Page 56

“Our son, apparently.”

In my chest, my Kteer surged at the acknowledgment, and I was helpless to stop from pressing a kiss against the top of her head. Edan began squirming against me, apparently deciding his mother’s scent meant breakfast should follow, and Cataline finally noticed how I held him.

“How long have you had him?”

“An hour, mayhap. He wasnae hungry yet and ye needed the sleep.”

This was not the first time I’d done it. The first had come when Cataline had scarcely slept and Edan woke merely wanting warmth, so I’d stripped off my shirt, tucked him against me and walked. He’d quieted almost immediately.

More surprising was what it did to my Kteer.

That primitive part of me had prowled restlessly ever since I learned of Cataline’s situation, but when Edan slept against my skin it settled.

Mine. Son. Safe.

Sometimes I spoke to him as I walked, telling him about the loch and the hills he would climb when his legs were strong enough, or warning him that Ewan would undoubtedly lead him into trouble. Sometimes I told him about his mother.

Those were the hours I tried not to think about spring.

Cataline touched Edan’s back. “I suppose he needs his father too.”

My Kteer practically purred.

Then Edan began rooting uselessly against my chest, and I chuckled as I handed him over.

“He needs something his father cannae provide now.”

Cataline laughed softly as she settled him to her breast, and the last of her terror finally eased. I watched her for a moment before remembering something Matthias had suggested the day before.

“Love, ye ken what ye need? An hour of relaxation. I’m taking ye to the springs.”

Several hours later, I regretted making the announcement sound so simple. Issa stood in my cottage with Lizzette in the crook of her arm, promising Cataline for the fifth time that she would fetch Matthias immediately if Edan woke hungry.

“If he cries, if he fusses, if he makes any sound you do not recognize⁠—”

My sister was trying hard not to smile at Cataline’s overprotectiveness.

“I ken, I ken.”

“Or if he makes no sound at all, because he is a very grunty baby.” Cataline clutched Edan as if the thought of leaving him for an hour was impossible.

Rowena had arrived for Ewan and solved that problem with far fewer words.

“Come, lad. The warriors are training. Do you want to watch with me? I will tell you how my father trained me.”

Ewan was already pulling down his cloak and Cataline took a deep, shuddering breath. Rowena sent her a small smile, as if she understood what she was asking.

“I will keep him safe,” my brother’s Mate vowed.

Something in Cataline’s expression shifted, and only then did I finally understand. I had thought she was being stubborn because my Mate was stubborn about nearly everything, and because none of this seemed strange to me. Battleborn bairns passed from arm to arm from the day they were born, and kitlings were watched, fed, and scolded by half the clan.

Cataline had awakened that morning dreaming that a man had taken Ewan from her.

Now I was asking her to hand both her children to people she’d known for three days.

Gods below, I could be an idiot.

I stepped closer. “Dkaar, ye trusted me with Ewan.”