His wolf was not so easily swayed, though it submitted to the more powerful (at that time) alpha wolf without question.
Still, the beast longed for the woman that was no longer in their life. The longing never abated and the wolf refused the touch of any other female, no matter how lovely the Faol Uven had paraded before him. Despite Caelis having believed for a time that Shona was dead, he wouldn’t even try to mate another.
He’d only begun to doubt that lie in the last year, when he’d started to question far more about his laird than his clear predisposition toward Chrechte-only matings.
That stupid, prejudiced man had cost Caelis five years of his son’s life. Even if duty did not dictate Caelis returning to the clan and challenging Uven for leadership, knowledge of what the man’s lies had cost him personally would make the challenge necessary.
“Nice man,” Marjory said for the second time that day, patting Caelis face. “No be sad.”
He smiled at the wee one. “All will be well, mo breagha.”
She giggled. “I’m not beautiful.”
“You look just like your mama.” Though Marjory’s curly red hair was more a halo of fine baby curls and her mother’s fell in long ringlets down her back. “You are beautiful indeed.”
“My dreams say we are a family,” Eadan said from near his hip. “But I do not think Mum wants to be one.”
Caelis dropped to his haunches, careful to keep Marjory secure in his arms, and met his son’s blue gaze. “We will have to convince her then, won’t we, my son?”
His voice nearly broke on the word son, but he was a warrior and he would not show such weakness. Bad enough he’d fainted down in the bailey like a woman at court.
“We can try,” Eadan said doubtfully. “Mum doesn’t change her mind easy.”
“I remember that about her.” Though her stubborn tendencies hadn’t often shown with him, he saw them in the way she related to others all too frequently.
“She didn’t want to be with Percy. We runned away instead. I don’t like Percy, either.”
“Who is Percy?” Niall asked.
“My not-brother.”
“Percival.” Shona had mentioned him, Caelis remembered. “The new baron?”
Eadan nodded. “He has a wife but no children. He wanted Mum to be his lemon and give him children. But she wouldn’t let him have us.”
“Lehman, he wanted to make her his lehman.” Percival would have made Shona, his former stepmother, his mistress with all the responsibilities and none of the privileges of his wife.
It was monstrous and disgusting, and no more than he expected of an English baron, though he’d never tell Abigail that.
Fury filled Caelis, but he did his best not to let it bleed through his countenance and scare the children.
“In my dreams, men turn into wolves sometimes but women never turn into lemons.”
He didn’t correct his son’s pronunciation, but he did wonder at it.
“What is a lemon?” Niall asked, however.
Eadan’s brow furrowed like he was surprised by the question. “It’s a yellow fruit. Sour. Mum read to me about it from a book written by one of the priests in Italy. My lord was ever so fond of the writings of the Church.”
“I see.” Caelis made no attempt to hide his smile. “Percy isn’t turning your mother into his lemon, or anything else.”
Eadan nodded in complete agreement. “Mum won’t let him.”
“Neither will I.”
“Good. Mum isn’t as big as she thinks she is.”
Niall laughed. “She seems plenty big to me.”
“Mama is tiny but strong,” Eadan replied staunchly. “I’ll be taller ’n her soon enough. She always says so.”
“Aye.” Emotion threatened to choke Caelis.
This child standing before him with blue eyes the same gentian shade and oval shape as his own was his son. The fruit of sacred passion he had shared with his true mate.
Because only a true mate could become pregnant by a Chrechte when she was human.
All his former laird’s arguments against the mating shattered in the face of that truth. Not only had she given birth, but his son’s enhanced ability to smell indicated that he would go through the change into wolf form when he reached age.
Caelis shuddered to think what would have happened to his son if he had shifted without a pack to protect him. But then, he had a pack.
An English one.
He looked to Thomas, who was already teaching a game with sticks to the Sinclair’s twin sons. Their baby daughter slept above stairs this time in the afternoon.
Caelis carried Marjory to where Thomas and the children played on the floor of the great hall nearby. He set the girl down and she immediately grabbed for her brother’s hand. Eadan took it, as if he was used to doing so and led her to the others.
Caelis lowered himself to the floor beside Thomas. “Teach me this game,” he demanded.
The young wolf merely nodded and explained the rules. They’d played for a bit, even getting the wee Marjory to participate, when Caelis asked, “How came you to be such close friends to my mate?”
“Her father sought us out. I do not know how he knew of our true nature, or that of our mother, but the steward was well aware and wanted us nearby in case Eadan made the transition.”
“What of your own family?”
“My father is a minor baron and wanted nothing of us, offspring from his lehman.”
“Does he know she is Chrechte?”
Grief twisted Thomas’s youthful features. “No. He never knew and now she is gone.”
“I am sorry.” Caelis had lost his own parents, only to learn recently it had been at the hands of the very man who had insinuated himself into Caelis’s life as a second father.
Uven had played mentor and parent to Caelis, all the while guilty of the most heinous betrayals.
“She loved us, but fate picked poorly in her true mate,” Thomas continued in a quiet voice as he directed the children’s play. “Our father is a hard man with no love in his heart for those he uses so cruelly.”
“How did she die?”
“Fever. She was pregnant again, but too old to carry mayhap. Anyway, she and the babe died. That was five years ago. Father took a fee from the Baron of Heronshire for us to come into his household as personal companion and servant to his lady wife.”
“The ways of the English are beyond my ken,” Caelis said with disgust.
“It was Shona’s father who instigated the transaction. As I said, he wanted us to be near if his grandson made the change.”
“Eadan will,” Caelis and Talorc, laird of the Sinclairs, said in unison.
The others had remained in the great hall, watching the children play, remaining quiet amongst themselves, though Caelis did not doubt Abigail and Talorc had conversed across their mate bond.
Ciara nodded her agreement. “His wolf is already strong in him.”
“Shona is still ignorant of the Chrechte’s existence,” Caelis observed.
“She is.” Thomas didn’t sound happy about that. “There was no pack nearby, but our mother taught us that we could not share our secret unless there was dire need.”
“Mating constitutes dire need, in case you are wondering,” Abigail said with more sting than she usually spoke, and a look of old censure at her husband.
“Aye. Though how you could not realize she was your true mate when it is clear you shared in the physical bonds of love…” Talorc let the criticism trail off, but there was no doubting his disapproval.
“My laird told me she wasn’t and I didn’t believe her when she told me she thought she was pregnant. I asked Uven and he said that it wasn’t possible. That Shona could not be my true mate; as my alpha, he would know if she was. I knew matings between humans and Chrechte were rare, but I had hoped so fervently. I was very angry I had to let her go; I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.”