Moon Craving

Chapter 10

Only one torch burned in the cavern when Talorc entered sometime after midnight. The water of the pool looked like obsidian in the muted amber light. He contemplated soaking in it before joining Abigail, but he recognized it for the stalling tactic it was and turned from the pool to look at his wife.

She slept fitfully, having kicked off the fur that should be covering her beautiful body. She was wearing her shift, though she had not done so since attempting to the night of their wedding. If preserving her modesty was her goal, she had failed miserably. The undergarment had ridden up her thighs until the pretty blond curls that covered her mound were revealed.

Her shapely legs glowed in the soft light, beckoning him to touch. Everything about his wife’s body appealed to his senses and his wolf’s nature. Instead of pouting like a little boy deprived of his lifemate, Talorc should be grateful he at least found Abigail desirable.

He hadn’t her sister.

He did not know why he had avoided the lovely blonde gracing his furs tonight. Their situation was less her fault than his. He, at least, could have chosen to disregard his king’s desires. Again. Abigail’s stepfather might have offered to refuse the marriage, but the reality was Abigail’s mother would have made her life even more a misery if the baron had been fool enough to do it.

And Talorc would have been forced to kill him. After all, he had decided to accept the marriage knowing the cost of doing so from the moment he sent his demands to his king.

Besides, he wanted his wife. One of the few compensations from this ill-conceived marriage was the fact he was free to have sex with her as frequently as they both desired. And yet he had stupidly avoided her for a good part of the night.

It might be past midnight, but he had finally wised up.

Stripping off his plaid, he joined her on the furs, his cock already standing at attention and his wolf clamoring for touch. Talorc reached out and traced the curve of her soft, feminine belly with one fingertip.

Her forehead wrinkling like she was frustrated, Abigail shifted toward him in her sleep. He moved as well, readily allowing their bodies to settle against each other. She seemed to like that as she stopped moving and the lines of her face smoothed to peacefulness.

If he did not know better, he would think she was part Chrechte, the way she reacted with almost animal-like instincts.

Leaning down, he took a deep breath, inhaling her addictive fragrance. Emily had not smelled this good; no woman ever had. But his lovely wife’s natural perfume was like wildflowers on the floor of Heaven to his wolf’s senses. Unable to help himself, Talorc nuzzled into the smooth skin of her neck.

She tilted her head back in an unconscious gesture of submission that went straight to his sex and his wolf’s spirit.

He continued to nuzzle her until the urge to scent her in the way of his people grew irrepressible. He rubbed his cheek against hers on one side of her face and then the other. His wolf cried out for Talorc to change and to scent his mate properly, but he resisted. Abigail would no doubt have heart failure were she to wake to a giant gray wolf rubbing his muzzle against her cheeks and neck.

She’d been terrified enough meeting him in the woods. She had an unhealthy fear of wild animals he would have to help her get past. ’Twas a good thing he had no intention of ever revealing his wolf nature to his wife. Even if he could trust her with his secrets, her terror would remain a barrier between them.

So, scenting her as a man would have to do. It would be enough to mark her as his for the other Chrechte. Now that they had access to water for washing, his fastidious wife would not leave the scent of their lovemaking rubbed into her skin.

Unfortunately.

Abigail’s breath hitched and then changed to reflect a waking state. Her smell changed subtly as she experienced some kind of agitation. Tension crept into her limbs even though she had not moved. He lifted his head to meet her eyes.

She blinked sleepily at him, something unreadable in the brown depth of her gaze. “You’re here.”

He did not ask where else he should be, considering he had spent most of the night away from their temporary bed. He simply nodded and then covered her lips with his before she could say anything else, or ask any questions he did not want to answer.

She went rigid against him, all implications of unconscious surrender disappearing as she jerked her face away from his and broke the kiss.

He reared up to lean on his arms above her. “What is wrong, angel?” Then a thought struck him. “Are you still sore?”

She did not reply, keeping her face averted so he could not read her expression.

That bothered him more than he cared to admit and he carefully grasped her chin to turn her head so their eyes met. “Answer me.”

She stared at him, her soft brown gaze shimmering with what looked like resignation.

“You are sore. It is all right. We will wait until you have healed.” He was no monster.

“I am not sore.”

“Then why did you turn away?” he demanded with exasperation.

“How can you share your body with your enemy?”

“I would not.” Disgust at the idea laced his voice.

Her brows drew together in confusion. “You said I was your enemy when we were eating the evening meal.”

“I did not.”

“You did. I do not always understand . . .” She hesitated and blew out a clearly frustrated breath. “Gaelic. I do not always understand Gaelic perfectly. It is not my first language, but I know the word for enemy.”

