Page 7

–Broderick–

I HAD AWAKENED this morning in a foul mood, and it showed no sign of improving as the day wore on. Typically, I enjoyed stormy days as they appealed to my inner beast, but not today. Nothing seemed to improve my state of mind so long as I knew Aspen was under my roof but not under my direct supervision, despite how much I tried to avoid her.

Unbeknownst to my cousins, I had kept a close eye on her chambers overnight, so I knew they arrived at her door early to spend the day with her. Kenneth, for apparent reasons, and Lucas, less so. He clearly found her as beautiful as the rest of us, but I got the sense he was more curious about her origins and kin than anything else. I also got the sense his inner dragon had been sizing up my inner beast, so he knew better than to make any advances her way lest he deal with me.

I might have set her aside, but my dragon certainly had not.

So, it was no surprise my mood only darkened the longer I kept my distance from her. Whether I liked it or not, my inner beast did not want her with anyone but me. In fact, I felt its frustration at not being with her as she greeted my clan and toured outside. She was a guest from another era, not to mention a beautiful female dragon that should be protected by the laird of this castle as long as she was here, so I should have been by her side.

Especially given I had sensed her dragon flaring closer to the surface when she gazed upon the sizeable tapestries in the great hall. More than that, I sensed she saw my dragon eyes for the first time, and they had pulled her to me in ways I could not ignore.

“What did you know that I didnae, Storm?”

I muttered under my breath, certain my friend knew a great deal more than she let on or mayhap learned more after I left Ireland. Though tempted to go back and confront her, I would not risk leaving Aspen alone. Could not if I tried.

The brief time I spent with my clan after Aspen went to bed far too early seemed like too long. Yet eventually, I faded into the background and made my way up to check on her, however discreetly from outside the door, only to sense she wasn’t there.

“Bloody hell,”

I cursed, trying to feel out where she had gone, but sensed nothing, and it terrified me more than I expected. Or should I say it terrified my dragon because it flailed inside me, warning me of danger.

It might have shifted me against my will and caused a great deal of damage to the castle had the Viking sword not warmed at my back. When it did, I swore I saw the same woman in the red dress from my vision prior to Aspen's arrival, running down the hallway in front of me in the opposite direction, only she looked more ethereal than real.

“Aspen,”

I called out, certain it was her in some strange way as I raced after her, but she stayed just ahead of me, vanishing between pockets of torchlight before I realized where she was going.

Better yet, her ghost, because whatever it was wasn’t flesh and blood.

I cursed under my breath again and moved faster, flying into a room that should have been locked, only to find Aspen doing the last thing I expected.

Having been strategically built without a wall, the private chamber overlooking the sea far below was a place for clansmen to shift and fly without anyone knowing. In the event someone entered that should not, it was also safeguarded with magic to create an optical illusion of a massive, not to mention ferocious, dragon flying toward the opening to scare anyone not of dragon blood from daring too close to the edge.

Yet, oddly, rather than keep Aspen back, it had the opposite effect, and she raced right at it.

“Nay,”

I roared, grateful I was stronger and faster because I caught her moments before she went over the edge and plummeted to her death. Grabbing her around the waist, I pulled her back from the driving rain into the safety of my arms.

“What the?”

she whispered hoarsely in confusion, trembling so hard I turned her away from whatever illusion she had been chasing, pulled her against me, and held her firmly, trying to ground her.

“’Tis alright, lass,”

I murmured, cupping the back of her head.

“’Twas just an illusion, lest a wee bairn or non-dragon somehow wander in here.”

Something that should not have been able to happen, never mind for a twenty-first-century woman who hadn’t fully embraced her dragon yet. The magic locking this door had been powerful, yet she had bypassed it easily.

While worried on several counts, I was still acutely aware of how it felt having her so close. The warmth of her under my hands. The sweet scent of her hair. The soft curves of her body. The unique, delicious aroma of arousal she put off just for me, despite the circumstances. Clenching my teeth, I did my best not to respond to her, given how confused and frightened she was, but it was a great battle indeed. It had been too long since I’d lain with a woman, and everything inside me responded to her more by the moment.

“It didn’t scare me…”

she murmured as her tremors subsided.

“What I mean to say is I wasn’t deterred by any illusion when I walked in. If anything, I was angry…and protective.”

