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five years.
    She thought Thomas’s wording odd, saying
what
instead of
who
to Caelis, but she did not mention it. Would prefer not to acknowledge the mortifying truth at all.
    Mayhap he considered Caelis every bit the monster the baron’s son was. For six years, Shona had certainly believed that—or at least convinced herself she did.
    Regardless of her weakness and past indiscretions, Thomas’s youthful eagerness and firm loyalty touched her.
    “Thank you, Thomas.” She reached for his arm.
    But Caelis’s hand was there, his body pushing the younger man aside just as he’d done to Niall earlier. “He will not thank
you
if I have to challenge him over rights.”
    Thomas blanched. For the second time in mere minutes,Shona was filled with fury by this man. “You’ll do no such thing! You have no rights to me. You repudiated them when you abandoned me six years ago.”
    “’Twas your family that left the clan, not me.”
    She stopped, pulling poor Audrey to a halt beside her so Shona could glare up at the man. “Do not even
attempt
to pretend it was the other way around. I listened to your lies once, but they will never dictate my life again.”
    He winced as if her words had wounded, though she knew it was not possible. “Make no mistake: whatever my errors in the past, I will challenge this young one if he tries again to come between me and my mate.”
    He spoke of her like an animal, and she wished they were. Animals did not abandon those they chose as mates, but this very human man had undeniably deserted her.
    If Caelis had cared at all, he would not have disavowed Shona before her own father.
    Choking emotion surged up inside her at the memory and she felt the burn of tears at the back of her eyes. She blinked furiously, adamant they would not fall.
    Caelis swore, looking pained, if she could believe it.
    She wouldn’t. “I’m not your mate. I’m not your wife. I’m not even your former betrothed.” The banns had never been called. “I am
nothing
to you.”
    Without another word, he took her hand and slid a far too gentle hand for a man who kept threatening others around her waist. She was too tired to continue fighting his help.
    He took so much of her weight she was barely walking as they continued up the path.
    After several steps in silence, he said quietly, “In that, Shona, you are very wrong. You are not only the mother of my child, you are
mine
. And I will convince you of that truth. In time.”
    “I will never be yours again!” Where the energy or will to shout came from, she could not say, but her voice carried with it all the desperation and conviction she felt in that moment.
    Marjory turned back to look at Shona from where she walked hand in hand with Guaire. “Why are you yelling at the nice man, Mummy?”
    Nice man?
Had her daughter lost her mind? Marjory didn’t like strangers and now she’d decided Caelis, the man who said he would have killed her father if he wasn’t already dead, was a
nice man
.
    Perhaps Shona’s sanity wasn’t as intact as she’d convinced herself. Mayhap this was all some truly bizarre nightmare and she would wake soon.
    She could but hope.

Chapter 3

    Sacred mating supersedes all claims among the Chrechte, including that of pack leader,
celi di
and parental authority.
    —C HRECHTE S ACRED L AW, FROM THE ORAL TRADITIONS
    C onsidering the grandeur of the keep’s size
and strength of defense, the actual keep itself was rather sparse. None of the ostentation Shona’s dead husband, the Baron of Heronshire, had been so fond of in evidence at all.
    The great hall
could
easily accommodate a large gathering of the clan, but the silk wall hangings so common in an English baron’s home to denote his wealth and stature were conspicuously absent. No superfluous pieces of furniture graced the cavernous room, either.
    The long tables and benches that served the laird and his warriors were plain wood; no special carvings, even on his chair.
    Though there was no