Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Mathison tried not to stare at this wondrous woman who had finally come into his life, but he couldn’t stop himself.
He’d never felt love before, other than for his newborn sons, but surely this sense of completeness, this fierce protectiveness, and all-consuming desire to never leave Calia’s presence had to be close.
As fragile and guarded as she was because of her past, he prayed she felt the same. Not just because of the curse, but because he needed her to need him as much as he needed her.
Eyeing him over the rim of her teacup, she slowly set it back on the table. “What?”
A smile came easily to him. “I canna remember enjoying a morning this much in a verra long while.”
She blushed like a maiden. “We didn’t sleep very much.”
“’Twas a night well spent.”
She hid behind her teacup once more, taking her time and savoring every sip. “Indeed, it was.” She nodded at the fine breakfast laid out on the table beside the bedroom window. “Your people outdid themselves. I still can’t believe I slept through their bringing it all in here.”
“Mynlis and her maids nay wished to disturb ye. They know how to be quiet.” He lifted the lid off the kettle in the center of the round table that was the perfect size for two. “Parritch?”
Calia leaned forward and peered into the pot, then sniffed it. “Oatmeal?”
“Aye. Oats.”
“No, thank you. This nice breakfast roll will do me.” She split open the chunk of bread and breathed in the steam before slathering butter across it. “Carbs are my weakness.”
“Carbs?” He’d never heard bannocks called carbs before.
“Sorry. Twenty-first century insecurities. Too many carbs make me soft around the middle, but I love them.”
“And bannocks are carbs?”
“As are pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, and pretty much anything else that tastes good.”
With a shake of his head, Mathison filled his bowl with parritch. “Eat what ye wish. Ye are perfect in my eyes.”
She set down the butter knife and stared at him with something akin to awe. “Maybe we had to come to this time so I would believe you were real instead of somebody trying to scam me.”
He really didn’t believe that was the reason Mairwen had uprooted Calia so quickly, but who was he to argue? “What is a scam?”
“A lie to take advantage of someone.”
His protectiveness flared hotter. “Someone did that to you?”
She bowed her head and gave a soft laugh that held no joy. “People do it to each other a lot where I come from.”
“Then why would ye ever wish to go back?”
Lifting her head, she locked eyes with him. “Because it’s all I know, and even I can only handle a certain amount of change. My pivot and adapt tank is currently running on empty.”
His heart sank. That was not what he’d wished to hear. “I see.”
She reached across the table and hesitantly touched his hand. “I always want to be honest with you.”
“I am glad.” But only when she said things that made his heart sing. He nodded at her bannock puddled with melted butter. “Eat, lass. They’re best whilst they’re steaming.”
She drizzled honey over it, then dug into it with her spoon. “Will I ever be able to shift?”
“That, I dinna ken. It depends on yerself and yer wolf. According to my wolf, yer Intuition has not attempted to do so in the past out of concern for ye.”
“Is she the one who does it, or am I?”
“Ye will always be the one in control. She canna take form without yer willing it to be so. However, for the first shifting, she would naturally lead the way since she is accustomed to the magic.” A leeriness ran through him at the prospect of Calia attempting to shift.
She had just mentioned only being able to stomach a certain amount of change, and the first shifting would be unlike anything she had ever experienced. “Has she mentioned it to ye?”
“No, but there’s always been something kind of wistful in her voice, and I wondered if that was what she was missing.” With a sigh, Calia refilled her tea. “Does coffee exist in seventeenth-century Scotland?”
“Aye, I shall have a word with Mynlis. She can buy some from the smugglers.” He offered Otto a sausage. “Good lad. Ye took it much easier that time.”
“And that’s another thing…” She nodded at the platter of sausages and slices of roast venison. “How do you know the animals you hunt for food aren’t shifters?”
“A shifter’s spirit animal always recognizes the spirit animal of another.”
Otto whined and pawed at Mathison’s leg.
Mathison scooped up several sausages and slices of meat, placed them on a plate, and set them on the floor in front of the dog.
The wee beastie had spent the better part of the night roaming around the tower.
No wonder he was so hungry. When Mathison returned his focus to Calia, he could tell she was unconvinced.
“It was my wolf that told me of the presence of yer wolf. Even Mairwen, the most powerful of all the Divine Weavers and a daughter of the goddesses Bride and Cerridwen, had no idea ye were blessed with a spirit animal. The Weavers thought ye a mere mortal.”
