STAG: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 7) (93 page)

Chapter 6

As the day wore on, the tensions around the castle continued to grow into a nearly palpable density. Everyone was making preparations for the English, who were marching for the field near Stirling…everyone but Matthew and Lily, that was. Marion’s husband, David, had already left for Stirling to let the king know how many men to expect from the Castle Culcreuch, and the rest of the Clan Galbraith were ready to leave by early that afternoon. Matthew and Lily both mounted the horses they had prepared for the fifteen mile ride, and left for the battle that had started earlier that day.

When they arrived, that day’s fighting had ended, but the English (knowing the importance of Stirling’s royal castle) had not withdrawn, but chose to regroup rather than abandon the castle. The next day, Matthew took up his customary position at King Robert’s right hand, and Lily took a position with the Scottish corps of archers. Within an hour, the English army had massed on the far side of the field at Bannockburn, just outside of the village of Stirling, and proceeded to march on the Scottish positions.

“Ho’, men!” King Robert called out over the ranks of his soldiers. From her position, Lily was able to easily make out the tall, imposing figure of Matthew directly next to the King. The Bruce leaned toward him, and Matthew raised his hand, the signal for the archers to load their bows, so Lily followed suit along with the other archers in the Scottish ranks, taking aim in the direction of the English infantry that were advancing
en masse
across the field. When Matthew’s hand dropped, the archers all let their arrows fly, immediately cutting down most of the first line of English attackers.

Next, Matthew (at the King’s direction) lifted his massive claymore sword in the air with his right arm, and Scottish infantry fell into ranks like a well-oiled machine. When he dropped his sword, the men began to advance across the field toward the English in uniform, disciplined ranks. In the meantime, the Scots archers were commanded to fire upon the English infantry fifteen times more before the two armies met in the center of the field, substantially thinning the ranks of the well-disciplined English soldiers.

The carnage of war, however, began as soon as the two armies met in the center of the field. The Scots were able to fight without fear of the English cavalry, which had been effectively wiped out the day before. Before long, however, the drastically outnumbered Scots began to fall back in the face of the English horde, even unto the crest of the small hill where Robert, Matthew, and some others sat on the backs of their horses.

Then, from out of nowhere, an arrow (which could have come from either side) struck Robert’s horse in the eye, killing the beast instantly and pinning the King beneath his mass. Lily could see Matthew frantically attempting to dislodge his King, but having little success.

“Matthew! Watch out!” Lily screamed as the blade of an English sword was raised beside him, poised to sever his head. Lily watched in horror as Matthew turned from the defenseless king to his assailant, and engaged him in swordplay. While his chief bodyguard was busy in this fisticuffs, King Robert was left completely defenseless. Lily broke ranks with the other archers without thinking, and proceeded to run to his aid.

When she was only fifteen paces from the imperiled king, an English officer poised himself to run him through with the sword. Reflexively, Lily loaded her weapon, and the infantry officer met his end before he had the opportunity to smite the King…she had saved him.

At that moment, Matthew was successful in removing the head of his attacker, and the Scottish forces, seeing their King restored to the saddle of a horse, took heart and fought like wild men, smiting every Englishman within reach and forcing the forces of King Edward of England to fall back. Thanks to Lily, the day had been won, and King Robert’s throne was secure.

“Robert would go down in history as the man who unified Scotland, and legends would grow about him that only one person on that field knew—Lily. Lily, the one whose arrow had ensured that he would survive the day, had ensured that the legend would grow.”

Chapter 7

“And then what happened?” Rose asked a few three quarters of a century later.

“Matthew came over to me, and kissed me, thanking me for saving the King,” Lily answered simply.

“Wow…” Rose exclaimed softly.

“What?” Lily asked.

“You know that by doing that, you basically saved the U.S., right?”

“What?”

“Yeah…I don’t know if you remember or not, but King James the First of England—

“The guy with the Bible?”

“Yeah. Well, before he became King of England, he was known as King James VI of Scotland…he became King of England when Queen Elizabeth died.”

“Okay, so?”

“He was a grandson of some kind of Robert the Bruce’s.”

“I never thought of that,” Lily answered.

And she hadn’t. After Matthew had kissed her in the midst of the victorious Scotsmen who had officially earned their independence from England, too much had happened between Lily and Matthew that the implications of her arrow had not fully registered to Lily.

Together, they had ridden back to Culcreuch to much fanfare. The entirety of the Clan Galbraith celebrated the exploits of Matthew and the strange woman at a feast held in the dining hall of the Culcreuch Castle. A few days later, and edict came from King Robert, granting ownership of a large tract of land in the area of Stirling Castle, the title of Baron, and the right to include the motto “Friend of the King” on his personal coat of arms from then on.

