Chapter 14

One Week Later – Kildare, Ireland – Saturday.

Rae.

The past week has been a whirlwind, I sit on my bed and contemplate it. Unsure how we got to this point. Ciara and I are living in a cottage about fifteen minutes from the keep and I should be loving it. But I hate it. Hate being so far from Edmund.

The time that I’ve spent here with Ciara and keeping her together over losing Rian has kept me distracted and busy. I haven’t been able to see Edmund, haven’t been able to sneak away. I undress and look in the mirror, the bruises from our last night together have almost faded completely. It makes me sad, I miss his marks on my body.

I head across the hall to the bathroom, seeing the door is closed, I knock lightly on it.

“Hey girl, hurry up. I need to go!” I call to Ciara through the closed door.

When she opens it, her hands on her hips, she looks me dead in the eye. I know something is wrong. “We need to talk.” I raise my eyebrow at her, thinking about how much of an understatement that is.

All of this bullshit between her and Rian over him being Dagda’s son has gotten old and I’m over it. Tired of being here picking her back up every night when I would rather be with Edmund. I balk at my own thoughts, realizing how selfish they seem.

“Let me pee first.” I rush past her into the bathroom and relieve myself.

By the time I come out she has coffee started and I stand, just waiting for her to tell me what I already suspect. Pouring us each a mug of coffee we settle on the couch and she looks at me over the top of her mug.

“I’m pregnant.”

“No fucking way!” I yell the words at her, realizing too late that it probably seems forced. As I did suspect this and have for a few days. “How do you know?”

“I can smell it. I don’t smell right and I’ve been sick this morning. We can’t go to the keep for lunch, my dad and Edmund will know. They will be able to smell it on me too. He knew my mom was pregnant with me long before she did. It is a wolf thing, Rae.”

I nod at her words. I'm a little excited she won’t be at lunch, because that means Edmund and I can slip away after, because I don’t have to worry about coming back here right away with her.

“Jesus, what are you going to do?” I put my hand on her knee, trying to comfort her, still lost in my own daydream about Edmund and being in bed with him.

“I’m going to have to call him.” I glare at her as she puts her hands over her face.

“You should have called him weeks ago, Ciara.” My tone is accusing and I know it, but I don’t care.

“I know,” she admits, and wipes her hands on her pants. Then she jumps up and paces around the room. “What am I going to do? A baby? Dagda’s grandchild, no less.”

Quickly I rise and cross to her. “Ciara! Stop it. That doesn’t matter to anyone. It isn’t even relevant to what this means for you. Please just let it go. We have all been telling you for weeks it doesn’t matter—”

“Clearly it matters to Rian or he would have called by now, texted, come here. Something, anything. But nothing, Rae! He is gone. It matters to him and he is gone!” she shouts at me and I see tears spilling down her cheeks. “It matters to him. He left me, Rae. He is gone!”

It is time I tell her, probably past time, but she wouldn’t have listened to me if I had told her sooner. “He isn’t gone. He is still in town…” I sigh. “I saw him two weeks ago at The Black Bean.”

“What? He is still here?” she asks, jerking her head up to look at me.

“Yes, and he misses you.” I try to reach out for her and calm her down.

“Why am I just now finding out about this, Rae?” I flinch back at her words.

“Because I didn’t think you wanted to hear it. But you need to. You need to know he is miserable without you. He thinks you want nothing to do with him. Thinks you blame him for your grandfather’s death and what Dagda did to your mom.”

“That’s ridiculous, why would I blame him? He was just a child he had nothing to do with it.” Her face is white as a sheet. She is struggling with everything still.

“Exactly! That is exactly what we have all been telling you. But you clearly can’t get past that in your own mind because you have moped around here for three weeks refusing to listen to any of us, Ciara.”

