Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 74538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
I didn’t know what the future held, didn’t know if I’d find anything out in Scotland, but I had a good feeling I’d find something and wouldn’t come back empty-handed.
I felt like going to the Highlands would bring me the biggest revelation of my life.
2
Caelan
“Drinking isn’t going tae make the situation better,” Tavish said, but there was no masking the fact that he was pissed at me.
And I don’t give a fook.
I looked him square in the eye, brought the bottle of one-hundred-year-old scotch to my lips, and took a looong pull from it. When I brought the bottle away from my mouth, I said, “It makes me feel better, and right now that’s all I can control.”
His scowl deepened, and his expression told me he disapproved of my getting sloshed while the Ainslee situation was in full swing.
Ainslee’s situation…
Shit, that was a clusterfuck if there ever was one.
Not only did our little sister have a mate, but it was to an over four-hundred-year-old crazed Lycan. Our sweet and innocent twenty-year-old sister who was half-vampire, half-Lycan—the same as us—but who was as weak as a human, making us constantly fear for her safety.
Even though me and my brothers were hybrids as well, our Lycans had taken dominance, allowing us to shift, all but suppressing our vampiric sides.
We’d sheltered Ainslee her whole life. I knew we were overbearing, overprotective, and didn't give her the space and independence she probably craved. Hello, she was a grown woman now, but I’d always see her as Leelee, my baby sister. And fuck, I felt guilty that we’d coddled her for so long, but our alpha sides had demanded no less.
I ran a hand over the back of my head, my short, dark hair no doubt standing on end from the act.
“Where’s Da?” I asked, although my mind was elsewhere and not really focused on where our father was—the ruler of the Scottish Lycan clan.
“He called it a night with Mam. They went tae bed maybe half an hour ago, although I doubt Da will sleep. He’s too fired up tae rest.”
Yeah. We all are.
“Besides, Luca keeps howling, and that sound carries. I’ve got one hell of a fooking headache from his bellowing.”
As if on cue, Luca roared out on the other side of the massive, mystically protected wall that surrounded our ancestral home and property.
I clenched my teeth and then took another drink from the now half-empty bottle. Although I knew deep down keeping her away from her fated mate was wrong, Luca had slowly started to lose touch with reality and let his beast reign free within him. That breakdown had caused his human side to become partially shifted, to allow Luca to be more animalistic, to be a stronger version of a shifter male in human form.
In other words, he was hella dangerous, and even more so because his mate was being kept from him.
“The wall, magically protected or no’, will no’ keep him out forever,” Tavish murmured and came to stand next to me.
I was by the large stained-glass window in the library that overlooked the front of the property. A roaring fire crackled behind us, but I didn’t feel any of the heat.
We stayed like that for so long I was only focused on the rolling hills of the Highlands, our property stretching out as far—and beyond that—as the eye could see.
“I’ll be honest,” Tavish said softly, his voice gruff, deep. “I canna fault the male for the way he acts.”
I exhaled but didn’t respond. Of course he was right. It was wrong to keep a male from his fated mate, but shit, they were doing the right thing, doing what was best for Ainslee.
Aren't we?
I scowled and stared at my reflection that looked back at me in the glass. “He’s dangerous in the state he’s in. Right. Wrong. Good. Bad. It does no’ matter. I’m tired of second-guessing shit. Until he can calm down, he canna be near Leelee.”
I saw Tavish’s reflection nod. “I know. I’m just saying—”
I looked at the male beside me, an identical replica of me and Lennox and us of him. “There’s nothing tae say. If anything happened tae Ainslee, if we let her go tae Luca and he inadvertently harmed her because his mind is no’ right, then what? Ye think ye can live with yourself? ’Cause I sure as fook canna.”
Tavish clenched his jaw, his eyes narrowed, and a low, dangerous growl left him.
“Until we can gauge the situation, until we can figure out what the best course of action is, this is the only route we can take.” I took another long pull from the scotch bottle and turned back around to stare out the window. Luca bellowed again, and I growled low.
I heard the anguished, aggressive sound come from Luca again and couldn’t even imagine what he was feeling right now. Was his mind so far gone he didn’t fully understand why we’d done this? That we kept him away from Ainslee for her own protection? He wasn’t making his point of view very convincing that he could control himself, not when he kept howling like a wounded animal in a trap.