Free Highlander's Passion (The Matheson Brothers Book 2) by Joanne Wadsworth

asked. Together, we’ll do all we can to search for a way for the two of you to be together.” Isla hugged her. “You are my sister and I will care for you, just as I care for my mate and his brothers.”
    “Finlay lives and I live. That is all I can hope for right now, but I too will search for an answer, and if there is one I will grab ahold of it, but if not, then your compelling command on him remains. I willnae take his life.” Grief consumed her, beat at her. To keep her cold-fire from returning, she snuck her arms around Finlay’s waist where he stood so perfectly still. She nuzzled his neck right over the mark she’d given him, his heavenly scent wrapping around and comforting her. “I will miss you,” she murmured against his flesh. “You are my mate and always will be. I’m sorry I forced your hand just now, but there truly was no other choice. You must live and fulfill your destiny. That is all that is important, that the villagers live.”
    A shuddering breath left his lips.
    “You need to go, Arabel.” Isla squeezed her arm. “No one has ever broken my compelling command yet, but if anyone could, it would be a man who’d just had his chosen one taken from him.”
    “Of course.” She stepped away and Finlay swayed toward her. Heart shattering, she turned and left.
     
     

Chapter 6
     
    Matheson Castle, Scotland, current day.
     
    Murdock Matheson gripped the stone windowsill of his solar on the second floor overlooking the inner courtyard, a fierce vision assailing him.
    He couldn’t speak to his daughter, but as a seer he saw Isla all the same. She’d compelled Finlay and his brothers and separated the mated pair. His heart ached for Finlay and Arabel and the desperately difficult path they would now tread. Finlay would forever feel incomplete and Murdock knew the feeling well. He’d lost his wife from cancer only a week following Isla’s birth. His wife had discovered a lump in her breast during the early stages of her pregnancy and though the doctor had operated, his wife hadn’t allowed any further treatment than that, not while she was expecting. She’d given up her life so their daughter could have hers, and her fierce love and devotion for their child had humbled him. Ever since that day, he’d done his best to honor his wife’s request of him, to give Isla all the love that she would have given her. And if not for that promise he’d made, he would have gladly taken his own life in order to be with his chosen one. His life was a slow death without his mate, as Finlay’s would now be.
    “Murdock?”
    Nessa’s voice jerked his vision toward her. The wise seer of ancient times stood within the fae village along the loch, right near the center well draped in ivy. She wore an elegant olive gown with lacy white sleeves fluttering over her wrists, her red hair wisped with gray coiled high atop her head.
    “I see you, Nessa.”
    “Did you see as I saw? Isla has compelled Finlay and his brothers. I didnae know Finlay and Arabel were mated until this moment, although I have no’ seen my granddaughter’s death occur at the coming battle as Isla mentioned was recorded in history. Of course I dinnae always see all.”
    “I never saw my wife’s passing either.” And for that he’d been most grateful. It would have been sheer hell to know the day and time he would have lost her. “We won’t let Arabel die. She’s the first with her skill to mate with a shifter and that gives me hope a resolution might be found.”
    “Aye, and the mated bond wouldn’t have formed between Finlay and Arabel unless they were a match in every way. I agree. There is still hope.”
    “Together, we’ll watch over them both.”
    “We shall. I certainly willnae allow my granddaughter to lose her mated one.” A spark of determination flickered in her eyes. “Until the next time, my friend.”
    “Aye, the next time.”
    Nessa’s image fluttered away, lost to him through the ages, but not the knowledge