Darkest Highlander by Donna Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

been unable to deny the pull of her stunning body, her tantalizing mouth.
    Slowly, hesitantly, Broc let the pads of his fingers graze down her spine until he reached the blanket, which rested precariously on the enticing swell of her hip.
    It would take the smallest of tugs to remove it. Then he would be able to let his eyes feast on her creamy skin, her long, lean legs.
    Broc closed his eyes and turned away. What kind of man took advantage of a woman who trusted him?
    But you aren’t a man.
    Nay, he was a Warrior. Immortal. Powerful. He would endure alone while he watched Sonya age and die. Had the droughs known the cruelty they inflicted on the first Warriors? Had they even stopped to wonder what would happen if the gods were unbound again?
    Did no one question how a Warrior would feel as those he cared most about died while he carried on century after century?
    The silence that filled the small chamber was all the answer Broc needed. No one had cared. No one had given a second thought to the Warriors. They had been a means to an end with the Roman invasion.
    That he understood. But now—now the enemy wasn’t Rome but a drough bent on total domination. For the better part of two hundred and seventy-five years Broc had either been Deirdre’s prisoner or her minion.
    It wasn’t until he had found Sonya and her sister that he had thought about the mortals and the life he had been taken from.
    Things had grown more complicated when he’d helped the MacLeods free Quinn and return to MacLeod Castle. Every day Broc saw the love between Lucan and Cara, Fallon and Larena, Quinn and Marcail, Hayden and Isla, and now Galen and Reaghan.
    The only Warrior who didn’t have to worry about his wife aging and dying was Fallon, but that was only because Larena was a Warrior herself. The only female Warrior.
    How Lucan, Quinn, Hayden, and Galen coped with the knowledge that one day their wives—the women who had captured their hearts—would be gone, Broc didn’t know.
    He couldn’t fathom it. And didn’t want to try.
    It was his need for Sonya, the ache in his chest to have her near that reminded him of his curse. A curse that had begun when he was just a lad. Any female not related to him by family had died by either sickness or some freak accident.
    His grandmother had told him it was something he had done in another life that he was paying for now. All Broc knew was that he would spend his life alone instead of risking a woman’s life.
    Broc looked at Sonya resting so peacefully. If there ever was a woman who he could imagine having by his side to share his days—and his nights—it was Sonya.
    Beautiful, beguiling Sonya.
    The one woman he couldn’t allow himself to have.
    *   *   *
     
    Deirdre drummed her long fingernails on the stone table as she sat and contemplated the last few months. The stones, her stones, gave her the comfort and solace she needed. She had stayed in her mountain too long, however. Soon she would have to leave Cairn Toul.
    For the first time in over two hundred years she was going to venture into the world. She had her revenge to dole out, and what better way than to see her enemies suffering before her very eyes.
    Oh, she could use her black magic, but it was time Scotland knew who she was. And just what power she held. For too long she had allowed the insignificant humans to continue their existence without knowing of her.
    That was all about to change.
    Soon word would spread from Scotland to England and then into France and across the rest of Europe. She had spent too long trying to bring the MacLeods into her fold when she should have dominated Britain.
    It would have only been a matter of time before she had found the MacLeods and forced them to align with her. But she had been blinded with her need for Quinn, a need that had nearly cost her everything.
    The child of the prophecy would have to wait. She had to build up her army once more. Many of her Warriors had died, but the gods inside