Free My Highland Lover by Maeve Greyson Page A

dead?”
    Gray moved closer to the battered wooden door built into the side of the mountain. He searched for the small thatched hole that drew the smoke from Tamhas’s hearth out of the confines of the cave. There. Right there, centered in a roll of the hill a bit higher up the side of the rocky embankment. The frosty wetness dripping from the loose bundles of grass piled around the opening told Gray no heat had risen in a while. Gray eased his way to the shuttered window cut just a few feet to the left of the doorway. The gaps between the thick, lashed-together boards revealed nothing but darkness within.
    Gray sniffed hesitantly, held in the breath, then exhaled. Thank the gods he nay detected the smell of death or spilled blood. “If Tamhas lies dead, his body isna here.”
    Both horses let out low, nervous whinnies, and skittered a few paces back from the clearing. They shook their heads and pawed at the ground, clearly ready to be done with the place.
    “Easy now, lads,” Colum reassured them as he slid to the ground and gathered the reins of both mounts in one hand. “I dinna care for this o’erly much, me self.”
    Gray backed up a few steps. Something wasna right. Even the air had a strange feel to it. He scrubbed a hand up and down his forearm. A strange tension stung across his flesh, standing every hair on end.
    A groaning rumble rose from deep below Gray’s feet. The sound deepened and then gained momentum, as though the very earth itself was about to wrench open its ancient maw. Gray staggered sideways, struggling to keep his footing on the shaking ground.
What evil awakens?
The land was alive like a great beast trying to buck him from its back.
    The horses screamed and reared away from the heaving earth. Colum threw aside the reins and dove from the path of sharp, flailing hooves.
    A sudden shifting in the darkness of the sky forced Gray’s attention upward. “By the verra gods…” Gray stumbled back from the black stain swirling in an ominous circle above the mountain’s clearing.
    The air exploded with a deafening rush of wind and flying debris. The blast whirled through the clearing with a piercing screech so loud the howl echoed across the land. The horses shied, bucking and pawing against the unseen.
    Gray shielded his face against the battering wind just as a solid force hit him square in the chest and knocked him to the ground. All went silent. The air went dead. Even the horses ceased their thrashing.
    A violent updraft rattled the land. The force whooshed up from the ground, creating a choking, dirt-filled cloud. Gray turned his face from the stinging blackness, blinking hard against the swirling dust. What devilry had the gods rained down upon them? Coughing and wheezing, Gray struggled to see and shift aside the clinging weight draped across his chest.
    “Lore a’mighty,” Colum shouted from the other side of the clearing. “Yer no’ gonna believe yer eyes, man. The clouds are rainin’ women!”
    Gray rubbed his eyes and blinked hard against the silt filling his vision. “I canna see a damn thing, Colum. What the hell are ye sayin’?”
    What had Colum said about women? Gray swiped the back of one hand across his face while he pushed up on one elbow. The dead weight draped across his chest emitted a soft, mewling groan. Gray froze. Such a delicate moan could only come from a female. He blinked hard one last time and scrubbed the final blurriness from his vision.
    Dark hair soft as silk and smelling of a beguiling sweetness tickled up against his chin. Gray inhaled another deep breath of the alluring fragrance and sent up a silent prayer that he hadna gone mad. Had the gods truly dropped a woman from the sky? Gray blinked down at the tangled mass of curls scattered across his chest.
    The woman shifted. Gray steadied her with one hand and moved a bit to one side to keep her from rolling away. The softness of her curves sank into him in all the right places. Gray relaxed back and