Page 53 of Wine & Warlocks

“Not really. I didn’t have any until recently, and I doubt I’ll miss them either way. What about you?”

“Very.”

His confession surprised her, and she shot him a questioning look. “Why’s that?”

“I’ve never been without power prior to saving Aeden.” His troubled silver gaze traveled the horizon, never stopping on any one spot. Ronan recounted the story for her from his viewpoint. How he found Moira and Seamus standing over Dubheasa’s young nephew as he bled out from the wound to his throat. “I’ve never been so horrified by anything in my fecking life, Dove. And all I could think to do was right their wrong. To save him.” Slowly, as if reliving the moment, he shook his head, and his eyes grew dark at the memory. “My cousins didn’t know by doing what they did, another line of the prophesy would be fulfilled. It was as if my battery was drained when I used my fading magic to save the boy.”

“And you hated the feeling?”

“I hated being weak.” His expression was stark as he turned to her. “My da despised weakness and beat it out of us every chance he could.”

Unable to bear the pain in his eyes, Dubheasa wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to live like that, Ronan. That you didn’t have parents to honor and cherish you like you deserved.”

“He can’t be allowed to win, Dove. Can’t be allowed to steal what we have.”

“It will never be enough for him, will it?”

“No. And whatever he gains, he’ll use to crush those who crossed him in the process. But not just them.” Ronan gripped her forearms and held her away from him. Bending slightly, he made his face level with hers. “Do you understand what I’m saying, love?”

“Yeah. He’ll go after anyone his enemies care about,” she answered.

“Aye. And it terrifies me to think he’ll hurt you or yours.”

It occurred to her that Ronan believed Loman thought he was one of his father’s greatest threats, which put him firmly in the enemy camp. Her heart began to thud painfully in her chest.

“What do you want me to do, Ronan? Flee? Fight? What would be better for you?”

His unsettling gaze touched on every aspect of her face, as if he couldn’t get enough. Eventually, he hauled her against him in an embrace so tight she feared for his emotional health should she not survive their attack against Loman’s compound.

“I don’t know what to do,” he confessed hoarsely. “If you go into hiding, will it be enough? Will I be distracted if you aren’t with me, wondering if he’ll find you?” His hold eased, and Ronan tilted her head back to touch his nose to hers. “But you’re a fierce distraction when you’re around me, love. If he captured you, I’d give him whatever he asked for to free you, of a certainty.”

“Don’t you do that, Ronan O’Connor! Promise me.”

“I can’t, Dove.”

“You can! What is one life against many?”

“To me? It’severything.”

The sweetness of his answer melted the last of any resistance she might’ve had against claiming the title of his mate. In front of her was a man who would treasure her forever. One who would hold her heart close and see to her needs before his own. Who would never let her regret choosing him.

“I love you,” she said softly. “And whether it’s a single minute or a billion, I’ll be grateful for any time we have together.”

“In my entire life, I never thought I’d be lucky enough to find a love like this”—he touched the place above her heart and then his own—“and to have it returned. I’m not certain I deserve it, Dove. I’ve not been the best of men.”

“Sure, and there you’re wrong. You are the best of men, Ronan Fucking O’Connor. You are because I say you are.”

His lips twitched, and his eyes lightened with humor. “Well then, if you say I am, I must be.”

“Aye. And don’t you be forgetting it.”

CHAPTER23

Ronan’s heart was full as he gazed down into Dubheasa’s glowing face. After they left the garden, they snuck away to his room to explore each other’s bodies and to celebrate their love with a right proper shag.

But time was short, and he had a few things to see to before the morning. His strongest instinct was to find a place where Loman would never think to look for him and steal away with Dubheasa to live there forever. But that was the coward’s way. The O’Malleys, along with Castor and the Thornes, were relying on him to take part in their carefully crafted plan.

“I’m after returnin’ ya to your family now, Dove.”

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