Matthew had asked Lily if she would accompany him to his new home…and she had agreed. The tension between them was palpable when they had first arrived, and finally, Lily had had enough of waiting for the erstwhile gentleman to make a move, and like the 21
st
century woman that she was, she made a move for him.

“Matthew…what do you want from our relationship?”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you want to see happen between us?”

“I—I don’t know what to say, Lily,” he answered.

“Well, if you don’t know what you want, there is no way that I can know. You need to know this, however: I have a life in my own time, and I will go back to it…unless I have a damn good reason to stay here.”

Matthew considered this for a minute, and finally asked, “What would be a good reason?”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to go.”

“Well, if you don’t want me to go, then why do you want me to stay?”

“Because in the last few weeks, I have fallen in love with you.”

“
That
is a damn good reason, Matthew,” Lily said, wrapping her arms around his neck, and pulling him in for a long kiss. At first, Matthew seemed unsure of himself, until Lily pushed him into one of the empty chairs, and began removing her clothes in front of him. When she stood there, wearing nothing but her undergarments, she turned to him and said, “Aren’t you going to take yours off?”

Matthew, finally realizing what Lily was saying, hastily began to remove his clothes as well. When he was completely naked, she instructed him to sit back down in one of the chairs. When he was seated comfortably on one of the velveteen chairs, she kneeled before him, lightly touching the tip of his lance with her tongue. When he let out a low moan that only Lily could hear, she giggled naughtily, making it plain that there was definitely more where that came from.

She continued this for a few minutes, waiting for Matthew to nearly burst from longing, and only then did she take him into her mouth. Slowly, with painstaking precision, she used her tongue to wet every inch if his large member. All the while, however, she was becoming more and more hungry as well, and after licking and sucking on his potency for a few minutes, she finally stopped and stood back up.

“Why did you stop?” Matthew asked in a voice that was pleading with her to resume.

“You’ll see,” she said, grinning mischievously. Slowly, so as to continue the process for as long as possible, Lily removed the last vestiges of clothing that hugged the firm curves of her body before finally standing completely naked before her lover. “Do you like what you see?” she asked in her most seductive voice.

“V—very much so,” Matthew answered, breathing in deeply the scent of her arousal which hung potent on the air. Lily turned around, exposing her rear to him, and sat, slowly taking in the inches of his dagger into her wet, quivering sheath. Her folds expanded and stretched as she learned to accommodate him, and when comfortable, she began to grind on him, slowly taking him in and out of her and relishing every amazing second of it.

Thanks to the large size of Matthew’s organ, it did not take long for Lily to feel the powerful waves of ecstasy that accompany a coming orgasm, and so she began to move faster, slamming Matthew into herself repeatedly.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed, her eyes rolling in her head, “that feels so good!”

Matthew must have liked her vocal nature while in the throes of passion, because even through the clenching of the walls of her hollow, she could feel him stiffening as she rode and grinded on him. Finally, together, the two lovers both achieved release and collapsed on the chair, with Matthew holding her while they both fell into sleep.

***

“So…you slept with him?” Rose asked.

“Yes, of course!” Lily answered. “And we are going to get married!”

“How long do you think you were gone?” Rose asked.

“About five months…why?”

“Because in my time, you’ve only been gone for a week.”

“Wait, what?” Lily asked.

“Yeah, you weren’t even scheduled to be home until next week.”

“So you mean that I can use this necklace to stay there for a year if I want to, and still come back here every week?”

“Yeah, I would think so!” Rose answered. “Why?”

“Just because I’m living full time in 14
th
-century Scotland doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you, ho,” Lily answered. “I could come here and stay for a month, and the necklace could take me back so that I would only be gone from then for about five minutes if I want.”

“Seems like it!” Rose answered. “What’s your point?”

“My biggest fear about living in the past is that I have been worried about how hard it would be to keep in contact with you.”

“Well, with this necklace, you can come see me any time,” Rose said with a genuine smile.

“That’s great! Oh, I love this necklace!”

“Well, you may have control over time and space, but I have to get to work,” Rose said.

“Okay!” Lily said, standing to hug her friend. “When do you want me to come see you again?”

“I think once a week will be nice, so when you get a chance or just want to get away for a bit, come visit!” Rose answered, before turning to walk to her car.

The two women waved at each other, and Rose drove away. Lily, on the other hand, found a secluded spot, and whispered the words
tempus imperium
while grasping the necklace that she still had not taken off. When the gateway appeared before her, Lily stepped through it: back to both her past and present…to her one love.

