Page 6 of Her Scot of Bygones (MacLeod Dragons #2)

–Lucas–

IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to describe my onslaught of emotions when Hazel was nearly ripped away from me by some sort of purple vortex, other than it paled in comparison to how it felt when I gathered her close, desperate to keep her safely with me, only to be shunned. At least that’s how it felt when she squirmed out of my arms and looked at me with such fear in those big green eyes that my heart sank.

A heart I didn’t realize could feel so wounded.

I’d only been trying to protect her, but now it seemed I had done the opposite. While earlier I understood why she’d been fearful and confused when she woke up in my bed after I had taken her from the twenty-first century, but now her reaction was tenfold. Too much, given I was certain she sensed I had no intention of hurting her. Ever. That I could not even if I wanted to, because she meant too much to me in ways I didn’t understand.

Something I felt acutely when I saw how frightened she was, leaving me no choice but to honor her wishes and bring her back to the twenty-first century, if for no other reason than to get the look of fear off her face. That in mind, I retrieved the torch I had thrust aside and led us down another tunnel.

Or at least I tried to when the unexpected happened.

One moment, we were walking down a tunnel I knew well, and the next, we were in a different tunnel altogether.

“What just happened?”

Hazel wondered, frowning, looking from me to the tunnel after we stopped.

“Did you do that?”

“Nay.”

I shook my head and shifted closer, lest I needed to protect her.

“I dinnae possess that kind of magic.”

When she narrowed her eyes at me, wondering if I was taking a longer route after all, despite assuring her otherwise, I shook my head again.

“I dinnae possess the power of illusion, Hazel,”

I assured, frowning at the unfamiliar tunnel.

“Assuming that’s what this is.”

She white knuckled the small blade I had given her.

“What else could it be?”

“’Tis hard to know,”

I began, only to trail off when I sensed something connected to the tunnel that made me both excited yet wary. Curious yet cautious.

“What is it?”

Hazel wondered as if she were catching my response to whatever lay ahead.

“I cannae say other than ‘tis familiar somehow.”

I looked back the way we had come, only to find it had changed, too.

“It is, isn’t it?”

she murmured, her lovely features going from distressed to equally curious before she drifted forward as if drawn to something or even worse, by something.

While tempted to stop her or even take her hand, I didn’t want to risk frightening her again, so I unsheathed the Viking blade and took up a defensive position beside her.

“You should proceed with caution, lass,”

I warned, surprised she wasn’t being cautious when I knew it was in her nature.

“Not just because of what’s happening in this era betwixt us and the Sutherlands but because of what happened mere minutes ago.”

I had never seen anything like the vortex awash in purple twilight and hoped I never did again because it terrified me for no other reason than it meant to take her away from me. Worse yet, the longer I was around her, the more I feared in some way it had succeeded.

“I know I should be cautious, but this all feels so familiar.”

Her gaze flickered from me to the faint light ahead.

“You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Aye,”

I grumbled, growing more anxious because she didn’t seem quite herself.

“Which should be heeded, all things considered. It could verra well be a Sutherland luring you with magic. Specifically, Laird Dugal Sutherland’s mother, Elspet.”

She was a vile woman who possessed a great deal of power and would do anything to see this pact through, just like her son.

“Yet I’m not afraid,”

Hazel murmured, still heading toward the light.

“Not at all. It feels more like…I’m protected somehow.”

She shook her head.

“That this won’t hurt me.”

Reflecting on the way Broderick and Aspen had come together, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Do you think you’re witnessing a memory, mayhap? Something that might have happened in another life?”

“I have no idea.”

She trailed her slender fingers over the tunnel wall.

“Would it feel this real?”

“I cannae say.”

I narrowed my eyes as we approached what turned out to be a relatively small exit into woodland somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. Yet, the season was no longer autumn but summer, telling me we had either traveled through time or this was a memory.

“Of what, though?”

she said, responding to my thoughts, whether she realized it or not. Rather than point that out and upset her, given she had asked me to stay out of her head, I acted as if I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

“What do you mean, lass?”

