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“At least I’ve acknowledged them and didn’t try to pretend they were fake,” I bit out as I swung out the door without saying goodbye. Annoyance rippled through me and the blast of cold on my face did little to stem my mood. I wanted to feel this anger because otherwise I suspected I’d let myself lean too far the other way. And that way led to big emotions and potential heartbreak. No, better to pick a fight and push Lachlan back. He’d likely thank me for it one day.
“I don’t know what you’re so prickly about, but I’ll just let you be,” Lachlan said, walking beside me and allowing silence to fill the cool night air. It annoyed me even further that he refused to take the bait. Opening my mouth to argue more, I skidded to a halt as a shriek split the night.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Lachlan
Stubborn woman. I turned my body to protect Sophie from what I knew to be the Kelpies thundering across Loch Mirren toward us. They’d grown particularly unruly the last few nights, perhaps because we hadn’t moved fast enough to restore the Order, and I’d been losing a lot of sleep standing watch on the castle’s battlement. So far, they’d never taken form, instead using their bone-rattling screams to send fear through the village.
“Is that…” Sophie ducked her head around me and gasped at the sight. My heart picked up speed as I stared the Kelpies down, feeling just as frightened as I had the very first time I’d seen them.
It had happened the year after my mum had died. I’d never told anyone about it and had worked to convince myself it was merely a product of my imagination and the cans of Guinness that I’d pilfered from the kitchen. It had been late evening, and I’d been doing dumb kid stuff—throwing rocks at walls, breaking a glass bottle I found on the street—being a general nuisance. I’d been a ways down from the castle, as even I wasn’t stupid enough to act out under the watchful eyes of Hilda, when I’d felt something shift in the air. There was no other way to explain it, not that I’d tried to with anyone. It was like in the old cartoons where a huge shadow would loom over the good guy before they realized they were in trouble. The hair on the back of my neck had stood up and the temperature had dropped, like when a storm was about to blow in. I’d frozen, my back to the loch, my heart pounding in my chest. The shriek had started as nothing more than a whisper, the threat shimmering across the waters, gaining strength until the scream exploded around me, shaking my body with its wrath. Dropping to the ground, I’d cowered there, almost too afraid to look. But curiosity had gotten the better of me and I’d finally turned to see something that had haunted my nightmares ever since.
I’d never seen the Kelpies since then, only ever hearing their screams in the night, and I’d been able to convince myself that they were just a figment of my imagination fueled by too much alcohol for a young boy. Maybe I’d been lying to myself all these years, but the lie had kept me resolute in being a rock for the people of Loren Brae, doing my best to lead with a steadfast and responsible head.
It had also given me permission during my teenage years to grow angry with my mother for going swimming on such a blustery day. She should have known better. It was her fault she’d drowned and left me behind motherless. The same lie had also made it easy for me to never let myself fall in love with anyone.
When you loved someone too much, they were taken from you. I’d promised myself that being lonely was far better than having to grieve the loss of someone you loved. And, oh, how I’dlovedmy mother. Her memory had taken on a golden shine through the years, an almost idol-like glow, and while intellectually I understood she’d been a woman with her own flaws and faults, to me she’d been perfect. Her absence had left a heart-sized hole in my growing body, and it took me a year to cry about her death. It was that night, actually, the night of the Kelpies, that I’d finally broken down and sobbed, all of the anguish and pain of her loss—and fury at the Kelpies for taking her from me. When I’d finally looked up again, the beasts had retreated. Nothing more than whitecapped waves thrashing around in the loch, and I’d raised my fists in fury. Who were they to make me cry? To make me feel? That was the whole point, wasn’t it? To remain numb to the pain.
Since that night, whenever the shrieks echoed in the cold air of dawn, I relived the pain and fear I’d felt, and recited my mantra that the Kelpies weren’t real, and love only led to loss.
But now, as a man, it was impossible to ignore what was right in front of my face. Even though I’d had a few pints, it wasn’t enough to cloud my mind, and I couldn’t hide from what barreled across the loch toward us. Even ifIwanted to pretend it wasn’t real, Sophie’s open mouth and shocked expression told me that, unfortunately, we weren’t in a shared hallucination.
