Moon Burning - By Lucy Monroe Page 0,22
pretend she did not notice, but the connection between the two of them may as well have been a bright red ribbon, it was so obvious.
“You wished to see us, laird?” Circin asked, his voice still showing signs of his youth.
“I did.” Barr’s gaze dropped to Brigit. “I have a concern regarding Sorcha. You, Earc and Verica will spend the night in her cottage. Tomorrow, I will have answers to my questions.”
“Am I right in assuming there are to be no other visitors this night?” Earc asked, his voice deep and tinged with curiosity.
“Aye.”
Brigit was staring at her laird in wide-eyed shock. “The healer is to sleep in our home this night?” Obviously, the girl’s hero-worship was not limited to her new laird.
“That is right.”
“But what if he gets angry?” It was the closest Brigit had come to naming her mother’s tormentor or firmly acknowledging his existence.
“Who are you frightened of?” Verica asked and then looked like she wished she’d kept her mouth closed.
Brigit’s agitation spiked in the air around them and Sabrine simply could not stand it any longer. “Come here, young one.”
Without hesitating, the girl came and climbed to sit beside Sabrine on the bed.
Sabrine took her hand, projecting a warm light around them the others would not see. Brigit’s eyes rounded.
“Is there any warrior in this clan who could defeat Earc, do you think?”
“Only our laird.”
“But he is not the one who causes your distress?”
Brigit shook her head vehemently.
“Then you have naught to fear this night.”
“But what about tomorrow?”
“You must trust your laird to have considered the morrow.” Sabrine sincerely hoped her confidence in the giant man was not misplaced.
And then Barr was there, laying his big hand on the small girl’s back. “I willna allow any to hurt your dam.”
“She didna want me to tell anyone.” Tears were close to the surface in the girl’s voice and the trembling of her lip.
“Aye, and you’ve told us naught, but your innocent question. Your dam will not blame you.”
“I promised.”
“You’ve broken no promise.” Barr’s gentle demeanor with the child touched Sabrine’s soul.
How could this man be the alpha of the pack that had stolen the ravens’ sacred talisman?
“You will still go for a walk in the forest with us tomorrow?” Brigit asked Sabrine anxiously.
“I will.”
“You’ll not be leaving this bed.” Barr’s tone carried the weight of his position as laird and pack leader.
She ignored it. “I will.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You are wounded.” He sounded like he was trying to be reasonable and could not understand her recalcitrance.
“It is not so great I must languish in bed.” Allowing him to believe she was a helpless human was one thing, but having him believe she needed to be bedridden defeated her purpose of searching for the Heart of the Moon stone.
Instead of arguing with her as she expected, Barr gave her a calculated look laced with a good deal of heat.
Just when she realized it might have been a tad precipitous to argue her relative good health just before spending the night under his watch, Earc said, “I believe it is time we took our leave.”
No doubt the other wolf could smell Barr’s increasing level of arousal just like she could. How embarrassing. She’d never been in such a situation before. Other males had wanted her, but not with the level of desire clouding the air around them so thickly she was surprised they could not see it. But the worst part was not how his wolf was reacting to her. It was how she was responding to him.
Her arousal drifted in the air around them as well, defying even the sick feeling she had about Brigit’s mother’s apparent predicament.
Earc’s lips twitched and Sabrine knew he could scent her arousal as well as his laird’s. She glared at him.
Barr’s second gave her a startled look.
“You need not rush off,” she insisted.
“Oh, I think there is every need.”
Circin seemed vaguely embarrassed while his sister gave Sabrine a commiserating look. “If we do not return Brigit to her mother soon, Sorcha will worry.”
Knowing when defeat loomed, Sabrine inclined her head in acknowledgment. “Then you must go.”
“There is no need to sound like they are leaving you to a horrific fate. My care may not have the skill of the healer, but you will be safe from others this night.”
She noted he did not promise she would be safe from him. The man might be a scoundrel, planning things she had never done but could guess at all too easily. However, he was no liar.
Sabrine turned