Free The Bewitching Twin by Donna Fletcher Page A

somehow right.
    Aliss walked along the outskirts of her garden, meaning to tend it. Instead, she weeded her way through her chaotic thoughts.
    She could not continue to deny her attraction to the warrior wolf, nor could she make sense of it. It was as if it had happened without thought or reason. It was simply born naturally.
    As love was so often born.
    She shook the nonsensical thought from her head. Love had nothing to do with it. Circumstance was what had produced her strange musings. Her abduction had forced their closeness. She lived in Rogan’s cottage, shared meals with him. He had even given her his deceased wife’s clothes to use.
    She stroked the soft, dark green wool skirt and fingered the pale yellow blouse she wore. Had her wearing his wife’s garments rekindled memories in him? Had he suddenly felt the emptiness of his loss and looked to her to ease his grief?
    Aliss sighed in frustration. Why did she waste time on such nonsense? This was the very reason she had not wanted to wed. She had not wanted her mind distracted from her work.
    There was a time she had thought that there could be a balance between her work and love. After observing couples and their daily lives, she realized that had been just a dream. Marriage took work, understanding, and patience. She spent her patience on her healing. She feared she would have none left for a man.
    “Heavy thoughts this morning?”
    Aliss grabbed her chest and spun around to face Rogan. “You frightened me.”
    “I called out to you.”
    “I did not hear you.”
    He approached her, a plaid of mixed dark colors wrapped around him, his chest bare, his hair rumpled from a night’s sleep and his green eyes sharp and steady on her.
    “Then you were lost in heavy thoughts,” he said and stopped in front of her.
    “A common trait of mine,” she admitted.
    “Something you wish to discuss?”
    Aliss attempted to ignore the firm muscles in his wide chest and the thickness of his arms. There was strength there and power. She had felt it time and again when he had lifted her so effortlessly. He could fight barehanded without a problem.
    She suddenly recalled how Rogan had attacked Hellewyk land and pierced Tarr’s arm with one mighty blow of a hand-held arrow. She had tended the wound, amazed at the strength it would take to accomplish such a feat.
    Now she saw for herself the strength in the man who had injured her brother-in-law and shivered.
    He reached out to her and she stumbled away from him.
    “What is wrong?”
    “You attacked Hellewyk land in search of me? Why? You could have just requested my help.”
    “Tarr would never have allowed you to leave with me.”
    She did not argue the truth. Tarr would have never permitted her to go with Rogan.
    “Your silence tells me we are in agreement.”
    She gave a reluctant nod then suddenly asked a question that had lingered in the recesses of her mind since arriving there. “What of the Isle of Non?”
    He hesitated before answering, “What of it?”
    She shrugged. “I recall my brother Raynor mentioning that he chased you and your men off the isle. Why were—”
    He didn’t let her finish. “I thought the isle belonged to Tarr.”
    His troubled expression caught her curiosity. Why would the ownership of the isle concern him? “A dispute that has been settled with the joining of the two clans. But what interest do you—”
    “I hope someday you will understand the reasons behind my actions.”
    “I hope so too, but what of the isle—” She stopped and stared into the woods. “Did you see that?”
    “See what?” he asked, and followed her glance.
    She shook her head. “I must be seeing things. I could have sworn I saw a pair of green eyes.”
    “My men patrol the woods regularly. More than likely it was one of them you saw.”
    She continued to stare into the woods. “The eyes looked like they breathed life.”
    “A trick of the light,” he suggested.
    She did not agree. “I think not.”
    “I