To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (24 page)

             
He spun her around and ripped the rest of the dress from her body, leaving her in a thin shift.  She swallowed hard.  Time was running out and she could not see any way to escape her immediate fate.  She was going to lose her innocence to Colm Mac Tierney, after all.  Instead of the beautiful experience she had always imagined, her first time was going to be hateful and violent.  Driven by the lust for power, not desires of the flesh.  Despite her resolve to be brave, a single tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.  Colm laughed and pushed her back onto the bed, following her down.  As he shoved her shift up out of the way and wrenched her legs apart, something inside her mind snapped, and Willa let go a scream of pure rage and terror.

Chapter 15

             
With the messenger dispatched, all they could really do was watch and wait.  James ensconced Maura safely in the cottage of a widowed woman she had a previous acquaintance with, and he stayed nearby to guard her.  Drust understood that James didn’t want to leave his wife unprotected by his own hand, but he was being pulled by his own need to protect Willa.  And so, cloaked in a spell which would prevent others from sensing his presence, he ventured closer to the castle.  He had intended to go inside, to find Willa and make sure she was safe, but he had been met by a surge of power and he knew he could go no further.  The power felt oddly familiar, dark and insidious.  He could not risk fighting it alone, not when Willa’s life was in danger.  He paced, angry at his inability to act.  All thoughts of right and wrong were gone.  All self-denial a thing of the past.  He wanted this woman with every fiber of his being, and everything else could go to hell.  If you had to lose something to know how much it meant to you… well, he had lost big time.  His body was humming with tension, his muscles flexed and ready to fight, but he had to wait for his brother if he was to get her out alive. 
Hurry Bren.

             
As if in answer, he at last heard Bren’s voice in his mind. 

             
Drust, where are ye?

             
He could communicate mind to mind with his brothers only if they were close enough.  Bren had come, and the waiting was over.  He let out the breath that he had been holding.

             
I’m here, just outside the castle’s north wall.  In the copse of oaks.

             
It took them no time to find one another, and Drust had never been so happy to see his Bren, or so happy that his eldest brother commanded a large number of well-trained and loyal men.  Quickly and without preamble, he filled Bren in on what had happened.

             
Bren’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the fortified walls of the castle.

             
“Aye, I feel it too.  Something isna right here.  It feels almost as if… Mored has had a hand in this.”

             
Drust had suspected the same, but it sent icy chills of fear down his spine to hear Bren say it.  And the fear was not for himself, or even his brother.  His woman was in there, and he’d be damned if anything was going to harm her!  He flexed his fists in anticipation and nodded to Bren.

             
“Let’s go.”

***

             
The surprise attack of a full force of Mac Coinnach warriors made short work of the outer guards, and within minutes they were already fighting their way into the keep.  Drust wielded his sword with a single-minded fury and a near Berserker rage that left no man in his path still standing.  He was mindless with the pent-up violence he had held under tight control while waiting for Bren, and now it was unleashed in its full ferocity.  He was soon spattered with blood from head to foot, but none of it was his own.

             
Suddenly, he heard a scream from somewhere above that broke through the battle-haze in his mind, and the sound sent icy fingers of terror down his spine.  It was Willa.  That sound alone pulled at him like nothing else could, and he was running for the stairs within another heartbeat.  As if guided by an unseen force, and perhaps he was, he knew exactly which room she was in.  Another muffled scream confirmed it.  There were two guards outside the closed door, but they were no match for a crazed Mac Coinnach warrior trying to reach his mate.  Drust had sliced the first guard’s head clean off his shoulders before the second could even swing his sword.  Without missing a beat, he grabbed the end of the second guard’s weapon and thrust it straight into his heart. 

             
The thick, heavy door was locked from the inside, but he flung his whole weight recklessly against it again and again until the hinges gave way with a creak and a snap and he was able to kick it open.  He paused in the doorway, only long enough to raise his sword and take in the scene before him. Willa was lying on a bed,
Alive! Thank God!
, her chest heaving with gulps of air as she struggled against a half-dressed man who had her wrists pinioned above her head.  The man turned when the door burst open, but did not release her.  Instead he lifted the dagger he held in his other hand and with a slow smile pressed the shining tip against Willa’s delicate throat. 

             
Drust was fighting every instinct he had, all of them demanding he kill the man threatening his woman.  But he had to hold back, be careful, or she could be hurt in the scuffle.

             
“Let her go… or die!”  The man was dead whether he obeyed now or not.  He had dared to touch Willa.  And he knew that his brother’s men were fighting their way closer even now.  Though the sounds of battle were muffled by the thick stone walls, how could the man not know the castle was under attack?

