Free Kahleena MacCarthy ~ To Meet a Highlander by Zarik

the blood and dirt. And ye shouldn’t poke at her. Ye’ll be marrying her.” Drostan slapped Zarik on the back. “What do ye ken? The auld Druid wasn't addled after all.”
                  “She’s no my savior from the future. Clearly the Fraser’s are meddling where they shouldnae be. Let’s clean up at the loch over there and I’ll send a few men to take her back to them.”
                  “Take me back? You can get me back through the stones?” He’d made it sound so easy. Tsarina was going to get to go home. But, then she’d fail what the old woman needed her to do. Would that mean it would be her fault if something in the future was messed up? “Wait. You know about me?” Tsarina cast her gaze pointedly at Drostan.
                  “We’ve only heard praise of ye coming to save Zarik from himself for years. The auld Druid, Argus, and Zarik’s father, Niall, drive us all into our cups about stories of how we must accept ye, protect ye and that Zarik must love ye.” Drostan saw her questioning glance. “Aye, lass, ye’ll be protected. Each of us would give our life. If ye’re here to save Zarik and make him bearable, that alone is well worth dying for.” He hit Zarik in the arm.
                  “Must love me? I’d not have anyone forced on me. I didn’t think I was so terrible.” Damn these men. Maybe she should just try to go home. First Galen seemed apprehensive, now them. Maybe it was simply Scottish men. No taste in women.
                  “We cannae take ye through the stones. I don’t believe it’s even how ye got here. Magic.” Zarik made a distasteful face when he said the word. “I’ll have several of my men escort ye back to Fraser land.”
                  “But, I don’t know them.”
                  “Did ye not say ye were Fraser?”
                  “Yes, but I’m a Fraser from the year 2013. See my clothes? Could I even purchase them here? Or my backpack?” Tsarina held up her pink backpack as her evidence.
                  The three Highlanders eyed one another and eyed her, noticing that more of their clan warriors were beginning to surround them, wiping battle from their blades and faces.
                  Torradan grabbed the backpack from her and shook his head. “The lass is correct. She’d not be able to purchase any of the items here. What’s in the backpack?” The word sounded strange on his tongue.
                  “My things. I was on vacation, doing research in Scotland. And here I am now.”
                  “This is not happening.” Zarik was looking rather unhappy, which Torradan and Drostan took as more than amusing.
                  “She came for ye.” Torradan was still amused. “The auld man was right. But tell me, Tsarina, did they warn ye of what ye were going to get? I mean, look at him.”
                  Zarik elbowed his brother. Hard. “She’s no here for me.”
                  “Well, you can’t take me to the Fraser’s. They really won’t know me. Please. Just take me back with you until you can figure out how to get me back.”
                  “Fine. Let’s take her. And Tor, hang on to that backpack.” Zarik shot her a glare that dared her to argue about it. No matter her story, truth or not, honor would not allow him to leave a lass unprotected. “I’m in a hurry to get home and the sun is leaving us.” Zarik called everyone together and decided to skip cleaning up. It was better to just get back to the keep and jump into the loch after they got there.
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                  Tsarina glanced at the landscape the entire way back to their keep, which she thought was more like a castle. It was beautiful. So much destruction and modernizing had been done to the Scotland she visited in 2013. It was a shame. This Scotland