Chapter 5
LACHLAN MACBETH
Iwalk a few feet behind Elena as we follow Whitley through the castle, my insides alight with wonder at the mere scent of my mate.
Whitley, after quite literally seeing me floundering for words, jumped in to save the day with talks of eating lunch in the dining room. We’re on our way there now, but my concern squarely on the woman in front of me.
Elena’s barely spoken since I confessed what I am, and I’ve had to ball my fists at my side to keep from reaching out to touch her more than once. The want is almost unbearable.
All the same, I’m sure she understands me about as well as I do her wee beetles, and as much as I crave to pull her into my arms, I’d rather gnaw my own hand off than scare her more than I already have. It’s best to ensure she feels comfortable with me before pushing her into anything more.
“Are you alright?” I ask, wanting her to look at me.
I get my wish when she stops in the hallway and turns around, her blue gaze eyeing me curiously, and I find myself wondering what she could possibly be thinking.
“Your skin just changed colors and you had claws for fingers. Shouldn’t I be asking if you’re alright?” she replies, leaving me stumped.
I stand there fidgeting like a school boy with his first crush, tugging at the gray fabric of my shirt as I search for the correct words to say.
Before I can begin panicking again on how to speak to her, a hefty bit of hope flares in my middle when I find her gaze stuck where my hand sits on my chest.
A flicker of desire lights up in her gaze, and my cheeks spread into a grin.
Perhaps she doesn’t mind the look of me after all.
“I’m fine. Only worried I scared you,” I reply.
She cocks her head as she looks at me, a peculiar expression on her face. “I can’t believe you’re real. Like, you’re truly the Loch Ness monster, aren’t you? You had fins like a fish,” she breathes, and reaches out to touch my hair.
“Yes, I am and yes I do,” I reply without hesitation, startled by her touch.
She loops a strand around her finger, staring at it as if it holds secrets of its own, and I’m frozen like a deer in the headlights.
I don’t want to move if it means she stops touching me.
Elena rubs up my shoulder and a whimper leaves my lips. Gods help me. She unmans me with nary a touch, and I know if my tail were out it’d be wagging in the wind right about now.
Her wee hand glides down to my forearm as she inspects it, likely looking for my scales, and a sense of wonder goes through me at her closeness.
She’s not scared at all, my wee woman.
“I can’t believe you’re real either,” I say, delighted in her response.
“Can you change at will?” she asks, and I can practically hear the gears whirring at hazardous speeds through her brain at the ramifications that I exist.
She’s going to have lots of questions, I know. I’ve been prepared for that, but I wasn’t prepared to have so many witnesses.
In all my days languishing, waiting for her arrival, it never occurred to me to worry about what I’d say until now.
Humans are a hardy lot from what I’ve seen of them over the centuries, but they all react differently.
It may take time for Elena to come to terms with what I am, but I’ve all the time in the world.
I waited over three hundred years to be free of the moat, that’s true, but I’ve waited far more than that for her.
But how to tell her that.
“Usually I can. I’d meant to maybe ask you if you’d like to get a bite to eat before telling you about what I am,” I say, embarrassed at how so much of what I wanted for her is now out of my control.
I wanted a picnic overlooking the meadow, and to woo her the right way.
“You said you’d been stuck inside the moat, right? You don’t owe me anything. You’re free now,” she says, taking a step back and leaving me bereft.
“Yes. Yes I’m free, but as you saw before, somehow you ground me. Without you, my magic is going haywire,” I try to explain, without shoving her into a mate bond she’s in no way ready for or can even comprehend.
She frowns and my heart plummets.
Panic climbing, I search my mind for any reasonable way to keep her by my side without causing her any more distress. “Your plan was to sample the water here because you thought it was uncontaminated, aye?” I ask her, thinking of what I could possibly give her in return for her help.
“Yeah, that’s right,” she replies, toeing the carpet runner in the hallway with her boot.
I wince and shake my head, crossing my arms over my chest. “Unfortunately, the moat’s been contaminated this entire time, by me.
My magic has been filtering through it since I’ve been stuck here,” I tell her.
Not a lie, either, although I doubt my presence did anything more than make the plant life more abundant, but I’m not about to tell her that.
“Oh,” she says. Her gaze dances away and lands somewhere beyond my shoulder, as if devastated suddenly.
My heart halts in my chest at the way her brow pinches in loss. “But I do know of another large body of water, that truly is untouched. Nary a soul’s been there for years, and it’s just what you’re looking for. I could show you.”
“Really?” she asks, her gaze turning bright with interest.
“Yes really, it’s completely undisturbed and you can take all the samples your heart desires. It’s on my property in Scotland. You said you’d planned on visiting a few spots in Europe, aye? Well, why not travel with me, and I can show you the place,” I say.
“Completely uncontaminated?” she asks, tilting her head to look up at me, studying my face.
“Aye.”
“This is so freaking weird, but very cool,” she mutters, not seeming put off by the idea, a faint smile breaking through her hesitation.
Thank the gods.
“Just think on it. We’ve time,” I say, thanking my lucky stars she’s not outright told me no.
Damn and blast, why didn’t I spend more time thinking on how to convince her to come with me in the first place?
Whitley pokes her head into the hallway from the dining room door, stealing my attention.
“Not to interrupt, but if you guys want to take a seat in the dining room, I’m going to go let Vlad and Aubrey know lunch is ready.
There’s a plate of sandwiches waiting and cabbage rolls on the sideboard.
I’ll put your phone in some rice, Elena, hopefully it turns on soon. ”
“Thanks, Whitley,” Elena answers, her expression genuine.