“Rae.” Her voice is soft. I watch my best friend wipe the tears from her eyes and drop her hand to her stomach. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Go to him, Ciara. Go to him today and tell him that you don’t give a fuck about his dad and that you two are going to be parents. He is your mate. Do you have any idea how special that is? What some of us would do to have that?” I’m honest with her, it is the truth. It’s what she needs to do. I know what it is like to have found your mate but be separated from them. It has been killing me these past three weeks just as it has been her.

I nod at her. “Go,” I tell her again. I watch as she turns and heads to her bedroom to dress. Clearly, she has decided to go to Rian. Finally.

* * *

Rae.

As soon as Ciara leaves, I text Edmund.

Rae: Have the cottage to myself for a while. Ciara probably won’t be back tonight.

His response is almost immediate.

Edmund: Be there in ten.

It is a fifteen-minute drive from the keep to the cottage, but I have no doubt he will be here in ten if that is his plan. He will come as his wolf. I love to see him that way, I have a newfound appreciation for how sexy he is in wolf form.

Ten minutes later there is a knock on the door and when I open it, Edmund is standing there wearing nothing but a smile. I reach out, grab his arm and jerk him into the cottage, slamming the door behind him.

“Someone is going to see you, get your ass in here,” I scold him, giggling at his antics. Before I can even get the words out he is pulling my shirt off over my head. “Eager thing aren’t you?”

“Rae! I have had to sit with you at dinner for the past week and watch you from afar. The only thing I have wanted is to strip you naked and have my way with you. Instead, I have had to act like I’m all concerned about Ciara and the drama that she is putting herself through. I am over this bullshit. Now get your fucking pants off and get your ass into the bedroom.”

I laugh and turn, running to the bedroom and falling onto my bed, kicking my pants off as I go. He is on me before I have them completely off and they hang from my leg as he slips into me.

“Mmm, I’ve missed you.” His deep voice twists my insides and I love the feeling.

“Who? Me or my pussy? I didn’t even get a hello. Not a kiss or a how are you. Nothing,” I tease him as I arch my back off the bed and allow him to slip further into me.

“Hmm?” He makes a show of thinking about it for a minute. “Both!” he declares and pushes forward into me further.

“I have a very important question, sir. As I feel that it has been long enough and I am going to die if I don’t come. May I please, pretty please,” I tease him, wiggling my eyebrows at him, “have an orgasm?”

Again he makes a show of thinking it through. “Hmm, that depends. Have you been a good girl? I haven’t been able to be here for the past week. Are you honestly telling me you haven’t come at all in that time?” He winks at me, raises a brow and waits for my answer.

“I have not! I also would like to point out that I have not fed on any of the men in town.” I make sure to word that statement carefully, not wanting to get caught up in the semantics of it. But still wanting to be honest, at least partially.

“What does that mean, Rae?” Edmund pulls out of me and slips to the bed beside me, elbow on the bed, head propped on his hand. “Haven’t fed on any of the men in town. That seems oddly specific.”

I purse my lips and don’t go on, don’t look him in the eye. “There may have been a night, out of town, a thing. I didn’t mean to,” I whine, upset at being caught.

He laughs at me. “You didn’t mean to?”

I shake my head. “No. It was an accident.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Rae. What am I going to do with you?”

“Spank me?” I offer, hoping he will take me up on my suggestion.

“Maybe.” He puts his finger to his lips and thinks about it. “I will have to think about what your punishment is going to be. But for now, today, I just want to be us. Just want to spend time with you since we haven’t seen each other and we don’t know when the next time we will have a chance to be together will be. Will you please consider moving back to the keep? With me, even?” he asks and I smile at him.

“I can’t, Ciara is pregnant, and I don’t know what is going to happen with Rian.” I feel defeated. I can’t face the idea of another night without him.

Jumping up from the bed he looks at me, shock filling his face. “She is pregnant?”

I sigh. “Yes. I thought we were going to be just us and not worry about all of this stuff. All of this family drama. Can’t we just get an afternoon to be together?”

