Moon Burning (32 page)

“You’ll protect me.”

He thought he was teasing her, but he did not know how true those words had to be.

Of all the Éan, she was the only one who
could
. It was still a risk.

“I
am
going.” There was no room for argument in his tone.

She could not agree, but she would not deny him either. “I have much to tell you.”

“Finally.”

“Do not betray my trust.”

“You are my mate, a gift
I
will never dismiss.”

Oh, he was just piling on the guilt and he looked like he knew it. “I’m sorry.”

“For what exactly? Believing I have so little value you could just leave me? Mistrusting me? Refusing to accept my wolf? Threatening to take my child?”

B
arr almost felt badly for the way his mate’s face drained of color and the utter shock that shone in her eyes, nearly swallowing the brown with the black of her pupils. But it was past time she came to terms with what being his mate meant. All of it.

Her inability to accept his wolf had caused all of this. While he might understand her difficulty, he was not the Faol that had killed her parents or any other Éan for that matter.

He was her true mate, the one male alive who could match her and protect her, and she should damn well realize that.

“I’m . . . You think I’m . . .”

“With child? Aye. My babe grows inside you.” How she would react if that baby was born Faol and not human or Éan, he did not want to consider.

Her own deeply ingrained and formerly justified prejudices would have to be conquered by then. He refused to consider any other alternative.

“But I . . . My menses . . .”

He’d never seen her at a loss for words. It would be adorable, if it wasn’t due to her upset over carrying his child.

“I am Faol, not Éan, but we have our gifts as well. Your scent has changed.”

“No . . . It’s not . . .”

“Aye. I noted it immediately.” Niall’s claim had her spinning to face Barr’s brother.

“How could you tell the change in my scent? You’d never met me before.”

“My brother’s scent is mixed with yours.”

“I thought you meant you could smell his scent on me.”

“You carry his babe and by your scent it is wolf.”

Barr had suspected, but his own feelings were too involved for him to claim certainty.

“You can’t know that.” She stumbled back, away from him . . . away from the news his brother had imparted. “The Faol’s change does not happen until they are on the cusp of adulthood.”

It was all Barr could do to stop himself from grabbing her and pulling her back to him. He had had his fill of his mate moving away from him, threatening to leave him and rejecting the very essence of his nature.

Niall shrugged. “Barr and I have always been able to tell things from scent that others could not.”

Sabrine turned back to face Barr, her expression almost accusing. “When did you realize?”

“Three days past.”

“And you said nothing.”

He clamped his jaw, refusing to speak.

“Perhaps he wanted you to decide to stay without the knowledge you were pregnant with his child,” Verica said softly, now wrapped safely in Earc’s arms.

Barr scowled at her. She could keep her observations to herself.

But Sabrine’s eyes had widened with understanding. “I’m sorry,” she said again.

This time, he chose simply to nod an acknowledgment of her apology. It made no difference what prompted her regret.

She had promised to come back and he trusted her word. So, she had made her choice to stay without knowing she carried his child.

“I did not want to leave you.”

“You were set to betray my brother and your mating bond. No Chrechte should be so callous to the gifts our natures bestow upon us.” Niall’s tone left little doubt that he was still angry over the insult Sabrine had dealt Barr.

Meeting his brother’s eyes, Sabrine swallowed and nodded. “You are right.”

“So, you are finished dismissing our mating as if it is of no account?” Barr pressed.

Sabrine’s eyes filled with hurt. “I said I would come back.”

So, she did not like having her word doubted. No more did he.

And he was not about to let her leave the clan without him. He would not have done so before she became pregnant, but now there was no chance.

Surely she was wise enough to realize that.

“I have your child in my womb? Truly?” The look of wonder in her gaze went far toward appeasing his anger.

“Aye.” He frowned, unwilling to trust her apparent happiness considering her revulsion toward his wolf. “Do not discount my brother’s words. It is likely our child will be Faol.”

“And it will grow up believing no Chrechte an abomination.” The smile that broke over her face was like the sun coming out after a storm.

It lit the room around them and made him ache to make love to her, but the time for revelations had come.

This time hers.

“You said you had much to tell me.”

She nodded, her delight dimming. “I do.”

“Then we should retire to my bedchamber.”

“Verica and Circin deserve to know more about their people.”

Shock went through him with lightning-bolt intensity.

But it was Earc who demanded of his mate, “Circin has a dual Chrechte nature as well?”

The look of chagrin that passed over Sabrine’s features left no doubt she hadn’t meant to reveal another’s secrets.

Verica sighed and looked up at her mate. “I should have told you.”

“But it is no easy thing to trust another with the secrets you do not consider yours alone, is it?” Sabrine asked. “I am sorry I revealed Circin’s.”

Verica shook her head. “No. It is all right. I trust those in this room, if for no other reason than my sacred bonded does.”

The underlying message of Verica’s words was not lost on Sabrine, who cast a sidelong glance at Barr with a disgruntled frown.

He gave her a look that demanded she answer the implications of the healer’s statement. He took nothing for granted with his mate.

Sabrine took a deep breath and then turned to look at him and only him again. “I trust you and therefore, I trust those you hold in high esteem.”

