Lucy Monroe - Warrior's Moon

“I believe you.” She did. She believed he loved her. Believed he would never again leave her. Incandescent joy sparkled through her, lightening a heart that had seen too much grief. “You do love me. You have always loved me.”

Finally, she understood. His mistakes had not been made out of a lack of love, but a lack of understanding of what the cost of his would be. He would never again ignore the potential cost to his mate for any decision he might make.

“I do. As wolf, as conriocht , as man, my heart and my life belong to you.”

She nodded, her tears spilling over, her happiness the scent of spring flowers around them. “I will.”

The mating ceremony was all Caelis had ever dreamed it would be, on the many nights he lay in a lonely pile of furs wishing for the mate he thought lost to him. She promised him everything in the language of his people, her emerald gaze fully cognizant of each word’s meaning as he once again used their bond to remind her.

And they shared their joy with the MacLeod pack, accepting their brethren’s oaths to support and protect their mating as was right and just.

They followed the ceremony, which took the pack from death to life in a few short hours, by rounding up all the human members of the clan and announcing Caelis’s new position as their laird.

Each clan member was given the option of swearing loyalty or leaving with the option of being welcomed into either the Donegal, Sinclair or Balmoral clans. All chose to stay.

The heaviness of that trust weighed profoundly in the most joyous of ways on Caelis.

But nothing was more important than the new life Caelis began with Shona that night, as she accepted his love and reaffirmed her own, proving to the whole clan how important matters of the heart were to even the most powerful Chrechte warrior.

The same group that had traveled with them from the Sinclair all stood in the secret caves of the ancient Chrechte the next day. Caelis, Shona, their children, Audrey, Vegar, Thomas, Prince Eirik, Ciara, Maon and the other MacLeod soldiers who had first sworn fealty to a new alpha.

Ciara led them all down into the chamber of the Faolchú Chridhe and now instructed Shona and Caelis to lay their hands on the sacred stone.

The mating ceremony the night before had been a public affirmation of their relationship, but today the celi di wanted to bless their union with the sacred stone.

The moment Shona’s fingertips touched the giant glowing emerald, she felt the most amazing connection. The thoughts and feelings that bombarded her were not her own, and she realized from their content that they belonged to those around her.

“I can hear the thoughts of others,” she said in awe. She’d heard Uven’s contemplations in the great hall before the laird’s death, but they had been muffled and disjointed.

Now, it was as if she could enter another’s mind like walking into a room.

“It is the gift of your nature,” Ciara said softly.

“But I am human.”

“With Chrechte ancestry.”

“You will help identify the Fearghall and aid the celi di for both the Éan and Faol to serve our people the way we are meant to.”

“But I am no celi di .”

Ciara smiled. “You are. You have been chosen.”

“But…” Shona looked up at Caelis.

He returned the look with blue eyes filled with love. “Your destiny is yours to embrace or deny. I stand by you either way.”

Happiness suffused her. “With your example, how can I do any less than embrace it?”

Then each one in the chamber laid his hand on the Faolchú Chridhe to varying effect. When Maon touched it, though, a great light exploded around them and when Shona could see again, a conriocht who was not her mate stood among them.

It was Maon.

“You must find the Paindeal,” Ciara intoned. “Your fate lies in reuniting our races.”

Maon did not speak, his expression one of stupefied shock.

Caelis laid his human hand on the conriocht ’s arm. “You do not feel worthy. You never will, but you have been chosen as protector of our people. What you do with that great gift is up to you.”

Caelis turned back to Shona and reiterated, “Just as you must choose how much of yourself to give to our people.”

“So long as you are by my side, I will serve the Chrechte of all clans and the humans of our own to the best of my abilities.”

“I will always be with you. I love you more than my life, more than my duty.”

And she believed him.

To the very smallest tendrils of her spirit.

bairn—baby

beguines—self-running nunnery without vows to the church, not supported by the official church as related to Rome (historically accurate term in the British Isles)

ben —hill

Ben Bristecrann —broken tree hill (a sacred spot to Ciara’s family)

brae—hillside or slope

Cahir—warriors who fight the Fearghall

celi di —Scottish Highland priest practicing Catholicism with no official ties to the church in Rome (historically accurate term in relation to Scotland and Ireland)

Chrechte—shifters who share their souls with wolves, birds or cats of prey

Clach Gealach Gra —(moon’s heart stone) the bird shifter’s sacred stone

conriocht —werewolf (protector of the Faol, shifts into giant half wolf/half man–type creature)

Éan—bird shifters (ravens, eagles and hawks)

Faol—wolf shifters

faolán —little wolf (Gaelic term of endearment)

Faolchú Chridhe —(wolf’s heart) the wolf shifter’s sacred stone

Fearghall—secret supremacist society of the Faol intent on wiping out/subjugating other races of the Chrechte

femwolf—female wolf shifter

keeper of the stone—a Chrechte who has a special link to the sacred stone and can utilize its full potential for healing, gifting and bringing forth the protectors of the races ( conriocht , dragon and griffin)

kelle —warrior priestess (mentioned in Celtic mythology)

Kyle Kirksonas —River of the Healing Church

loch—lake

mate—a Chrechte’s chosen partner (if it is a mixed mating—Chrechte of different races, or a human mate—children can only result if the bond is a true/sacred one)

mate-link—the special mental bond between true/sacred mates

mindspeak—communicating via a mental link

mo breagha —my beauty

mo gra —my love

mo toilichte —my happiness

Paindeal—cat shifters (large cats of prey)

Paindeal Neart—(panther’s strength) the panther shifters’ sacred stone

sacred bond (true bond)—a mating bond that lasts unto death and will not physically allow the Chrechte involved to have intercourse with anyone but the Chrechte’s mate

usquebagh —“water of life” (Scotch whiskey)