“You’re right. My bad.” Kneeling down on the floor at the edge of the bed, he pulls me to him and closes his mouth over my pussy. I am instantly ready, I need him inside me again, the teasing motion of his tongue over my clit isn’t cutting it. I have had a taste of having him inside me and I’m ready for that again now.

“Edmund, please. I just need you to fuck me.”

“I will when I’m good and ready, but I think I owe you an orgasm or two, don’t I?” He purrs against my lower lips and I smile down at him.

“Yes, sir.” I smile at him.

“Then come for me, kitten. As much as you want, no rules today.” He winks at me and tips his head back down to my sex. I lace my fingers through his hair and push him down onto me, taking control of having him there. When he slips his fingers into me I squirm and arch my back off the bed.

“Yes, Edmund. Fuck!” I growl the last word as he works on me, bringing me closer to the edge of my climax.

He bites my clit, hard, so hard I scream and I come. I come like I never have before, needed the pleasure-pain to push me over the edge. He laughs into me and I smile down at him, when he lifts his head from me he is coated in my come and as his lips meet mine I can taste myself on them.

Our tongues swirl together and I reach down between us, taking his dick in my hand and guiding him to me. As he slips inside me, fully this time, I moan loudly into the room. So happy to be here and not have to be concerned about anyone hearing us or walking in on us.

“I don’t have a condom, Rae.” Edmund’s words stop me dead in my tracks, my legs wrapped around his hips as I grind my clit down onto his pelvis as he fills me.

“Fuck. Neither do I. Why didn’t you bring one?” I smack him on the arm, angry with him.

“I came in a rush, as a wolf. I didn’t drive. They’re back at the keep.”

“Fuck you and your wolf!” I bark at him.

“Missy, who do you think you’re talking to that way?” he asks and warns me, his voice deep and commanding.

When he stands he slips from me and I whine. “This is total bullshit.” I cross my arms over my chest and pout on the bed.

“Well, we can head to the keep,” he says and I nod.

“Okay, fine. We can head to the keep. First, come here.” I pat the bed next to me and when he comes and sits beside me I fall against him. Taking in his scent and the warmth of his skin.

“I missed you,” I tell him, honestly. Knowing it is true, I missed him so badly that some nights when I lay here alone in bed it hurt.

Edmund lays back on the bed and takes me with him, curling against his side I rub his cheek with my fingertips and get lost in the feeling of him rubbing my back. I’m not sure how much time passes but I’m sure I fall asleep. The next thing I know I wake to a banging on the front door.

“Whoever it is will go away, just ignore them.” Edmund’s chest rumbles as he speaks and I smile at the feeling.

Another knock at the door signals that whoever it is isn’t leaving and this knock sounds serious. I sigh, getting up from the bed and slipping into the pajama pants that are lying on the floor, finding my t-shirt in the living room, on the way to the door, I pull it over my head.

* * *

Rae.

The last thing I expected to see when I opened the front door was the group standing in front of me. Rian is flanked by my uncles Finn and Alec, my dad standing behind them on my front step. I step out and quickly pull the door closed behind me, hoping that none of them get a glimpse of Edmund inside and saying a silent prayer that he stays out of sight.

“You know, don’t you?" I ask them, hoping that whatever their answer is it pertains to Ciara being pregnant and not that Edmund is naked in my bed. Rian being here would signal that it is about the former. I watch Finn nod.

“Ciara knows she is pregnant?” Rian asks me. I can see the hurt in his eyes at knowing that she knows but hasn’t told him.

“She is pregnant?” Both my dad and Alec ask at the same time and the rest of us nod at them.

“Where is she?” Rian asks me.

“She isn’t here. She went to town to find you, to tell you. I told her I ran into you the other week and convinced her to go. She left about an hour ago.”

“Fuck!” Rian roars, turning from me at the door. “He is going to be there. He has been following me. Been hanging around the inn.”

