The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,110
you all your life, encouraging you to go far from home, out of his demesne. You were strong, with my magic in you,.”
Rhianne went to her, her throat tight. Again, many questions swam at her, and she finally focused on one. “How did you and Eamon meet?”
Lady Aisling rested her hands on Rhianne’s shoulders, her face holding sorrow and the weight of keeping too many secrets. “I often visited the human world to think. I wanted to leave Ivor, but I was afraid of him—I was so very young still. I met Eamon while I was wandering among the Highlands in summer, and he saw me.”
“I was in eagle form,” Eamon put in. “I followed her. I’d never seen such beauty.”
Lady Aisling’s cheeks reddened. “He has always been very flattering. He revealed that he was an eagle Shifter, and I was intrigued. We had—a passionate fling.” She cleared her throat. “When I returned home, I discovered I was pregnant with you. If Ivor had believed the child not his, he would have killed you. And possibly me.”
Rhianne nodded. “He would have.” She hesitated, glancing at Eamon. “Did you know about me?” she asked him.
Lady Aisling answered. “I told him right away, but Eamon agreed we should not let on about your true parentage unless it became absolutely necessary. He gave me the courage to send Ivor away. That terrible journey in which Ivor destroyed the hoch alfar caravan—we were traveling to my home. I hadn’t told Ivor of course, but I’d planned to dismiss him once I was on my own territory, where I’d be strong enough to fight him, and I did just that. Ivor had given me plenty of reason, even before that horrible day on the road. My marriage with Ivor had been empty—he’d married me to use me and my magic, he fully admitted. He’d conducted plenty of affairs of his own, so I had no shame about falling in love with Eamon. And Eamon gave me you, the greatest gift I’ve ever known.”
She let out a breath, her arrogance and self-assurance falling away. “I am so sorry, my darling,” Lady Aisling said softly to Rhianne. “For all of it.”
She drew Rhianne into her embrace. Rhianne held the mother she’d often found so distant, tears springing to her eyes as the pieces of her life fell into place.
The times her mother had seemed to push Rhianne away, she realized now, had been to protect her from Ivor, to not let on to Ivor how much Lady Aisling cherished her daughter, and to prevent him from seeing any hint of the Shifter in her.
Her mother had been keeping Rhianne out of Ivor’s focus, to prevent exactly what had happened now—Ivor pursuing Rhianne to use her for his own machinations.
Lady Aisling had been in a tough position—let Rhianne and Eamon have a loving relationship and risk their very existence, or keep them apart and alive and well.
“Ivor did find out about me,” Rhianne said as she released her mother. “He tried to give me to Walther to breed more like me.” She swallowed on her revulsion.
“Yes, Ivor had me followed on a trip to Paris not long ago. I visited Eamon there, and Ivor must have put two and two together. I did not know this until he’d helped Walther kidnap you. I was most displeased,” Lady Aisling finished with a hint of her usual haughtiness.
“He was there when you didn’t answer when I called you with Jaycee’s crystal,” Rhianne said with conviction. She remembered how angry she’d been, anger she regretted now.
“He was indeed. I was fighting him, and at first, he bested me. Then he forced me to call you, to coax you to come home.” Lady Aisling smiled shakily. “I see you understood my code.”
“You’d never eat Aunt Freya’s pie if you could help it.” Rhianne grinned, then sobered. “I wanted to come home anyway, to save you.”
“I am very glad you did not.” Lady Aisling’s crispness began to return. “He might have killed you, and that I could not have borne. I knew that in this world, the Shifters would help you, and Ben would be your greatest protector.” A twinkle entered her eye. “I knew that the moment I met him.”
Ben listened in surprise. “Is that what you meant when we were out at that trailer in Shreveport?” he asked. “And you said Perhaps ...”
“Indeed,” Lady Aisling returned. “I knew you’d suit Rhianne. But that was not the time to discuss it.”