CHAPTER ELEVEN –Willow–
CHAPTER ELEVEN
–Willow–
I WASN’T ENTIRELY sure how I did it this time, but I knew when my willow tree appeared outside Sloan’s cell, I could pull him back into the Morrow with me, and I did.
What I didn’t expect was where we ended up next.
“’Twas what came to mind when I saw you standing in the moonlight,” Sloan exclaimed as the willow tree faded, leaving us in what had once been a very special spot.
Or at least it had been before he told me he was marrying another woman.
“Do you remember, lass?” he said softly, taking in the unique cave in which we stood before looking at me. “Because I never forgot one moment of it.”
Situated inside a cliff overlooking the sea, as if a great spoon had carved it out, small clusters of trees had managed to grow at the mouth of the cave. They clung to the cliff and what meager land they could find, canopying a grassy area beside a sheer drop to the frothing waves below.
“I remember,” I murmured, almost feeling like I was in a dream as I drifted toward the opening where he had proposed to me, shocked I hadn’t figured things out sooner. “I wore a blue linen dress that suited the era.”
“Aye, and you were a vision standing there in the moonlight,” he marveled, stopping beside me beneath the trees where we’d once stood together on what was supposed to have been one of the best days of my life. “Wearing the same color dress you’d worn the first time I saw you as a wee girl.”
“That’s right,” I said, still remembering the anticipation I’d felt because I suspected my Scot of the Morrow was going to do something gallant and romantic.
“Because you’d asked me to wear that color.
” I couldn’t help but point out the obvious, wondering if it was somehow related to my mark.
I eyed the blue tattoo on my wrist, hoping it meant good things rather than terrifying ones. “It’s the same colors, Sloan.”
“’Tis.” Now that he could touch me, he cupped my wrist in his big, strong, weapon-roughened hand and brushed the pad of his thumb over it, sending all sorts of delicious sensations spiraling through me.
“Because ye’re meant for me, Willow. Ye always have been.
” He trailed his fingers along my jaw as if cherishing being able to feel me again.
“Now nothing stands in our way. Marry me tonight, lass. Marry me within the Morrow before anyone dares to take ye away.”
My heart leapt into my throat at the love in his eyes because I had missed it so much. This feeling he invoked inside me. The way he gazed at me. It was unique to him and had always made me feel special. Loved. Never alone.
“You know that’s impossible,” I managed. “Even if I knew how to get someone into the Morrow to marry us, we can’t risk the safety of your clan. My sisters’ safety.” I shook my head. “We both know I’ve got to go back to Sutherland Castle and shift. There’s no avoiding it.”
“Mayhap there is, though,” he countered, reeling me against him before I could pull away, locking one strong arm around my waist and a hand around the back of my neck in a possessive move that seriously worked for me.
“I’ll shift right now and fly us out of here,” he swore vehemently, his dragon eyes flaring. “My beast is strong and swift and will take you far from here. Far from all of this. Then ‘twill protect you with all the power it possesses.”
“Yet the unraveling spell will always bring me back,” I said softly, gentling my voice when I sensed how close his dragon was to the surface.
How desperate it was to do what he’d suggested.
“If I’m sure of nothing else, it’s that.
” Trying to ignore how being against him set me on fire, I shook my head.
“There’s no running from this, Sloan. You don’t run anyway, leaving the people you love to fight a war you started.
That’s not who you are.” I rested my hand on his rock-hard chest. “You’re the guy who protects and defends no matter what.
You’re the stuff heroes are made of, and that’s one of the many reasons I love you, so don’t start being the bad guy now. It’s not a good look on you.”
He clenched his jaw and gazed into my eyes, clearly debating whether he wanted to listen to me or not, before finally seeming to meet me halfway.
“Then promise to marry me as you once swore you would. Forgive me for all the lonely years in between. For choosing my father’s wishes over my love for you.
For putting king and country first. Had I put you first instead, we would be married with wee bairns of our own. ”
Sadly, he was probably right, but we were long past that alternate reality.
More so, I was done being angry and resentful.
Done pushing him away.
“There’s nothing to forgive, Sloan,” I said softly, meaning it.
