Page 41

CHAPTER 40

“W ait for me!” Tadgh yelled excitedly, grabbing the wobbly stick that he’d found just that morning and had decided would be his spear.

“Go on back to Ma, lad,” Liam said, barely sparing him a glance as he gestured for him to do as he was told.

Undeterred, he pumped his legs faster until he thought they’d fall off, but he didn’t let that stop him. He was ready to fight with his brothers and he needed to tell them so.

“Pleeeaaassssssseeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Tadgh begged as he dropped his mighty spear and dove for his oldest brother’s legs when he was close enough.

As soon as he had his small arms wrapped around Liam’s thick leg, he promptly followed up his attack by wrapping his legs around his brother’s calf and held on tightly, prepared to hold his brother captive forever if that’s what it took.

He really hoped that it didn’t come down to that because his doggie was expecting puppies any day now and he really wanted to play with them. That would be impossible to do if he had to keep doing this, but he would do it if that’s what it took. He was a man now and it was about time that his brothers realized that.

Instead of yelling at him or hitting him like most of the men around their land would have done, Liam sighed heavily as he reached down and gently grabbed him by the arms and plucked him off. Tadgh tried to hold on tightly, but being only three winters, it was kind of difficult to put up much of a fight against his brother, who was already bigger than most of the men in their village.

“Didn’t we talk about this, lad?” Liam asked as he shifted Tadgh in his arms.

“Aye, but that was before,” Tadgh informed him.

“Before what, lad?” Finn asked as he reached over and ruffled Tadgh’s hair.

“Before I found my spear!”

“I see,” Liam murmured as his lips twitched.

“Ye mean this stick?” Quinn asked, stepping around them so that he could show Liam his spear.

“That’s it!” Tadgh said proudly as Liam reached over and took the stick from Quinn.

Liam pressed a kiss against his brow before he set him down on his feet and handed him back his spear. “What’s this about, lad?” Liam asked as he took a knee in front of him.

“I wanna go with ye and fight,” Tadgh said, not quite able to meet his brother’s eyes as he lied.

“Ye hate fighting,” Liam pointed out as he patiently waited for Tadgh to tell him the truth.

“That’s not true,” Tadgh mumbled as he looked up and met his brother’s gaze. “I like fighting. It’s fun, but I don’t like hurting anyone.”

“Aye.” Liam nodded in agreement because he understood how he felt. “And ye know that where we’re going that we might have to hurt someone so I don’t think that’s the real reason that ye want to go.”

Tadgh shrugged his tiny shoulders. “It’s not.”

“Then, what’s the reason?”

Tadgh felt his chin quiver and tried to stop it before it gave him away, but he couldn’t. “I’m going to miss ye,” he shamefully admitted as he hurried to wipe away the tears on the back of his dirty arm before his brothers could see them.

With a kind smile, Liam gently wiped away his tears. “And we’ll miss ye, lad, but we have to go.”

“Do ye promise to come back for me?”

“Always, lad, always.”

* * *

“Ye shouldn’t have talked back to me Da,” Macha said in way of greeting as she finished crawling beneath the tent’s flaps.

“Aye, I’ll try to remember that the next time he’s pulling ye through the camp by ye hair,” Tadgh said dryly, shifting slightly on his sleeping fur and immediately wishing that he hadn’t when the small action caused agonizing pain to shoot through the cuts marring his back.

“I had it handled,” Macha argued, opening her small satchel. “Besides,” she rushed to continue before he could call her out on her lie, “I don’t remember asking ye for yer help.”

He chuckled. He couldn’t help it. “Ye never have to ask fer it, mo ghrá.”

“Ye shouldn’t be calling me that. If me father hears-”

“Then, he’ll know that much sooner that ye belong with me,” Tadgh said firmly, loving the way that she worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried to hide a pleased smile from him.

She didn’t say anything else while she laid out her herbs and cleaning cloths and he didn’t care. He was more than happy to lie there and watch her. She was his heart, his soul, and he’d known that since the moment that he’d laid eyes on her when they were nothing more than children.

“Ye need to stop pushing me father,” Macha said, sounding sad as she set to work cleaning his cuts.

“Then, he needs to keep his hands off ye, lass,” Tadgh said, trying not to cringe when the herbs stung him.