             
He did know.

             
The man shot Drust a furious look, and for the first time, he saw his eyes.  He knew those eyes.  They were burned into his very soul.  To his utter shock, it was not just any man. 

             
Mored
. 

             
Fucking hell. He was well disguised, but this close, Drust would know that distinct dark energy anywhere.  And he had looked into those eyes with burning hatred once before, believing they were the last thing he would see in this world.

             
Mored gave him an insolent smile.  “This woman is now
my
wife, and I will do with her what I please. Right now, Mac Coinnach, it pleases me to fuck my bride and to see ye die.  In either order.”

             
His wife?
God, was he too late?  Surely Willa hadn’t married this monster willingly…  not when he had said he was coming back for her.  His eyes shifted to hers for only an instant, and that was enough. What he saw there drove him on.

             
“I said release her, the lady obviously doesna want ye.” 
Control.
 
Must keep absolute control.  To lose it now could mean Willa’s life.

             
“Never”, Mored growled, and twisted Willa’s wrists in one hand so the she arched off the bed and stifled a scream of pain.  “Guards!” he bellowed.

             
At the same moment he yelled for the guards, Mored gathered enough energy around himself to deliver Drust a fatal blow.  But Drust was ready, and he sprang into action without another thought.  The fury and hatred that burned in his chest spurred him on as he crossed the room in three long strides and grabbed Mored, flinging him away from Willa as if he weighed nothing at all.  She quickly scooted to the end of the bed. 

             
Drust did not pause but turned to where Mored was already on his feet, his hands raised and dark energy gathering rapidly within them.  But he was not fast enough.  With a preternatural strength born of primal rage Drust lunged at him, punching the man repeatedly in the face and in the gut, and when Mored went for his dagger, Drust drew his own first and plunged it deep up and under the other man’s ribs.  He dropped like a stone to the floor.  Only mortal, after all.

             
Drust stared at the body for a long moment, his chest heaving with exertion and adrenaline, as he watched the hot red blood pool on the floor, making certain the body was truly lifeless before he turned to Willa. 

             
He managed a slight curve of his lips, though his chest was heaving and his eyes were wild.  “Milady, I believe ye are now a widow.”

             
She stared up at him mutely, still reeling from fear and her recent life or death struggle.  Drust knew he had to get Willa out of the castle and away from the battle that ensued outside, even though he had no doubt of the outcome.  Bren’s men would not lose.  There was a reason the Mac Coinnachs were both the most revered and most feared clan in the highlands.  In battle, they had no equal.

             
But for a moment he could only stand and look at Willa uncertainly.  She was bruised and disheveled, but her head was held high and she looked at him boldly. 
She has the strength of a warrior.
                Almost losing her had made him see how precious she was, and how much his own heart was already involved.  He cared deeply for her, loved her, even. 
Aye, loved her.
  With a depth that he had never even thought possible.  His chest suddenly ached so fiercely that he almost raised his hand to rub away the pain.  He would give up his life here and now for her, or he would bring her away with him, with the promise to keep her always safe and to do his best to make her happy.  But the truth was, he could no longer imagine his life without Willa.  Even the
thought
of being without her caused the pain to tighten in his chest, so intense and choking that he thought he would surely die from it if he could not make her his.  Because he knew now what he had known all along, but had been too afraid to admit to himself. Bren was right.

             
She is my soul mate.  My fated one.  Mine.

             
But in the space of a heartbeat, his elation drained away.  He had no right to hope that she would have him now.  He had suspected the truth of what she was to him, and yet he had failed her in the worst way.  He had left her alone to be captured by his own worst enemy because he was too afraid of what he was feeling. Too afraid to put the past aside and live his life.

             
“Willa, I’m sorry.”  Those words would never be enough, but at the moment it was all he could seem to utter. 
Please have me, take me, even with all my flaws.  I’ll die without you.

             
He stood there waiting, his heart in his throat, anticipating her rejection.  Perhaps even her anger.  God knew he deserved it.  He watched her as she began to tremble and then she opened her arms wide, a shaky smile on her lips.

             
“Drust.  I knew you’d come.”

             
With a sob of satisfaction and relief, he ran to her and wrapped her in his arms.  He held her tight and pressed his face into her silky hair.  For a long moment, neither of them spoke.  Drust just breathed her in. 
Never letting you go again…

             
Then he pulled back a little and looked down at her.  “Are ye all right, love?  Did he hurt ye?”

             
“No.  He didn’t hurt me.”