Page 29 of Her Scot of the Morrow
“Need be?”She tripped the man trying to catch her and sliced her blade across his Achilles tendon, making him cry out in anguish and disabling him from walking, let alone fighting.“I think we’re pretty much there, don’t you?”
She was right because I was fighting too many warriors now, and several had slipped past me and were pursuing her, so I swung my blade one last time, roared, and embraced my dragon...or at least I tried.
“What is it?”Sensing something was wrong, Willow glanced in my direction as she was being driven back against a tree while parrying with one of two warriors.
“I cannae shift,”I fumed, as my inner beast struggled, desperate to surface and protect its mate, its fury only growing as I was knicked by a dagger.“Bloody Hell,”Iroared. “Something is blocking it!”
Another warrior rushed at her, but she spun away just in time.“Who has that kind of power?”
“The only person I know of when she’s on her own land is Elspet Sutherland,”I groused, sensing foul play because I couldn’t even access my dragon magic.
“IthoughtwewerestillonMacLeodland,though?”
Regrettably, answering her became impossible even telepathically as I focused and tried fending off far too many warriors, and I felt her fear for me spike.
That’s when I realized with horror exactly what was going on.
“Dinnae shift!” I roared aloud, but it was too late. My life was on the line, and her inner beast was having none of it, so she was coming to my rescue.
And that waspreciselywhat Elspet wanted.
Willow’s dragon had protected me once, so she wouldn’t hesitate to do so again, which to my mind more than proved we were fated mates. Yet as Willow’s magnificent amber dragon emerged and roared at the warriors battling me, my heart sank all over again.
While I had prayed her gorgeous beast was using deceptive magic on us, now I was starting to think otherwise. If it were, it was pulling away from me rather than proving we were mates. How else could it be, considering her dragon had three-quarters of a gem over her heart now rather than just half?
“Holy hell,” I cursed under my breath when I sensed Willow about to roar fire at the men I'd been fighting to drive them away from me, but something, orsomeone, got to them first, and they began magically dropping like flies. Some grasped their throat as if being strangled by an unseen force, while others simply fell to their knees, then to their deaths.
“What’s happening, Sloan?”Willow said, confused.“I was only trying to drive them off until we figured out who they were. I wasn’t going to kill them unless I had no choice.”
“’Tis all right, lass.”I rested my hand against her haunch, trying to calm her beast.“You arenae doing this.”
She had no chance to respond before we heard horses drawing closer.
“Shift back, Willow,”I warned, having seen the trap coming.“’Tis Elspet.”
“How do I do that again, exactly?”she wondered.“I have no clue how I did it the first time.”
“You need to focus on your inner human,”I counseled,“and you need to do it fast.”I looked from her chest to her eyes, and my own dragon eyes flared in warning to heed me right away.“Elspet set us up, and there's every chance her plan will work.”
She peered down at her chest in confusion, her pupils flaring in what seemed genuine distress.“Why is it only bigger? And how could she know...”
“I couldnae say, but we will face this together.”I kept my hand resting on her.“You have my word, mate.”
“Am I though?”she worried softly, peering at me again.“Am I your fated mate, Sloan, because this seems to be saying otherwise?”
“You are,”I assured her.“Mark my words, there is deception going on here, and we will get to the bottom of it, but please, Willow, you must shift back before she arrives.”
Fortunately, after seemingly focusing inward, she shifted almost effortlessly. Yet, it wasn’t quite in time.
Worse yet?
Our enemy wasn’t alone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
–Willow–
IT’S HARD TO explain how I felt when I realized Sloan and I were under attack, other than confused. I thought we were still on MacLeod territory? So who were these warriors? Sutherlands? Then why weren’t they wearing Sutherland colors?