Fighting an untimely arousal I would rather she not feel against her given the situation, I felt confident she was steady enough to stand on her own now, so I stepped back but remained close enough to catch her in case I was wrong. Good thing, too, because had she remained in my arms when her lovely gaze met mine aflame with her inner beast, stepping away would have been impossible. She blinked at me as if caught off guard by seeing me through her dragon vision and seemed to lose her voice altogether.

“You,”

she whispered, her eyes rounding a little. “It.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant until tiny, painless flames flickered over my forearms, and undoubtedly, the rest of me and the Viking blade warmed at my back again. When it did, the oddest sensation washed over me.

Almost as if a weight was lifted and a veil pulled back.

Unsheathing the sword, I stared at it in amazement as the flames curling over me snaked over the blade, making the metal glow red as if newly forged before it returned to normal.

“What was that?”

Aspen asked softly, reverently, and with good reason because it had been a powerful moment.

“What just happened?”

“I'd say the blade was handed off to me in more ways than one,”

I replied just as softly. For a fleeting moment, Storm seemed close, almost as if she were inside me before she faded, and I felt as though I stirred awake from a long slumber.

“’Tis hard to explain…’twas her…Storm.”

“Is she close?”

she asked tentatively, clearly eager to meet her but saying what she felt needed saying regardless, her dragon eyes fading amid her misunderstanding.

“Do you need time alone?”

“Nay,”

I managed, shocked to realize I meant it.

“I have been alone for far too long.”

Sheathing the blade, I met Aspen’s eyes.

“Rather, ‘twould please me if you dined with me so we might better understand what just happened here.”

I narrowed my eyes a little, trying to make sense of the changes blossoming inside me.

“Better still, ‘twould please me if you would allow me to behave now as I should have from the start…from the verra moment you arrived here.”

“Really?”

she said a tad hoarsely. She swallowed hard, the emotion in her luminous eyes unmistakable.

“Really,”

I confirmed gently, ashamed of my behavior thus far. Doing what I should have done far earlier, I held out the crook of my elbow.

“Might I escort you to dinner?”

Rather than take my arm, she kept staring at me, trying to understand and perhaps even distrusting the change in me.

“I wouldnae blame you if you would prefer I escort you back to your chamber.”

I shook my head.

“I have not been the best host, and for that, I apologize.”

“Why now?”

Her brow furrowed.

“What changed?”

“I wish I knew.”

I shook my head slowly.

“In the spirit of honesty, I feel…awakened, for lack of a better way to explain it. As if my eyes are only now opening after having been closed for far too long.”

“Because of Storm,”

she assumed.

“I think mayhap, aye.”

I recalled my more recent time with Storm.

“Her magic was verra much tied to fire. The same sort of fire we just witnessed on me and the blade.”

“So what?”

Aspen wondered, less wary now and more curious.

“She was here without us seeing her?”

“I dinnae think ‘twas quite like that.”

How to phrase it.

“More like she touched me from afar…touched us via the blade.”

Sensing something, my gaze fell to Aspen's wrist, and I held out my hand.

“Might I see your tattoo?”

She hesitated a moment before giving me her hand and then pulled up her sleeve, confirming what I suspected.

It had changed.

“Oh, wow,”

she whispered, once again awed and with good reason. Her tattoo no longer depicted just the Viking blade but dragon wings on either side of it, with a red gem in the center, framed by MacLeod colors. When I brushed the pad of my thumb over it, her eyes drifted shut, and she exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath for too long. Her eyes opened to mine, and she murmured.

“You are him, aren’t you?”

Knowing she referred to what she’d said the first time we met, I could only respond based on how I felt right now. To put it better, I could only respond the way my inner beast demanded because it became clear in a matter of hours, if not minutes, that whether I was or wasn’t, I refused to see anyone else fill that role.

“I believe I am,”

I said softly, the words coming easily, whatever they truly meant. All I knew was I wanted to start over with her. Be close to her. Keep her right here in my castle until I explored every corner of her, inside and out. From her every memory and thought to how her lips felt beneath mine.

How her flesh felt against mine.

“Then I accept your offer to dine,”

she said just as softly.

“But I have a condition, and something tells me you might not like it.”