“Who?” I ask, confusion filling me. If they’re all here who would be at the inn. “Who has been following you?”

“My uncle. The one who got away and wants to come after Finn and the rest of the family.” Watching Rian pace in a circle as he speaks I look back over my shoulder at the door. I need to tell Edmund what is going on. “He is going to take her,” Rian turns back to us and says solemnly. “And I know where he is going to take her,” Rian continues and heads back to the truck.

“So do I.” Finn’s voice is broken. “I’ve been through this before. Donnie, Alec, you two drive and meet us there. Rian. Come with me!” He shouts the words as he turns from the direction of the truck and heads for the wood line. I’m left standing on the front porch.

“I’m coming,” I shout at my dad and Alec, following them to the truck.

“No! Go to the keep and tell them what’s happened. I don’t want you anywhere near this. Have them on the lookout if she comes back here. Tell Edmund to come here and wait for her, you go stay with your mother and Aunt Melody,” My dad tells me as he heads to the truck.

I watch Finn shift in the field next to the house and Rian follow after him. They head into the woods and my dad and Alec get into the truck and head off down the driveway. Turning, I burst through the front door calling out Edmund’s name.

“Edmund!” He comes out of the bedroom, hair mussed from our sleeping and a confused look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” I rush past him to the bedroom and search through my drawers looking for clothes.

“Ciara is gone. That was Rian, with our dads and Uncle Alec. They said someone has been following them. His uncle, a Puca who got away from your dad the night that Dagda attacked. He took Ciara, or they think he did.” I pull out a pair of leggings and slip out of my pajama pants and into them.

“What the fuck is going on? Where are they going? I need to go with them.” Edmund’s words are rushed. My heart gets caught in my throat, he can’t go. Can’t be in danger. I feel dizzy at the thought of it.

“No, your dad said to stay here and wait to see if she comes back here. I need to go tell our moms what is going on.” I rush out the words, needing him to listen to me, to stay here and stay safe.

“I don’t have any clothes, if she shows up here, I’m naked.”

“Oh for fucks sake, Edmund, like that matters, just tell her you shifted and ran here when I told you. If she shows up. But they seem to know where she is and don't think she is coming back here.” I quickly kiss him on the cheek. “I have to go.”

* * *

Twenty minutes later I make it to the keep and burst through the front door. “Aunt Melody! Mom!” I call out as I rush through the grand hall looking for the two of them.

“Rae? What’s going on?” Lydia’s voice fills the space as she comes around the corner, her apron covered in flour.

“Ciara is gone!” I realize now that I was holding back the overwhelming emotions at losing my best friend, and as I fall into Lydia’s arms they break loose.

“Shhh, it’s okay.” Her hand brushes over my back, soothing me.

“What do you mean she is gone?” I hear my mother and turn to look at her, freeing myself from Lydia’s arms and crossing to my mom.

“Dad, Uncles Finn and Alec came to the cottage with Rian looking for her. They said someone took her, or is going to take her. Rian’s uncle?” I ask the question, trying to see if any of the women have any idea about what I’m talking about.

“Start over. What happened, dear?” Lydia seems to be the only one who can speak and I start from the beginning.

“I was at home, Dad showed up with everyone, Rian was with them. They were looking for Ciara. She is pregnant.”

“What?” my mom asks and I see Aunt Melody nod to her, no surprise that she already knew, she has probably suspected for days just as I have.

“They wanted to talk to her because someone is after Rian so they wanted to make sure she was safe. But she left, over an hour ago to go to the inn to see Rian.”

“Okay, who is this following them?” my mom asks.

“Rian’s uncle. He apparently was here when they took Aunt Melody and got away, Rian has spoken to him, or made it out to be like he had.”

“I’m calling your father,” my mom says and turns from me.

“Where is Edmund?” Aunt Melody asks.

