Her abhorrence at the very thought rang in her soft voice. “If I had, I would not have known, as his death came at your hand.”
“If your father had really been killed by a wild beast—”
“I would have sensed it before he left our cottage and warned him. My Chrechte gifts had just begun to show themselves. For the longest time, I thought it was my fault, that I had somehow ignored the warning in my raven senses. But later I realized the warning did not come if death was by the hand of man.”
“And your mother?”
“Was definitely murdered.” Everything about the way she held herself, the fierce expression in her blue gaze, the tone in her voice—it all spoke of absolute certainty.
A certainty she had been forced to live with since the tragedy, with no recourse against those she believed responsible. “By the bastard Rowland.”
“I always believed so, but had no proof.”
And no way to bring him to justice if she had, considering the stranglehold he’d had on the Donegal clan and Chrechte pack. “Now he has finally paid the price for his cruelties.” Earc couldn’t suppress a wish the man lived just a little longer so he could kill him again.
“He chose his victim poorly with his words this time.”
“He thought he was targeting Circin.” And the wily shifter would have killed the less-seasoned pup without remorse had Circin made the challenge instead of Earc.
“He meant Circin to challenge him. He was looking for a way to get rid of my brother.”
“Aye.” It had not been an overly clever move, but it would have been effective if Rowland had gotten away with it. Barr would never have allowed it, of course, but Earc had his own reasons for stepping in.
“I owe you so much. You saved my brother’s life; you saved my clan.” The approval in her voice gave him pleasure.
But he was not a man to take credit where it was not fully due. “Barr had no plan to let Rowland live after discovering his gross offense against Sorcha.”
Verica nodded, once again biting her lush bottom lip, turning it red and tempting him to taste. “He is a good man to train my brother to lead one day.”
“Aye, he is.” But Earc’s attention was not on his laird’s positive qualities. He was far too occupied with thoughts of how his mate’s mouth and the tender flesh behind her ear would taste on his tongue.
She looked up at him, her eyes shining with an emotion he had no name for. “But you are still the man who saved him.”
“By claiming you for my mate.” Simply saying the words made the craving between them grow until he could think of little else.
She looked down, hiding her expressive eyes from him, perhaps trying to hide her own desire, but the fragrance of her feminine arousal gave her away. “Yes.”
“The connection between us is strong.”
“It is.” The words were almost a whisper.
“Why do you hide from me?”
“I am afraid of you.”
The words were worse than any blow he had received in battle. He had spent the last month dreaming of this woman, growing more and more enamored of her until the move to claim her as mate this morning had seemed the most natural course to take.
And she feared him.
He stepped back, so that amazing connection no longer hummed between them. Perhaps it was more one-sided than he’d believed. Perhaps his wolf’s senses deceived him. “What have I done to deserve such?”
She clasped her hands in front of her, twisting them as anxiety surrounded them thicker than the morning mist. And twice as cold.
“Answer me.” He would have her words; he was no ogre to be feared by the woman destined to bear his children.
“I could love you,” she said, her voice so quiet, it was not even a whisper.
Were he not wolf, he would not have heard. But he was wolf and he did hear and still it made no sense.
“How is this a bad thing? Should a woman not love her mate?”
Her head snapped up at that, fire shooting near-irresistible sparks from her pretty blue eyes. “And what of you? Will you love me, too?”
“’Tis a man’s duty to care for his mate.”
“Care for and love are not the same.”
“Women may mark the distinction, a warrior does not.”
“Sabrine is a warrior. I’m sure she notes it.”
“Sabrine is a mystery Barr best solve before this clan is put in peril.”
“You think she puts us at risk? She is no Rowland,