Free The Wolf and the Highlander (Highland Wishes) by Jessi Gage

summoned magic from the low realm to aid him. Eventually, Jilken got offspring from the wolves. Soon, Larna was filled with people who had more wolf in them than Danu intended. They were savage and ruthless and constantly attacked Marann. They tried to dominate the whole of Eire. But where they gained strength from their unnatural breeding, they lost their cunning. Our kings set traps and used spies to out-maneuver them. Marann held her borders, as she always will.”
    Anya wrinkled her nose. “Men bred with wolves? Disgusting. Though mayhap less so if your people come from wolves, at least in part. Still. I doona like to consider such a thing.”
    Neither did he. Which was why he didn’t put much stock in the legend of their creation: a fey bred with a mythical wolf by a goddess. Yeah, he had some things in common with wolves and with the fabled fey, but he was wolfkind, not immortal, not an animal. He certainly didn’t condone mating with animals. The Larnians, on the other hand...
    “More disgusting is what they did to the offspring Jilken didn’t find pleasing. Any whelp s who appeared weak or didn’t have the desired traits were thrown out like threadbare rags, especially the females, since they didn’t have as much value on the battle field.”
    Some thought that’s when the curse began. Children were treated like refuse, so the goddess made children rare, especially female children. If there was a goddess, he didn’t think she cared about them enough to curse them, but he could see the logic in the assumption.
    Anya was silent. What was she thinking behind those somber brown eyes?
    “I have told you a story,” he said as they came upon a fast moving stream spanned by a log with its bark rotted away. He didn’t trust Anya to cross it on her own. Stepping onto it, he held out his hand and said, “Your turn. Talk.”
    She looked at his hand, then at the log, then back at his hand, no doubt remembering his vow not to touch her.
    “Take it,” he said. “If you do it, I won’t be breaking my word.”
    “I doona ken if I should trust a man who claims to be part wolf and part fey.” She narrowed her eyes, but a smile played at her lips. “Wolves are bloodthirsty and the legends I’ve heard about the fey claim they’re mischievous trouble-makers. Not to be trusted.”
    “Guess you’ll have to take your chances. A bloodthirsty trouble-maker or the possibility of wet socks for the rest of the day.”
    She harrumphed, but slipped her hand into his with a sparkle in her eye that made his trousers feel too tight. Luck help him if she looked down.
    Her skin was cool and softer than lily petals. When he closed his fingers over hers, her delicate bones pressed together. He relaxed his grip, worried he’d hurt her.
    “You won’t break me,” she said, grasping his hand more firmly as she followed him up onto the log. “I doona particularly wish to fall in. I suppose I can tolerate your touch to keep myself dry.” Her eyes danced with her own human brand of mischief. “Shall I tell you how I came to be here, then?” Ah, she would tell him a story now. A fair one, his lady. Lady...
    He slid his feet over the wet wood, holding fast to her hand, adjusting his balance when she wobbled this way or that, ready to sweep her into his arms if she started to fall. “No. If I’m to get just one story from you, I want to know why you don’t consider yourself a lady.”
    Her lips compressed in a hard line.
    They finished crossing the log, and he helped her onto the bank. He thought she wasn’t going to answer, but at last she said, “Whores cannot be ladies.”
    He froze in place.
    She hobbled past him. “If you expect me to lead the way, I’m afraid it may take us more than a week to get to Chroina.” She said it without looking back.
    “You’re a whore?” he blurted out. He thought of the young men who sold themselves in some of the villages. He’d never thought poorly of them. What they did wasn’t very