“He is at the cottage. Dad told me to tell him to wait there for Ciara in case she came back.” I tell her this, not mentioning the fact that he was already there with me when they showed up and I hope that they don’t ask, this doesn’t need to be a part of the conversation right now.

“Okay, good idea.” Aunt Melody nods.

We all file into the sitting area by the fireplace and each of them take a seat, I pull a chair over from the massive oak table and sit down.

“Donnie says they have it under control. They’re headed to The Burren,” my mom tells the group as she ends her phone call and we all nod. It is silent then, all of us sitting with our own thoughts.

* * *

Sore and exhausted from sitting in the hard wooden chair for hours, I jump out of my skin when my dad and uncles come bursting through the front door. They’re carrying Ciara and Rian is limping behind them, covered in blood he collapses onto the stone floor just inside the front door.

“Can you two grab him?” Uncle Finn calls to my mom and me, and we rush over, picking up Rian and following the others up the stairs.

After they have them settled into rooms I turn to Aunt Melody. “I’m going to go tell Edmund what’s happened. Can you keep us updated?”

She nods and I rush down the stairs and out to my car. Heading back to the cottage where I know he has been waiting all afternoon.

* * *

Edmund.

I finally head back to Rae’s room and sit on the edge of the bed, my knees bouncing. I have paced the small cottage all afternoon waiting for Ciara to show up or for word from someone, anyone about my sister. Nothing, not a single thing. Wishing I had my cell phone, I stand again and pace the small room.

Sitting back down I cover my lap with a blanket and hear the front door open. “Rae?” I call out her name and then see her come into view around the corner.

“Tell me they found her.” I can hear the panic in my voice.

“She is at the keep, her and Rian both. I don’t have all the details, but they’re fine. They’re both going to be fine.” Tears slip down her cheeks and I stand, taking her into my arms and pulling her body against mine.

“Shhh, it’s okay. You just said they’re going to be all right.”

“You should have seen her, Edmund.” Her sobs are making her body shake and I scoop her into my arms and take her to the bed.

“It’s okay, Rae. Lie down here for a minute. Give me your phone, I’m going to call my dad.” She slips it from her pocket and then curls on the bed, she looks so small and helpless, not the strong woman she so often portrays herself to be. I slip her phone from her hand and leave the room.

He picks up on the first ring and recaps what happened with this Enda who has been following Rian and Ciara, apparently the entire time he has been in town and I wince at his words. If I hadn’t been so stuck in my own world maybe I’d have noticed someone hanging around when we were together. When he assures me that everyone will be fine and Uncle Alec is seeing to it, he tells me to watch after Rae and to make sure she is taken care of. I let him know that I’ll be staying here with her until Ciara is able to return and disconnect the call.

As I reenter the bedroom I see Rae still curled on the bed, soft sobs escaping her as she lies with her head on her pillow.

“Shhh, kitten. I’m here. It’s all right,” I reassure her, telling her the whole story about Enda and Ciara. Going over Rian and Ciara’s injuries, and that they will be fine in a few days. Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, she nods at me, and I kiss her on the forehead. “Can I get you anything? Water? Tea?”

“Tea?” Rae’s voice is so soft, so small it breaks my heart and I nod, heading to the kitchen to make her a cup of tea. I contemplate the day’s events, thinking over what I would do in Rian’s position, if someone took Rae I don’t think I would be able to survive it. The whistle of the tea kettle pulls me from my thoughts. Quickly turning off the stovetop I pour a cup and head back to the bedroom.

When I enter the room I see that she has fallen asleep, curled up on top of the covers, her cheeks still wet with tears. Exhaustion won out over her worry and I set the cup of tea on the bedside table. I walk around to the other side of the bed, pulling the covers back I climb in and take her in my arms.

“Edmund,” she moans out my name as I shift her.

“I’ve got you, Rae. Sleep,” I whisper to her as I brush her hair behind her ear. “Just get some sleep.”