Forbidden Highlander Read Free Page A

being renovated and pieced back together. It might never shine with its former glory, but it would be a home again. A future awaited him there.
    It wasn’t just the brothers anymore either. There was Cara, and the other four Warriors who had come to their aid when Deirdre attacked. And they had a second Druid, Sonya, who had been told by the trees to help Cara learn her powers.
    MacLeod Castle would be open to any Druid or Warrior who wanted to fight Deirdre and the evil she wielded. If it was the last thing he did, Fallon would see it done.

TWO
    Larena Monroe’s heart jumped in her throat when she heard the name MacLeod whispered in the great hall. As soon as it was spoken it spread like wildfire throughout the room. Everyone wanted to know who the MacLeod in attendance was—she most especially.
    “Excuse me, Lady Drummond,” she said as she turned to the woman behind her. “I thought I heard you say ‘MacLeod.’ Surely I was mistaken.”
    The name MacLeod was synonymous with death, heartache, and the unexplained. The myths of the MacLeod brothers hadn’t died in the three hundred years since the clan had been destroyed. It was a story told over and over again, but not one usually heard in the middle of the day in Edinburgh Castle. It was usually saved for stormy nights.
    “Ah, dear Larena,” Lady Drummond said. Her droopy hazel eyes held a note of mischief. “You heard right. There is a man at the castle, a man who claims to be
the
MacLeod.”
    Larena fisted her hand in her skirt while excitement ran rampant through her. For so long she had searched for the MacLeods. Could fortune have smiled on her, and had one come to her? After all these years. She had to find him, had to speak to him.
    She mentally shook her head. It was most likely some confusion in the name. The MacLeods were hunted, not by any Highlanders or even the crown, but by something much, much worse. They were hunted by the epitome of evil, Deirdre.
    Larena started when she realized Lady Drummond had spoken to her. “My apologies. My mind was wandering.”
    Lady Drummond leaned close, her great jowls swinging. “I asked if you saw him? The MacLeod? I caught a glimpse of him, my dear.” She fanned herself with her wrinkled hand. “If I were younger … He’s devilishly handsome.”
    “Is he?” Larena wished she had seen him.
    Lady Drummond laughed and sidled closer to Larena. “He wears a torc like the Celts of old. A true Highlander,” she whispered, her high voice tinged with a note of awe.
    Larena’s heart missed a beat as she realized the man Lady Drummond spoke of and the one that had heated her body were one and the same. She had seen him, the MacLeod. It had been just a moment, but she had locked gazes with the most amazing, most unusual dark green eyes she had ever seen. They had been turbulent, like a stormswept sea, and intense.
    She’d had to look away or make a fool of herself. When she had glanced back, he was gone. In all her years, there had not been one man who had ever had that kind of effect on her. It frightened her at the same time it captivated her.
    After a thank-you to Lady Drummond, Larena excused herself and moved around the hall intent on finding this curious Highlander with the beautiful eyes and the gold torc.
    He’d been dressed in a kilt with a plaid she didn’t quite recognize, but he didn’t wear it with the ease of a man who had been born to it. Yet, he
was
a Highlander. One look in his eyes and she had seen the wildness, the untamed spirit that was the Highlands.
    When Larena couldn’t find the man claiming to be the MacLeod, she headed to the garden for a breath of fresh air. She had been living in the castle for too many months in her bid to learn how far Deirdre’s magic had stretched.
    Larena was putting her own life in jeopardy by being at the castle, but what she hid from the world was worth it.
    She wasn’t at the castle just for Deirdre though. She knew enough about the infamous MacLeods to