Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

but he didn’t deny the teasing words.
    “I don’t understand,” Mairi finally managed to say in a voice laced with both confusion and trepidation.
    “The issue of your sanctuary has been settled,” Talorc replied.
    “Welcome to our clan,” Abigail said in her soft voice.
    Mairi gave a soft sob, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Thank you.”
    Talorc frowned. “’Tis not a thing to cry over.”
    Mairi swiped at her cheeks. “No, of course not.”
    “We will leave you to rest.” Talorc turned to go, his hand on Abigail’s waist to guide her with him.
    The tension draining from her features, Mairi’s exhaustion became obvious. “Again, my sincerest thanks,” she said softly toward the laird’s retreating back.
    Ciara’s father just raised his hand in acknowledgment, guiding Abigail out of the room.
    Lais fussed over Mairi a bit more and then turned to Ciara. “You will watch over her?”
    “Yes, of course.” Ciara’s voice came out choked, her throat tight for some reason.
    “You will come and get me if she shows any distress.”
    Ciara nodded, but Mairi frowned.
    “I made it all the way from my father’s lands to here. I will make it through one night inside the warmth of a keep, sleeping on an actual bed,” Mairi said with clear exasperation.
    Lais didn’t look the least repentant and Mairi just sighed. “I do appreciate you healing me and…and…well, caring for me.”
    “It is my pleasure.” With that he leaned down and did the unthinkable, placing a tender kiss on the human woman’s temple.
    The human women among the clans did not allow such liberties, but then nothing about this night was usual, was it? And far from looking offended, Mairi appeared quite happy about Lais’s gesture of affection.
    Lais left with another glance over his shoulder when he reached the door, but Eirik shoved the other man through. He turned his head toward Ciara. “We will talk with the Sinclair in the morning.”
    “Yes.”
    “You will sleep tonight.”
    Did he really think he could just will it so? She didn’t bother to argue though. Ciara merely shrugged, not agreeing, not denying.
    He came to her then, his stride purposeful, and then laid his hands on either side of her face. “No dreams tonight.”
    “Maybe the Faolchú Chridhe will listen to you and leave me to rest.”
    “It will,” he said with such confidence, she almost believed him.
    “I do not know if I can trust you, Ciara of the Sinclairs, but I will have you rested. You will collapse and be of no use to anyone if you do not.”
    His words should offend, but they didn’t. Why should he trust her? She was nothing to him. “I will do my best.”
    “See that you do.” He withdrew his hands from her andshe felt their loss but managed to stifle her wolf’s whimper. “Good night.”
    “Good night.” Hers was whispered as he strode rapidly from the room.
    Ciara made a pallet on the floor beside her narrow bed.
    Mairi’s eyes fluttered. “What are you doing? You cannot sleep on the floor.”
    “I have furs. I will be fine.”
    “But…”
    “The bed is too narrow to share without me worrying I will jostle you in the night.” Especially with her nightmares.
    “Your sleep is not restful.”
    “Nay.”
    “Mine has not been these past six months, either. At first I thought it was because my father planned to give me to one of his soldiers in marriage. The man is unkind and not at all hygienic, but I came to realize that it was the dreams filling me with a sense of dread that will not leave even upon waking.”
    “The Faolchú Chridhe is at risk. It needs to be found.” For good or for ill.
    “Before it falls into the wrong hands.”
    Ciara could not think of worse ones than those that had beaten Mairi so mercilessly. “We will discuss it with my father on the morrow.”
    “Perhaps later in the morning,” Mairi said sleepily.
    Ciara smiled, snuffed the wall sconce and drew the skin over her window, throwing the room into darkness. “Sleep as late as you can; Abigail says it is good for healing.”
    Though sleep had never healed Ciara’s heart. Perhaps because it was such an elusive thing in her life.
    She felt her way to her makeshift bed and crawled into it.
    A few moments passed in silence and Ciara thought Mairi had drifted off again, but she was wrong.
    “Ciara?”
    “Yes?”
    “Will you help me find my wolf?”
    “I don’t know if it is possible.”
    “It is.” Mairi’s voice was quiet, but it rang with