Highland Beast Read online

  “Be at ease, Alyn,” Alice said as she moved to crouch at the oldest boy’s side.

  “Ye brought the Hunters to us,” Alyn said, his tone of voice wavering between question and accusation.

  “Nay, I would ne’er do so. E’en if ye cannae believe I would die to keep ye safe, can ye doubt that I would do so for Donn, my own son? Or for wee Jayne or Norma?”

  Alyn bit his lip and shook his head. “Nay. But if they arenae our enemies, who are they?”

  “MacNachtons,” replied Gybbon as he and his cousins cautiously moved closer. “We are like you, and the men hunting ye hunt us as weel. ’Tis our belief that ye all have some MacNachton blood.”

  “I dinnae ken what blood runs in my veins, but ’tis a curse nay matter where it comes from,” said Alyn, a very adult bitterness tainting his words.

  Gybbon sat and stared at the boy from across the small fire, his gaze never wavering even when his cousins sat down flanking him. “Aye, at times it does feel like a curse, holding us firm in the shadows and causing our innards to gnaw with a dark hunger. ’Tisnae the devil’s work, however, and we are nay demons. We are but a different people. Our ancestors reveled in those differences, acting with both arrogance and cruelty. My laird’s father put a final end to that long ago. What we ne’er kenned was that while our ancestors took whate’er they wanted or needed, they also left their seed behind. I would like to say they would have cared if they had kenned they had bred children, but I am nay sure they would have. I do believe, however, that it ne’er occurred to them that their seed would take root.”

  “Any mon with wit kens that if ye scatter your seed about some of it will root and grow.”

  There was such anger and pain behind Alyn’s words it made Gybbon’s heart ache. “Aye, so they should. Howbeit, MacNachton seed doesnae often take root. We have clung to our home, away from others—the ones we call the Outsiders—for a verra long time. We also bred within the clan far too often. One day the laird looked about and realized that in forty years, only one full MacNachton, what we call a Pureblood, had born a child and that the only other child born at Cambrun had come from a MacNachton and an Outsider. So, ye can see why it ne’er occurred to us that ones of MacNachton blood had been born outside of our lands.” He shrugged. “If ye cannae breed at home, why should ye be able to breed away from it, aye?”

  “Your clan has no bairns?” asked Alice, suddenly understanding why the men had stared at the children as if they truly were gifts from God.

  “There are more now, for our laird and my father both wed Outsiders. It was my laird’s plan. He himself is born of a MacNachton and an Outsider.” Gybbon briefly flashed his fangs. “Few Outsiders can tolerate what we are. Our laird hopes to slowly breed out what makes us so feared. Although we begin to think the best we can do is lessen the differences between ourselves and the Outsiders enough to more easily move among them.”

  “Why would ye want to?” grumbled Alyn.

  “To survive, Alyn,” Alice whispered, easily seeing the path the MacNachton laird was walking.

  “Aye,” agreed Gybbon. “We may be stronger, fiercer, and all of that, but there are far more Outsiders than there are MacNachtons and there always will be.”

  “Even if ye gather all the Lost Ones.”

  The fact that she had seen that reason for their search told him she had a keen wit. “Ye could rightfully cry me a liar if I said that wasnae in our minds when we started searching for any with some MacNachton blood in their veins. It wasnae what truly started the search, however. There are many reasons.”

  “We have time,” she said as she sat down beside Alyn and the small boy named Donn crawled up onto her lap.

  “Nay, I dinnae think we do. Those men didnae flee home and I think ye ken it.”

  Alice sighed. “Aye, I ken it, but they will halt and plot for a wee while. ’Tis their way. They have a wounded mon they need to tend to.” Or bury, she thought, and felt the pinch of horror and shame. She quickly shook that away. She was fighting for her life.

  “Time that we should use to flee this place.” Gybbon looked at Martyn. “Can ye fetch the horses?”