He mentally reviewed each word he said to her over the evening meal and comprehension finally dawned. “I said it was enough that you and I are not enemies, I do not expect us to be friends.”

Her eyes glowed with pleasure, but dimmed almost as quickly as he finished speaking.

“You do not think we can be friends?”

She was formerly English. She was a woman. She was not Chrechte and could never know of that important part of himself. There was only one answer to her question, but he could not force the negative out. So, he shrugged and watched with amusement as her eyes narrowed in what could be only described as an adorable glare.

“That is not an answer.”

“Aye, my angel, it is.”

Her lips parted, but before she could argue, he covered them again with his mouth. This time, he took advantage of the opening and thrust his tongue forward to claim her sweetness.

Unlike a moment ago, her response was instant and blatant. She had really been bothered by the idea that he saw her as an enemy. Women were strange creatures with minds unfathomable.

He would never bed his enemy, but he would not be overly worried if she considered him less than trustworthy. He would still bury himself in her softness. Not that she would distrust him. He was the Sinclair, and by her words and actions, she had shown she knew what that meant—at least to the extent that she trusted her safety in his hands.

For her to refuse intimacy because she thought he viewed her in a negative light when she so clearly enjoyed making love was overly refined thinking. ’Twas most likely the result of her more civilized English manners.

Now that she had decided she could allow herself a natural response, she burned him with the fire of her need. He reveled in the carnality of their kiss, rubbing his naked body against hers. Her small hands grabbed onto his shoulders, her nails digging in and sparking satisfaction in his wolf’s spirit at her flagrant possessiveness. He lowered himself, covering her body completely with his in a move demanded by his Chrechte blood.

He rubbed his body against hers, scenting every bit of skin that he could reach. His bones shuddered with the need to change, but he controlled it.

Barely.

His wolf howled for release. He willed the beast to submerge itself in pleasure.

Lifting her arms above her head, he nuzzled one of her armpits. An aphrodisiac like no other, the scent of her pheromones made him crazy. He nipped the tender skin right where arm and shoulder joined. Her body jerked, her hips pressing up into him. She wasn’t trying to buck him off though, not with the way her smaller calves wrapped around his, holding him to her with unmistakable intent.

He approved and let her know how much by rubbing his hard cock against the apex of her thighs. She made a choked noise, her hips bucking again and again. It was amazing how perfectly their bodies were attuned, considering she was not part wolf.

He threw his head back and howled out his pleasure and his need.

Then his head dipped forward of its own volition and his lips sought out the join of her shoulder and neck. He opened his mouth over the sensitive spot, his teeth brushing the skin there, making them both moan in a feral recognition as old as time. He bit down, gently but firmly, worrying the mark he had made the night before.

A keening sound broke from her throat and his body went rigid with pleasure at the recognition of his claiming. His wolf howled so loud inside him that his head reverberated with it. Her entire body bowed, lifting his much-larger form several inches before she collapsed back into the furs.

He shifted his hips until his granite-hard erection pressed into the slick opening to her soft body.

“Do it.” Her hands grabbed at him, pulling him down. “Do it. Do it. Do it. Claim me.”

He could not have stopped himself if he had wanted to. He claimed her with his bite and with his manhood.

As he surged inside, two things happened. The first was an overwhelming sense of coming home, even stronger than he had the night before. So strong, he could not begin to deny it. So strong that it paralyzed him into temporary immobility.

And the second was that he heard her cry out his name. In his head.

He recognized the soft cadence of her voice, but there was a timbre to it he had not heard from her before, a richness that her spoken words did not have.

No. It was not possible. She was human. She was his king’s choice, not Talorc’s. She was not Chrechte. She must have said it out loud and he just thought he had heard it in his mind.

That had to be it.

All inner arguments fled as the pleasure built with unprecedented speed between them. She moved under him with wanton sensuality. His hips thrust of their own accord, moving his hardness in and out of her with a speed and strength he would not have thought she could handle, much less rejoice in so clearly.

He slid his forearms under her knees and pulled her legs up so he could thrust more deeply.

“Yes. Yes. Yes . . .” Each affirmative barely whispered past her lips, but the intensity of the demand was more obvious than if she had screamed the words.

He spiraled toward climax. The strange sensation that he could feel her doing the same only increased his pleasure. Building it and building it. Until they reached an orgasm together that was so intense his shy wife screamed out so loud it would have shattered his inner ear.

If the cry had not sounded inside his head.

He put his head back and howled in indescribable pleasure as he planted his seed deep in his wife’s body and cried out her name in his mind.

“Abigail.”