“I might not have understood back then because I was too young and na?ve, but I do now.” I pressed my hand more firmly against his chest. “Who you are now, this version of yourself, while you may be older and wiser, is still the man I fell crazy in love with. The one who puts others before himself, despite how hard it is…was.”
“’Twas excruciating,” he said just as softly, searching my eyes.
“You ken that now, aye? Truly ken ‘twas the worst thing I’ve ever had to do? Watching you go…feeling you leave me that final time knowing deep down you wouldnae return no matter how hard I tried to keep you in my life.” He caressed my neck, clearly grateful to be touching me again.
Feeling me beneath his fingers. “I dinnae ever want to feel that way again, Willow.
‘Tis too hard…” He shook his head. “Too much.”
Understanding now wasn’t the time to try to argue we might have no choice, I chose actions over words and finally did what I’d wanted to do since laying eyes on him again.
I pulled his lips down to mine and kissed him, determined to take his mind off our conversation, yet I underestimated just how much it would affect me.
Our kisses had been magical in my youth, but they were something else entirely now, and I knew he felt the same when a soft kiss filled with memories turned hot, hungry, and desperate.
I knew I should stop before it got out of control, but feared it was already too late when I released a throaty groan of need and found myself hoisted in the air, straddling him.
I was only vaguely aware of a relatively unstable tree against my back and a sheer, dangerous drop to the turbulent ocean mere feet away.
And I didn’t care in the least.
All I cared about was feeling the steely, engorged length he pressed between my thighs deep inside me as soon as possible.
In fact, I wanted to feel it so badly I chanted away our clothes without understanding how I did it, tore my lips from his, yanked him closer, loving the feel of his slightly hairy chest against my sensitive breasts, and gasped in his ear that I couldn’t wait.
“Don’t make me wait,” I groaned raggedly, starved with need, begging for the fix only my mate could give me, because no matter what happened or where I ended up, Sloan would always be mine and I, his.
Catching my thoughts and craving me just as much, a deep rumble of approval vibrated in his chest, and he didn’t thrust hard and fast like I knew he wanted to, but let me sink onto him slowly, and holy hell, it felt exquisite.
More than I was used to, but I was so ready for him that, despite a slight stretching sensation, he felt amazing.
As he filled me, my entire body, inside and out, came alive in a whole new way.
Orgasmic couldn’t begin to describe the immense pleasure I experienced as he kept one hand on my backside, protecting me from the bark, gripped the branch overhead, and rode me as ferociously as I rode him, basking in endless mini-climaxes I knew were leading to an epic explosion.
Once upon a time in a Morrow far, far away, we would have been each other’s first and only, and taken this encounter far slower.
It would have been tentative and awkward and full of young, blossoming love.
Now, it was wickedly passionate, born of anger over all the years lost to us and the fury of our inner beasts for having been denied each other.
It was so intense my vision hazed red as my inner beast swelled inside me, screaming toward the surface every bit as much as the orgasm I raced toward.
And it was every bit as angry as my human half.
Angry because it hadn’t just lost its mate to another woman and six centuries, but furious because I had clipped its wings by shoving it in a plane before embracing it.
Not just that, but I clipped its wings and blocked its mate, so it didn’t even have the comfort of telepathic communication anymore.
So it was no real surprise that when the climax of all climaxes slammed into me, I cried out because it was the most amazing thing I had ever felt.
And the most terrifying.
Raking my hands down Sloan’s back, I roared in part ecstasy, part rage, entrenched in the extraordinary pleasure rushing through me.
Then somehow it warped and changed, and my vision blazed redder still.
That’s when I realized I was no longer in Sloan’s arms, and he had staggered backwards. Grown smaller.
Yet all I could do was roar at the sky, angry at it.
Roar until I was part of the sky, determined to defeat it and be free from it, yet at the same time craving it as much as I had craved Sloan moments before.
Craved the wind on my face, planes had kept from me.
The movement of flight that modern-day technology had stolen.
It turned out, as I flapped my newfound wings, that things hadn’t gone nearly how they should have.
After all, I hadn’t embraced my dragon.
It had embraced me.
Even worse, it had trapped me inside it just like I had trapped it, ripping away all control.