“He could have killed ye when ye threatened to kill him if he ever touched me again.”

“It was a promise, lass, and believe me, if I ever see him hurt ye like that again I will kill him,” Tadgh swore, meaning every word because he would kill the bastard.

He’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.

* * *

“Please,” Macha said, panting heavily as she shifted beneath him in an attempt to tempt him to take her.

“Please what, mo ghrá?” Tadgh asked, teasing her with the tip of his cock and loving the way she growled in frustration as he pulled away when she tried to roll her hips and take the choice away from him.

“Don’t make me kill ye,” Macha growled, making him chuckle as he returned his cock back to her core.

“Who knew that my wife was such a violent little thing,” Tadgh teased her as he leaned down and stole a kiss.

“Ye did! Now, take me before I’m forced to kill ye!” she snapped, rolling her hips up, and this time, he let her catch his cock.

“We wouldn’t want that now, would we?” Tadgh groaned as he slid inside her hot sheath, amazed at how wet she could get with a few simple touches and kisses.

Knowing that they needed to be quiet, Tadgh leaned down and took her mouth as he picked up his pace. He swallowed her moans as she did the same for his groans, both aware that any noise could draw the wrong kind of attention and cost them their lives. They shouldn’t be doing this, but he couldn’t help himself.

She was everything to him and he needed to be with her and touch her. He hated that they were forced to sneak around, but until his service to his king was over or he figured out another way to get her out of her marital contract, this was the only way that they could be together. One day, the king would pay for forcing him to sneak around with his wife like she was one of the whores that followed after their camp.

That day couldn’t come fast enough for him.

* * *

“I can’t ask ye to do this!”

“Ye don’t have to, lad,” Liam said, unconcerned as he grabbed his sword and headed for the door of their small hut.

The rest of his brothers grabbed their swords and satchels without a word and followed after Liam, but this wasn’t over. Tadgh grabbed his own sword and the satchel that held his and Macha’s things and headed after his brothers.

“I’ll be right back,” he told her, hoping that for once, she’d do as she was asked and wait here for him, but she didn’t and probably never would.

“Ye know that yer not going to be able to talk them out of this,” Macha said as she caught up to him.

“Aye, I know,” Tadgh bit out, taking her hand in his. “Stubborn bastards.”

She chuckled as they hurried to catch up to his brothers, who were already a good distance ahead of them.

“They’re gonna get themselves killed!”

* * *

“Get yer hands off her!”

“Make a choice!” the bastard said, giving Macha’s hair a violent twist that had her crying out. “Yer life or hers?”

“Mine!” Tadgh shouted without hesitation.

“So be it,” the king snarled as he shoved his daughter aside, pulled out his sword and swiftly slid it through Tadgh’s stomach, his men tightened their hold on Tadgh as he calmly accepted his fate. He’d do anything to keep her safe.

“Ye bastard!” Shayne roared. “I’ll kill ye!”

“Yer dead! Dead!” Liam shouted as the rest of his brothers fought and screamed, desperate to get to him and kill every man in sight, but Tadgh could barely hear them over his wife’s cries. She was in pain, so much pain and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. He only prayed the baby waited just a little while longer until his brothers could get free and protect it.

Clenching his jaw tightly, Tadgh forced himself not to cry out in pain as the king slowly, so goddamn slowly, pulled the sword out, making sure that Tadgh felt every ounce of pain. He wouldn’t make a sound of pain, too afraid that he’d use up the last of his energy when he needed to save it to beg for his wife and brothers to be spared.

He could accept his fate as long as Macha was left unharmed, able to raise their child and that his brothers could be there to protect them. It was the only thing that kept him from fighting back and taking as many of the king’s men with him as he could. The only thing that he wanted above vengeance was the knowledge that his family would survive this.

“Do ye truly believe that she’s yer soulmate?” the king asked tauntingly as he gestured for a guard to grab Macha when she tried to go to him.

“Aye,” Tadgh admitted, knowing that there was no point in lying and fearing what the king would do to Macha if he tried.

“I see,” the king murmured, sounding thoughtful as he pulled out his short sword and pointed it towards Tadgh’s chest, probably expecting him to beg for his life, but he wouldn’t. This was the bargain for his family’s lives and he would gladly pay it.

