Page 12 of Wolf Heir (Highland Wolves of Old #3)

Coinneach couldn’t wait to see Aisling. He hoped that her talk with her mother had resolved the issues of him mating Aisling. He wanted to be hopeful, but hope had always felt slippery to him, something best left to children and fools.

When he saw Aisling heading through the heather, her red hair flying behind her, making her appear like one of the fae folk, he rushed to join her.

He caught her in the middle of the path, the two of them surrounded by a sea of bracken and blooming heather, pockets of purple and gold trembling under a skittish wind.

He swept her up in his arms and kissed her mouth.

She gripped the back of his neck as if she meant to anchor herself to him forever. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair catching the fading, golden lights of day. She smelled of the earth, the woods, and the sweet fragrance of heather, the scent he loved on her.

He could see instantly that she’d been crying, but she met his gaze squarely, her lips parted in a way that spoke of wild, reckless longing.

He was desperate to ask her about her mother, desperate to know if everything had changed or if everything was all right.

At that moment, the only truth he could bear was the taste of her breath and the urgent, shuddering way she pressed herself against him.

But when she pulled her soft mouth from his and licked her lips, he could see tears welling up in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He just couldn’t believe anything could be so bad.

She held onto him tight, resting her head against his chest, not letting go, not talking either.

“Do you want to visit the waterfall?”

She nodded, and he took hold of her hand, and they walked, arms tangled, to the mouth of the burn where the water ran fast and noisy, shielding them from the rest of the world.

She perched on a flat stone, her skirts pulled tight around her knees, and he knelt before her, heart thundering.

The silence between them was thick, textured by anticipation and dread.

Coinneach watched her, trying to read the future in the tilt of her chin, the tremble of her fingers.

Behind her, the waterfall poured over the cliff in a deluge of water, as if waiting for the verdict.

He didn’t want to force her to tell him what she had learned.

Maybe her mother hadn’t even told her anything, just put her off like she had done so many times before.

Still, he couldn’t quit thinking about it. “Is it really bad?”

Aisling nodded, which didn’t reassure him. The birds were chirping in the trees, fluttering from one branch to another, a rabbit bounded off in the bracken, the forest alive.

He took hold of her hand and caressed it gently. “Whatever you say willna affect how I feel about you.”

She looked up at him with woeful eyes, her shoulders bent as if she carried the weight of the world on them. “We’re mating.”

“Your mother agreed?” He was so surprised, he just stared at her. Then he smiled. “I’m so glad.”

“Nay. ‘Tis worse than you might imagine. But I love you and I want to be your mate. However, if I tell you what my mother told me, you may feel differently about me.”

“Never.”

“As mated wolves, we canna keep secrets from each other. But I dinna want to hurt you with the truth.”

He couldn’t imagine what she could reveal to him that would hurt him. “I agree about no’ keeping secrets from one another. It could tear us apart.”

Then she turned to face him and took both of his hands in hers. “You canna be angry with my mother.”

He inclined his head. He still wanted to get her mother’s approval.

“You…you are no’ Magnus and Elspeth’s son.”

Coinneach just stared at her, his emotions flipping from disbelief to shock. “Nay. Whatever your mother believes isna true. Tamhas is my twin brother. Is he no’ Magnus and Elspeth’s son?”

“He is. You are no’.” Aisling held onto his hands when he wanted to pull them away.

He wanted to pace, to get rid of some of the frustration building in his blood. “And your mother knows this, how?”

“She was only sixteen and helped with birthing the bairns of the clan. Your mother died while giving birth to you. The midwife at the time ordered my mother to get rid of you.”

He parted his lips to speak, but no words came out. A jumble of thoughts was vying for his voice, but he didn’t know what to say.

Aisling wiped her face with the heel of her palm and finally spoke.

Her voice was rougher than he remembered, but so steady it made his chest ache.

She told him what her mother had said, every word measured, she explained about the other woman giving birth and losing a twin that was swapped out for him.

Coinneach scrubbed his face. “Your mother gave me to Magnus and Elspeth?” Why hadn’t his parents told him about it?

“My mother didna know what to do. She left you where crofters gathered and would find you. Magnus and Elspeth didna know who you belonged to. She must have just birthed Tamhas, and then she raised the two of you as twins.”