  “Aye.” Martyn stood and signaled Lachann to join him. “We will bring them closer, hide them, and fetch some supplies. I think it best if we eat ere we set out for Cambrun.”

  Gybbon briefly glanced at the children and nodded. “Watch your backs.” As soon as his cousins slipped away, he said, “We will travel to Cambrun as soon as we have eaten. That is all the time I dare linger here. Ye can eat food, aye?”

  “Aye,” replied Alice, wondering just which MacNachtons might not be able to and hoping it was not an added curse that would come to her later in her life, “though that cursed hunger isnae silenced by it.”

  “I ken it. It can be leashed, however. Can ye abide the sun?”

  “A wee bit. Morning and dusk. Longer if the clouds are heavy. High noon, the heart of the day, is dangerous for all of us. And, ere ye ask, we all have those cursed fangs, all our senses are keener than most people’s, we move faster, heal faster, are stronger than most, and, if my grandmere wasnae lying about when my maman was born, dinnae age too quickly. My maman was two score and ten when she was butchered but she didnae look much older than I am now.” She smiled faintly when he just cocked one dark brow in question. “I am but two and twenty.”

  “And this is your son?” he asked, nodding toward the boy seated in her lap.

  “Aye, Donn is my son. He is four now and has kenned naught in his short life but running and hiding. It isnae the life I would choose for any child, but at least they all still live.”

  “Your husband?”

  Alice held his gaze with her own, hoping he could read in her face what she did not want to say in front of the children. “I have ne’er had one. Nay, nor a lover or a love.”

  Gybbon could see the fury and grief in her eyes, eyes that appeared golden in the firelight, and knew what she did not say. Donn was a child conceived in violence and humiliation. He felt a fierce urge to find the man who had abused her and make him suffer. Gybbon told himself that was because he had always abhorred men who abused women, but a small voice in his head scoffed at his excuse. This dirty, ragged woman was having a very unsettling effect on him and he was not sure what that meant or might portend.

  With their callous arrogance and willful indifference, this was the hell his ancestors had condemned their children to. Alice had said that her mother had been butchered. Gybbon did not have to ask to know why the woman had been killed. The MacNachton blood had come from the mother, had left her different in a world that treated any differences with a dangerous superstition. He did not want to think on just how many MacNachton kin had met similar fates, but it was a fact that was hard to ignore, especially when he was facing a woman and four children who had all suffered losses. It fed the urgency his clan felt, fed the strong need to collect up all the Lost Ones they could find as quickly as they could.

  “The boy will be cherished at Cambrun, as will all these children,” he said when he was certain his anger would not seep into his words. “Having accepted that we have become a dying people, any child with e’en the smallest drop of MacNachton blood is considered a gift, a sign that we arenae destined to fade into the mists.”

  “Mayhap we should just fade away.”

  “Nay. I told ye, we arenae demons and we arenae cursed. We are but a different breed of man. Kenning what Outsiders say about us, what they do to all who are so different, is why we are searching so hard for ones such as ye are. And we arenae the only different breed of man.” He told them a little about the Callans, his mother’s clan who claimed to be descended from a Celtic shape-shifter. “Who kens what others may be out there? Ones who can hide amongst the Outsiders better than we can. We have begun a search for others as weel, for our laird feels it would make us stronger if all who are different became allies.”

  “The Callans bred out what made them different? They dinnae act like cats any lon
ger?” Alice actually considered the possibility that she was not some hell-born aberration.

  “Ah, weel, nay. Not all of their differences have disappeared. We begin to think it is impossible to breed it all out, but Cathal, our laird, says we can soften the hard edges of our differences. ’Tis good enough. And, if ye and the others like ye had been made known to us, we could have helped ye hide what ye are, could have taught ye how to keep yourselves hidden amongst the crowd. By leaving ye to grow up untrained, without knowledge of who ye are, my ancestors condemned ye. It took a while, and a great deal of arguing, but even the Purebloods in the clan now see the truth of that.”

  “The Purebloods didnae want to change?”

