He released his grip on my face and stepped back, his expression shifting from scrutiny to something close toreverence, then to naked greed. The transformation was so swift it made my skin crawl.
“Millisandre told me, ye ken,” he said with casual ease, as though he’d rehearsed the words a dozen times. “Years ago. I dismissed it as a woman’s wild imagination.” His mouth twisted. “But seeing ye in the king’s solar today, unchanged from the lass from so long ago…” He let the sentence hang.
His words turned my stomach. My throat fought the bile rising there. My sweet, gentle sister had spent years bound to this man, her heart laid bare only to be crushed. And I had nae been there to protect her. The thought cut through me with sharp, private grief. How many times had she needed me? How many nights had she wept alone while I’d had to stay away because of my foolishness?
Alec moved to the writing table and poured himself wine from the silver pitcher. He did not offer me any. The rich red liquid caught the firelight as he lifted the goblet to his lips, watching me over the rim.
“Things have turned out better than I could have hoped,” he said, lowering the goblet. “Ye’re here. Ye’re the other known living daughter of Laird Wallace.” He took another sip, his eyes never leaving mine. “And when we wed, I will nae lose control of Renfrewshire as I was about to.”
He said it plainly, without apology, as though the matter were already settled. As though I were a horse at market, already purchased and paid for. Rage bloomed hot in my chest, burning away my fear. I had fled my home over foolishness for him, and now I was to be trapped in marriage by him. I could nae take it.
“I will nae wed ye,” I spat, not caring about his threats in this moment. I only cared about how my heart ached to see James, to hear his voice, to feel his protective arms around me.
Alec’s smile did not reach his eyes. “Ye have forgotten the situation so soon, Katreine. Ye do nae have a choice.”
“I always have a choice,” I answered, my voice steady despite the fear coiling in my belly. “Ye can nae force me to wed ye.”
He set his cup down with deliberate care. “The only thing standing between ye and the noose or the chopping block is me. If ye cross me, I will deliver ye myself to the executioner.” He stepped toward me again, his steps measured. I stood my ground, though everything in me screamed to run. I had faced down bandits and thieves in my years with the Summer Walkers. I had tended wounds that would make hardened warriors blanch. I would not cower before Alec Buchanan.
“Ye can nae truly believe the king would execute the healer who saved his daughter’s life,” I said, though even to my own ears, the words sounded hollow. I had not examined Mary, and I had no notion whether I could aid her.
Alec laughed, the sound brittle. “The king has already lost three children. He is a pious man, and frightened men believe anything that might explain their losses.” He reached out, brushing a strand of hair from my face with false tenderness. “A well-placed whisper from me about witches among us snatching his children’s lives, and then the revelation about ye nae aging. Well…” Alec shrugged. “I’d wager that if I told him while breaking our fast, yer head would be gone from ye by the nooning meal, or mayhap he’d burn ye or drown ye. Who’s to say which way of killing ye he might choose?”
The threat hung in the air between us. I knew it was not empty. The fear of witchcraft ran deep in Scotland, and I had spent fifteen years hiding because of it.
“So,” Alec said, his voice dropping to a silken purr, “will ye marry me of yer own accord, or must I resort to other means of persuasion?”
My only choice was to lie and agree until I had a plan, but I could not simply agree without placing my own dagger. “Ye’ll nae get a virgin,” I said, childishly wanting to strip him of that.
He threaded his fingers through my hair and tugged my face a hairsbreadth from his. “A whore, are ye? ’Tis fine, my pet. I like a woman who is eager and willing. Yer sister was a frigid thing.”
My hatred of him was a visceral thing that burned a path through me. “I love another,” I flung out, regretting the reckless, foolish words the moment they left my lips.
He frowned. “Who? Conn? Did ye give yer innocence to the tracker on yer way to court?”
I glared at him but said nothing.
“All right, then,” Alec said, a dark, frightening emotion settling on his face. “I’ll simply have the man killed so ye’ll nae be tempted by him. Ye are mine now, Katreine.”
“’Twas nae Conn,” I said, fearful for the man’s life, though he certainly deserved no allegiance from me.
Alec gripped my chin so hard I whimpered. “Then who?” he demanded.
“A man from the Summer Walkers,” I lied.
Alec snorted at that. “Well, then, I need nae worry, because ye’ll nae ever return to them. Ye’ll stay in our home and give me the heirs yer sister failed to produce. That way, if ye die, the castle shall remain mine.”
I gaped at him. “How did ye grow to be like this? So cold and heartless?”
“How did ye come to be as ye are?” he countered, but spoke again, never, it seemed, intending to let me speak. “All my life, my da hounded me, berated me, set tasks for me to hold onto the right to inherit his stronghold, and when he died, he left instructions that it was all to go to my younger brother.”
I didn’t want to feel his pain or understand it, but I couldn’t ignore what pulsed in his voice. I’d heard the rumors about his da’s cruelty, his grueling training for his sons, and the younger brother who was naturally a better warrior and leader. I could see pain in Alec’s eyes, and for a moment he was not a monsterbut a man who had been sorely hurt and had spent his life striking out at others because of the scars on his heart. “Alec,” I said, reaching to touch his cheek, moved by his hidden pain. “How yer da treated ye—”
His hand struck my face hard, turning it sideways and making my cheek sting. He was unreachable, and my anger burned bright once more. “Ye will nae ever have my heart or my desire,” I flung out, tears stinging my eyes for all the lost years my girlhood infatuation with him had caused me.
He smiled then, showing teeth like a wolf. “I care naught for yer heart, and we will see about yer desire. I’m quite skilled.”
The thought of his hands on my body made me shudder. Before I knew what he was going to do, his mouth slanted over mine in a kiss that made my stomach roil. When he was finished, he drew back, a satisfied look on his face, and said, “I assume ye understand me clearly and will nae forget again?”
