Highland Strength (Book 3)

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Taking a moment he could not believe the fuss that was surrounding him. Batting away at the hands of his men as they reached out to him, he practically growled at them that he would explain everything later, but they needed some sort of sustenance if he was to survive the night. In moments he was free of the hen pecking from his own men, as they hurried to hunt something up, enough for a full meal, in he did not know how long it had been now. Left in the capable, but unsure hands of Sheena, he could not have been happier. Letting her do as she would, it was obvious she had no real healing training, apart from the battlefield healing nearly every warrior was capable of. It was obvious she wanted to do something to help, but did not know what, and would not admit as much.

His grin spread as her hands fluttered over his body, as if checking for injury that they both knew he did not have upon his front. His back ached, though it should be worse than that, he knew. But needed the details before he could face his men with a story that would assuage the fears they held over this strange feral woman before them. He needed them to be confident enough as to have her at their back if need be, but to also defend her while she was still injured, and he had to admit he was not at full strength at the moment. That, however, could possibly be the biggest understatement he had ever made.

Watching her sit back on her heels, and look up at him, he thanked the Lord above that she was safe and before him. He still wanted to pull her through the ringer over the fact, it was obvious she had come back for him, when he had told her to run. But he needed to have the full facts firstly. Catching her wrist in his large hand, he stroked his thumb over the soft skin on the inside of her arm. When she looked upon him he took a moment to scan over the delicate features of her face. “Sheena, my men will be wary of you and any movement you make until I can tell them the tale. But I am a little woolly over what happened after I fell into darkness. I know I jumped from the tree and killed one male before the other took me down and I took him down with me. When I fell upon the ground I lost all sense apart from the fact that I knew you were safe. That is all that mattered. Yet here I am alive. How Sheena? How am I here?” He paused a moment, and looked around the pretty glade they were in, full of sunshine it was as if they were in a dream world. “Where exactly is here?”

She practically snorted. “You would not believe me if I told you.” His brow furrowed at her distracted comment. “Why would that be?” She jumped at his words, looking down upon him startled at the fact he had spoken after she had murmured what she thought had been a thought in her mind, not a comment said aloud. She stuttered a moment, no knowing what to say. Her eyes darting around, trying to take a hold of an answer as if it would float into her line of sight and help her from answering with the truth.

With a defiance that belied even her normal stubbornness she squared her shoulders, and stared down at him. She could not stop the words from tumbling from her lips even if she wanted to. “This is the first place I saw when I stepped through time.” She paused just a second, and her words came as she looked out over the swaying green grass highlighted by the golden rays of the sun in the cloudless sky above. She saw it as it was now, as she looked out, and it was overlaid by a similar day so very long ago only with a blanket of glistening white glowing brightly in the sun. “It was a new world, a new time, a new promise. It was how it had been told to me. But the truth was, after the magic of this first beautiful place. The reality set in. The freezing chill of the snow, after the heat of the summer’s night, finally seeped into my very being. I had a tiny babe to take care of, and my parents were gone from me forever. At eight summers old, I had been thrust from a world about to meet its demise, into a world that has never wanted me.”