“You know what I mean,”

she said, blinking at me as though it occurred to her she hadn’t actually heard me speak aloud. I thought she might get upset again, whether it had been my fault or not, but she surprised me when she went on.

“There’s going to be no stopping it, is there?”

she said softly, her delicate eyebrows edging together.

“No stopping our telepathic connection.”

“Not if our dragons take to each other,”

I replied, honest with her, not to mention hopeful she would open up to the possibility.

“Especially if we are fated mates.”

“Could we communicate that way even if our dragons didn’t take to each other?”

“I wouldnae think so.”

I was careful how I phrased things this time.

“Whilst our enemies might be capable of it if they possessed magic I’m unfamiliar with, usually ‘tis only viable betwixt dragons whose inner beasts trust each other. That connection is always stronger betwixt mates, but you will still have it with your kin.”

I gave her a pointed look.

“I dinnae have the power to connect with your dragon against its will or your will, as it were.”

She didn’t reply to what I said, but her eyes did linger on mine in a way that spoke to my inner beast because I sensed she believed me. More than that, despite how frightened she’d seemed of me minutes before, I got the feeling she was beginning to trust me.

“I wasn’t frightened of you,”

she murmured, surprising me with her honesty.

“At least I never thought you were going to hurt me physically.”

Despite our strange surroundings, I became acutely aware of her in a way that had seemed oddly suppressed when I pulled her against me earlier. At the time, I thought it was because my fear of losing her to the vortex was so strong, but now I wondered. Had her dragon kept my arousal at bay until she was out of my arms? If so, why? If that weren’t curious enough, I got the sense she was more frightened about her emotional response to me than anything else. I was about to say as much, too, when something in the trees caught our attention.

“Nay, lass.”

Whether she liked it or not, I took her hand and kept her by my side when she started in that direction.

“We go together and with great caution.”

“And here I thought caution wasn’t your thing,”

she exclaimed softly. Her gaze flickered from our adjoined hands to my face, as if she couldn’t decide whether or not she should pull away.

“And I thought it verra much was yours,”

I returned, reminding her where she was and what we were up against.

“’Twould serve you well, in these trying times.”

She had no chance to respond before something caught our attention again. When I felt no immediate threat, I put a finger to my lips, urging Hazel to be quiet until we knew what it was, kept her hand in mine and my blade at the ready, then started into the woodland.

That is, until I finally spied what or who it was. A familiar young lad with a thick crop of dark auburn hair made his way through the forest as though he were following something or someone.

That wasn’t what alarmed me, though.

More so, who he was.

I squeezed Hazel’s hand and gave her a warning look before gesturing back toward the cave, hoping she caught my thoughts, whether she liked me speaking telepathically to her or not. It was necessary this time.

“He wears Sutherland colors, Hazel, so ‘tis verra likely we’re on Sutherland land.”

I shook my head.

“’Tis unwise to keep going.”

The corners of her mouth tugged down, and she shook her head too, surprising me when she spoke back within my mind.

“I’m not sure if you can hear me, but no.”

She kept shaking her head.

“He’s just a boy…and he’s familiar to me. As familiar as that cave and these woods.”

How could he be? This made no sense.

As taken as I was by the beauty of her voice in my mind, I was more worried about her welfare, and I said so telepathically.

“You dinnae ken what the Sutherlands are capable of if ‘tis at the bequest of their laird’s mother, for she’s the true power behind their dragons. Dugal is but her puppet despite thinking he’s more.”

I narrowed my eyes into the woodland, watching the boy, remaining vague for now, if it meant her heeding my warning.

“So trust me when I tell you, if he’s half dragon, then she’s likely already aware we’re here.”

I met Hazel’s eyes again, hoping she understood how dire this was.

“Better still, you are here.”

“Even so,”

she replied, her internal voice coming through more clearly with her growing confidence.

“I have to keep following him.”

She pleaded with her eyes.

“Please. I need to…it’s important. I’m sure of it.”

“Why?”

I could hardly believe I was entertaining the idea because it was far too dangerous.

“What makes you so certain he’s worth pursuing?”

As it turned out, her gaze drifted past me, her eyes widened in disbelief, and she said the last thing I ever expected.