Page 7 of Tempted By a Highland Beast
She glanced around, desperate to break the tension. “So, how did ye find this place? The loch seems tae be very well hidden.”
“Aye, it is. Nae many people ken of it. I found it mesel’ only five years ago on a hunt. I got lost, but I did find a treasure, did I nae?” Constantine said and walked once again towards the water’s edge. He crouched and ran his fingers lightly through the surface, watching the ripples fan out with quiet reverence. A genuine glint lit his eyes, unfiltered, boyish almost, as if this hidden place mattered to him more than he led on.
Rowena found herself smiling at the sight of him.
“Aye. Ye did.”
Constantine rose to his full height with deliberate ease, as if preparing to leave, but the movement was sharp enough to startle Rowena. She took an instinctive step back, her bootcrunching on loose gravel. Her heart thudded in her chest as Constantine approached her with the languid ease of a predator who knew he had his prey right where he wanted it.
A smirk rose from his lips. “Ye startle easily, I see.”
Rowena scoffed.
I would like tae wipe that smirk off his face.
A sudden pain swallowed her when her hand brushed a bush. She raised it to her face and gasped. “I think I cut mesel’.” The thick cut ran from the bone of her wrist down her arm and stopped a few inches from her elbow. The wound was red, and it trickled blood.
How had I nae noticed that?
It must have happened as she had fled through the forest. The rush of adrenaline that consumed her must have also protected her from the pain. But now she felt somewhat at ease again. For the time being she didn’t need to worry about keeping herself alive.
Rowena suddenly felt weak in the knees, sore from the inside out, burnt out.
“Ye think so? Give it here.” Constantine caught her arm, his fingers brushing the wound with painful care. “How did ye nae notice ye were bleeding?”
“I’m alive, arenae I? ‘Tis a small price tae pay.”
He scoffed. “Unbelievable.”
Without hesitation, he tore a strip off his linen shirt. Rowena was glad to see it go, and she gazed at the exposed patch of his skin with greedy eyes. Constantine wrapped the strip around her wound and Rowena couldn’t stop the hiss that escaped her as he wound it tight. She looked up at him, but his eyes were narrowed in focus on his task.
Rowena felt the tension in her body melt away. For days, she had been in a constant state of alertness. It was nice to finally relax, even if just for an instant.
Her eyes fell back to the man who tended to her.
Constantine MacLean.
Rowena’s mind raced as she processed his name. The MacLeans. She had heard of them. A formidable clan, with a reputation for cunning and brutality, now led by a laird feared across the Highlands for his ruthless hand.
But the laird wasn’t what the whispers focused on anymore. Rumors had begun to circle of a son, illegitimate, some said, whom the old man had only recently claimed. A man more dangerous than his father, born of no courtly blood and raised outside the clan.
Wasnae he called “the Savage”?
No one outside the kin knew his face. Only his reputation.
Could this man be Constantine?
Even if he’s not the laird’s heir, this man was probably a high-ranking member. Especially with the manner with which he had defended himself. Defended her. Even if she had lied about her reason for being chased.
She wasn’t sure what to make of him yet, but one thing was certain: she couldn’t afford to mistake his help for an act of his true intentions or trust him beyond what he’d already offered. Not when she knew so little about him. Not when everything around her still felt like shifting ground.
She cast a glance toward the narrow path she’d taken while fleeing her home. Her freedom had bought her time, and far more questions than answers.
But where will I go tae after this?
She understood that information was power, and she had very little of it at the moment. She was uncertain of her exact location. A moor. A secret loch. A handsome man. Those were the only things she had to work with.
The trees obscured her sense of direction as they spread wide, far, and thick. She might still be on MacKenzie land,trapped within her step-uncle’s reach. Even worse, she could have already crossed into a rival clan’s territory. She may have stepped from one danger into another.
