Page 44 of Her Scot of Yesteryear
While I thought when it all came rushing back in vivid detail, I would be horrified, I wasn't. Instead, so long as I was with Broderick, I felt at peace. “Flame, huh?” I petted the wolf affectionately, who stirred awake at my touch. “And your mother? Really? I didn’t realize they were so powerful.”
“Neither did they, but it seems your mark and curse, or pact as it were, fading away helped the process,” he divulged, urging me to drink from a cup of water he held to my lips. “Then the combined magic of a unicorn and dragonly wolf pup saved the day.” The corner of his mouth curled up. “Or night, as it were…still is.”
I drank my water and shook my head when he tried to get me to drink more.
“No, I’m good,” I assured, sitting up against the headboard, my gaze lingering affectionately on the spiral he had carved into his dragon bed. “In fact, I feelreallygood, all things considered.”
His eyebrows rose. “Aye?”
“Yes.” I smiled before frowning, wondering what all this meant. “But it sounds like my sisters might be in trouble, so I need to get back to the twenty-first century.”
“All is well,” he said. “My mother has things in hand and wishes us to speak as a family in the morn after you’ve had a good night’s rest—” he hesitated before going on— “and you and I have had time to talk about what came of this eve.”
The strangest sensation washed over me at the flash of sadness in his eyes and the tentativeness in his voice.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked softly, swallowing hard because I realized how distressed he was about what he needed to tell me. “What happened, Broderick?”
When he continued to hesitate, struggling with what he had to say, I urged him to go on, and he did, telling me the last thing I expected. Something more heartbreaking than I could have possibly imagined.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
–Broderick–
IHAD NEVER experienced anything more excruciating than holding Aspen’s head in my lap and watching her fade away as death took her. Watched her leave me as she had in our last life. I didn’t think I was capable of such anguish until, miraculously, my mother and Flame brought her back, healing her almost entirely, and I realized Iwascapable of more pain.
After my dragon carried her home and I tucked her into our bed, I sat with the Viking sword beside me and watched the incoming storm, mourning and wondering how I would share the news with her. How I would watch my pain reflected in her beautiful eyes.
Now she was sitting in bed, staring at me with those lovely violet eyes that matched her dragon, urging me to tell her. Urging me to rip her heart out, whether she knew it yet or not.
“There was an unfortunate consequence to the injury you sustained when Dugal’s tail hit you,” I said gently, wrapping my fingers with hers, my inner beast brushing hers in comfort. “It seems the area that was wounded will prevent you from being able to conceive.”
She stared at me for a long, blank-eyed moment before she blinked and shook her head. “You’re kidding me, right? After what happened to us in our last life, you’re seriously kidding me?”
“I wish I were,” I said softly, gathering her close. “But nay, ‘tis true. ‘Tis…”
When I broke off, unable to go on because it was too difficult, she held on to me tight and didn’t seem to cry at first until she loosened her grip, and I felt her silent sobs. Grieving with her for all the bairns we could never have, I held on tighter, then simply held her into the wee hours until we finally drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.
When I stirred awake, it was to find her standing outside in the rain with her hands on the railing she had climbed over days before. Flame sat nearby, watching her before he seemed to sense I was awake. He looked at me over his shoulder and then made his way out of the chamber, clearly wanting to give us privacy.
While tempted to bring her a cloak, I knew she preferred the feel of the icy rain and wind on her skin, so I wrapped my arms around her from behind and breathed in her sweet scent. Especially sweet now I was against her. Touching her.
“I’m still in heat, aren’t I?” she said softly, leaning her head back against my chest. “It doesn’t matter that I can’t conceive. I still go into heat.”
“Aye,” I murmured. “I’m sorry, lass.”
“Don’t be.” She turned in my arms and cupped my cheek tenderly, her heart in her eyes. “How areyou? I was so consumed with my own grief earlier, I didn’t ask, and I should have because this has to be…” She swallowed hard and shook her head. “What I mean to say is I would understand if you have to be with someone else to provide heirs and—”
“Nay.” I put a finger to her soft lips and shook my head, my brogue thickening with emotion as thunder cracked overhead. “There willneverbe another for me, Aspen.Yeare my fated mate and the lass I love. We can find other ways to care for wee bairns without bearing our own if ‘tis yer wish, but ‘twill only ever be ye in my bed and in my heart.”
Understanding this was the right time with the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning all around us, I dropped to a knee, took her hand in mine, met her eyes, and made a spiral in her palm. “Marry me, my fated mate and the only lass I will ever love. Now ye have returned to me not once but twice across God knows how many centuries, become my wife at last.”
“Nowthatis a proposal,” she replied a little hoarsely, a small smile curling her mouth as she blinked back tears. “And one I’ll answer once you do something for me.”
I arched my brows, curious. “What would that be?”
“Fly with me.” Her gaze rose to the turbulent, stormy skies. “Right now, tonight, in this weather.”
I went to shake my head, worried she was too weak and too new to her dragon to handle how rocky the skies would be, but my mother spoke telepathically to me before I could.
