Page 41 of His Stubborn Mate

“After what we just shared, dkaar, ye think I care about a little blood?” He scoffed. “After what ye went through these last months, ye think I cannae handle a little discomfort? I’m sorry, Cataline.”

He blew out a breath and shook his head, as he held a branch out of the way for the horse to pass. “I never realized…I’m sorry I didnae understand right away that the bairn was mine. I’m sorry I couldnae tell.”

But he’d claimed the babe—I’d seen the wonder and awe on his face as he understood what he held.

“I am sorry I did not tell you,” I whispered, my arms around his neck but my gaze locked on his throat. “I was cowardly.”

Again, he snorted, his tone brisk. “Ye tried, lass, I remember. I dismissed ye.”

True. I remembered the doubt in his expression.

“I was not sure if it would matter to you,” I confessed quietly.

He sucked in a sharp breath between his tusks.

“No’ matter to me?” He shot me another look of incredulity. “If I’d kenned ye’d accepted my seed, love, I wouldnae have left ye the first time. Now that I ken the truth, ye’re no’ getting rid of me.”

I chuckled and saw his lips curl in a way that had naught to do with the hideous scar which ran up his cheek.

How could anyone be afraid of this male, with his kindness and gentle spirit?

I love ye, Cataline.

He’d said that to me, even before he’d known I carried his son. Or had he only said it because he was afraid of the pain and uncertainty of the birth? I was too cowardly to ask him again, or mayhap too stubborn to learn the truth. Did I truly need to know the truth?

I closed my eyes and exhaled, resting my temple against Maardok’s strong bicep, which flexed beneath me as he carried me toward his world, while I bled all over him.

“The bairn was mine in a way I didnae understand, even before I met him.”

His quiet words caressed my hair moments before he brushed a kiss over my crown.

“Now I kenned I sired him? I cannae let him go. Ye’re mine, Cataline, and so is Ewan.”

His voice had dropped to a merest breath, and I wondered if he realized I was still awake.

“I’m going to keep ye all safe, I swear it.”

Mine.

Last night he’d claimed me, and today…

Well, today was a day like no other.

We made few stops. Maardok was determined to reach the stones with time to spare. We ate while traveling, and that included the babe. Maardok handed him to me so I could set him to my breast, then scooped me back up again and strode on carrying both of us.

We made it in time.

The stone circle seemed to glow in the light of the full moon. But when midnight came, the space in the middle filled with a sudden silver mist. Between one blink and the next it appeared, and when Maardok exhaled, I heard his relief.

“Ready?” he asked us, and Ewan nodded eagerly. “Then come down here, son.”

And so, as we stepped into the mist, I walked on weak legs, carrying the babe, while Maardok carried Ewan against his shoulder and led the horse. Ewan kept up a running chatter—made more nonsensical from his exhaustion, I had no doubt—but the moment the mist enveloped us, he bit down on his words and buried his face in the big male’s throat.

The mist was cool and prickled against my exposed skin. I shivered and gripped my babe to my chest, and were it not for Maardok’s warm hand on my back, I might have lost the courage and turned about.

Nay, you are too obstinate for that.

When we emerged out of the mist and stepped from between the stones, Ewan and I both gasped to see we were surrounded by trees in a welcoming grove. There’d been no trees on the other side of the veil, but I remembered what Maardok had told us about our worlds being mirrored.