotta do it. And since Elspeth left her estate to you, it only seems fitting.” She shrugged. “And it gives me something to do.”

They tuned in to the lyrical music coming from the forest and Jamie closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of his mate’s hands smoothing the hair back from his forehead. He laid his own hands on his belly and laced the fingers.

“I think Bax is getting sweet on the Rawlston girl,” he said.

Mairi looked away from her handsome husband—the man she’d married three weeks earlier in a candlelight ceremony attended by every villager of Lamb’s Grove—and sought out Baxter. The man in question was hammering away.

“She would be perfect for him.”

“Uh huh,” her lover agreed.

Silent for a long while, Mairi realized Jamie had fallen asleep and she smiled. He was so content now, so happy with life that he felt comfortable enough—protected enough—to let down his guard among the villagers. There was no dark cloud hanging over him, no strangers lurking about trying to capture him. Along with her letter of resignation, he had sent a letter to Draeton, reminding them of the release he had been given long ago. No word had returned from the maximum security prison, but no news was good news she supposed. In the two months since the soldiers had vanished without a trace on the mountain highway, there had been no further excursions by the government.

“The Guardian will keep anyone bent on mischief away,” Jamie had told her. “It will never again allow soldiers to enter its territory.”

As her husband slept so soundly, so securely with his head in her lap, Mairi turned her head and looked into the portion of the forest from which the mystical music floated. Whatever and whoever the Guardian was, he--or
it
as Jamie continued to refer to the one who had saved his life--had her undying gratitude. When she had opened the door of the general store to the gentle knocking that night to find Jamie laying there, her heart had nearly stopped. She had thought him dead but he was merely unconscious, his breathing and heartbeat erratic but strong.

“He’s sustained what appears to be electric shock,” the Healer had explained, “but he’s doing well enough. We’ll have to wait until he wakes to see if there was any permanent damage.”

But Jamie had awakened with only a nasty headache and no other debilitating symptoms. The rugged, crippling pain in his back had disappeared as mysteriously as the soldiers and had yet to return. Other than an occasional twinge of pain in his right temple, he seemed fine. He would not tell her what had happened to him when he’d been taken, and she was beginning to think he really didn’t know. Perhaps--as she suspected was the case--the Guardian had wiped all knowledge of that time from her lover’s mind. She had stopped asking.

“Whatcha thinking?”

She looked down and into the beautiful eyes of her husband. “I wish he’d come down and be with us,” she said.

“Won’t happen,” Jamie said. “It’s content with things just as they are.”

“Is he that gruesome to the eye?” she asked.

“Well, let’s say it wouldn’t win any beauty contests and let it go at that,” he answered and sat up. “Any more lemonade? Your man is thirsty and he needs to get his ass back to work.”

“I think they’re about ready to call everyone to lunch,” she told him. “I don’t want you to spoil your appetite.”

“Won’t happen, either,” he responded. “I’m a bottomless pit.”

“In more ways than one,” she mumbled and met his eye. She laughed when he wagged his eyebrows at her.

Things had changed so drastically for this man, she thought, as he guzzled down another glass of lemonade. He smiled readily, laughed often, and had begun to tease her unmercifully when they were alone--and sometimes in front of Baxter. He slept better at night and woke cheerful each morning. The heavy rock of dread and anticipation had slipped from his shoulders and the chip that had been resting there had been chiseled away.

Her gaze locked on the rhythmic movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed--his head tipped back, long fingers gripping the glass-and she watched a single drop of sweat roll down his neck and into the crisp hairs on his chest. Unconsciously she licked her lips, wanting to taste that little drop with the tip of her tongue.

“Woman, you are broadcasting your thoughts again,” he said with a growl. “Stop that.”

She looked up into his pale green eyes to see them smoldering and smiled slowly. “You’re not the only one who has a healthy appetite, Wolfman.”

He swiveled his head, apparently looking to see who might be watching them as he reached for her hand. Springing easily to his feet, he tugged at her arm until she was standing beside him. “Let’s see if you have any of that in stock, then,” he said loud enough for curious ears to hear.

“Jamie!” she hissed at him. “What are …?”

He pulled her along behind him. “I’ll bet there’s some in the storeroom.”

Mairi lowered her face so no one would see her blush and clenched her teeth to keep from laughing. Her lover was escorting her down to the village and it was more than obvious what his intentions were. She swept surreptitious glances at those they passed but no one seemed unduly inquisitive. No one was staring pointedly at them or grinning knowingly.

“You are awful,” she whispered to him.

“I am horny,” he replied in an equally low voice. “I wasn’t until you issued your challenge.”

“What challenge?” she asked.

“Sitting there smacking your lips while mentally stripping the pants off me,” he told her and his fingers tightened on hers. “You are shameless.”

It was another sign of the peacefulness that had finally come to this man, had entered his lonely life to fill his soul, and she reveled in knowing she had helped bring that serenity to him.

“He’s a terrible, wicked Highlander,” a voice spoke from the forest and Mairi swung her head that way, but knew she’d never see the Guardian.

“Mind your own business, Coim,” Jamie responded.

Mairi pivoted her head around to keep looking behind her at the spot from where the voice had come. All she could see was a large dark shape and when she heard laughter, knew Ad Fear Liath Mor was enjoying itself.

“Does he have a mate?” she asked.

Jamie looked down at her. “I wouldn’t think so.”

“Don’t you think he’s lonely, then?” she asked.