Together, she and Matthew grew to an old age and had eleven children, the oldest of which was a girl. When Lily reached an old age and was ready to die, she gave her 14
th
-century daughter the necklace and started the legend of the necklace, thus continuing the loop.

THE END

Samantha Leal

Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Thank you so much for your interest in my work!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

PROLOGUE

2012

Lisa Fuller jogged, her strides lengthening along the path in time to the music blaring over her earphones. She had decided to take the scenic route today, jogging down the forest path that was least popular among most joggers in Fidelity, Philadelphia.

It was quite early in the morning and the air was dewy, fresh, and invigorating. The smell of fresh pines tantalized her nostrils and she inhaled deeply as her feet pounded along the path. Her red hair was done up in a simple bun atop her head and she was clad in a skin-fitting exercise outfit that accentuated the generous curves of her waist and hips.

A noise like thunder rumbled overhead and she almost lost her footing as she looked around in amazement. It was still a bit too dark to tell but the skies didn’t seem to be cloudy. With a shrug, she resumed her jogging, humming in time to the music as a slight wind began to rustle the leaves of the trees lining the forest path. Lisa picked up her pace a little, almost running now.

She had gone almost a half mile along the forest path when she suddenly got the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Her eyes widened with irrepressible panic as she scanned the tall pine trees on either side of the path, extending in every direction as far as the eye could see. She saw no one. Fear coursed through her veins and almost automatically she started running, her breath burning in her lungs as she ran faster than she had ever run before.

Then she saw him. A huge, brown, absolutely beautiful, and deadly, bear with chestnut brown fur with flecks of gold. Its teeth were bared as it raced towards her. She almost froze in her terror. She couldn’t remember … are you supposed to freeze when you see a bear, or play dead, or run? While she tried to figure it out, he kept coming right at her in long lopping strides.

Raw fear clotted her blood in her veins and adrenaline burst through her in a rush as her terror took over and she faced forward and chose the “run away” option. He caught up to her effortlessly, his large paws closing about her waist as he lifted her in his great big paws and roared loud enough to wake the dead. She didn’t have to speak bear to recognize a roar of triumph when she heard it. His scent assailed her nostrils, surprisingly clean and nice. There was something strange about this bear. Why wasn’t she dead already? Her eyes fastened in fascinated horror on the pink inside of his mouth as he roared anew. The sound so loud she was almost afraid it would break her ear drums. Goosebumps erupted all over her hands and sweat poured down her body in rivulets. His paw encircled her entire waist effortlessly as he held her closer to his face and studied her.

Then things got even stranger as some deep survival instinct took over. This was a wild animal, but there was something different about it. There was an intelligence behind its eyes. Rather than scream she chose to speak.

“Please, please,” she panted, barely breathing through her fear. “Please don’t. I have little kids depending on me! Please don’t kill me!”

She was talking to a bear, her subconscious screamed. But even knowing that it couldn’t understand a word of what she was saying – or at least shouldn’t be able to, didn’t deter her as she continued to cry and plead for her life. Every nerve in Lisa’s body strained to breaking point as the beast kept her on level with its shiny white teeth, the size of small tusks.

Lisa struggled weakly in its arms, tears coursing down her cheeks as the animal stopped roaring long enough to look right at her out of strangely beautiful grey eyes flecked with bits of golden color. The animal seemed to freeze as it looked into her clear turquoise eyes. It blinked its great big eyes as though in confusion and Lisa wished desperately that she had a gun or tranquilizer.

The bear shook her slightly staring at her as though in wonder and she screamed anew. Then it extended one paw an
d
unbelievabl
y
stroked her cheek gently. Lisa’s eyes widened in terror; was that the signal to begin eating her?

The beast made a low sound deep in its throat, its pale gaze fastened on hers. They stared at each other for a while and then with a grunt, it gently, almost reverently, with a deftness she did not think a bear could possess, placed her on her feet back onto the ground.

Lisa stared up at the immense bear, almost afraid to believe this was happening. The beast, as though understanding her disbelief, poked her slightly with one claw on its paw. She jerked backwards, almost falling over. Then with one last glance back at it, she turned and began to run, expecting every second to hear its feet thundering after her and the large furry paws closing around her neck again.

But with every step that took her farther away, the bear just stood watching her, an almost wistful expression on its face.

It let her go.

She ran for all she was worth, gasping as she stumbled and fell. Her alarmed gaze flew over her shoulder again and then widened in disbelief; the bear was gone! In its place, she saw a naked man walking away.

He turned for one last glance over his shoulder, the distance masking his features, and then he himself disappear. She fainted on the spot in mid-stride.