Free Moon Burning by Lucy Monroe Page B

believe it is time we took our leave.”
    No doubt the other wolf could smell Barr’s increasing level of arousal just like she could. How embarrassing. She’d never been in such a situation before. Other males had wanted her, but not with the level of desire clouding the air around them so thickly she was surprised they could not see it. But the worst part was not how his wolf was reacting to her. It was how she was responding to him.
    Her arousal drifted in the air around them as well, defying even the sick feeling she had about Brigit’s mother’s apparent predicament.
    Earc’s lips twitched and Sabrine knew he could scent her arousal as well as his laird’s. She glared at him.
    Barr’s second gave her a startled look.
    “You need not rush off,” she insisted.
    “Oh, I think there is every need.”
    Circin seemed vaguely embarrassed while his sister gave Sabrine a commiserating look. “If we do not return Brigit to her mother soon, Sorcha will worry.”
    Knowing when defeat loomed, Sabrine inclined her head in acknowledgment. “Then you must go.”
    “There is no need to sound like they are leaving you to a horrific fate. My care may not have the skill of the healer, but you will be safe from others this night.”
    She noted he did not promise she would be safe from him. The man might be a scoundrel, planning things she had never done but could guess at all too easily. However, he was no liar.
    Sabrine turned her attention to the child. “All will be well. You must trust in this.”
    “I will try.”
    Sabrine nodded and reached for the child with an instinct that superseded even her Chrechte nature. Brigit accepted a tight hug, returning it fiercely before climbing off the bed to join Verica, Earc and Circin at the door.
    They left with quiet assurances of Sorcha’s welfare this night and last-minute instructions from Verica to Barr regarding Sabrine’s care.
    Sabrine knew the other woman had tried, but she doubted those final words would protect her from Barr’s passion. Not when hers simmered right at the surface, waiting to boil over and join his.
     
     
    B arr had never been so sorely tempted by a woman before.
    While he had not always agreed with Talorc’s strict stance on physical mating, neither did he see it as something to be indulged in for the sake of nothing more than a few hours of temporary pleasure. Joining his body with another carried the weight of possibly true bonding, and that was not a risk to be dismissed lightly. He had been more than lucky his first foray into sexual intimacy had not led to the tie forming; bad enough it had cost him two dear friends.
    His fellow warrior’s possessiveness of his true bond mate had made continued friendship impossible between him and Barr once he learned she had surrendered her virginity to the other man. As for the woman, neither she nor Barr had been comfortable in one another’s presence again after the debacle of that one coupling.
    Once a Chrechte developed a sacred or true bond with his mate, he would become incapable of performing sexually with anyone else while his mate lived. Barr didn’t understand it any better than he did the miracle of his animal form and nature. He knew the truth of it, however, and had been sexually circumspect because of it.
    Only a fool would not realize the strong reaction he had to Sabrine could well lead to a sacred mate bond. And Barr was far from being a fool. His wolf was drawn to the mysterious raven-haired woman in a way it had never been to another person.
    In the usual way of things, he would take time to get to know the woman his wolf was so intent upon having. He would carefully consider whether she would make a suitable mate before acting on his baser urges. But this was no ordinary reaction.
    His wolf was demanding instant action and his body’s cravings were making that demand near impossible to ignore.
    The wolf howled for release, Barr’s libido ached with need and his mind fought them both.