Free Tall, Dark and Wolfish by Lydia Dare Page B

resided right under their noses? And what powers did the other three women possess?
    Not that it mattered overmuch. He'd come for a healer, and he heard Elspeth vow to help him. Whatever Caitrin Macleod thought he was after, she was
    wrong. He wanted only to return to his Lycan self, then he'd leave them in peace.
    Leave her . Elspeth. He'd only known the woman a day, but the thought of leaving her pained him. He shook the thought from his head. Major Forster had
    said a Lycan bonds with his healer. That's al it was. Though the pul the lass had on him was stronger than any he could ever remember. He'd have to take
    special care not to let things progress to where they shouldn't. He didn't think Elspeth could handle it. Who was he kidding? He didn't think he could
    handle it.
    God, but she felt good in his arms.
    "Ye look a mil ion miles away, Ben." Her lilting voice brought him back to the present.
    "I suppose I was in a way. Are you real y a… healer, Elspeth?" A witch, he wanted to ask, but thought better of it.
    "Aye. As was my mother before me, and her mother before her, and on and on."
    Ben smiled. His family's heritage was much the same. Al Lycan males, until him. Until this.
    "What exactly is yer ailment? I've never seen a healthier man."
    Healthy, at least, in al the ways anyone could see. It was inside where he was broken. Ben stared at her. To get her help he'd have to be honest. How
    was she to fix him otherwise? He'd left his home and come al this way to find her. Wel , to find Rosewyth.
    Stil , being a Lycan wasn't something one openly admitted. In London he'd be locked in Bedlam if he even thought of tel ing anyone. Or Newgate. He
    wasn't sure which was worse. Creatures like him usual y only confessed al to their intended mates.
    An image of mating with Elspeth flashed in his mind, and he couldn't shake it away. Bonding. It was just bonding with his healer. He could tel her. He had
    to.
    "I'm a Lycan," he blurted out before he came to his senses. "Do you know what that is?"
    She shook her head, though he noticed she rubbed the skin of her wrist beneath her gloves.
    "A werewolf, in layman's terms."
    He half expected her to run through the woods, screaming like a banshee, but she simply tilted her head to one side and waited for him to continue.
    "You have nothing to say to that?"
    She shrugged. "What would ye like me ta say?"
    "I don't know. Maybe run in fear, at least."
    Her beautiful smile returned. "I doona believe there is a thing about ye I should fear, Ben." Her gaze moved from the top of his head to the bottoms of his
    feet, lingering as though she'd find the secret of his creation somewhere upon his person. "What does al of this mean? What does bein' a Lycan entail?
    Do ye change ta a wolf every night?"
    He shook his head. "No. We change only when the light of a ful moon touches us. The rest of the month we look like any other man, but beneath the
    surface the beast inside struggles to be released, stronger in the days surrounding moonful."
    "I see," she said looking up into the forest canopy above them, though the sun was high in the sky. "The moon is but a sliver now."
    Ben heaved a sigh. It was easier to talk about this with her than he had expected. "I left almost immediately after the last moonful."
    "Why?"
    "I didn't transform."
    "And ye want ta transform?" she asked with a frown.
    "Of course I want to change," he barked. When her green eyes grew round, he shuffled his feet. "Sorry. I suppose I'm not explaining this wel after al . The
    change is part of me, Elspeth, who I am. I need to fix whatever is wrong with me."
    Elspeth stared at the man in front of her. A Lycan. A werewolf. A beast. Caitrin had been right about that. Is that what the mark indicated? Again she
    rubbed the mark on her wrist. Was that what her father was? Was that why he'd sought out her mother?
    "Do ye have a mark, Ben?"
    "A mark?"
    "On yer skin?"
    He smiled. "How did you know?"
    Elspeth shrugged. "Lucky guess. Where is it? Can