He thought back to his earlier years growing up. “I…I couldna change into a wolf like Tamhas did when my mother shifted.” Now, some of it was making sense.

They’d been so worried about it, but at the same time, reassuring. He knew that a mother had to shift for the baby to do so until they were older.

“Aye. I’m so sorry, Coinneach.”

“My birth mother is dead then.” Coinneach regretted that he had never met her, never had a chance to love her as he knew he would have. “What of my da?”

Aisling released his hands, turned away from him, and stared at the waterfall cascading down the rocky slope. “That is the dangerous part.”

Coinneach listened, not daring to interrupt, his hands knotted together so tightly that they turned pale. Then he finally found his voice again. “Your mother is the midwife.”

“No’ back then.”

He knew Aisling didn’t want to tell him the whole truth. “I’m glad you’ve told me what you have. I thought there was something wrong with me that I couldn’t shift when my brother did when I was younger.”

“Nay, ‘tis no’ your fault. When a mother dies before her child is around five, they canna shift. ‘Tis the natural order of things. My mother felt terrible about it. The midwife threatened to kill her if she revealed the truth.”

“I dinna understand why a bairn would be any threat to anyone. Wait, how did your mother recognize I was the baby she had abandoned?” His parents had raised him, and he felt nothing but love for them.

Though he planned to work at the castle, he would return home whenever he wasn’t working to see how everyone was faring.

“Your birthmark.”

Then it all made sense. He’d been working in the fields, shirtless, and Blair had seen the wolf’s head on his shoulder. Her eyes had focused on it right before she fainted.

“So when I was born, the midwife had seen it also.”

“Aye.”

“Had anyone else? My da?”

“Nay. He never saw you. He only saw the deceased bairn. He was said to go off in the forest for hours and howl, so devastated he was from losing his mate and son. He dearly loved her.”

Coinneach stared at the waterfall. Everything in his life had been a lie. Though he didn’t fault his parents. Once he had been abandoned, he could have died, but they had saved his life. More than that, they had made him part of the family as if Elspeth had birthed him herself.

He ran his hands through his hair. “Who was the midwife?”

“If you’re going to work at the castle—”

“I am. And I’ll protect you and your mother.”

Aisling’s eyes widened, and her tense posture relaxed.

“I wouldna let anyone harm either of you.”

“But you are at risk also.”

“If I know what I’m up against, I can fight it.”

“She’s very powerful.” Aisling was wringing her hands, looking fearful.

The only one he could think of that would be powerful enough to cause him trouble was the chief’s wife. But he couldn’t imagine she had been a midwife before that.

“No’ Morag,” he ventured.

“Aye.” When Aisling’s words finally faltered, she let out a breath that sounded like surrender.

She looked at him, eyes shining, mouth trembling, and for a moment, he thought she might vanish—turn to mist, to memory, to myth.

But then she reached for him, pulling his head into her lap, cradling him with a gentleness that undid him completely.

He waited, his face pressed to the warmth of her thigh, until she spoke again.

“I didna know about it.”

He took hold of Aisling’s cold hands, pulled them around him, and wrapped his arms around her. “This has naught to do with you. I dinna blame your mother for what she had done. I’m grateful that she didna kill me like Morag had ordered. You can tell her so.”

“But dinna you see that Morag will want my mother dead, me too, if she suspects my mother told me about you, and she canna allow your da to know you are alive. But there is more. Rupert isna Hamish’s son.

Which is even more of a reason why Morag doesna want Hamish to learn you are his firstborn and only son. ”

“So Rupert isna my half brother.”

“Nay. What will we do?”

Coinneach rubbed her back reassuringly, not wanting her to worry about it. “I willna discuss this with my parents. They are my mother and da as far as I’m concerned, and Tamhas is my twin brother.”

“What about your birthmark?” Aisling ran her hand over it in a loving caress.

“I willna remove my shirt when I’m at the castle.”

She still didn’t look reassured.

“If only your mother, you, and I knew about it, it would be no problem.”

“Did you talk to your parents about working for Drustan?”

“Nay, no’ yet. I wanted to see what danger lay before us at the castle first.” He smiled at her, trying to reassure her that he wasn’t serious in the least. But he had wanted to meet with her first and learn what her mother had to say. “Come with me, and I’ll tell them about working at the castle.”

“Do you think it will be easier if I’m with you when you do it?”