Thick waves coiled and curled as though a fierce wind pushed the water from where Loch Mirren met the base of the mountains. They clamored over each other, a churning storm of water, until it rose above our heads, at least eight stories high. The water swirled and reared back, forming the shape of two horse heads and, inexplicably, lightning flashed from within the water as one of the Kelpies opened its mouth and shrieked. The sound, this close, was much like what I’d experienced as a boy, and I found myself frozen to the spot, unable to move. Everything I’d told myself for years was a lie, and the thing about lies was they always,alwayscame back to bite you in the face.
This time, possibly, quite literally.
As the Kelpies reared back, I found myself helpless and afraid, the boy who grieved his mother unable to react. Shame twisted in my gut.
“No,” Sophie shouted, seeming to understand my predicament. Moving in front of me, she walked toward the Kelpies, her hands raised in the air. “No! You willnot. Back up.” Each word was a sharp command, shouted on the wind, brooking no argument. Horror filled me as one of the Kelpies lowered its head. I opened my mouth to scream at Sophie to step back before she got washed away in a tidal wave of water when the Kelpies did something that surprised me.
They listened.
Both water horses hung their heads close to Sophie, seeming to sniff her.Coulda Kelpie sniff?I had no idea how these things worked. But terror still clung to my heart, seeing how small Sophie looked next to the massive beasts. But in seconds, they receded peacefully, the water swallowing them back up, and Sophie crossed to me.
My warrior queen, I thought, her face drained of color except for two bright spots on her cheeks, her shoulders hunched inside my old jumper. I wanted to hug her. To take her inside and show her how much she meant to me, already, inexplicably so. And still, I remained frozen, the fear and loss I’d felt as a boy reminding me of what happens when you love someone.
They got taken away.
The little voice in my head finally snapped me out of it, and I crossed my arms in front of my chest, forcing a bravado I didn’t feel.
“Well, that was intense, eh?” I aimed for lightness but realized I missed the mark when Sophie just studied me with her wide blue eyes, her teeth buried in that thick lower lip of hers. I wanted to bite her just there too but had to dig my fingers into my palms to stop myself from reaching out to her.
“It was terrifying. I can imagine even more so for you.” Sophie’s voice was gentle, as though she was soothing a wild horse, and I bristled at her tone. I didn’t need to be something else she tamed.
“It wasn’t terrifying. It’s just a shock to see them. It was foolish of you to go over there. Do you have any idea how quickly you can drown if the water had come down on top of you?” It was better if I went on the defense, I realized.
“And do you have a better suggestion on how I should have handled that?” Sophie arched a brow at me, and I felt her call my manhood into question.
“You should have stayed back and let me handle it,” I said, turning to hike toward the castle, furious with myself and with her. “I’ve been dealing with this for years, not you. It’s not your problem to solve.”
“Oh, so just get out? You’re not one of us? Seems to me I’ve been exactly what you’ve been waiting for,” Sophie said. At her words, I whirled and stunned myself by reaching for her. I wanted to throttle her.
Instead, I kissed her.
I kissed her until spots danced in front of my eyes and I could barely breathe for wanting her. I kissed her until the memory of the fear I’d felt faded away and a new fear filled me. A fear of losing this incredible woman before me—both tenderhearted and fierce—who looked at me as though she knew all my secrets. I kissed her until nothing else mattered except that I had to fill myself with her taste, her scent, her very essence. Without a second thought, I picked Sophie up and tossed her over my shoulder, making a beeline for the stables, which I knew would be empty at these hours. Kicking the door to the tack room open, I grabbed a clean horse blanket and headed for the hay room. There, I flicked on the rusty overhead light, which barely shined a pall across the floor, and tossed the blanket over some loose hay.
“Lachlan!” Sophie gasped. I slipped her down my body, already hard with need for her, and found her mouth once more. There I lost myself, adrenaline pounding through me, and slipped my hands beneath her jumper to find smooth skin. I needed this woman more than I needed my next breath and, if she said no to me now, I might well and truly lose my mind.