Her breath seized in her chest and Abigail’s body convulsed with another wave of wondrous bliss as she heard her name shouted in her husband’s pleasure-drenched voice.

Heard it.

Heavens above and all the saints besides. Could it be true? Had she truly heard Talorc yell her name as he reached his own pinnacle of gratification? Yet, how could it be anything but real? She who had heard nothing, not even a ringing in her ears, for too many silent years, had heard her own name called out.

She gasped at the sheer miracle of it, tears of joy burning with welcome sting in her eyes.

Grabbing his face with both hands, she demanded, “Say it again. Say my name again.”

But as she spoke, cold dread lapped at the edges of her joy. She had not heard her own voice.

He stared at her with satiated pleasure and obligingly complied with her frenzied request. “Abigail.”

She watched his lips form the syllables she knew made her name, but no sound penetrated the cocoon of silence she lived in. Desolation choked her even as she begged, “Again. Please?”

Talorc’s brows drew together and he asked her a question with his amazing blue eyes.

She could not answer it though, only beg again, “Please.” Though each word she uttered eroded the hope that had blossomed at what she had thought was a miracle.

Because she could not hear her own words and now questioned whether she had indeed heard her name. But if not, then what? It had been so long since anything but silence had assailed her, she could not remember sound. She fought the forgetting of normalcy, but each year drew her further into a world that felt as if it had never had sound at all.

Still, how could she have imagined something she never even experienced in her dreams anymore?

“Are you not well?” he asked.

And she read the meaning on his lips, in the concern now masking his features, but she did not hear.

How could she answer?

They had just shared a pleasure beyond belief and she was allowing the imaginings of her mind to ruin it. She was not well, but it was no one’s fault but her own.

She forced a smile and pulled his face toward her, intent on hiding behind a kiss. “How could I be anything else?”

How indeed?

And he cooperated in helping her hide, kissing her with a tenderness and leftover passion that assuaged the pain of her self-delusion.

He did not take her to soak in the hot spring this night, but led her on another sensual journey that did not end with any inexplicable experiences. Then he kissed her after—right into slumber.

Talorc woke with his arms wrapped protectively around his mate. Not just his angel in a flight of fancy, but his true and sacred mate. If he could believe the evidence of his mind and senses. How was it possible?

The arguments against the probability of finding a sacred mate the way he had were just as valid as the day before, but none of them mattered in the face of one inescapable fact: He had heard her voice inside his head. They were capable of mindspeak. Not all true mates were, but it was an indisputable sign that the mating was blessed.

It also meant that until Abigail or he died, they would be physically capable of mating with only each other. Not that he would have considered doing otherwise. The Sinclairs, particularly the Chrechte among them, placed high importance the physical act of sex. Most members of the clan, warriors and women alike, considered it a sacred bond, not to be broken.

Even more important, the sacred mating bond meant that not only could Abigail have Talorc’s children, but most likely she would have them. What had seemed an impossibility the night before now had a strong chance of happening. Talorc would send his wolf nature into the next generation if he was blessed with Chrechte offspring rather than human.

It was enough to make him howl in delight. However, his joy was tinged with melancholy.

He could not tell Abigail of his full nature and risk her revealing the secrets of his people to outsiders. Thus he could not share some of the benefits of the true mate bond with her, like mindspeaking. Since he had accepted a while ago that he would most likely not find his true mate, that should not bother him. But it did.

Knowing the mental intimacy they were capable of made him long to participate in the ancient Chrechte act. Yet part of him was relieved he had a reason to avoid it. The true bond was disconcerting enough; the deep intimacy of mindspeak was not something he was comfortable sharing with a woman he had met only a few days before. Particularly a human who had been born and raised in England.

He must be careful not to speak into her mind as he had done when shouting her name during his first climax the night before. He could not risk revealing the true state of their mating before he was ready. If that time ever came.

Abigail’s first view of the Sinclair holding was more than a little imposing. Her sister’s letters had described a keep similar to their father’s, with timber fence surrounding the motte and bailey. Not so now. In the almost three years since her sister had first gone north, that timber had been replaced with stone, and the Sinclair keep looked more like a castle. A solid, impenetrable fortress, to be precise.

A wide moat surrounded the high stone wall. The water was dark, indicating a depth that would prevent easy crossing.

Horse hooves clattered as their party went over the single access point, a narrow bridge that led to the only opening she could see in the wall. Clanspeople had come out of their cottages to welcome their laird home and followed the horses across the bridge. They were joined by more men and women in the bailey.

Some called out, many cheered and children ran in games of tag around the men mounted on their huge steeds. It was a much different picture than the one Emily had painted of her first view of the Sinclair holding. Both warrior and warhorses showed their superior training because the children were never in danger of being trampled.

