Page 23 of His Greatest Treasure

“Yes, but Lew’s not a boring grey like the others. He’s this deep, rich grey and it fades to a lighter colour on his belly.”

There was something in his voice that I’d never heard before. It was a sort of admiration and longing.

I wanted to ask Morgan outright if he fancied his trainer, but I knew Morgan and I knew he wouldn’t tell me anything until he was ready to do it. My brother needed a lot of time to process things, especially emotions.

Instead, I asked an almost-related question.

“Is this the instructor who’s training you?”

“Yes.”

“And he was in the Fife Army?”

“Yes.”

Okay, that was all I needed to know. Morgan wasn’t impressed by soldiers, and yet he’d breathed out that answer with enough pride and admiration for me to know beyond doubt that he thought this trainer guy was somethingspecial.

I reckoned Morgan had a crush. So I did what any great brother would do and I allowed him to change the subject and tell me all about thecuraidh’s customs, which was interesting but not quite as personal.

Morgan had always known he was gay.

I’d never thought I was into men at all. I’d thought about it, when Morgan came out to me, and I’d decided that I wasn’t gay. I just didn’t fancy men the way that he did.

On the other hand, I realised now that I’d never particularly fancied women, either. All genders were beautiful, but I had never wanted to be with any of them. Hadn’t wanted to touch them.

Blaze, though, he was beautiful and… I wanted to touch him.

I squirmed where I sat, wishing I hadn’t chosen to sit on my bed where I’d… dreamed of Blaze last night.

I wanted Blaze to touch me. When his fingers brushed against mine, my body went hot and something simmered inside me that I was completely unfamiliar with.

The thought of Blaze touching medown theremade my dick so hard that I had to pull acushion over my lap to cover it up in case anyone walked in and saw me.

Okay, so I wasn’t gay, but I wasn’tnotgay, either. That was good to know. Now all I needed to do was find out if Blaze was not not-gay, too.

Because if he liked me the way I was starting to realise I liked him, we could- we could maybe go out? We could kiss. Possibly do other stuff, too, if he wanted to.

I really needed to stop thinking about that or I’d moan right out loud while on the phone to my brother and neither of us would ever get over that. I turned my attention forcibly onto Morgan and listened to his stories about life with the Hoskins clan.

Before, I’d been worried that he was alone, but the more he talked the more it became clear that he was starting to form bonds with thecuraidh. He might not be able to see them but the way he spoke about them told me that, when I saw Morgan again, I’d see all of those bonds shining brightly.

Actually, the thought made me pleased. I pulled up my bond with Morgan and watched it shine with silver-blue strength, the same colour asMorgan’s eyes, and laughed when he told me about the sea and about the big, tough warriors who were scared of their female cousin, and the two young children who tore through the castle screaming in a way I couldn’t even imagine, since we’d certainly never been allowed to do that.

It was nice, to sit there and feel connected to Morgan again, even though we were apart. I couldn’t wait to see him again when he came home.

Chapter 11

Alfie

Iwas restless and wanted to see Blaze. My whole days suddenly revolved around him, and I counted down the time until I could sneak out of the castle and see him.

I particularly liked the way he smiled when he saw me. That made me feel good.

With that thought, I was already out of my door and heading down to the woods. I had to hurry over to the far edge which was nearest to the boundary or people would be able to see me from the castle. I always got impatient on that part because I wanted to get to Blaze sooner.

I was concentrating so hard on getting to our den that I didn’t even lookaround me.

I had no idea that the shot was coming before the bullet sliced into me and a stinging sensation tore through my arm.

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