Westport, Ireland
Solomon rubbed his eyes as the morning sun was peeking over the trees making Solomon narrow his eyes.
Lucas glanced back at Solomon as the wolves were drifting around them, "You know I always heard stories about the wolves and McKenzie. But I never understood it."
Solomon grinned down as one of the wolves glanced up at him. "McKenzie just connected with them. It wasn't much of a story to know about, it was just she saved a few pups and they bonded to her."
Kai glanced over at them as he rubbed his stomach, "I'm glad we are bonding but I am fucking starving."
Lucas reached back into his bag as he tossed over something in a bag, "I grabbed something before rushing out of the barn."
Kai grinned back at his brother as he revealed the pieces of bread and some cold meat. "I am so happy that you are the prepared one."
Lucas glared back at his brother, "That explains a lot when it comes to women too."
"Listen, that was one time!" Kai shouted back at his brother as a piece of meat flew from his lips.
Solomon watched the two as they argued back and forth at each other.
Lucas smiled back at Kai as Solomon saw it over them.
Kai dropped the sandwich as Solomon slipped down from the horse walking toward the smoke that was rising from the house that once stood infront of them.
Lucas looked down at the map that was in his bag, "I don't understand. This is the location."
Kai tossed his hands up, "It isn't here Lucas! We need something else!"
Solomon walked around when he smelt it. He bowed his head to erase the smell that was lingering around him.
Kai glanced back at him as he saw what Solomon was trying to avoid. "Who is that?"
Lucas walked around Kai to see the hanging bodies that were burnt to a crisp, "That has to Ragnar. But the female body, I don't know that one."
"McKenzie has tattoos on her back to cover the scars from her whipping." Solomon said back to them.
Lucas looked harder at the body as a piece of skin from the girl's cheek dripped down hitting the ground.
Kai shook his head as he looked away disgusted. "Who is that?"
"Penelope, I think. She is small. The others are built larger than her." Lucas looked around the body as Ragnar's body slipped through the rope hitting the ground sending tissue and blood all around Solomon's feet.
"I don't understand, who could have done this?"
Kai stepped back as the smell attacked them, "You mind if we go back to the horses and regroup over there?"
Lucas nodded his head as they went back for the horses.
Solomon stood there with blood and other bodily matter covering his shoes, "McKenzie is out there somewhere. We know that Maverick is dead. This isn't how we should be doing this."
Kai pushed his blonde hair out of his face as Solomon was just standing there. "Hey, Solomon what is going on?"
"I don't think you wanna know this but I don't know what is going on. Isabel never said anything about someone else."
Lucas glanced back at him, "That's because if she had mentioned him, I'm pretty sure she would have been killed."
Kai narrowed his eyes back at his brother, "You know who did this?"
"Do you know Bronn?" Lucas leaned back looking over at Solomon around the horse.
Solomon didn't answer.
"Exactly, the one man that the Ragason Empire was able to destroy."
Solomon cracked a brow as he turned back to Lucas and Kai.
"You know what that means." Lucas shot back at Solomon.
Dublin, Ireland
"Being strong is smart."
I held onto my side as someone pushed me over onto my back.
He narrowed his eyes at me as he put his hand on my throat, "You know princess, I always thought he would have gone for someone with a little more class."
I coughed as he removed his hand allowing me to breathe once again.
"McKenzie, you are no Lothbrok."
"I'm glad you finally caught on." I mumbled out to him as everything went dark again.
"Excuse me, but can I have this dance?"
I glanced up from my plate as he stood infront of me grinning down at me with his hand to me.
I peeked over as Ragnar nodded his head back at me to go ahead.
He was kind as he pulled me toward the middle of the floor.
I slipped my hand onto his shoulder as a grin formed on his lips.
"You are a sweet woman." He whispered into my ear as I felt his warm breathe against my neck.
"I am glad you are enjoying yourself tonight." I grinned back at him.
"Can I ask you something?" He kept me swaying as the music was still playing around us sending other couples past us.
"Yes."
"Walk out with me." He grinned pulling me out of the room.
I grinned back at him as we walked past the others for the doors out of the room leaving the music behind us.
He laughed back at me as we walked out into the garden as the sound of the waterfall behind us chimed in with the crickets.
"Why are we out here?" I asked with a smile on my lips.
"I wanted to pull you to the side and ask you about the scars."
I stopped smiling as I felt his voice against my skin. It was like someone had taken their nails down my back.
"I wanted to know why the precious Lothbrok daughter is scarred like a wounded animal."
I turned around as he was smiling at me, "Who are you?"
"I walked with a promise that I would rule. That I would stand at the throne of Ireland and know that tomorrow my bloodline will command the seas."
"Oh my god, you are him."
He smiled as he walked closer to me.
"You are the one that killed Ragnar's wife."
"You are kinda forgetting the most important person that I took."
"Oh fuck, you killed her...you killed McKenzie."
"I killed the first born Lothbrok daughter."
"It was my way to the throne. I was the one that was to rule!"
I shook my head back at him as he pushed me back against the wall of the castle.
"You came into the wrong war."
"I didn't want any of this."
"You should have never come back."
My eyes trailed up as his eyes were stuck on me as my body started to shake.
"McKenzie! Hey, McKenzie where did you go?"
I was shaking as his hands left my body.
"McKenzie, there you are!"
I looked up as Tamara, the house maid, walked around the corner with a smile on her face and a giggle in her throat.
"McKenzie, you are missing a party."
"Tamara...thank you."
"Thank me? What did I do?"
"You are taking me back to the party." I grinned back at her as I couldn't shake the feeling of his hands on my throat.
She grinned back at me, "We all need to have a little party."
I looked over my shoulder as the garden was empty.
"McKenzie, are you ok?"
I turned back to Tamara with a smile, "I need a little party tonight."