  “Nay, they were reluctant to change the way we have lived for so verra long, but they have come to see that Cathal is right. The recent discovery of Lost Ones has helped change their minds.” He smiled faintly. “The fact that my mother and her sister, who married our laird, have bred easily and frequently hasnae hurt, either.”

  “So now ye do have children?” asked Alyn.

  “Some, but nay enough. ’Tis difficult to find wives and husbands outside of the clan,” explained Gybbon. “Especially since many would have to come and live amongst us for the safety of their mate and whatever children they might have.”

  “How can ye be so certain we will be welcomed by your clan?”

  “I told ye, we are a dying breed. Ye need more than two women bearing children to keep a clan alive and strong. We need new blood. And my clan cherishes children if only because we have had so few, have suffered a long time with no bairns born and ken the sorrow of barren nurseries. Our younger men, ones who have a skill for blending with Outsiders, leave us to try and find a mate and some have succeeded. That only tempts others to do the same. Not all of them return, making their lives where their mates live.”

  “Another loss that weakens your clan,” said Alice.

  “Aye.” Gybbon tensed when he heard the faint sound of a horse, then relaxed when he recognized the soft tread of his cousins. “My cousins return,” he said quickly when he saw that Alice and the children had all tensed with fear.

  When his cousins sat down by the fire and began to pull food from a saddle-pack, Gybbon quickly took charge of it. He had once suffered hunger and knew he should not give in to the urge to feed the starving children all they wanted. He suspected it had been a very long time since any of them had known the comfort of a full belly. Too much food now would only make them ill. He gave them each a modest portion of the bread, cheese, and cold venison, plus one honey-sweetened oatcake each. Then he served the adults the same and signaled Martyn to pack the food away. At first the children tried to stuff their mouths full, but one sharp look from Alice halted that mindless greed. Gybbon began to think that Alice had once been a well-taught lady from a family of means as, once the urge to gorge had been ended, she and the children ate their food with surprising delicacy.

  “How long have ye been running and hiding?” he asked Alice as she helped the smaller children drink some cider from his wineskin. Later, he thought, he would offer them some of the blood-enriched wine MacNachtons always carried with them, for they could all use the strength it would give them.

  “Six years,” she replied. “I was away from home, collecting berries, when the men attacked my family. If they had not fired the stable I might weel have stumbled into their grasp. Instead, the smell of smoke caused me to approach slowly. What I saw—” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an effort to maintain her calm, to push back the grief that could still choke her at times. “It was clear to see that I was too late to help my family, could only die as they had, so I hid myself away. Once I was certain the men were gone, I slipped back, collected what little was left and might be of use, and then placed the bodies of my family in our ruined home. I made it their tomb.”

  “How many did you lose?”

  “Mother, father, grandmother, and sister.”

  “Thrice curse the bastards,” muttered Lachann, then blushed faintly as he recalled that he was in the presence of a woman and children. “Forgive my harsh language.”

  “Mine has often been far harsher,” Alice said, “and the ills I wish upon those murderers far bloodier.”

  “Ye were caught once, though, aye?” Gybbon glanced at Donn, who was savoring his sweetened oatcake bite by little bite.

  “Aye. Once. The fools may think me a demon but they also still see me as a woman, weak and easily cowed as they think all women are. I escaped. I willnae be caught alive again,” she added softly, hoping she could keep that vow despite her strong will to survive at all costs. “As I ran and hid I found first Alyn, then Jayne, and then Norma. All orphaned.”

  “I wasnae orphaned,” said Alyn. “I was thrown out.”

  “And thus orphaned through ignorant fear instead of the death of loved ones.” Alice reached out to pat his cheek. “We make our own family now,” she said as she handed Gybbon back his wineskin.

  “Ye will soon have a verra large family,” said Gybbon and smiled. “So large ye will soon wish to get away from it now and then.”

  “Will adding five more nay crowd ye all even more?”

