“Ronan’s loyalty belongs to Kyla, his father and his closest kin, which now includes you and Coll.” Hamish leaned one hip against the wall, his black leather vest pulled tight across his shoulders. “I saw all would be well should I tell him the truth, and he needed to learn of it, just as Niall has.”
“Then it appears I owe you an apology, Ronan.” Duncan extended his hand to him. “My guardsmen mistreated you during your imprisonment, and after I’d given them explicit instructions no’ to. Their orders were to keep you contained within the cells due to your battle skill, but never to lay a hand upon you as they did. They were punished for their transgression then sent away.”
“Apology accepted.” He shook Duncan’s hand.
“That easily, that quickly?”
“I’ve no need to hold a grudge, and in all honesty, I intend to ask a request of you, one you’re no’ permitted to turn down. I’ve returned for Kyla. Your foster sister holds the other half of my soul, has formed a merged link of the mind with me and right now sees all I see and hears all I hear. She is the one my soul hungers for, the only woman I’ll ever desire. I ask that you break your betrothal with her, immediately.”
“Coll and I brought Kyla here for a reprieve from our father.” Duncan grasped his shoulder. “I’ve no wish to lose her. I love her, have since the day she came to live at my father’s keep. Coll and I have ensured her protection and she’ll always be ours to love and protect. Provided you can accept Coll and I in her life, that you treat her with all the respect she deserves, then I’ll gladly step aside.”
“I will guard her life with mine, and certainly never allow Colin MacKenzie near her again.”
“As I would guard your life with mine too, my stubborn mate.” Sweetly sensual words, ones he clasped ahold of and kept close to his heart.
“Will you marry me, Kyla?”
“You’re mine, Ronan Matheson, always mine. Give Duncan my thanks, and tell him I love him too, but I surely am relieved I’ll never have to suffer through another one of his slobbery kisses.”
“You two have kissed?” He fisted his hands.
“Once, only once, and ’twas a terrible kiss.” She wriggled about in her bed.
“Then answer my question. Will you marry me?”
“Ask me in person and I shall give you my answer, one which will require an abundance of kisses from you.”
“I intend to do far more than just kiss you the next time I get my hands on you.” To Duncan, he muttered, “You have Kyla’s thanks, as well as mine. She also says she loves you.”
“Good evening, all.” A woman dressed in an exquisite silver gown with long draping sleeves edged in gold lace swished into the solar, a torque necklace of fine gold encircling her neck. Her iridescent eyes shimmered as she halted a breath away from Father and tucked her hand through the curve of his arm. “Would you like to introduce me to the man who looks exceedingly like Coll, but of course isnae?”
“Muirin, meet my son, Ronan. Kyla and Ronan are mated, and Duncan has graciously retracted his betrothal with her.”
“Oh my. I’ve been gone for only a few minutes and have missed so much.” Muirin’s iridescent eyes reflected such an array of colors, both breathtakingly fearsome to behold yet also undeniably beautiful. With her high cheeks, flawless skin, and rich red locks twisted high upon her head, the odd strand clinging to the long column of her neck, she was of clear fae blood, her face untouched by age yet her very presence speaking of the centuries of knowledge she must hold. She crossed to Ronan. “’Tis good to meet you.”
“As it is to meet you.”
“Your arrival here gives me the chance to apologize for my part in your capture and imprisonment. I’d been searching for your father for the longest time and when two are soul bound, neither can ignore the bond, particularly me. I’ve lived a long time and never thought I’d ever find my chosen one. All was made so much more difficult in that I resided here on his enemy’s soil.”
“We do what we must to find our chosen one, to draw them to our side. I no longer hold any hard feelings toward you.” He would gladly accept his father’s mate, no matter she’d first stolen Father away from him and Annella. She’d done so for the right reasons. Soul bound mates would do anything to ensure they never lost the one who held the other half of their soul and Muirin had acted as he would have done should their circumstances have been reversed. Nothing and no one would ever keep him from Kyla.
“Thank you.” Muirin cleared her throat, a tear in her eye. “I wish only to protect those of fae blood who walk this Earth.” She lifted one sleeve and tapped a mark branded on her upper arm, that of the ancient Celtic woven circle, one depicting infinity, the symbol of their fae kind. “There is naught I wouldnae do for my own kind, no matter where they reside, either here on Earth or beyond the veil.”