“I still consider myself a mere mortal.” She shifted in her chair and stared out the window, obviously worrying again—a thing she seemed to do quite a lot. In her defense, though, she’d just survived a major upheaval, so she’d earned the right to be so pensive.
“There is nothing mere about ye, mo chridhe.”
She didn’t answer, just continued staring out the window.
“Do ye wish to try to shift?” ’Twas his hope that if he kept her distracted, she’d not revisit her desire to return to Seven Cairns and confront Mairwen about all that had come to pass.
Even though their bond was complete, and they’d shared a wondrous night of sealing it, there was a restlessness about Calia.
She was still not pleased about finding herself in the Ninth Realm.
And to save her clothing during shifting, she’d need to be naked. He almost groaned at the thought of feasting his eyes on her once again. Even though they’d spent the better part of the night loving, he would never get enough of her.
She shifted her gaze from the window to him.
The way her dark brows drew together warned he might not like what she was about to say.
“I still want to go to Seven Cairns first. Intuition is quiet for the moment, and I’d just as soon speak with Mairwen before attempting to connect with a legacy I had no idea I possessed. ”
Before he could stop himself, he sighed. “Why do ye feel ye must do this?”
“Closure…and other stuff.”
Other stuff? “I dinna ken what ye mean.” They were fated mates, bound for this lifetime. What else mattered—other than earning her love?
“You said Mairwen and her people searched for me for three hundred years. Or at least, as soon as you were exiled by the curse. I’m a thirty-nine year old divorcee and grieving mother. What took them so long to find me? A lot of pain could have been avoided—for both of us.”
“From what I know of destiny, fate, and the interweaving of all things, I would say that yer daughter needed to be born. In her short lifetime, she touched many souls. Who knows what changes she set into motion? Changes for the better.”
Calia stiffened as though offended, sitting ramrod straight in her chair and eyeing him as if weighing the truth of his words.
After a tense moment, she visibly relaxed.
“Everyone at the hospital loved her.” She cleared her throat, then took a quick sip of tea while blinking hard and fast, battling against tears.
“Gillian never complained. Even on her worst days. She never complained about anything, and I know she was in so much pain.” Fiddling with the cloth beside her plate, she gave an apologetic shrug.
“I need to go to Seven Cairns. I’m not sure why; I just know I need to.
Maybe it’s my old training about leaving no stone unturned.
” She cleared her throat. “And there are items there that I’m not willing to leave behind. I have to recover them.”
A sickening weight settled in the pit of his stomach along with his parritch. “So, ye mean to leave me if ye can.”
Her eyes flared open wide. “That’s not it at all.
” She rounded the table and hugged him. “I don’t think I could survive in any realm without you now.
You’re…my home, my true north. I just need to see for myself if there is a doorway to my old time.
This is all just so…strange.” She leaned back and gave him a pained look.
“I guess I’ve never been very good at accepting circumstances until I’ve proven to myself that there are no other options.
” She patted him on the chest. “And besides, she took all my stuff. I want to know where it all went. She can keep most of it, but some of those clothes were my favorites, and there are other items too precious for anyone to have but me.”
“It would be far safer if ye dressed properly for this time.”
“I knew you were going to say that.” She disappointed him immensely by returning to her seat. “I’ve never been much for skirts. They slow me down.”
“Maybe so, but in a gown ye would draw less attention to yerself. Less attention means safer.”
“I thought I was safe here at Wraith Tower.”
“Ye are, but I dinna want that tested.” He finished his ale and thumped the tankard back to the table.
“I would rather not have to kill any servants because they turned traitor. Mynlis has chosen three maids to be yer personal servants. They will see that ye have everything ye need and dress ye as a grand chieftain’s wife should be dressed. ”
Stricken with a sudden fit of coughing, Calia turned aside and thumped her chest. “Wife?” she squeaked in the middle of choking.
“Aye, mo chridhe. Our souls are reunited. Ye are my mate as I am yers.” Had she not realized they’d wed in the ancient way when they’d spoken the binding oath? “Ye knew that, aye?”
She drank the rest of her tea and refilled it yet again. “I guess I hadn’t really thought through all the technicalities and verbiage.”