“Ready? Ready for what?” She nearly choked on the words as Colum split the air with a bloodthirsty roar and charged Ronan.
Ronan raised his sword and met Colum head-on, but the combined force of Colum’s rage and his massive frame toppled Ronan backward to the floor. The weight of the men’s crashing impact against the stones clattered Ronan’s weapon out of his grip and sent it spinning out of reach.
Colum reared back, then hammered the pommel of his sword downward. Ronan twisted, deflected the blow, then shoved Colum off balance and bucked him off his chest. Colum labored to his feet and charged forward before Ronan could rise from the floor. Colum’s chest heaved with ragged breaths as he kneed Ronan backward and pressed the glinting tip of his blade to the base of Ronan’s throat. Crimson pooled where steel met flesh, then slowly trailed down the sides of Ronan’s neck.
Ronan’s eyes narrowed. His hands opened and closed as he glared up at Colum. “Finish it.”
Kenna couldn’t take it anymore. She rushed out from behind Gray’s chair and ran to Colum. “Stop this right now. This must stop.”
Neither Colum nor Ronan acknowledged they heard her.
Colum slowly lifted his chin. The bulging muscles of his arms glistened beneath the dancing flames of the torches. He slowly turned the blade the barest bit against Ronan’s throat as he hitched his massive frame into a wider stance. The trickle of blood down Ronan’s flesh grew heavier.
This had gone too far. A frustrated growl tore from her as Kenna slammed both fists hard into Colum’s chest. “Stop this lunacy right now. Don’t you dare spill more blood because of me.”
“If I kill him . . . ” Colum never took his gaze from Ronan’s stonelike glare, just resettled his fingers around the worn haft of the sword. “If I kill him, he will never hurt ye again.” Colum’s chest rose and fell like a panting beast crazed from the hunt. Bloodlust shone in his eyes. All reason had left him.
She dropped to her knees beside Ronan, wrapped her hands in the tail of her skirt, and grabbed hold of the blade now aimed at Ronan’s heart. It was no use. Colum’s strength had the blade locked for the final thrust. No matter how hard she yanked, the steel wouldn’t budge. “Colum . . . no. Please. I am begging you. Please. You must spare him.” Panic closed icy fingers around her throat and choked off her words. “Please don’t do this.”
“Chieftain Sutherland. Do ye renounce yer claim on my wife’s sister?” Gray’s resounding voice cut through the oppressive silence of the room and rang out across the rafters.
Ronan’s face darkened into a scowl as he glared up at Colum. He bared his teeth like a cornered animal before he spit his reply. “Nay.” The word sounded like the enraged growl of a trapped beast challenging the killing blow of the hunter.
“Good,” Colum said. “I shall break the claim when I send ye to yer place in hell.”
“I do not renounce my rights or claim on this woman, but I do proclaim this sham of a marriage to her as null. Unconsummated.” Ronan hitched his chin upward in a silent dare, all the while glaring at Colum. “Take this useless female back into yer clan. Ye will find the icy wench the same as she was before she left here. She is unable to properly perform her marital duties. I would get no heir from one such as her.” Ronan’s glare slid to Kenna, then moved back to Colum. “I canna fathom why ye want her. That one is more frigid than the deepest loch in the dead of winter.”
The hall buzzed with whispered rumblings and the excited shifting of the crowd. Kenna rolled back on her heels and bit the inside of her cheek to keep silent. Great. To save the pride of two stubborn-ass men, she would now be known as Queen Frosty-Thighs of Clan MacKenna. But two men’slivesand senses of honor had also been saved, so it was well worth the price.
Colum blinked as though awakening from a spell. His gaze slowly shifted from Ronan to Kenna, but he kept the tip of his sword pressed to Ronan’s breastbone. “What say ye, Kenna?”
Kenna pushed herself up from the floor and shook broken bits of dried rushes from her dark skirts. “His words are true. I remain a virgin. Please. Just let him go so we can be done with this mess.”
Reluctantly, Colum retreated a step and yanked the sword away.
Ronan sprang to his feet and recovered his sword without taking his gaze from Colum’s face.
“So ye dissolve and deny this verbal union here in the witness of kith and kin?” Gray said, stepping forward as Ronan jammed his sword back into its sheath and shrugged his plaid back in place.
“Aye.” Ronan barked out the word as though biting through steel. He swiped the back of one hand across his bloodied throat.
Gray turned to Kenna. “From this moment forward, ye are no longer the Lady Sutherland.” He raised his voice to all in the room. “The Lady Kenna Sinclair has returned home.”
The ear-splitting clatter of mugs banging against tables filled the room.
A sense of gratitude filled Kenna as she watched Ronan quietly fade to the back archway and slip from the room. All things considered; he had not been such a bad man. Hopefully, she could repay him someday.
She turned in time to catch sight of Colum striding toward the arch leading to the outer courtyard. “Wait!” She raised her voice above the din in the room and bellowed with all her strength. “Colum Garrison. You will stop. Right now.”
All went silent as Colum halted, straightened his shoulders, then slowly turned and stared back at her down the length of the room. Resignation hardened his features to stone.
“I am wife to only one. I am wife to you, Colum Garrison.” She would be damned if she returned to Colum’s stupid game ofI’m-not-good-enough-for-you. That was what had started all this mess, and she was going to end it right now.
Colum stood silent. Unblinking. If not for his thumb worrying across the handle of his sword, Kenna would’ve sworn him to be a statue.
“I will ever be yer champion. Yer protector. Guardian. But I dinna deserve ye as wife. I am beneath yer station, my lady.” He jerked his head down in a dismissive nod and turned back to the door.
Plaids and skirts rustled as all in the room shifted on their benches and turned back to face Kenna.
