"Hey!" Shea exclaimed. "You gave me a pony that was half as tall as your mounts."
Caden scoffed and turned back to Fallon. "We can send scouts to pinpoint their position. It might give us an idea of where and when they are planning to attack. Might even tell us who is behind everything."
"Their leader is a woman from the sound of it," Shea chimed in, tired of being on the periphery of the conversation.
"What do you mean? I thought you didn't see them. You couldn't have seen if they were wearing clan covers if you didn't lay eyes on them." Caden sounded suspicious.
"I didn't say I saw them. However, they kept talking about a lady. Said Fallon was an oath breaker who led her on and broke her heart."
"Indra," Fallon spat out.
"I told you that woman wouldn't take your refusal of her bed lightly." Caden groused.
"I never made her promises or indicated she would rule beside me as Telroi."
"Aye. I know it, and we know she's not in this alone. There has to be at least one other feeding her information and helping her plan," Caden said.
When they both looked at Shea, she shrugged. "Don't look at me. That's pretty much the extent of what I heard out there. Anything else and you'll have to figure it out on your own."
"You've been very helpful," Fallon observed.
Caden cleared his throat hiding what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. "I'll see to the men while you tame your mouse."
With Caden's departure, Fallon focused solely on Shea, pinning her under an intense gaze that saw through her every defense straight to the person hiding inside.
It was a heady feeling, imagining he knew her every secret, her every desire. For someone whom loneliness was practically a state of being, it made her feel wanted, cherished even.
"You have a choice to make," Fallon said, stepping close and bending his head towards her. "You either become my Tolroi or you leave, tonight. Where you go, I don't care as long as you're gone from here."
Shea's breath stuttered and she blinked. Then blinked again. She'd expected him to yell. Castigate her for taking off alone. Maybe, if she was lucky, thank her for the intelligence she had happened across. Offering to let her go back to the Highlands was not even on the list. It was nowhere near the list and in fact would be the very last thing she ever thought to hear from his mouth.
"You'd do that. You'd let me go back to the Highlands?"
"Yes," he confirmed.
No thoughts showed on his face, no hint as to his feelings. He was every inch the untouchable warlord in that moment.
He reached behind her and undid the rope binding her hands.
Shea couldn't help the feeling of uncertainty. As recently as that afternoon, she would have taken the second option without a moment's doubt. Her inner struggle on the ridge had thrown all of that off center. She had decided to come back, to give this life a chance, to see if it held what she'd been searching for since the moment she could walk.
Now he was telling her she had a choice.
It was easy to stay when there was no choice. It was even easy when a person's life hung in the balance.
But this choice would be different. She would have to choose it willingly. Eyes opened and accepting of any consequences that might come.
She had warned Fallon. He and his men wouldn't be surprised by any ambush. Eamon and the others' lives were no longer in the balance. She could walk away free and clear and never suffer a crises of conscience.
"What if I stayed as a scout?"
"No. You'd have to be my Tolroi."
Shea wanted to stomp her foot like a three year old. She settled for a grimace. "You're being absurd. Let me stay as a scout, and I'll consider becoming your Tolroi."
"You already know my answer to that."
"Why? Why is this so important to you?"
He moved then, grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling her up to his face before wrapping one arm around her back to support her. "Because you have already made your choice whether you're willing to admit it or not. Because when you were gone I knew fear such as I have not known since I was a boy watching my father die, and my mother take her own life rather than face dishonor, not because I thought you had run to my enemies but because you were out there somewhere on your own, perhaps hurt or scared or in pain, and I wasn't there to help you. But mostly, because you are mine, and I crave the same commitment from you."
He snarled such sweet words in such an angry voice, as if he wasn't thrilled with these reasons but accepted them none the less.
The most profound words Shea had ever heard, the kind that etched themselves deep into the soul. She knew if she lived a hundred years she would remember them.
Slowly, inch by slow inch, she slid out of his arms until she was fully supporting her own weight. He straightened and stared impassively down at her. An outsider looking in would never have suspected the depth of emotion he'd just given her seconds ago.
Arching one eyebrow, he told her, "You should also know, should you choose to return to your Highlands, that once I have dealt with the traitors in my midst, I will march my army into the heart of those lands and not stop until I have you again."
After a stunned moment, Shea threw her head back and laughed. "You are a warlord."
The laughter faded and her gaze was soft as it landed on him. A small smile played on her lips.
Her choice was an easy one. It had been made a long time ago. Perhaps as long ago as that day she had looked up at the platform and seen a pair of whiskey colored eyes staring back at her.
It wasn't in her nature to give everything so easily, however.
"I'm staying," she informed him before turning her back and making her way over to her blankets.
"As my Tolroi," he bellowed after her.
"We'll see," she called back.
A grin overtook her face as she headed for their sleeping area. Cocky bastard.
That was the last moment of levity that night. After that, the men were busy with preparations. Everyone knew an attack was imminent, but not where it would come from or what odds they faced. Caden dispatched scouts following a conversation with Fallon. Shea tried to volunteer to show them where she had encountered the enemy, but Fallon said no and once the warlord decided something nobody was willing to argue.
After that, there was nothing to do but wait.
Fallon joined Shea where she had bedded down for the night, scooping her up and pulling her with him under his blankets.
"My Tolroi sleeps with me," he informed her.
He arranged her so her front was pressed to his side and her head on his chest. He cushioned his head on one arm and looked up at the starry night sky peeking through the trees.
"Is this going to become a thing? Where you make a statement of what your Tolroi does and expect me to follow it?" Shea asked, drawing her fingers in a light caress on his chest.
"It is not a statement. It's fact."
Shea smiled. In their past interactions, she hadn't noticed how funny he was. He'd always struck her as serious.
This thing between them felt so new and yet old at the same time. She pressed a kiss against his skin. She hoped they lived long enough to explore it further.
Chapter Twenty Three
Shea stirred when her pillow shifted under her. A rumble under her ear and a voice speaking quietly over her head brought her fully to consciousness.
"What's going on?" she asked sleepily as Fallon carefully slid out from under her, lowering her to the ground.
"The scouts have returned."
Shea sat up.
"Go back to sleep," he told her.
"Listen, you. If this thing between us is to work, you're going to have to treat me as a partner or I walk. Not in everything." She held up a hand to forestall the automatic refusal she saw coming. "You're the warlord. I get it and I have no interest in being involved with every little thing you do, but when it concerns me and my wellbeing or a skill I excel at, you will involve me and treat me as an equal."
"I do not respond well to ultimatums," he informed her.
"I don't respond well to being pushed to the side or patted on the head."
The man who had woken them left as they had a mini stare down. In this, Shea was not budging. She knew that in many things she would have to compromise, but this was one thing she knew to be essential to her happiness and continued well-being. He either learned to live with it, or she would take him up on the other choice he'd offered her last night.
"Fair enough," he said grudgingly.
Shea held back the relief she felt, knowing that at the first sign of smugness he might recant.
"It won't always go your way this easily," he told her.
"I'm counting on it. What's life without a little challenge?"
A flash of teeth in the darkness should have warned her. He grasped her behind the neck and hauled her to him, pressing his lips against hers, consuming her in a passionate kiss that left her panting afterwards.