Forbidden Highlander by Donna Grant Read Free Book Online

found her.
    Using the strength she usually hid, Larena shoved aside the people blocking her path and pushed into the great hall that was now devoid of people. She skidded to a halt when she found Fallon already there and facing off against the yellow-skinned wyrran as it clung to the upper wall near the ceiling.
    She watched Fallon’s claws lengthen, their obsidian color shining in the candlelight. She waited for the rest of him to change. She wanted to know what he looked like as a Warrior, to see all of him as dark as his claws.
    Instead, the wyrran raised its gaze to her and let out another ear-piercing screech. It leaped at her, but just when Larena was about to let her goddess out, Fallon caught hold of the creature’s leg.
    “Get out!” he bellowed.
    She gave a quick nod and hurried from the hall. But Fallon had another thing coming if he thought she wasn’t going to fight.
    Fallon couldn’t believe there was a wyrran at the king’s castle. But more worrying than that was the fact Larena had followed him. Most women would have run upon hearing the screams. But not her.
    He didn’t know whether he liked her courage, or wanted to shake her for putting her life in danger.
    He thought he’d do both.
    First, though, he needed to kill the wyrran, and he couldn’t take the chance of changing into his Warrior. The residents of the castle had already seen too much with the wyrran’s appearance. There would be no explaining away his black skin, fangs, and claws.
    Fallon unsheathed the dagger he kept in his boot and tracked the small creature, praying that during the few moments Larena had been in the hall she hadn’t seen his claws.
    The wyrran were diminutive, but the long claws on their hands and feet could tear a person in half. He hated looking at them with their thin, yellow skin. Their faces were hideous with a mouthful of sharp teeth that their lips could hardly fit over. And their large, round yellow eyes made his skin crawl.
    “Did you come for me?” he taunted the creature.
    The wyrran opened its mouth and issued a long shriek.
    Fallon grimaced as his ears rang from the sound. “I really hate you little shites,” he murmured. “Come on and fight me!”
    The wyrran jumped from the wall to the ground. The slight bastards could crawl on anything, in any direction. For the first time since he had let his god out to help save Cara, Fallon wanted to transform. He wanted to toss aside his dagger and use his claws to rip the wyrran in half.
    The wyrran’s lips peeled back in what was supposed to be a smile, as if it knew what Fallon wanted.
    “Can you read minds now?” Fallon asked as he jumped toward the wyrran. His dagger landed in the creature’s arm. Fallon ripped the blade down, scouring open the thin skin.
    The wyrran’s claws raked down Fallon’s chest as it struggled to get free. Fallon ignored the pain and tried to hold on, but the wyrran’s diminutive, lean frame was hard to hold on to. Somehow, it jerked free of Fallon and the dagger and leaped to the wall.
    It gave another screech before it bounded out of the great hall and into the castle through the door Larena had left open. Fallon’s only thought was of Larena. She would be defenseless against the wyrran.
    Fallon rushed from the hall and into the empty corridor. When he was sure the wyrran and Larena weren’t there, he continued through the castle. The few people he saw quickly ran into chambers and slammed the doors. But he didn’t find the wyrran.
    With a curse Fallon slid to a halt and returned to the great hall. The wyrran was fast, but he couldn’t outrun a Warrior.

FIVE
    Larena knew the wyrran would leave the hall. So she sat and waited. She wished she could watch Fallon battle the ugly creature, but she couldn’t chance it. The wyrran had to die.
    How many of the vile creatures had she fought and killed over the decades? Too many. And what exactly was it doing in Edinburgh Castle?
    That confused her even more. She could only