Page 12 of Taken By the Exiled Laird

"He killed me betrothed's cousin. He sent me driver fleein'. And he and that brute Graeme stole me away here. I dinnae ken anymore than that," Briana finished. "I dinnae ken if I'm tae die, or be tortured, or⁠—"

"What did I say about dramatics?" Theon asked tiredly. His nose had stopped bleeding, but his face was still a mess of smeared red. "I've nae intention of hurtin' ye, and I'll kill anyone who tries. But ye are our prisoner, and ye cannae go home."

Noah's lips pressed together. "I think we need tae have a conversation, brother. All four of us. Now."

Theon nodded. "Aye, that we do. Briana, me cabin is the one on the far left. The door isnae locked. There's a full washbasin in there, ye may use it if ye please. We will meet ye soon."

Brother? Four? Her head spun. She had assumed that there were many of this band of villains, but that there were only the four of them that she'd already met seemed almost more dangerous. How was it they had built up such a dangerous repute? And what was it they wanted?

She watched them walk away, stopping only to pick up the bloody bag of game. Her mind echoed the word brother over and over. Noah had called Theon, her enemy, his brother. Noah, who had once been one of the only friendly faces, was on the side of demons.

And Briana was here in their cage.

She thought of her mother. She thought of her promise. And she turned toward the woods.

Chapter Five

When Theon and Noah entered Noah's cabin, the two other Broken Blades were already inside.

Keir was pacing back and forth, his expression dark, and Graeme was sitting at the makeshift desk with an uncharacteristic frown on his face. Theon felt the heavy weight upon them all and his skin prickled with irritation. They did not have time for this sort of infighting and sulking, not when they had Cameron's daughter right there in their camp. It hadn't been Theon's intention, but now that she was here, they needed to take advantage of every moment.

"What happened tae ye?" Graeme asked, alarmed, as he took in Theon's face. "Did ye get intae an argument with the horses?"

Theon didn't answer, moving toward Noah's washbasin. He methodically cleaned his face until there was no blood left, pressing hard against his nose and relieved to find that, while he would soon have a painful bruise, it was not broken. He wasn't angry at Noah for hitting him. He'd have done the same if Keir had succeeded in attacking Briana yesterday or if he'd come back to camp to discover a woman he'd once cared for being taken hostage.

The three others were completely silent until Theon returned to the center of the room and sat down at the edge of Noah's bed. Graeme remained at the desk while Keir leaned back on a chair, but Noah remained on his feet, pacing back and forth in fury. Dark anger was pulsing from the usually gentle Noah, and Theon's own instinct flared in response. He would rather not fight his brothers, but he would if he had to.

"Well?" Noah demanded as soon as Theon sat, placing the game bag on the table and then folding his arms. "Explain."

"She explained what happened already," Theon replied steadily, carefully keeping all emotion from his voice.

"Dinnae give me that, Theon!" Noah shouted. "Why is she here? Briana is innocent in all of this. Her father is a monster, and her brother's grown tae be much the same, but since when do we punish the faultless for the crimes of their blood? Are we the villains they think we are, that we threaten unarmed women?"

"Innocent," Keir scoffed. "She's a Cameron, ye fool. The whole clan is rotten tae the core, nae matter what ye claim."

Noah shot him a look. "I was a Cameron by clan, if not by name," he reminded Keir sharply. "And now ye call me brother. Briana was always a sweet lass, one who cared⁠—"

Keir jumped to his feet, letting his chair clatter to the ground. "Enough of this. I dinnae want tae hear ye extol the virtues of a spoiled Cameron brat. Do as ye will, but leave me out of it." He stormed over to the table and snatched the bag of game, then stomped out of the cabin, slamming it tight shut behind him.

Theon let out a frustrated sigh. Keir was right that they could not trust the Camerons, any of them. Briana was the Laird's only daughter, the heir's only sister, and would soon be a MacFarlane bride. Her family had destroyed everything he and Keir had known when Keir had been only fifteen years old. Even Keir's mother, Laura, a woman servant who had been their father's mistress since a year after the death of Theon's mother, had not been spared the slaughter. Their whole clan had burned and the Camerons had danced on the ashes. He could not allow himself to forget that.

But Noah's eyes were burning into him, and Theon could not dismiss his words either. How much did Briana know of her father and brother's machinations? He dimly remembered encountering her once, very briefly, when she was just a girl. It had only been a few days before that moment when everything was destroyed forever. He hadn't taken much notice of her then, but he remembered that she'd snooped on the meeting with her father. Why had she been snooping? Perhaps Laird Cameron coddled his daughter and kept her out of the complex world of political intrigue. If that was the case, then she likely didn't know anything of use to them. But that didn't matter.

Graeme stood too. "I'll leave the two of ye tae talk. I'll go check on Briana. Nae doubt ye've scared her further with yer fightin'."

He left too, and the silence between Noah and Theon stretched out, both of them staring at the other without flinching. After some time, Noah was the first to look away, sinking into the chair that Graeme had abandoned.

"How could ye do this?" Noah asked, his voice quieter and heavier with disapproval.

"It wasnae the plan!" Theon insisted, his own tone sharp. Noah's quiet judgment rankled him more than the punch or the shouting had. "If it was, dinnae ye think ye would have kent it? But when we realized who she was, I had tae make a choice. What else would ye have had me do?"

"She's an innocent lass! A bride on the way tae her weddin'!" Noah protested.

"She's leverage, Noah!" Theon snapped. "Dinnae ye understand? Her weddin' would have been another nail in the coffin of everythin' that Scotland once was. It would have been more power in the hands of a monster—a demon who is her father. Ye ken that better than anyone. Better than even me. Ye ken him and what he's capable of. Would ye really see him with an even stronger alliance? And would ye really like tae see the lass wed tae Malcolm MacFarlane?"

Noah flinched and his fists tightened in his lap. Conflicting emotions warred on his face, then he shook his head and pressed his lips together. After a moment, he spoke again in precise, measured words. "So this is who we are? We take hostages now? We hold people for ransom? I see we really are everythin' they say about us, then."

Hot anger, the same pulsing rage that Briana had brought out with her insults the night before, flooded through Theon at that. He knew that the world thought him a monster, and he had accepted that crown. Perhaps even reveled in it. But to hear such disdain from Noah, from his own sworn brother, was more than his temper could handle.