Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

became covered in crimson scales and tipped with lethal-looking claws. Though they remained in proportion to his body.
    It was unlike anything she had ever heard of before.
    “How did you do that?” she asked with wonder.
    “I think, perhaps, I will join Gart outside,” Artair said from the doorway.
    She hadn’t even realized the other man had gotten up. She stood as well and turned to the guard. “That is not necessary.”
    “I think it is.” He gave a significant look toward Eirik.
    And she looked back at her dragon. His hands were still amazingly transformed, but he had not moved from his spot. His expression was no longer so ferocious, either.
    She turned back to Artair and smiled. “See? He is only feeling protective as he has taken on the role of my guard for this journey. You saw him with our meal, tasting it for me.”
    Artair was looking at her as if she was spouting gibberish and she sighed. The soldier simply did not appreciate the wonder of Eirik’s gifts like she did.
    “Lais and Mairi have arrived,” Eirik said into the tense quiet.
    Ciara spun back to him, all of her suspicions about his abilities confirmed. “Lais told you that, didn’t he?”
    Eirik didn’t reply but left the hut, his shoulders taut, his jaw set. At least his hands had gone back to normal. She did not think it was a gift he needed to go sharing with everyone under the sun.
    Artair reached out as if to pat her shoulder but withdrewhis hand before touching her. “The Éan prince will figure it out, too.”
    She didn’t ask what. She was no fool and apparently neither was Artair. “Let’s hope not,” Ciara said fervently.
    “You don’t want a mate?” Artair frowned. “Or is that you do not want an Éan for a mate?”
    “I want no mate, whether he be human, Chrechte or a wild beast for that matter.”
    “Our celi di says that God gifts us what we need, not what we want.”
    “And sometimes he also takes away what we love most.”
    “So you would reject the possibility of love to prevent ever losing it again?”
    “I want no mate,” she repeated doggedly. “There will be no children for me to lose to illness or war.”
    No mate whose loss would send her into a decline like her mother. Ciara had suffered enough pain when she lost her family, but she had survived. She had learned to live again. Her mother had not.
    Because she had lost that which she could not bear, her true bonded mate and her child.

Chapter 17

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge.
    —P LATO
    H is beast demanding a chance to come out and cast fire at the Balmoral soldier, Eirik waited impatiently for Ciara and Artair to join them on the beach. He could control his dragon, but he did not know if he could control his warrior’s instincts to claim the woman so that all would know she belonged to him.
    He had not thought to take a mate for several more years, but both his dragon and his raven insisted he make Ciara his. Which was shock enough. He’d thought the fact both his alternate natures were attracted to the little wolf interesting, but the intensity with which his dragon and raven craved Ciara only grew by the day.
    He had never had such happen before. While he had not been celibate since coming of age, Eirik had always found putting his duty to his people first easy. No woman had ever invaded his senses like Ciara did, and none caused such an inner disturbance in Eirik.
    He’d shown his partial shift to Artair and Ciara without thought. Not only had that never happened before, but itwas dangerous for others to know the full extent of Eirik’s gifts.
    One truth was obvious, he could not serve his people as he needed to if he was in constant conflict with the animals that shared his soul.
    There was no choice. He would have to take her for mate.
    It would be no hardship, though she was more willful than most. As seer and princess of her people, Ciara would bring more to their mating than simply her person. In truth, there was probably not another woman in the Highlands so well suited to become his wife and bear his children.
    Her Chrechte power, though mostly latent until now, was great. And as his mate, that power would serve both the Éan and the Faol once she bonded with him. ’Twas the way it worked between mates.
    Eirik had already sworn his allegiance to the Sinclair wolf pack and by doing so dedicating his own Chrechte gifts to their welfare. The mating bond would not change much for