Tamara laughed as she went back into the castle leaving me at the door.
"You look horrible." Penelope said back to me as I sat back down at the table.
"That wasn't what I thought it was."
"You mean hanging out with that guy?"
I nodded my head back at her.
"He looks handsome." Penelope smiled over at me.
"Tomorrow morning, I need you to head out to find Raquel."
"I need to do what?"
"Go find Raquel tomorrow." I said back to her getting up from the table.
Penelope watched me walk across the floor as I went up the back steps to the back room.
I pushed the door closed as I reached into my pocket feeling the stone against my skin.
"Any chance, I will see you again?"
My eyes drifted up as there stood Solomon looking at me from the darkness of the room.
"Raquel told me that you would be here. That there was a chance I could actually see you before anything happened."
"You talked to her?"
"I knew it was the only way to find you."
I felt the stone getting warm against my fingers.
"McKenzie, what is going on?"
"I need you to know that everything is gonna be ok."
"McKenzie, where are you going?"
"I am gonna try and save us."
"What happened to us?"
I felt my chest get tight as the stone was almost burning my hand, "I fell in love with you but at the wrong time."
Solomon put his hands over his face as the bright light engulfed the room.
"Because if you were a Lothbrok, the nation would have cried when you vanished."
My eyes rolled around as my vision was still blurry.
"No one would have stopped looking for you. Ragnar was dead. The first daughter was missing. Life was falling apart."
I pushed myself over as I grabbed the knife sticking out of my side.
"You never forgot when I told you that I would kill you."
My breathing started to pick up as Bronn walked over to me.
"I told Isabel that you would be the one I kill."
"What about Isabel?"
"She never mattered; she just made sure that my bloodline remained."
"Are you sure?" I breathed up at him as Bronn grinned back at me. "I mean Isabel slept with a few guys. How do you know you don't have slow swimmers and someone else made sure their bloodline would continue?"
"Because I know Jackson was never my child." Bronn narrowed his eyes at me as the door to the room was pushed open revealing the light from the outside world.
He didn't speak as he just stood at the door.
Bronn stood up kicking me in the face to remove my vision from whoever was at the door.
I rolled over as something warm was under me.
I ran my hand down until I found it.
My blood was pooling under me from the stab wound.
His hands were warm against my skin as my back arched.
His lips ran down my collar bone above my breast.
A smile cracked along my lips when I heard the scream.
He pushed me from his lap as I slammed down on the floor.
"Are you ok?" I asked pulling the blanket over me.
"You didn't hear the scream?"
I stood up looking back at him, "Maverick, that was from outside. You really need to calm down."
Maverick glanced back at me as I reached down for my shirt, "Why do you like him so much?"
I slipped my shirt over my shoulder as Maverick tossed my pants over to me.
"I mean Solomon is great but hell, I think I am a little better."
"Better at what Maverick? Talking about yourself or just being a complete dick?"
Maverick leaned back on the bed with a smile, "Baby girl, you were just riding that..."
"McKenzie, come quick!"
Maverick pointed at the door, "I think I also said that too."
I rolled my eyes as I went out the door to see Raquel standing next to Maddox in the middle of the square. I narrowed my eyes as I walked down to them.
Maddox glanced back at me, "You gotta little something on your neck."
I pulled my hair over my shoulder to hide my neck as I looked down at the goat wearing a dress in the middle of the square. "Why is there a goat wearing a dress in the middle of the camp?"
Raquel crossed her arms as Solomon walked down to the goat, "You wanna fill us in?"
"I think we got a little drunk last night." Solomon looked back at Maddox.
Maddox smiled back at him, "Brother, that wasn't with me."
The edge of my lip pulled up, "You mean with Maverick or one of the others running around half naked...what the fuck did you guys do last night?"
Raquel rolled her eyes as she turned around walking up the hill, "This is amazing. Your father is gonna wake up to Carrigan with a slash across his face. Axel is walking around sideways and I think Caleb is in a tree."
I narrowed my eyes back at Solomon, "How, just how did he get into the tree?"
Solomon rubbed the back of his head as he wanted to talk but couldn't.
I started laughing back at him as Maddox turned and went up the hill to the main house, "Just clean everything up."
Solomon nodded his head as he looked over at me, "What's on your neck?"
"I scratched myself."
"It looks like a bruise."
"Dallas slapped me." I said back to him as I turned around walking away from him as Maverick was just coming out of his cottage.
I shook my head as I walked up past him to the back house that Raquel and I had claimed as our own.
Westport, Ireland
Solomon ran his hand through the ash as Kai and Lucas argued about where they could have gone.
"I'm thinking back to Isabel."
"No, Solomon killed her. He would have known that." Kai snorted back at Lucas.
Lucas glanced back at the map, "With everything going I don't know."
Solomon rotated on his heels to face them, "Where does his family have a place?"
Kai glanced back at Lucas waiting for the answer.
"I think somewhere up north, around Isabel's family's place." Lucas said back to him.
"No, it is a place of power. It is a place that he feels like he deserved..."
Lucas folded the map back up, "What are you thinking?"
"He blames us for taking his crown, right?"
Lucas nodded his head back at Solomon.
"Where is the one place that holds the most power in Ireland?"
Kai grinned back at Solomon, "Boys, I guess we are heading to Dublin."
Lucas narrowed his eyes back at his brother, "That was the most Irish thing you ever said."
"My brother, we are first generation Irish."
Lucas shook his head back at him, "No we aren't."
Solomon looked back at them as they went on about how horrible Kai was being.
"Do you two ever shut the fuck up?" Solomon shouted back at them.
Kai looked back at Solomon as he walked between them heading back for his horse. "Our father has an attitude."
Lucas rolled his eyes back at Kai as Solomon was off ahead of them.