Read The McKinnon Online

Authors: Ranay James

The McKinnon

BOOK: The McKinnon
12.63Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 
The Book Shelf
Disclaimer and E:Mail
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Epilogue
Feedback & Thank You

Acknowledgements 
 

 

   I would be remiss in failing to mention those in my life who had faith in my dream.

Laurie, Jodi, Alethia, Mary Beth and Katherine –You ladies are the best.

To my Husband - Thank you for supporting my vision and being my partner through life. 

 

 

The Book Shelf
 
Titles by Ranay James
Coming to E-Reader near you
The McKinnon Legends

Book One - The McKinnon The Beginning - Nic

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Q78PQO

Book Two - Unfinished Business - Connor

Book Three - Shades of Grace - Cullen

Book Four - Of Purest Blood - Gage

Book Five - The Missing One - Decklyn

Book Six - A Whisper In The Dark - Robert

Book Seven - Armed and Dangerous - Mason

Book Eight - Bones of Contention - Josh

Vampires Of Nirvana :
Part One - The Descendants Of Cain

Book One - Apartment 42 - Slade

Book Two - The Queen's Heart - Chase

Book Three - A Garden For Eden - Micah

Book Four - Second Son of Cain - Asher

Part Two - The Queen's Enforcers

Book Five - Guarding Anna' - Cade

Book Six - Jade's Paradox - Alexander

Part Three - The Dark Avengers

Book Seven - The Reluctant Queen - Garrick

Book Eight - Blood So Sweet - Garrick

Book Nine - The Beast Within - Maddox

 

Disclaimer and E:Mail
 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying , recording or by any information storage and retrieval system.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover art by:

http://bookcoverartist.com

 

Contact the Author:

E-Mail: 
[email protected]

 

 

The Mckinnon The Beginning
The McKinnon Legends
Book I 
By 
Ranay James

 

 

 

Prologue
 
Christmas Eve
1486
 

“Wake, child! Run! Run, Morgan, go!”

Morgan heard the frantic voice of her mother as if yanked by a physical force from a deep and dreamless sleep. Already the fire was spreading at an alarming speed. Toxic black smoke was so thick she could hardly see the hand in front of her face and labored just to breath as the fingers of death reached for her, wrapping around her legs in a certain death grip.

“Run!”
 She heard the voice, again.

“Mother!” she screamed as the ceiling began to collapse around her. “Rhiannon? John? James?” She called for her younger brothers and sister as she crawled along the stone floor. They had been sleeping in the same bed with her, but now were nowhere that she could see. The flames were gaining ground, licking at her gown, and embers singed her hair as she found the chamber door.

“Turn right, Morgan and run as fast as you can.”

She unflinchingly followed her mother’s voice.

Morgan ran down the hallway then traversed the stone stairs. The heat was so intense that the stone burned the tender skin of the bottom of her feet, yet she was heedless of the pain.

“Turn left, now!”
her mother’s voice demanded her.

Morgan instantly obeyed, finding herself only a few feet from the main entry door. Flames completely engulfed the opening in a deadly inferno of burning wood and molten metal.

“Trust me, Child. Go through that door.”
Morgan felt rather than heard the voice in her head.

Morgan’s sense of survival was almost too strong to follow that demand from her mother’s voice.

“Trust me, go! There will be a way provided. Go or die!”

Morgan took a leap of faith. Bounding over the last three steps of the staircase, she made a running dash for that flaming door. Only feet from the massive blaze, the door baring her exit fell, crashing outward as a massive beam fell from the ceiling. This unburned beam was the bridge she needed as she dashed out of the massive gap left from the missing entryway.

Out into the night, Morgan ran through the snow in her bare feet until she could no longer feel the searing heat. Turning to look back, she called to her family, screaming at the top of her lungs, forcing her voice to rise above the roar of the firestorm.

Had her family survived? She saw no one in the outer bailey as she ran through the outer gates trying to escape the fire that was rapidly spreading to all the outbuildings and stables. It was as if the whole of the castle was deserted and she was the only living soul.

She saw her father stumbled out of the castle carrying her mother and relief flooded her. She ran to him where he had fallen to the ground, burned and dying.

“Mamma, Papa, oh God, somebody help them!” she cried, looking around for any hope of assistance for the father she adored and the mother she loved beyond life itself. There was no help for either of them as she watched her adored father take his last breath holding his beloved Duchess whom he had died to save.

His efforts had been in vain.

Alison Pembridge, Sixth Duchess of Seabridge, fought the hands of death pulling her into the spirit world. She had one thing she had to do before leaving this physical earth behind her.

“Morgan, listen to me.” Alison struggled to speak past the pain and damage to her lungs from the searing flames. “I love you, heart of my heart.”

“Mamma, save your strength. You will be fine. I’ll make you better, I promise. Just don’t die, please. I’ll take good care of you.”

Morgan’s young mind could not fathom what was actually happening. Her brain was not allowing her to see this for what it was. Alison knew that. Reality would find her lovely daughter soon enough.

Alison also had foreseen this night long before she had married the dashing and charismatic Morgan James Pembridge, Sixth Duke of Seabridge. She could not change things or stop the hands of fate. She had tried to spare her children the pain of what this night had brought to them all. As a mother, she had failed. Destiny had brought them here, regardless of her efforts to change the flow of time and how this event would unfold. It simply had been out of her control to stop the hands of fate.

She had also foreseen other events, and she had to pass onto her daughter what she could while there was still time.

“Listen to me, child. You must be strong. You're now the Seventh Duchess of Seabridge. It is your destiny, and the path ahead will make you strong if you do not let him kill you. Only you can find the inner strength to survive, Morgan. Take heart, the great sorrow will pass and great triumph will follow. Remember the contract I showed you?”

Morgan nodded as tears streamed, cutting a clear path down her soot-covered face.

“Do not forget it, Morgan, and just as you heard my voice tonight, know I will always be there to guide you in time of greatest crisis. I…love…you.” Alison’s hand fell away from her daughter's face.

“Mamma? Mamma!” Thirteen-year-old Morgan watched as the light went out of her mother’s emerald green eyes.

Morgan screamed as her Uncle Lester Brentwood picked her up and carried her away from her parents’ bodies.

“No! Put me down! Let me go!” She fought him as she saw a man dragging her father further from the flames. Brentwood needed indisputable proof his step-brother, wife, and children were dead.

“Morgan, listen to me. They are gone! They are all gone except you and me.” Lester watched as the remainder of his home went up in flames. Morgan was too distraught to notice that a wagon, a covered carriage, and several horses were already ready to leave. “I’m taking you home to Seabridge. Then I will go to King Henry. As your father’s only brother, I am your only living relative, Morgan. You are now my responsibility.”

Morgan was numb. She had suffered the greatest loss a child could experience, but she clung to her mother’s words.
“I will guide you in times of crisis.”

BOOK: The McKinnon
12.63Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Heartbreak Cake by Cindy Arora
Mi primer muerto by Leena Lehtolainen
The Michael Eric Dyson Reader by Michael Eric Dyson
The Resurrectionist by White, Wrath James
Extinction by Korza, Jay
Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji
A Rare Ruby by Dee Williams