Highlander's Passion (The Matheson Brothers #2)
Joanne Wadsworth
Acknowledgements
I have an incredibly supportive family who allow me so much time to write. Huge thanks go to my hubby, Jason, and kiddies, Marisa, Caleb, Cruise and Rocco. Hugs.
For my readers, I can’t thank you enough for joining me, and taking this journey to where imagination and magic soar.
Gilleoin – The Legend
In the twelfth century, a man named Gilleoin became the first and only known man to hold bear shifter blood, an ability gifted to him by The Most High One. His clan was called Matheson, and when he mated with a woman carrying faerie blood, they created a line shrouded in secrecy, a line that far into the future, now neared extinction…
The Seer – Nessa
The ancient House of Clan Matheson, led by Gilleoin, the Chief of Clan Matheson, Scotland, 1210.
As the midnight hour struck, Nessa, her clan’s fae-blooded seer, crossed the darkened inner courtyard toward the gate, her black fur cloak secured tight over her shoulders. Torches mounted on the stone walls spread their flickering glow across the stony ground and up along the battlements where double the number of guardsmen stood on duty in battle attire, their claymores holstered at their sides.
Restless after all that had transpired this eve, she hastened her step and passed through the arched gate then traversed down the winding trail toward Loch Alsh which reflected the beauty of moon’s glow on its white-capped waves.
On a fallen log, she perched and slowly bowed her head. So many thoughts consumed her mind. A seer’s life was never easy and she’d been gifted with a skill she upheld to the best of her ability, although none other than a seer could have ever foreseen the terrible battle about to ensue. Their enemy, the Chief of MacKenzie, would soon strike at their very heart and blood would flow within the village nestled farther along the loch. Some of the villagers, those directly descended from the faerie prince who’d wed their chief’s daughter two centuries past, held a touch of fae blood and as such also held rare and divine skills. Never would she allow her fae kind to be harmed, and thankfully earlier this eve she’d received aid in her mission, help that had miraculously come from another time and place.
Three identical warrior brothers of immense strength—Iain, Finlay, and Kirk—had traveled through a portal from the future into her time, three men who could shift shape into the form of the bear. They could draw claws and roar as Gilleoin and his two sons could. These three warriors, known as the ‘power of three,’ had also arrived with Iain’s mate, Isla, a fae-blooded shifter from the future, the daughter of Murdock, her clan’s chief and seer.
Over the years and the centuries separating them, Nessa had come to know Murdock through joint visions. They held the same beliefs and goals, although unfortunately in the future where he lived, Gilleoin’s shifter clan now neared extinction and required a new infusion of fae blood within their shifter line, an infusion she needed to make certain occurred.
Eyes closed, Nessa once again searched deep within her mind. Visions couldn’t be forced, but with this level of worry and anxiety rolling through her, it usually meant one was close to rising. Images teased the periphery of her mind and she grasped ahold of them.
Her granddaughter hurried through the forest nearby, her fae skill of fire flaring beyond her control, each step she took scorching the earth underfoot. Arabel raced toward an icy pool of water, fell to her knees at the edge and plunged her hands into the cool depths. Steam billowed into the air, and she slumped forward, her shoulders heaving as she gulped deep breaths.
Nessa’s sight swirled again with another barrage of images, her second vision coming hard on the heels of her first. Finlay, one of the three brothers who’d arrived from the future, jogged through the postern gate on the other side of the castle then dropped to all fours, and in a sizzling display made the Change. One massive bear with silky black fur lumbered into the woods, his beast restless as he pawed the ground then rose up on his hind legs and roared. His thunderous growl stated his frustration, that he searched for his mate and he wouldn’t leave this place until he’d found her.
For five long years Iain, Finlay, and Kirk had been searching for their chosen ones in the future. Iain had found Isla recently, but Finlay and Kirk’s search could only now truly begin, their women residing here in this time. Both brothers were now far closer to finding their mates than ever before, and all here wished to aid them.
With care, she returned her focus to Arabel. Her granddaughter still knelt at the pool’s edge in a cloud of steam, a sense of loss and frustration rolling through her.