Page 75 of Feral

Ruben smirked at me

“I’ll be seein’ ya, Fraser.”

The words had the fur down my back standing up. There was a weight to them, a promise of something dark and I didn’t ken what it was.

Chapter Sixteen

Daphne

Fraserhadrevertedtohis usual taciturn self as we pulled out of the garage. I was relieved that Ruben hadn’t tried anything but also intensely curious about what had happened. But if the way he gripped the steering wheel and huffed out a growl was any indication, it hadn’t been a good encounter.

Best to wait and ask when he’s not so upset, I think.

I got my first real look at the house as we cleared the garage and it took my breath away. I knew that the size was to accommodate the Weres, but I had no idea I was staying in something that looked like a small mansion. It had three stories that I could see, and it stretched very wide on either side, and deep into the back yard where I glimpsed a beautifully manicured lawn with several seating areas and a forest beyond. The house looked newly painted in white with green trim. Roses grew in oversized granite pots around the front. We passed a large walled in garden a few feet beyond the front gravel drive, with ivy almost completely obscuring the stone walls. Just beyond the garden was an exceptionally large open space where two delivery trucks were off loading what looked like giant tents. I assumed that was where the handfasting would take place and wondered what that would be like, to have a formal ceremony to bind oneself to this clan.

The entire estate was so big, it made me wonder why I hadn’t seen any staff, housekeepers or cooks. Maybe the clan was too private for that?

“Do you have people to help run this place?” I asked.

“Usually yes, but at moon time we send most of them away. Most are not Weres and those that are generally like to be with their own families around that time, though we’ll have to ask some of them back to help with the handfastin’.”

When we left the gravel drive of the house, Fraser put his glamour up and I bit back my disappointment. The drive was lovely. There were rolling green hills on either side of us, sometimes broken up by homes or people just hanging out in the open. I spied what I thought maybe some of Scotland’s famous Celtic ruins in the distance, but I couldn’t be sure.

“It’s really beautiful,” I murmured.

“Aye. No other place more so,” Fraser agreed.

“You really love it, don’t you?”

“It’s said that, when the Druids made us, their love for this land seeped into the spell. Over the hundreds of years, some Weres have lost that love for Scotland, but it’s always replaced by passion for another place, and that’s where they choose to become guardians. We are hard wired to love a land to our very bones. I’m just happy that it’s Scotland for me.”

“You make me quite jealous.” I leaned my cheek on my hand and gazed out the window. “I’ve never felt that way about a place before.”

“What about where ya grew up?”

“No, it’s…well, it’s hard to feel love for a place when one feels like they don’t fit in with their family.”

“So it was like that, was it?”

“Yeah.”

I usually tried not to think of how lonely it had been to grow up with such a deep sense of abnormality among my family, but every now and then it snuck up on me. And, like now, it usually produced a few tears.

A calloused finger brushed against my cheek, scooping up a tear.

“Don’t cry, lass,” he whispered.

“Sorry, it’s quite unprofessional.”

“No, it’s understandable. After what happened on the train and then this mornin’, runnin’ for our lives, I’m surprised you haven’t done it before now.”

“Oh, I think it will catch up with me, just hopefully not until this is settled.”

His fingers wove through mine on the seat between us.

“Is this alright?”

I gave him a sniffling smile.

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