Land of Ice and Snow [Cairngorm Dragons 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free Page B

thought over the events of the day. What a lot had happened to change his life forever in one short day. This morning he had no mate and not a very rosy future. Then he had found his mate in the old way. He knew now what his brother and sister had. He also realised that it was well nigh impossible to describe it to someone who hadn’t experienced it. The bond he had felt instantly with Sigourney he knew was for life. He had been happy then. That had been short-lived when that harridan had issued the challenge. Would he have to fight the old one tomorrow? He wasn’t afraid of any man, but who knew what tricks of magic an old one might possess, and he had no defence against that. Well, it was no use to worry. He’d get a good night’s sleep and face trouble on the morrow.
     
    * * * *
     
    Her room was very close to his. She could sense his presence. He was her mate, and she’d spent years waiting for him, and now he might not survive the morrow, all because of that jealous woman. What would become of her if he didn’t return? She’d refused to consider another before she knew him and the bond they had established in that instant of recognition. Now she would die before she lay with another man.
    “I shall be back with you before you know it.”
    “Lachlann, I need you. I can’t lose you now. Where is my maidenly shame? I should wait with downcast eyes for you to speak to me, and here I am offering myself to you.”
    “There’s no shame in it, my little dove. You are my mate. Why should you be ashamed of anything you care to say to me? Will you come to me now? I’m waiting. You must understand one thing, however, before you come. Once we have mated, our lives are linked. If I die tomorrow, you will, too. Think carefully before you decide.”
    Lachlann was hesitant. He wanted to mate with her, but if he didn’t complete the task facing him on the morrow and he had taken her, then she would die too. Did he want that? He didn’t want to harm a hair of her head, but the thought of her mating with another twisted a knife in his gut. Was it selfish to think like that? Didn’t she deserve a future even if it wasn’t with him? Then his doubts vanished like the mist in the morning sun as her thoughts came to him clear and strong.
    “If you are killed tomorrow, there will be nothing left to hold me to this place or this earth. I’m yours now. I want no other man. I waited and faced criticism and banishment because I knew that somewhere there was a mate for me. I have you now, and if we are both to die tomorrow then I want to have been yours in every sense of the word. I will come to you, and we will mate tonight. Whatever tomorrow brings, we will face together.”
    She got up and slipped on her old woollen robe. It was warm but not very pretty, but then she supposed with a blush that she wouldn’t be wearing it for long.
    “No indeed you won’t. I just want what’s under it. Come now. I can’t wait to hold you.”
    Sigourney left her chamber and went swiftly to Lachlann’s on tiptoe. She had no wish to meet anyone and be asked questions. She would have told anyone who asked where she was going. She wasn’t ashamed to tell, and she wouldn’t be dissuaded. She just didn’t want to have to share this moment with anyone else at all. She entered his room and saw he still had the candles lit. She had supposed it would be dark.
    “No, my love, it won’t be dark. I want to see you, every inch of you. Now come over here to me.”
    Slowly she approached him. Her face betrayed her heat as his eyes raked the length of her. He smiled and held out his hands. She took them and found them to be calloused from manual labour or maybe from wielding his sword, but they were warm, too. He held hers in a strong grip and pulled her toward him.
    “There’s no need for you to be afraid. Do you know what’s about to happen?”
    “Yes, we are all prepared for marriage and the consummation when we are of an age to mate. I know what