Moon Burning - By Lucy Monroe Page 0,55
to protect his mate, from everything that might harm or cause her serious emotional turmoil. His father had taught him that truth, but Earc’s wolf would have made itself known regardless.
She chewed on her lower lip, her hands twisting in her skirts.
“I love my brother.”
“As you should.”
“The clan relies on me as their healer.”
“Are there no others?”
“None who apprenticed with a master healer like my mother, who taught me to treat a wide range of ailments.”
“The Donegal clan is lucky to have you.”
“I don’t want to leave.” She looked up at him with beautiful blue eyes that pleaded for understanding.
He could not deny her, but he still did not understand why she was so upset. He wasn’t going to marry her and return to the Sinclair holding this very night, or even in the next year or two. “You are not going anywhere.”
“As your mate, I would one day, sooner than later, be forced to leave my family.”
“As I left mine behind to come here.”
“Yes.”
“I have parents and siblings to share with you among the Sinclairs.” Could she not see the benefit?
“I am all Circin has.”
“I will become his brother as well with our mating.”
“What good will that do him with you leaving to return to the clan of your birth?” she asked, her tone accusing and anguished all at once.
And all at once he understood her reticence about the mating. “It will be years before I would return.”
“I don’t want to leave at all.”
He could have reminded her that as his mate, she had no choice but to go where he went. He could have assured her that all would be well, that she would love life among the Sinclairs, but something held all those words back.
He looked down at her, at this woman who had suffered so much loss already in her life and still served her clan with her healing arts. She was not bitter or twisted by her sorrow, but she pulled back from wanting more.
How could he not be moved by such strength matched by equal vulnerability?
“There is only two days’ journey between the Donegal keep and Sinclair’s castle.”
“Is there?”
“We can visit my family yearly.”
“Visit?” A tendril of hope sounded in her voice.
“Aye.”
“So, we would live here, among my clan?”
“Among our clan.”
“We could stay with your family for a sennight, or more, each year.” The eagerness in her tone made him smile.
She reached out as if to touch him but then pulled her hand back.
He grabbed her hand and brought it to his face. That strange charge like miniature lightning arced between them.
She looked up at him shyly. “I like when you smile.”
“I like when you smell of joy rather than sorrow.”
“You care if I am happy.” Wonder and astonishment laced her voice.
“I do.”
“Like my father with my mother,” she said, almost in awe. “You are not sickened by my raven nature.”
“No.” Why would she even ask that? She had already acknowledged that she did not believe he was like the other men of her clan.
She turned away, a sense of caution surrounding her. “There is a thing you still do not know.”
“Tell me.”
“The ravens have gifts beyond their shifting nature.”
“As do wolves.”
She huffed, as if frustrated by his lack of understanding. “I can sense imminent death in a person.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how the raven seems to always be able to tell when death is coming within its territory?”
“Aye. It is uncanny, that.”
“Those of the Éan share much with their bird nature, beyond that which others might accept.”
“Explain.”
“If I lay my hands on someone, I can feel if they are going to die.” She said the words without any inflection of emotion, but he did not believe this gift came without great cost to one as compassionate as his mate.
“’Tis a useful talent for a healer to have.” If not a particularly pleasant one for her tender heart.
“Perhaps. It was how I knew my parents did not die in the natural way of things.”
He did not understand and was smart enough not to pretend he did. “Because you did not sense their deaths?” he tried guessing.
“I do not, when the death is caused by another person.”
“Murder.” The foul word left a sour taste on his tongue.
“Or challenge. Or battle.”
That made a bit more sense. Like the ravens who shared a nature with her, she sensed nature’s culling of its inhabitants. “So, you did not know Rowland would die in the challenge.”
“I would never have gotten close enough to touch him to find out.”