Talorc maintained their forward movement, however, crossing the bailey to guide his horse onto a path up the motte. Stone walls rose high on both sides, casting a shadow over them all, those riding and on foot alike.

Abigail could not tell if the steep hill was man-made like her father’s motte or a happenstance of nature. The path beneath her horse’s feet was composed of dirt and moss-covered stones. It felt solid, indicating the hill had been created many years ago, whether by God or man. No rainstorm would wash away its foundation as tragically happened back in England on occasion.

Sybil had worried and lamented about such a thing happening since she had taken her daughters to live in the Hamilton keep.

The gate at the top of the path was open and Talorc rode through, his bearing proud and imposing. A contingent of warriors, every bit as ferocious looking as the ones that had accompanied them north, waited in the courtyard. They stood in front of a single circular stone tower centered on the flattened top of the hill. The tower soared well over thirty feet into the air, competing with the fierce soldiers for Abigail’s curious attention.

Talorc dismounted and greeted the warrior that looked to be Niall’s twin with a fist to his heart. The other man copied his laird’s movement, adding a nod toward Talorc that was almost a bow but not quite.

Abigail smiled at Niall. “That is your brother, Barr, is it not?”

“Aye.”

“He’s almost as handsome as you, but he lacks the mark of strength you carry on your face.”

Tipping his head back, Niall laughed out loud, making Abigail grin. She liked to see joy on her new friend’s face.

The warriors around them stopped greeting their laird and stared. So did the clanspeople, looking at Niall as if he’d sprouted Medusa snakes on his head.

Niall’s mirth transformed to a fierce glare, causing all but a red-haired man standing near Talorc to affect immediate interest in something else. The red-haired man was smiling and staring at Niall with what could only be described as a love-struck expression. Not that Niall seemed to notice, he was too busy trying to intimidate his friends.

Abigail shook her head, giving up on trying to keep track of the conversations around her. She could only see a few people’s lips, and she didn’t have enough experience watching them speak yet to accurately read more than every other word. She could not see her husband’s mouth at all. However, when everyone, including the clanspeople that had followed them from the lower bailey fixed their attention on Abigail, she surmised he’d said something in regard to her.

Panicked, she looked at Niall. “What did he say? I was not paying attention.”

Niall gave her a strange look but didn’t hesitate to reply. “Our laird introduced you as his wife. The soldiers and clan are now at liberty to speak to you.”

“You mean they weren’t before?”

“You dinna notice none of the soldiers spoke to you on our trip north?”

“I thought they might be shy.” Or that they hadn’t liked her because she was English. “You spoke to me.”

“I had my laird’s leave to do so.”

“Wow, Sybil would throw a fit worthy of a yowling, scalded cat if my father presumed to dictate who could and could not speak to her.”

“Does that mean you intend to throw such a fit?” Talorc asked, having approached without her noticing.

She shook her head with a smile. “Not at all.” If he but knew it, he had just made her life all the easier. The fewer people that spoke directly to her, the less chance her secret would be revealed.

“Good.” He put his arms up, indicating he would help her from the horse. “Come.”

She didn’t hesitate, sliding from the white mare’s back right into her husband’s strong arms. He set her from him immediately but put one hand on her shoulder. “I have already introduced my wife, I now tell you that Abigail of the Sinclair is your new lady.”

Surprise rippled through the crowd, but it was no stronger than her own sense of astonishment. Even Abigail recognized a seal of approval when she “heard” it. Talorc was telling his people he expected them to accept her.

Amazing.

She knew he had not done the same for Emily. Her sister had felt hated by the Sinclairs.

An old man approached, a scowl on his wrinkled features. “You ask us to pledge our loyalty to this Sassenach?”

“Nay.”

Abigail felt her heart plummet. Had she misunderstood?

“I do not ask. I demand it. As is their right, any who wish to challenge me may do so. Be assured, however, that I will consider the least slight to my mate a challenge for my position as laird.”

The old man stepped back, clearly reeling from his leader’s words.

Abigail felt a bit faint herself. Talorc had just announced to all who cared to listen that he considered her his friend. Warmth suffused her along with guilt she had kept buried deep inside since she began hiding her deafness from those around her.

She did not want to deceive her husband, but terror at his reaction to the truth prevented her from admitting it. Even now. Her plan had been to reveal her affliction upon reaching the Highlands so that Talorc would send her to live with her sister, Emily, among the Balmorals. With that goal in mind, telling the truth of her lack of hearing would have been easy.

Or so she supposed, but now it felt impossible. Once again hope was blooming inside that there might be a place for her among the Sinclairs. A true place. A position of belonging. And she did not want to give that up.