  “Nay, for Cambrun has a massive keep, above and below the ground. There is also a large village in the valley. The MacNachtons’ Outsider allies, the MacMartins, live there. The MacMartins have been our allies for hundreds of years,” he added when he saw her frown. “Their loyalty to us is steadfast.”

  Alice was not sure she believed that, but she would still follow these men to Cambrun. The meal they had just eaten had swept aside the last vestiges of hesitation. Even carefully meted out as the food had been, it had still been far more than she and the children had enjoyed in a very long time.

  Gybbon studied Alice and the children. He knew the Hunters they had driven away had not given up. They had dealt with this enemy enough to know the men never gave up. Taking a woman, three children of nursery age, and one underfed boy along with them was going to make the journey to Cambrun long and hazardous. If the Hunters caught up with them, the ensuing battle could easily hurt the children. There had to be a way to keep the Hunters off the trail of the children.

  The Hunters were after the woman, he suddenly realized. She was the one they looked for. It was her trail they followed. They had also only referred to one child, her child. There was a good chance they did not know about the others. If they did not see the child, they would just assume that she had hidden the boy away, as she had done this time. If he wanted to ensure that the children reached Cambrun safely, he had to lead the Hunters away from them. Alice Boyd was the bait their enemies would follow. He was just not sure if she would entrust the children to anyone else.

  “The children will ride to Cambrun with my cousins,” Gybbon said and was not surprised when Alice tensed and opened her mouth to argue his abrupt command. She had already done a lot to protect the children, only one of who was her blood child. “Ye and I, Alice Boyd, will lead the Hunters away from them.” He repeated all his thoughts on the matter and was pleased when she only frowned in thought. After six years of being hunted like an animal, she obviously had the cunning needed to recognize the worthiness of his plan.

  “Ye think they will follow our trail and nay try to hunt down the others?” she asked.

  “I do. They hunt ye, nay the bairns. The bairns would be killed once found, nay doubt, but ’tis ye they hunt.” Gybbon heard his cousins mutter their agreement, but he kept his gaze fixed on Alice.

  Alice looked at the children. They were as weary and hungry as she was. It astonished her that they had all survived as long as they had. The very differences that condemned them were obviously what gave them the strength to survive. These men offered the children the chance of a better, safer life, one where the differences that had endangered them for so long would be fully accepted. It would be nearly a sin to deny them that. All she had to do was trust the men long enough to let her children go, to hand thei
r safety over to someone else for the first time in years.

  Chapter Three

  Alice watched her children ride away with Lachann and Martyn until they could no longer be seen. Everything within her, heart, soul, and mind, cried to pull them back, but she fought the urge. Each time the Hunters found her, the lives of her children were put in danger. They were all so young. If something happened to her she knew they would suffer, could even die. Alyn was a clever boy but he was only nine. He would do his best to protect the younger children if she was captured or killed, but Alice knew he would fail. And each time the men found her, her chances of escape grew ever smaller.

  They were being taken to safety, she reminded herself. It was something she had done far too often to count since the moment Gybbon had announced that they had to separate. Her mind knew his plan was sound, that it gave the children the best chance to escape. Doubts came from her heart and she had to ignore them. The men were like her, like the children, and that had to be enough to warrant her trust. That, and the look of delight and wonder on the men’s faces when they had first seen the children. Holding that memory in her mind helped her still her doubts and fears.

  “My cousins will guard the children with their lives,” said Gybbon as he took her by the arm and led her to their horses.

  Gybbon had watched her leave-taking of the children and was astonished she had allowed them to ride away with men she did not really know. The bond between her and the children, not just her blood son, was a powerful one, forged in fear and danger. What troubled him was why she had let them go. Gybbon did not need to ask. He knew. Alice had sent the children away with his cousins because she believed she was losing her battle against the Hunters, that she was soon to die. It was an admirable thing to do but he could not allow her to hold fast to that air of martyrdom. If they were to survive the next few days, she had to believe in him, believe that she could win this fight and finally reach a safe haven with her children at her side.