“Travel safe.” Lady Madeline squeezed Sorcha’s hand in farewell.
“I will. And promise ta keep an eye out for any lurkin’ scoundrels.”
Lady Madeline laughed. “I will miss you.”
“I’ll see ye in London for the season,” Sorcha promised.
Alec supposed that was true. He couldn’t remember a season he hadn’t spent in London. How different the next one would be.
“I’ll hold you to that.” Lady Madeline folded her arms across her middle, as though to comfort herself.
Caitrin draped her arm around Sorcha’s shoulders and led her down the gravel path toward Alec and the pair of traveling coaches. Sorcha’s eyes sought Alec’s. If he’d needed to breathe, she would have stolen his breath when she smiled at him.
Within a minute, the two witches stood before him.
Youthful exuberance rolled off Sorcha in waves. “Have ye really agreed ta travel with Cait and Lord Eynsford?”
“Aye, he has,” Cait answered before Alec could respond.
“He pressed upon me how important it is ta him that he and Dash get along from now on, that our circle remains strong.”
He was about to call the blond seer out for the liar she was, but Sorcha slid her arms around his waist and looked up at him, more than pleased. “Ye are so wonderful, Alec.”
When she spoke, all he could think about was those wonderfully seductive noises she’d made in his chambers earlier. Would traveling with Cait and that blasted Lycan make her happy? He supposed, when one considered all she was giving up to marry him, that traveling with them was the least he could do. “Not wonderful,” he corrected.
“Conniving, lass. It is in my best interest to keep you happy, isn’t it?”
“Forbes and Maggie can ride in Alec’s conveyance along with my servants,” Cait decided for them all. “Then the two of ye can share our coach.”
“Perfect solution, angel.” Eynsford appeared out of nowhere to drape an arm around his wife’s shoulders.
Where had the blackguard been? Had he overheard every blasted word Alec and Cait had shared? Most likely. After all, the man rarely let Cait out of his sight. The eavesdropping Lycan did not make it easy for Alec to even consider getting along with the man.
“I’d like ta get home as soon as possible,” Sorcha said, releasing her hold on Alec.
His first thought was to toss her over his shoulder and whisk her away to Scotland on his own. They could be there in a matter of hours with his superior speed, but for some reason it seemed important to her that he try to make peace with Eynsford. Was that the harmony nonsense Cait mentioned?
“We’ll go as fast as possible, lass.” Eynsford winked at Sorcha.
If the Lycan thought he’d wink at Sorcha all the way to Edinburgh, he was greatly mistaken. Vampyres were stronger than Lycans, something Alec had been very happy to learn the previous spring, and he was not above proving the fact to Eynsford.
“Dash,” Cait chimed in, as though she knew the direction of Alec’s thoughts, “we should probably be on our way.”
“You are right, of course, Caitie.”
~*~
Sorcha snuggled against Alec and loved it when he pulled her closer on the coach bench. Ever since that morning when he’d kissed her, caressed her, and touched her in places she’d never dreamt existed, Sorcha had wanted to be at his side. Actually, she wanted to have him all to herself. There were things left unsaid, things left undone.
Though she knew Cait was right about their traveling situation. Traveling alone with Alec would be highly inappropriate, no matter how much she might enjoy it.
She looked up at his strong jaw and remembered the wonderful things his lips had done earlier that day. He was hers. He was destined to be hers. Cait had seen it. The whole idea was still difficult to fathom, but Sorcha’s heart leapt at the thought. No wonder Cait had been so adamant that Sorcha wouldn’t marry a Lycan. She was supposed to marry Alec. And now that she knew the truth of that, it seemed so right, so fitting. And if there was more to experience in his arms—and she had a feeling there was— the rest of their lives was going to be more than wonderful, more than perfect.
Their lives.
Havers! If things remained as they were, Alec would live on and she would not. She shook her head. Since Alec was destined to be hers, he must transform the same way Lords Kettering and Blodswell had. She pressed her head closer to his chest and listened for the