Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

after everything.”
    No. She had seen too much in her own visions to question Boisin’s. We return to the mainland immediately after breaking our fast.
    “All right, but can you shift?”
    Of course. He did so, allowing his dragon form to shrink back into his man. “You are not yet used to speaking with the mate-link.”
    “It’s not that.” The cavern was dark, but he could hear a smile in her voice.
    “What then?”
    She pulled him into the warmth of the furs, sliding her naked body against his. He’d undressed her, believing she would rest better without all the layers of clothing she usually wore.
    She pressed a soft kiss to his lips and then spoke with their mouths only a hairsbreadth apart. “I want my wedding night.”
    “’Tis almost morning.”
    “Then you had best get on it, hadn’t you?”
    Joy unlike anything he’d ever known or expected bubbled from deep inside him as the kiss went incendiary.
    This woman was his and she wanted him. Not just the power of his dragon, not only the prince of his people, or the gifts of his raven…but him. Eirik Taran Gealach Gra.
    And he wanted her, her beauty, her passion, her kind heart she tried so hard to hide. All that made Ciara of the Sinclair who she was. He did not understand the profundity of his emotion any better than she did the prophecy, but like his faolán , he would accept.
    Gladly.
    And he would give her a wedding night never to be forgotten.
    C iara wasn’t really surprised to find Niall and two of her father’s most trusted warriors waiting with the horses, instead of the eagle shifter they had left there, when she and Eirik landed on the mainland later that morning.
    Niall waited for Eirik to transform from his dragon before stepping forward. “The Sinclair has ordered these two Chrechte warriors to accompany you on the remainder of your quest.”
    He indicated Everett and his younger brother, whose grandmother had been a white wolf. Both men were unmated, but they had controlled the shift from the first glimpse of their wolves.
    She cast an anxious glance at Eirik, worried he would take offense at her father’s edict.
    But her mate merely nodded. “They are welcome. The Balmoral sent one of his wolves and one of the Éan to accompany us as well.”
    She hadn’t known that. “Who?” she demanded.
    “Artair and Vegar, one of the strongest and most deadly among Éan guardian warriors.”
    “Is Vegar a man or woman?” The name was unfamiliar to her.
    Eirik smiled. “While all Éan females are trained forwarfare, few become guardian warriors as my sister did. Vegar is a man.”
    “I see. Why didn’t you mention before we left Balmoral Island that two more warriors would be joining us on our journey to the healing caves of our ancestors?”
    He frowned as if her question made no sense to him. “Those caves are on MacLeod lands. Of course we will increase our fighting force when venturing among the enemy.”
    “We aren’t going to wage war.” Though Ciara wouldn’t mind taking her dirk to Mairi’s father.
    “Your safety is paramount.”
    Because she was a seer and the keeper of the stone. Ciara shrugged. “You are not going to let anything happen to me.”
    Eirik was a dragon, for goodness’ sake.
    “I am but one man and the search will be made easier for the number of eyes on the task.”
    She was sure he was right about that, but the larger their party, the harder to hide their presence on MacLeod lands. “You are more than a mere man.”
    “As are the warriors under MacLeod’s authority.”
    “We have learned he is alpha over the largest pack in the Highlands,” Niall said grimly.
    “But that’s not possible. Their clan isn’t that large.”
    Niall’s frown was fiercer than usual. “And it is almost entirely Chrechte.”
    An atavistic thrill of dread went through Ciara. “How can that be?”
    “It is not an answer you want,” Niall assured her. “Accept only that MacLeod’s greatest sin was not beating his daughter.”
    Then the man’s sins must be heinous indeed, for that one was terrible enough.
    Everett and his brother both looked a little green and she realized they must have been privy to the MacLeod soldier’s interrogation, or at least the results.
    “How many Chrechte did he send after Mairi?” Ciara asked her father’s second-in-command.
    “Six.”
    “How many live?”
    Niall’s countenance grew even dourer. “Four.”
    “Will they submit to our laird?”
    “They will, and