Page 45 of His Stubborn Mate

There was such hope in his eyes I wouldn’t deny him, even if I hadn’t wanted to sleep beside him each night. I didn’t know what the future would bring, but the fact that this male—this good male—wanted to spend it with us?

‘Twas enough to make me hope I’d made the right choice in coming here.

So I nodded to him. “Show us your home, Maardok.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Maardok

“Show us your home, Maardok.”

I was still grinning like a fool when we started down the hill. I couldn’t seem to stop, in truth. I’d spent most of the journey from the stones imagining this moment—Cataline seeing Islay for the first time, Ewan running along the loch, my son safe beneath a Battleborn roof—but none of those imaginings had prepared me for the satisfaction which settled deep in my chest as I led them toward the village.

Home.

After weeks of human towns, abandoned crofts, muddy roads and sleeping beneath the stars, the familiar scents of peat smoke and damp earth were enough to make my Kteer hum in satisfaction. Somewhere nearby sheep were bleating, the wind carried the faint sulfurous scent of the springs down from the cliffs, and smoke curled from chimneys all along the shore of the loch.

“Ye’ll like it here,” I promised Cataline.

She glanced sideways at me. “You have said that.”

“And I’m right.” At least, I prayed I was.

Her lips twitched, and gods below, I counted that tiny smile as a victory.

She looked exhausted. She had been exhausted for days, although she’d protested each time I mentioned it, and the slow pace she’d managed on the last stretch toward the village had left her pale beneath the wind’s color in her cheeks.

Edan slept bundled against her breast, while Ewan had somehow regained all the energy the rest of us had lost and was examining every shrub, stone, and unfortunate crawling creature along the path.

“Mama! Look!” Ewan shouted from several paces ahead.

“Do not touch it!” Cataline immediately blurted.

He huffed a huge sigh. “But you haven’t even seen it!”

“I do not need to see it to know you should not touch it.”

I chuckled, and Ewan turned to me hopefully.

“’Tis only a slug.”

“Slugs arenae dangerous, but ye must listen to yer mother.”

For a moment I’d forgotten Ewan wasn’t mine to encourage or to parent. And I’d forgotten that Cataline didn’t feel any of my excitement to be home again.

Then she closed her eyes for a moment, and I decided mayhap now was not the best time to explain that there were much larger slugs near the loch.

We were still a fair distance from my cottage when someone finally noticed us. A warrior coming from the direction of the training field stopped dead in the path, stared at me, then stared at the small human boy beside me, then at Cataline and the bundle she held.

“Maardok?” he called in disbelief, shouting my name so loudly half the village must’ve heard him. “We expected ye days ago!”

Within moments, people were coming from every direction. Warriors abandoned whatever they’d been carrying, doors opened, females stepped out of cottages, and a pack of kitlings appeared from gods knew where, skidding to a halt several paces away to stare openly at Ewan.

Ewan immediately pressed himself against my leg. I dropped my hand to his shoulder without thinking, and his fingers caught the edge of my kilt.

“Are they all orcs?” he whispered.

“Most of them.”