Moon Burning Read Online Free PDF Page A

thought.”
    Perhaps he considered it so, but then he was a wolf, not a raven. No one hunted his people intent on total annihilation. “It is the way of the world.” Her world anyway.
    “Not all children grow up orphans. Not even most.”
    “Among my people, enough do.”
    “You remember that, but not who your clan is?” he asked cynically.
    She turned her head away, the taste of any lie she would have to tell bile in her mouth.
    “It isn’t that you don’t remember your clan, it’s that you don’t want to,” he guessed, sounding quite proud he had worked that out. Never mind that he was wrong.
    But in a way, he was right, too. She didn’t want to remember the decimation her people had endured at the hands of his.
    She neither confirmed nor denied.
    “You’ll tell me.”
    “Tell you what?”
    “Everything.”
    “No.” Even to her own ears, the single word swelled with enough horror to drown a small village.
    His countenance did not darken; he merely shrugged, jostling her body so the plaid covering her slipped just enough that they were skin against skin on her side.
    Her gasp this time was for an entirely different reason than shock. It was pure sensation. Amazing sensation. Make-her-wish-for-the-first-time-to-share-her-body-with-a-man sensation.
    She had never been this close to a mate, not outside of battle. And never had another man had the effect on her this blond barbarian did.
    He inhaled deeply and she realized with chagrin that he was smelling her arousal.
    “Stop it,” she whispered, though why she bothered when the other Chrechte with them had a wolf’s hearing, she did not know.
    Barr grinned down at her, his masculine pleasure heating the air around them. “No.”
    “You’re not claiming me.”
    “Your body says otherwise.”
    “My mind controls my body.”
    “We’ll see.”
    “Would you force me to go where my mind does not want to?”
    “I will not force you, but as to your heart ruling your mind, that you’ll have to stop.”
    “My heart has nothing to do with this.”
    “Call it what you like, but your body betrays your true thoughts on the matter.”
    “It betrays nothing but animal reaction.”
    “That is an odd thing for a human to say.”
    “Humans are animals, too, they simply have one nature, not two like the Chrechte.”
    She grabbed the plaid, trying to adjust it so her skin was not burning along his. He would not let her but continued walking, keeping her pressed close to him.
    Arrogant wolf.
     
     
    C urious clanspeople surrounded them as Barr carried her into the compound nearly an hour later. Each wore the red and black plaid of the Donegals.
    One older woman peered at her and Barr with knowing amusement. “So, it would appear you had a successful hunt, then, laird.”
    “Aye, I found the lass in the forest.”
    “In her all together by the look of it.”
    A young boy asked, “Did a wild animal attack her and steal all her clothes, do you think?”
    “Aye, lad, that’s just what happened,” Barr lied without a second’s hesitation.
    “She looks a wee bit worse for the wear,” the old woman said. “Best get her to the keep. Let Verica have a look at her.”
    The words surprised Sabrine. She knew humans could be kind, but this woman belonged to the clan that had stolen the sacred stone. In Sabrine’s mind all Donegals were cruel and selfish, like the wolves that had made the clan their home.
    She didn’t have much time to ponder the thought before she was in the keep itself.
    It was not as large as some of the clan buildings she saw on her nightly flights, but it was bigger than any dwelling among the Éan. Barr carried her into the main hall, where three long tables made a U shape at one end and a large fireplace warmed the other. No chairs sat in front of the fireplace, but that didn’t stop a small group of soldiers from congregating there to sharpen their weapons.
    Barr walked past the soldiers after giving them a cursory greeting. One asked who