“Worry not,” Ronan advised. “I have waited too long to find the woman I love, and I intend for us to enjoy many, many, many long years together.”
Carissa sat by the fire with Cregan. Addie lay curled up in a blanket sound asleep not far from them. His men patrolled the area, and sentinels were posted for the night. Cregan was diligent about keeping anyone from finding them.
But Carissa knew that Piper and Evan would be tracking them, with Dykar right beside them. And she also knew that Ronan would come for her, she had not a doubt that he would.
Hate and love were close companions. It was hatred that had driven Ronan to find Carissa, and it would be love that drove him to rescue her. The thought filled her with soothing warmth that rippled over her entire body and filled her with a sense of peace.
She loved and was loved in return.
“I’m not Mordrac’s daughter,” Carissa said bluntly.
Cregan simply laughed. “Who are you then?”
Carissa conveyed the tale that Addie had concocted with such belief that, with every word she spoke, the lines between Cregan’s eyes and around his mouth grew deeper, until he was left with a heavy frown.
“When did you learn of this?” he demanded.
“When I was young.”
“Who told you—certainly not your father?” Cregan challenged. “He believed you his.”
“As my mother intended.” She and Addie had considered everything Cregan might question, so she would be prepared to answer, and she did. “It was a slave who told me the truth about my heritage, told to her by my mother.”
“Mordrac would have heard such stirrings of untruth.”
Carissa scoffed and shook her head. “Who would have dared to say such to Mordrac? He would have had him killed for such lies.”
Cregan rubbed his chin, and she could see that he agreed, though didn’t like it.
Suddenly his frown turned to a smile. “It matters not.”
While his abrupt change concerned her, she did not show it. “Why is that?”
“If it is true, and I’m not saying it is,” he emphasized, “then Mordrac did a good job in making you his daughter in every sense.”
Carissa was glad Addie had thought of everything, and she was prepared with a more-than-adequate response. “That he did, but what of the children I would bear? From what I know, my father was a kindly man; therefore, any of my children could be like him.”
“I would beat the kindness out of him,” Cregan said, shaking a fist at her.
He was just like Mordrac, for that is what her father tried to do to her, and she would not have it done to a child of hers.
“I would not allow it,” she snapped angrily.
“You have no say in it.”
“You’re a fool if you believe that.”
“I will be your husband and you will obey me,” he said, his face growing red with anger.
She laughed, which only made his face burn red all the more. “You will not be my husband, and I will certainly not now or ever obey you. And whether you believe me Mordrac’s daughter or that he raised me to be such, you know I speak the truth.”
“You will learn,” he said, his anger ebbing.
“You truly are a fool.”
“A tongueless wife would suit me just as well,” he threatened.
Carissa’s smile turned carnal. “How then would I please you?”
She didn’t get the response she expected; he laughed.
“You will be a worthy wife and a worthy opponent.”
“I will be neither.”
“Do you not wish to grant your father his last wish, that you and I form a strong alliance and breed a family of true warriors?”
“My father is dead, and I finally have my freedom. Why would I want to relinquish that?
“To honor your father’s name,” Cregan said.
“There is no honor to my father’s name,” she said with a shake of her head. “He was a cruel, horrible man who deserved to die.”
“Mind your tongue, woman or—”
“You’ll cut it out,” she scoffed. “I’ve been threatened with far worse, and I doubt any man would want a tongueless wife.”
“At least a man would not have to put up with a woman’s harping.”
“But he would lose far more when it came to pleasure,” she reminded. “So which do you choose?”
“You bait me.”
“Most men are easy to bait since they put their concerns above those of others, especially women. It takes a fearless warrior to love a woman, faults and all,” she said.
Cregan laughed. “Any man who doesn’t fear a woman is a fool. They are cunning creatures who can never be trusted.”