He could see how hard the words had been to utter and once again, the urge to join with her nearly overwhelmed him. She was finally truly his.

“Good.”

She frowned, but her brown eyes twinkled with something other than annoyance. “You are arrogant.”

“You have noticed this before.”

“Sometimes it is more glaringly obvious than others.”

“It’s a family trait,” Guaire said, with full-out laughter in his voice.

Niall growled, but his mated didn’t so much as blink at the implied threat. He just gave Niall a smile that had Barr’s fierce brother melting like the mist in the sun. Niall pulled Guaire into his arms and kissed him quite thoroughly before letting the redhead settle with his back to him. After all the years Niall had spent lonely and pining for a mate he thought feared him, Barr would never grow tired of seeing the evidence of his brother’s new happiness. The look of contentment on the scarred face squeezed his own heart, though he would never admit it aloud.

You are happy for your brother.
Sabrine’s voice was soft with indulgence inside his head.

I have never seen warriors so at peace.
Her voice held puzzlement and a longing he did not understand.

She could be that at peace with him. Did she not realize this?

A sense of surprise pulsed between them.

He almost laughed out loud.
You are every bit as confident a warrior as me.

“As charming as Verica and Earc’s chamber is, perhaps these revelations could be made in a spot more comfortable,” Guaire said with a smile for Verica, interrupting Barr and Sabrine’s quick mental exchange.

Barr had no doubt his brother’s mate had known exactly what he was interrupting. The seneschal of his former laird was a highly intelligent man, if only a marginal warrior. Earc bristled and once again Barr nearly laughed; Guaire’s charm had only grown with his confidence after mating with Niall. While Talorc showed no jealousy of the man’s deep friendship with his mate and wife, other warriors were not so tolerant.

Turning toward the door, Barr said, “We will meet in the hall.”

“What if Padraig or Father Thomas return from their calls on the clanspeople?” Verica asked.

“They are visiting the clansmen that live on the edges of the holding,” Barr threw over his shoulder. “They will not return for a sennight at the soonest.”

He had been concerned about the priest and Padraig traveling without escort, so he had sent two of the better-trained soldiers with the two men.

“Aodh is marking inventory in the mead and ale stores,” Guaire added helpfully. “And his wife is overseeing preparations for the latemeal in the kitchens.”

Earc fetched Circin and they all met in the hall around the table they shared during meals. Sabrine began by telling them about the Éan of the forest. Circin’s eyes grew round as he realized not only did the others at the table know about his dual nature but that other ravens existed.

He asked question after question, all of which Sabrine answered with patience and a new openness that pleased Barr.

Barr’s awe grew as his mate explained about the life of the Éan in the forest. The bird shifters continued to follow the ancient Chrechte ways and yet, somehow humans found their way into the village. As mates, as friends, as advisors.

“You don’t allow them to leave if they stumble on your village?” Circin asked in stupefied curiosity.

“Our lands are far from any of the clans. Those who find us are seeking a legend. If they find it, they must forfeit their old lives.”

“Or what?” Verica asked.

Sabrine gave Verica a look of stoic pragmatism. “You know Chrechte law for revealing our secrets.”

“You kill them?” Verica’s eyes widened. “But what if they promise not to tell?”

“We have not had to enforce the law in the last fifty years,” Sabrine said.

Barr noted it was not an answer to Verica’s question, but a sidestep. His mate was good at that particular tactic and seeing her use it on someone else increased his admiration, rather than his annoyance, as when she used it with him.

Looking unconvinced, Guaire asked, “No human has found the Éan in that time?”

“None have attempted to leave after doing so,” Sabrine replied grimly.

Guaire nodded his understanding and Niall nodded his approval. The consequences might be harsh, but Barr too understood and approved the upholding of the ancient law.

There had been a time when the Faol lived separately from the humans as well, before MacAlpin’s betrayal, when the law was enforced even more strictly among them. It was still punishable by death to reveal the secrets of the Faol to those who would do them harm.

“Is that part of your responsibilities as a warrior?” Verica pressed Sabrine. “To kill those who break the ancient laws?”

For the first time, Sabrine’s emotionless countenance cracked and unhappiness showed through. “Ravens are not predators like the wolves. Killing in anything but defense is almost impossible for our natures to tolerate.”

She sounded like she thought that was a failing. Barr reached out to her through their mating bond with his best attempt at soothing.
This is not a weakness in you,
he said, hearing the growl of his wolf in agreement.

He was a warrior, not a nursemaid, after all.

She looked at him, her eyes filled with gratitude. He met her gaze, his own going heated. Her pupils dilated and the sense of sadness dissipated.

“Then how do you enforce the law?” Circin asked, breaking the connection.

Sabrine jerked and then appeared to give herself a mental shake.

Barr liked having such an effect on her.

She drew in a breath and let it out. He could feel her indecision before speaking. “Death sentences are carried out by the eagles. They have the predator nature of the Faol, but their numbers are small. It is why we have so little success in our war with the wolves.”

Barr understood the frustration in his mate’s tone. “Because you can never go on the offensive.”

Sabrine nodded, the cost that limit to their nature had on her, and the other ravens, in her haunted eyes.

“Are there other Faol, besides those in this clan, that hunt the Éan?” Verica asked, sounding worried.