“This castle was my home,” I whispered. “It looked far different, but I remember being here before, Broderick.” I met his eyes and, for a second, saw the eyes of the man who had scooped me up and stolen me away in a dream. “I remember you...but not you.Usin what had to have been another life. I think we were them...and I was her. The reason you broke all the rules. The reasonbehind the pact.” A shiver went through me. “And I think something bad happened after that.”
“I think you’re right,” he said so softly, I barely caught it, but I saw his troubled expression and how he tensed ever so slightly as if feeling the same thing. “Something that caused me to renew a pact I disliked, despite how beneficial it would have been to my clan.”
“I would say so.” I wrapped my fingers with his and squeezed, trying to lend him strength because I knew this was as hard on him as it was on me, but I had to say what I felt, however heartbreaking. “Not this time, though.” I shook my head. “I’m unsure why I’m so certain, but we can’t repeat the past. We can’t make that mistake again and let others suffer for it.” I blinked away tears. “Suffer because we wouldn’t give each other up.”
Even though he clenched his jaw and shook his head, distressed as he cupped my cheek, I knew he understood how serious this was. Our past lives trying to warn us so we’d make different choices this time. Too much was at stake.
“My mother doesnae want us to lose hope,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion now as he truly understood the only path forward meant potentially losing me.
“I know,” I whispered, my voice just as choppy with emotion when I leaned into his touch. “She seemed certain of that, and she’s clearly very powerful, so I’d say she’s worth listening to.” Trying to lighten the moment, I managed a small, wobbly smile. “She really has the blood of a unicorn? Does that mean you do too?”
“Nay, I didnae inherit it, but aye, she’s more gifted than most because of it, so well worth listening to.” He traced his fingers along my jaw before his dragon eyes flared, and he pulled away, worried about going too far. “I would stay and hold you until you fell asleep, but I cannae trust myself to keep my hands off you.” His gaze stayed steady on mine, giving me strength. “My mother willreturn in the morn to assist you, and I will be waiting below stairs to see...”
“It’s okay,” I said gently when he trailed off, understanding how difficult it was to say. “I’m okay.” I mustered all the strength I could for him and nodded once. “I’ve got this. Just one more adventure I’ll face head-on, knowing somehow, someway, it will bring me back to you.”
“Aye, ‘twill without a doubt.” He hesitated, as if struggling, before he cupped my cheek again, brushed his lips across mine one last time, then vanished into the darkness as swiftly as he had come.
Biting back useless tears, I curled onto my side, grateful for the wolf pup despite how new we were to each other. While it seemed impossible, given my fear and sadness, I must have fallen asleep again because another dream came to me, and this one was far more vivid.
So vivid and heartbreaking, I knew Broderick experienced it with me.
I also knew this time, our goodbye might be forever.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
–Broderick–
NOTHING WAS MORE difficult than leaving Aspen’s side under the darkness of night, knowing she would be leaving me tomorrow and going to my rival clan to make up for the mistakes I made in another life. And theyweremy mistakes first and foremost, as I sensed the dream she had before stirring awake.
For the sake of love, I made a pact, then broke it, stealing her away and sealing the fate of strangers far in my future. I wanted her so much and loved her so fiercely that, in the end, I refused to let anyone else have her, but it came at a cost.
Little did I realize just how much until I lay in my pitifully empty bed, missing her and idly twirling my finger in the spiral design she claimed had helped her travel back to me, only to have a vision so vivid I knew it was real.
Onemoment, I was lying there.
The next, beneath an aspen tree, holding her limp body against me, wracked with such grief, there were no words for it.
I cupped the back of her head and looked down into a beautiful yet deathly pale face that wasn’t exactly hers, but close enough, I knew it was her. She was everything to me, and I had never been so in love or felt the joy she had brought me as the light dimmed in her eyes.
“Protect it,” she whispered hoarsely, resting my hand on her womb. “Protect it like it was yours, my love.”
I knew then, as I lovingly looked into eyes glazed over by pain, that I hadn’t taken her back soon enough. She had already conceived with the man I promised her to, and yet I knew as she faded away, there would be no saving her or the baby, as I couldn't stop the illness that swept through my clan and took them both, breaking my heart.
With grief came the certain knowledge this would cost my people dearly, for the babe in her womb had been half dragon, half witch, and would have been precious indeed.
“Bloodyhell,” I cursed, jolting awake to the here and now as that life snapped shut and I was returned to the present.
Now I knew without question what had happened.
After that, the Sutherlands had threatened to curse the MacLeod bloodline if I didn’t agree to a renewed pact. Our clan’s future offspring would suffer the same fate as the babe in Aspen’s womb. Gone before ever getting a chance to grow to adulthood.
Was that what our past life was trying to warn us about? Would it happen again if we broke the rules a second time? I could only assume so and could think of nothing worse. Yet the aspen tree,heraspen tree, had been in that memory, and now it was here again, having brought her back to me. Didn’t that prove we were meant to be together? It was impossible to know, and nothing irritated me more, given I was hours away from handing her over to Dugal.
After that, I couldn’t sleep if I tried, wondering how much my rival chieftain knew about what had happened, so before the sun rose, I sought out my mother. She seemed to be expecting my knock on her door but was unable to share anything beyond what I had seen. All she could do was insist that Aspen see this through.
It was the only way forward.
“Thereishope, son,” she said gently before sending me on my way, claiming she had to see to Aspen. “That is all I can say for now.”
