Warrior Untamed Read Online Free

gathering up the layers of skirts that composed the Tinkler costume she wore.
    The dress might be pretty, but pretty was hardly practical.
    Jamesy met her halfway, wrapping her in his arms, hugging her close, and lifting her inches off the ground just as their da had always done. If she closed her eyes, she might almost believe her da had returned.
    Though it wouldn’t surprise her if she and Jamesy had themselves a fine, rowdy argument before the sun set on their first day together, it was beyond good to have her big brother home again. He, like no other here at Castle MacGahan, was true family.
    “You’ve been gone too long,” she proclaimed, returning her brother’s embrace. “You canna believe how I’ve missed you.”
    “What I canna believe is how you’ve filled out in just a year’s time. No wonder they tell me the castle’s larder is low.”
    Her older brother had always had the ability to annoy her more than any other person she knew.
    Though the big warrior Halldor O’Donar was running a close second of late.
    “Those look to me to be curves,” one of the men who joined them commented. “And none too excessive to my way of thinking.”
    “Did I forget to mention how it would be best for you to keep yer eyes—and yer thoughts—to yerself?” Jamesy growled, completely ruining the effect of his threat by giving her a wink as he ended their embrace.
    “Once or twice, mayhap,” the other responded, his voice reflecting his lack of concern over his friend’s bark. “But it’s yer own fault, Jamesy MacCulloch. When you spoke of a little sister, we all imagined a wee bit of a bairn, no a full-grown beauty such as this. You should introduce us.”
    Jamesy grinned down at her before turning to face his companions. “Well, then, Finn, you imagined wrong, did you no? And while we’re about it, I’ll thank you to keep my sister out of any further imaginings you might have, aye? She’s no meant for the likes of you.”
    “Friends of yers, are they?” she asked, studying the face of each of the men. They had to be, or Jamesy would have taken the mouthy one to the ground by now.
    “Aye,” her brother agreed with a roll of his eyes. He wagged his thumb to indicate the man who’d spoken. “The noisy one with the ragged dog at his side is Finley MacCormack. And the quiet one back there is Alexander MacKillican. I couldna shake the two of them from my heels when I left Edinburgh, so I’d no choice but to let them follow along. Like lost sheep, they were.”
    “Allow us?” Finn snorted his disbelief. “We couldna trust this brother of yers to stay out of troublewithout us. It’s we who had no choice in the matter but to leave our studies and trail along after him. Am I no telling the God’s honest truth, Alex?”
    Alex shrugged. “We’ve a bond, for a fact. Harm one, harm us all.”
    Brie acknowledged the two men with a dip of her head, then turned to her brother, catching up his hand in hers as the four of them made their way toward the great stairs.
    She had so many things to tell Jamesy, so many plans to finalize. Chief among those things was determining when they would leave to find the sword they needed to confront their father’s killer.
    Jamesy stopped, his gaze scanning the wagon and riders in the courtyard. “Patrick dinna return with you?”
    She shook her head. “He and Halldor continued on after they met up with us.”
    Continued on their own merry way, leaving her behind as if she weren’t every bit the warrior they were.
    “Halldor?” Her brother turned a hard, questioning gaze her direction. “That would be O’Donar? He’s the one who managed to spirit you out of Tordenet in one piece, is he no?”
    He’d gotten her out of there, but he’d failed as miserably as she had in her original purpose in being there.
    “He is. But my escape from the castle came at a price. Torquil MacDowylt still lives, Jamesy. I missed my opportunity to kill the bastard.”
    All traces of humor