“Gregory Godewin MacKerrick,” she said softly, proudly, “your father, Conall.”
Conall held out his wide, trembling hands and took the squawking baby as if Evelyn handed him the most valuable, holy object on God’s earth. His chiseled face stared down into Gregory’s frowning features, and a look of rapturous, heartbreaking wonder washed over him. He pulled the baby close to his face, closed his eyes, and drew a deep, deep breath. Then he kissed the little boy on his forehead.
“Hallow, Gregory,” he whispered in a hitching voice. “A fine name, Gregory. Strong.”
Evelyn felt vulnerable and alone, having relinquished the one thing that belonged to her. She did not know what to say to Conall. So she began loosening her gown in preparation for the feeding.
She hadn’t gotten very far when Conall dragged her to him with one long arm, holding her tightly to his chest, the baby between them. He pressed his lips to hers painfully and Evelyn could feel the wetness of his tears on her skin.
And she finally let go. Her love for Conall, for their son, her regrets of the past months, her fear and loneliness and sadness and anger came pouring out of her in heaving sobs and she clung to him, digging her fingers into his back and stomach, burying her face in the crook of his neck and weeping.
“Don’t ever l-leave m-me again!” she wailed, and Conall squeezed her even tighter.
“Never,” he vowed fiercely. “I swear it—I will never leave you, Eve. Oh, I love you so!”
She looked up from his neck into his eyes. “I love you, too,” she said between sniffles.
“Nae more regrets, then, for either of us. ’Tis over, ken?” He glanced down at Gregory. “Only the future now, only good.”
Evelyn nodded. “The future,” she agreed. Then she looked to Bonnie and Alinor, who had both gained their feet and seemed as though they wished to join them.
“Come, lovelies,” Evelyn called. “You are our family, as well.”
As Bonnie trotted over, Evelyn looked up at Conall. “But I don’t wish to live at the Buchanan town,” she said. “Not now, any matter.”
His eyebrows rose. “You want to join Duncan and my mother?”
She shook her head. “I wantourhouse—Ronan and Minerva’s house. I want to live at the hut in the vale. For a little while, at least.”
“Are you certain?”
“I am.” She tried to give him a smile through her tears. “I love the Buchanans, and I love Duncan, but I don’t believe we could make a home at either town right away, with such rawness still between us all. I want the five of us—you and I and Gregory and Bonnie and Alinor—to live where we first found each other. Where we are certain to find our family once more.”
Conall’s smile tendered and he kissed her mouth. “As you wish, Eve. But I doona think Alinor needs find our family.” His eyes flicked beyond Evelyn’s shoulder and she turned.
Alinor had not joined them, but stood before the leaning boulders once more. This time, ’twas not Bonnie who romped about her, but five roly-poly pups, some black, some dark gray, tumbling around and between her paws. A moment later, a large, robust-looking gray wolf slinked from a burrow hidden beneath the seam of the boulders to stand between Alinor and the humans on the ground. His hackles ruffled and he growled menacingly.
“Oh, Alinor,” Evelyn whispered, at last realizing the truth. The night the wolf had been missing, her deteriorating condition, her long absence—
Alinor had made a family of her own.
Evelyn now knew that her beloved girl would never return to the little hut in the vale with them, and the pain of it took Evelyn’s breath. The kinship she felt with this great black beast was unexplainable—they had saved each other’s lives once. They had survived together against seemingly impossible odds.
And now they would forever part.
The gray wolf seemed hostile toward the trio of humans and the solitary sheep, but a sharp bark and nip from Alinor persuaded him to back away. Alinor stepped forward, looking at Evelyn expectantly.
“Go to her,” Conall whispered in Evelyn’s ear.
Evelyn nodded and moved away, crawling to a neutral location between their respective families, and waited for the wolf to come in her own time. Evelyn could sense a return of the wild animal in the Alinor she loved so deeply and so gave her the space to feel that all was safe.
“’Tis all right, lovely,” Evelyn whispered as Alinor paced nervously and stared at her. “I’ll not force you to come with me. You’ll not have to make that decision.”
The wolf whined once and Evelyn could feel her confusion.
“Alinor,” she called with a smile. “To me.”
The wolf broke pace and bounded to Evelyn, throwing her big, black body into Evelyn’s arms and licking her face madly, and in that precious, priceless moment, Evelyn felt that Alinor was once moreherAlinor.