Relief courses through me. So far, she doesn’t seem to be looking for an escape route to run for the hills. It’s a good sign and gives me hope we may have a chance after all.
I flex my hand, relaxing a bit when no scales appear and a normal skin tone remains. With no real idea what’s happening, or why, I’ve no choice but to lean on my new friends for assistance if my body really is betraying me.
Now just to make sure the rest of the motley castle crew doesn’t muck it up.
Elena Pierson
“My lady,” Lachlan says, standing in front of the dining room chair, waiting for me to sit like a gentleman.
His deep red hair glistens in the sunlight from the row of windows spread along the castle dining room wall, and my fingers itch to touch the silky strands again.
Get a grip, Elena. And not on him.
“Thank you,” I murmur and move to sit down, smiling up at him as he helps me push my chair to the table.
As soon as I touched him earlier I became aware of two things. One is that fish men are real. And two, I’m undeniably attracted to him.
Of course who wouldn’t be?
My brain acting like a sieve, I struggle to keep up with the many sudden questions that I have for him. Like what does he eat? Was he born this way?
How did he get stuck in the moat? How long was he in the moat? Does he have peculiar eating habits? Does he sleep in water??
I rub at my arms before pulling my hands under the table to twist them nervously. Everything in the dining room looks equal parts expensive and old, like most of it came out of a history book.
Hell, so far since walking through the back entrance, I’ve noticed at least four chandeliers. I take a minute to gawp up at the intricate ceilings and all the elegant finery before the chef comes back.
“The castle is so pretty,” I say, trying to fill the silence.
“Vlad’s owned it for years,” he says, turning to look at me from his seat at my side.
I fight to keep myself from fidgeting in my chair as he turns those bright green eyes on me.
“Did you guys find the phone?” Aubrey asks, a bright smile on her face as she flounces into the room, her hair in a bun atop her head looking like a sports gear ad. She takes a chair at the end of the long wooden table and meets my gaze.
“Lachlan did yeah, and I think Whitley’s gone to put it on rice,” I say, giving her a friendly smile.
“Oh good,” she replies. Her gaze flicks to the door and her grin brightens to a megawatt level. I turn to see why, and watch as Vlad enters the room making a bee line to her as if she’s the only person in the room.
They settle into their chairs, or at least Aubrey tries to while Vlad yanks her closer to his end of the table. She doesn’t seem to mind though, as intent as she’s looking at her phone while chattering to him.
My lips curl into a small smirk at how the couple seems oblivious to anyone around them. I’ve never been one to be jealous of anyone, always content doing my own thing usually in the lab or outdoors, but right now I find I like their closeness and how at ease they are with one another.
Vlad meets my gaze, his eyes like dark obsidian, and a trill of embarrassment goes up the back of my neck at being caught staring.
I quickly turn back to Lachlan and find his plate is piled with sandwiches.
“Are there more of you?” I ask, trying to keep my voice down.
He settles back into his chair, tiny sandwich in hand and shakes his head no.
“What are you exactly?” I whisper, leaning toward his seat as he takes a bite.
A shiver rolls through me at how his neck muscles convulse as he swallows, and my gaze falls to where his shirt tightens around his chest. My goodness, he’s big.
“My mum was a selkie and my dad, a sea god. I’m something in the middle. Are you hungry, lass? Do you want me to make your plate?” he asks, offering me his food.
“A glass of water would be great,” I squeak out, shell-shocked. A freaking sea god. Selkies are real?!
I’ve read plenty of books with selkie characters, mythological creatures that can shapeshift between a human shape and a seal, known for having a skin they shed to come on land, but never in a million years could I guess that they’re real.
I mutter my thanks when he shoves a small glass in my hand, and gulp it down in one go.
My gaze lands on Vlad when I return it to the table, and I realize there’s something otherworldly about him. “What is he?” I ask, my voice hardly a whisper.
Lachlan’s chair squeaks as he moves to bend his head toward mine to whisper back, “A vampire.”
The hair on my scalp raises and my gaze flies wide as I fight to keep my reaction neutral while he wrecks everything I thought I knew about the world.
“So Elena, how long are you staying in Europe?” Aubrey asks.
My brain is still short-circuiting over her boyfriend being a vampire as I scramble for an answer. “Almost two weeks,” I manage to stammer out.
Lachlan lets out a choked sound, and I gasp as the sound of fabric ripping fills the air. He stands up from the table, and the chair behind him scoots across the hardwood floor, pushed away by the massive tail erupting from the back of his pants.
“Holy shit,” I squeak.
Red blooms across his cheeks and out pop the greenish blue ear fins from before.
“Oh my god,” Aubrey says, sounding just as shocked as I am.
Lachlan’s ears flatten against his head, and my heart plummets to my stomach like a stone when he turns away to shield his face, obviously vexed by his inability to remain in his humanoid form.
He begins visibly shaking, and my heart breaks for him. “Hey, it’s okay,” I say.
I move to reach out and comfort him, noticing now that I’m this close how the scales on his body resemble that of a reptile and are oval in shape, but larger, and they shimmer with a turquoise sheen.
The moment our skin touches, his tail recedes instantly, and the fins on his ears and what scales I can see on his exposed arm disappear. “You okay now?” I ask, slowly removing my hand from his arm.
He nods, flexing his hands at his sides before moving to grab the chair and set it upright.
The spreading silence is deafening, so much so I can practically hear my heart trying to beat out of my chest with adrenaline.
“What the bloody fuck was that? And since when do you go about announcing to humans I’m a vampire,” Vlad snarls.
Vlad meets my gaze from the head of the table coldly, and my stomach takes a dive when his eye color turns to a deep glowing red.
Oh shit.