He pulled her close to him. “Not all men need a woman in their lives. Some prefer not to.”

“I doubt he’s one of them,” she said. “He deserves to be happy.”

“Do not worry about me, bantling. I have a fine female,” came the proud statement.

Jamie stopped and his head snapped around in surprise. “You do?”

Laughter came from the forest, fading away as the Guardian moved off. “You don’t know everything, Wolf!”

“Son of a bitch,” Jamie stated. “He’s got a mate.”

“And maybe little Guardians as well?” The whisper was filled with amusement.

A shudder rippled through Jamie at that thought but he continued walking, his brow furrowed. It had never occurred to him that Ad Fear Liath Mor was not alone in this world. Just knowing there were others of its kind was a bit unsettling.

“Where do you think the other Lycants are?” she asked.

“Scattered to the Four Winds, I would imagine,” he replied.

“Is it possible for you to contact them with your psychic power?”

He stopped once more and turned his full attention on her, scowling down at her. “Why?”

She shrugged. “They have to be lonely, unhappy men. Don’t you think they’ve been shunned by society because of what they are?” she queried. “Not truly human and more animal than man when the moon is full. They would have a hard row to hoe out there.”

“And this should concern me because?” he inquired with an arched brow.

She leaned into him. “Because you are happy and content and at peace and should want your brothers to be the same.”

“Brothers?” He shook his head. “I don’t have any brothers. There weren’t litters of us, for the gods’ sakes!”

“You know what I mean,” she said.

He narrowed his eyes. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“The people of Lamb’s Grove accepted you and...."

"Because I left them the hell alone," he interrupted. “They tolerated me.”

“They accepted you and you know it,” she stated. “You are one of them.”

Annoyed with this turn in the conversation, he slipped lightly into her mind and when he read her intent there, he blinked, his lips parting in shock. “You want to bring them here to the mountains?”

“There can’t be that many of them left, Jamie,” she reminded him. “Less than a handful that I remember hearing about. What would that be, four, five? If you’re worried about them behaving, as a full-blood you would be the alpha male among them and they would be under your authority.”

“I don’t want anyone or anything under my authority, woman!” he snapped but it wasn’t out of anger. He was feeling guilt and that surprised him.

“They could live up where your lair was and be among people who won’t shun them.”

“How do you know the villagers wouldn’t shun them?” he asked.

“I’ve asked,” she said, stunning him. “No one would turn them away. They all think the Lycants got a bum deal after the war.” She stroked his arm. “They didn’t ask to be made.”

“They are warriors, Mairi,” he protested. “They are killers! Maybe not trained assassins like me, but they have killed humans.”

“So did you.”

He let go of her hand to run his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know, Mairi.”

“Can you contact them?” she asked.

“Probably.”

“Will you contact them?”

He didn’t answer. He began walking again, his hands now thrust into the pockets of his jeans. His head was down and from the way his eyes tracked back and forth, it was obvious he was turning the matter over in his mind.

“They would never have killed a human without provocation,” he told her. “Or without being ordered to do so. It’s not like I’d have to worry about them going rogue and taking out a family.”

She fell into step beside him, her hands clutched behind her, keeping her counsel, letting him reason things out on his own.

“They are most likely in rural areas where they can keep to themselves and not be attacked by some hate group.” He sighed. “That would be a very lonesome existence.”

“Yes, it was,” she agreed quietly.

They continued on until they were only a few yards from the general store. When he stopped, he stood staring at the scaffolding that he had not allowed to be torn down. It was his memorial to Elspeth and even though the villagers had erected a stone slab in the Lamb’s Grove cemetery, the old woman’s body was not there. Though his woman had argued against leaving the ghastly thing standing, the Lycant would not agree to its removal. He stared silently at the wooden framework for a long time, then away.

“That needs to come down, I think,” he said.

She made no comment to his words, but slipped her arm through his and laid her head on his broad shoulder.

“Aye,” he said. “It’s time it came down.”

Yet still he made no move toward the general store. His head came up and his gaze went to the mountain ridge above the village.

“They would be with one another up there and at least have someone to talk to,” he said.

“And maybe find a mate among the single women of Lamb’s Grove?” she asked.

He nodded. “Maybe.” He looked at her. “Have you asked about that, too, while you’ve been selling hoop cheese and pop?”

She grinned. “There were a few single women who had their caps set for you but you never paid them any mind,” she said, further surprising him.

His eyebrows shot up and he grinned like a little boy. “There were women interested in me? Who knew?”

“Aye, Wolfman, but you’re taken, so unless you want to be a castrated wolfie, you’d best forget I even told you,” she said sternly.

His grin widened and he swooped her up in his arms and swung her around. “Mairi is jealous,” he sang as though he were a precocious child. “Mairi is jealous!”

“Shush!” she hissed at him though she doubted there was anyone about to hear them. Most everyone was up at the building site.

He carried her to the door of the general store and had to bend his knees so she could insert the key into the lock to open the door. When it swung back, he carried her through and kicked it shut. He headed for the back of the store and the stairs that led up to the apartment above.

“I need to lock the door!” she protested but he ignored her.

He took the stairs two at a time as though she weighed no more than a feather in his arms. Carrying her into their bedroom--what had been Elspeth’s spare room, for out of respect he refused to sleep where the old woman had laid her head--he laid his woman on the thick chenille spread and straightened up, looking down at her with such a tender expression, it made Mairi’s heart ache.