moved to the side and saw Anton leading the woman back over to them. The older woman was being held back by the priest and he was saying something to her. That made Cami more nervous than if the woman had been screaming and clawing at Anton. She knew without a doubt that the priest wasn’t going to walk away and forget taking her. He’d come after her and try to take her regardless of the fact that she had a mate. She looked at Linc and Colm and saw that they were watching the priest with narrowed eyes. Good, at least she didn’t have to tell them to be careful of that man.
Chapter Eight
The early summer sun shone from a light blue sky and Cami felt a little thrill of excitement as they drew closer to Tobai Thent. She didn’t understand the anticipation. She strained to get a glimpse of the large building. Maybe a little of it was anxiety, but not all of it. She wanted to see this place they were all so eager to return to. Was it the same as Scali Thent?
Most of the men broke off and began riding to their homes as they approached the walls. She almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing as they approached Colm and Linc’s Thent. It sat atop a hill and houses, forest and fields spread out around it. She didn’t doubt that it was secure and would be able to protect the members of the clan should they have need to retreat to it, but she’d expected it to be a strong, defensible building.
She hadn’t expected it to look inviting. The walls were a pale blue. As they rode through the outer gate and then the second gate on the inner wall, she wanted to reach out and touch the thick stone just to see if it was rough, or as smooth as it looked. She’d never seen rock that color.
The interior of the fortress surprised her just as much as the walls. A garden growing food and herbs as well as fruit trees dominated an area to the side of the main building. That was definitely different. She recognized the area set aside for training on the other side of the building.
The space within the walls of Scali Thent had been abandoned almost completely. What training was done happened outside of the Thent walls. There had been no garden. Not even a small patch of herbs for the cooks. Everything had to be brought to the fortress from the fields.
Now only Avan, the Ardin, the chatar, the healer and two other warriors who’d ridden out to meet them remained on the mican. They rode over to a large stone and wood building. From the wide doors and the sounds she heard from inside as well as the smell, she could tell it was a stable.
They pulled to a halt just outside of it and dismounted. Cami followed suit. She wasn’t waiting around for Colm and Linc to help her down from the animal. One of them would do it if she wasn’t fast enough. Since they’d helped her with her magic that night, they’d been more attentive. Most of the time, they were close to her and seemed aware of what she was doing. They’d been careful about not pressuring her too much and approaching her one on one.
Not that it had made much difference. Tension thrummed through her. Those dreams drove her insane. Her mind seemed determined to show her exactly what she was missing. Hot sex, cuddling with them and low, intimate conversations. She wanted it too much. She hadn’t even kissed either one of them, but in her dreams they touched her in almost every way possible.
The pursuit would probably intensify now that they’d reached the relative safety of their Thent. The constant travel had kept a little distance between them. That was gone now. One of the only good things she could think of about this was that there would be more time for her to learn about her magic. Well, that and she wouldn’t have to ride that mican anymore for a while. She wanted to walk and maybe even take a day simply to rest. That hadn’t been an option, but maybe now.
Colm tossed his reins to Linc and came around the mican. He stopped in front of her and held out his hand. “Let’s go inside and I can show you around a little. We can also get