“Then, where yer soul goes, shouldn’t hers follow?”

It took a few seconds for the king’s words to sink in and by the time they did, it was too late. The king grabbed his own daughter by the hair and thrust the small sword into the right side of her chest, a killing wound. It was a wound that he’d inflicted hundreds of times into his enemies’ chests. It was designed to cause a slow painful death with no hope of recovery.

“Ye bastard!”

Keeping his eyes locked on his wife as she fell helplessly to the ground, Tadgh grabbed the sword at his throat, barely noticing or caring as the blade sliced through his fingers and shoved it away as he grabbed the wrist that held it and with a well-practiced move, snapped it. He took the sword, turned it and thrust it back, killing the man before he could react. He quickly killed the man to his left as he pushed up on his trembling legs and went after the bastard that he should have killed a long time ago.

He was barely aware of the commotion going on to his left or the screams of agony as he moved towards his prey. Before he could get within striking distance, the coward grabbed Macha by her hair, tilted her hair back, exposing her throat to the sharp blade of a dagger.

“Not another step,” the king warned.

“Ye won’t be leaving this field alive,” Shayne promised hoarsely as he stepped up beside him.

“Yer life is mine for the taking,” Liam swore, stepping up to his left and claiming the right to kill the king. Tadgh didn’t waste his energy arguing, not when the only thing that mattered was that the king died this night.

“Tadgh,” Macha said, sobbing as she pressed one hand to her wound and the other over the baby that she would never hold.

“Drop the knife,” Finn said coldly, coming up behind the king while Connall, Aidan, and Quinn disposed of the men protecting the king’s back.

His brothers were badly injured but determined. The king’s smug smile froze on his face as his eyes quickly darted around the clearing and whatever he saw had him dropping his hold on Macha’s hair, but he didn’t move the blade away from her neck.

Using his sword as a staff to support his weight, Tadgh quickly looked around and saw the reason why. All of the king’s men were either dead or dying. Months of running ended tonight.

Keeping his knife firmly against his daughter’s throat, the king reached into his robes and pulled out a smooth grey stone. Holding it over his heart, the king locked eyes with him.

“Ye will all pay fer this, this I swear! Ye will never know peace or true happiness. Ye will forever walk this earth as slaves. Ye will pay for stealing from me! Ye ruined me over this nonsense of soulmates and true love, so I curse ye all to hell and back and ye soulmates along with ye! May ye only know pain and suffering for eternity and ye soulmates suffer fer what ye did to me this day! Ye will always meet with death!” the king shouted, but none of them heard him. None of them cared for the nonsense that he shouted.

Finn placed his hand over the stone, ripping it out of the king’s hand. “And ye as well, ye dumb bastard!”

Quinn quickly reached down and placed his hand around the blade, separating it from Macha’s neck and taking the slice that would have ended her life too quickly. As it was, she only had a few precious moments left. He was about to lose her and their child, Tadgh realized. Raw agony ripped through him, tearing an unholy roar from his throat as he picked up his sword and swung, slicing the king’s neck open from ear to ear.

“Macha,” Tadgh whispered, his heart breaking as he released the sword and dropped to his knees before her.

“It hurts,” she cried softly as she fell to her side.

He reached for her when his strength finally left him and he couldn’t do more than fall to the ground and stare helplessly at her, the inches that separated them felt like miles.

“I know, mo ghrá,” Tadgh said softly, welcoming the cold numbness that spread through his body.

“Hold on, lad,” Shayne said, pulling him into his arms and further away from Macha. He tried to fight, but he didn’t have any fight left in him.

“Do something!” Shayne demanded.

“I’m s-scared,” Macha admitted as Finn dropped to his knees beside her, tears rolling down his blood-spattered face, he reached out with trembling hands and did what Tadgh couldn’t. He took her in his arms and held her.

“There’s nothing ta be scared of, mo ghrá,” Tadgh told her, wishing that those were his arms wrapped around her. “I’m gonna be coming for ye.”

“Ye promise?” Macha sobbed softly as her breathing became labored.

“Aye, I do,” Tadgh said, smiling as his vision dimmed out.