“You and me, I believe,” Aspen murmured, surprising me when she caught my thoughts far faster than she should have, given we’d had so little contact. “Just like she did for my sisters and their fated mates across time, she is trying to bring us together, Laird Broderick.” Her voice grew soft again. Strained. “Now that I'm seeing the bigger picture, I would say she is trying to make up for breaking your heart.”
No doubt she was, and it hit me far more intensely than I anticipated. So intensely, I did the last thing I should have done. Certainly, the last thing a good chieftain would do.
CHAPTER FIVE
–Aspen–
IF IT WEREN’T for Kenneth and Lucas, as well as Broderick’s parents, I’m not sure how I would have made it through the rest of the evening because after seeing the Viking sword tattoo on my wrist, the man who was supposed to be my soulmate bid everyone an abrupt good night and left mid-meal.
Fortunately, Kenneth and Lucas gave me no time to get upset because I was damn close, but thanks to them being as charming and amusing as ever, the whole situation didn’t seem so catastrophic.
At least not until I was alone in bed later that night.
That’s how I had always been, though. I did my best not to show my angst around others, only letting it out when I was alone. It had become my mantra as I grew up, and my mom moved us from trailer park to shelter to trailer park. My father was nothing but a sperm donor, in my opinion, who ranoff and only later peppered himself into my life when I was an adult, or at least he had tried. By then, he wasn’t worth the effort. Why get close and risk the pain of him possibly turning away from me all over again?
Now, here I was, lying in a medieval castle over six hundred years in my past, suffering that same feeling, yet it seemed ten times worse, and I’d only just met Broderick. Or so I kept reminding myself because it felt like I had known him far longer. You could say I had, in a way, via my imagination born of Storm’s letters, but it felt deeper than that.Morethan that.
Since the moment I looked into his eyes in the courtyard, whatever whimsical make-believe ideologies he’d become part of had blossomed into something I couldn’t break free from. It was like he burrowed deeper inside me, refusing to let me go even though he didn’t want me here.
Even though he was clearly in love with another woman.
The fact he was in love with someone I considered a dear friend made this so much more excruciating. While I suspected I knew what Storm, who turned out to be a time traveler from my century, had been thinking when she wrote me those letters, I still felt angry she hadn’t been honest from the beginning. That she hadn't told me she had been good friends with Broderick. I knew it was silly to feel that way because I had only been a child and wouldn’t have understood, but still.
How could she play matchmaker with so many lives? And across time, no less? One part of me felt she was probably feeding a guilty conscience if she knew how Broderick felt about her. Another more practical side knew it was an awful lot of effort to go to, even for a good friend.
That left only one answer, and based on whatever had been growing inside me since I got here, combined with how familiar Iwas with the castle, Broderick’s cousins, and Broderick himself, it was the only answer that made sense.
Broderick and Iwerefated mates whether we ended up together or not.
Although it took a bit to come to terms with everything, I knew that for dragons, fated mates meant we were bound to each other, life after life. Most of the time, we would be drawn to each other, no matter what, finding it impossible to be with anyone else, but every so often, there were cases where one of the mates chose to be alone.
So that could very well be this life for us.
It felt like it was heading in that direction as I did something I hadn’t done since childhood and gave in to tears, crying myself to sleep. Given my circumstances, I thought it would be an uncomfortable night, but I slept soundly as though, in some strange way, I were home.
More at home than I had ever felt before.
When I woke the next morning, thunder rumbled in the distance, and as if recently tended, an inviting fire crackled on the hearth. At first, I felt a rush of anticipation when I remembered where I was, but then, just as swiftly, I felt crushing disappointment when I recalled what had happened last night.
“Just deal with it,” I muttered, as I always did when times got tough. Enough is enough.
The worst thing I could do was give in to sadness, so I got out of bed, rolled my shoulders, inhaled deeply, and focused on the positive aspects of my situation. More often than not, that meant looking at everything as an adventure and reminding myself change was good. In my youth, it was because I was getting away from one unpleasant location or another.
Right now, staying positive meant seizing an opportunity most people in the twenty-first century didn’t have. A chance to explore a Scottish castle inthe actual medieval period. It didn’t matter that it was full of dragon shifters. It was still part of recorded history. I learned last night that Robert II was the King of Scotland, having taken the throne after King Robert the Bruce’s son, King David, passed away at Edinburgh Castle.
While unlikely, I couldn’t help but thrill at the possibility of meeting the current King of Scotland in a day and age when monarchs fought and died alongside their men on the battlefield. Keeping that sense of anticipation, as well as the excitement of exploring MacLeod Castle, in mind, I pulled on a dress similar to the one I’d worn the night before, minus the plaid wrap, ran a crude-looking brush through my hair, and set out on the next leg of my adventure.
“Ah, she awakens.” Having clearly been waiting for me, Kenneth leapt up from his chair across the hallway when I opened my door. Offering me an infectious smile, he extended his elbow. “Might I escort you below stairs to break your fast, then mayhap we can enjoy a tour of the castle and grounds together?”
“That would be great.” Already liking him a great deal, I met his smile and slipped my arm into his. “But not outside due to the weather?”
“Does rain melt witches from the future, then?” Lucas teased, having been leaning against the wall beside the door, waiting for me as well, which was fine because I liked him just as much. “Because I know dragons tend to enjoy it.”
“I don’t know about the dragon part so much,” I replied as we headed down the same hallway as the night before. “But this witch loves the rain and most definitely loves a good storm.”
Kenneth steered me down another corridor I hadn’t traveled before. “Then ‘twill be a good day all the way around.”
“And mayhap one to speak of things we didnae get to last night,” Lucas added.
