“You’re serious?”
He nodded. “At least I understand why now.”
“Why what?”
“Why the black deer are so rare.”
“And that is?”
Linus took another breath. “His ancestors were Irish elk, which, as you know, weren’t elk at all.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Quade snapped at him, his irritation clear.
Linus gestured at my mate. “He appears to be a Megaloceros giganteus, Irish elk, as I said, and the non-shifters of their kind died out about eleven thousand years ago.”
“Jesus,” Arman breathed out.
“But, as he’s here, much like the now extinct Egyptian jackals that your line mutated from, Quade, his ancestors became shifters. That’s what allowed his kind to survive from before the commencement of the Holocene epoch to now.”
“Linus,” I interrupted as my mate wrapped both arms around me, “what’s his name?”
The caretaker of L’Ange had never looked at me with the tenderness I was suddenly on the receiving end of. “His name is Keir, and his tribe was Segh, but he’s the last of them.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Linus gave me a slight tip of his head.
“Keir,” I whispered, and the man bumped my head sideways to kiss my neck.
“He’s huge in his animal form,” Quade said as he stood up. “How is that even possible?”
“I think it’s probably thanks to the mutation that allowed him to come so far, and is probably how his line survived as shifters in the frozen tundra.”
Keir stood easily seven feet at the shoulder, and his antlers spanned twelve feet. They had to weigh over a hundred pounds, which was why, even now in his human form, the muscles in his neck and shoulders were so pronounced.
“And where did he come from?” I asked Linus.
“It sounds like his fain was in Siberia, and over time they crossed into Canada. He came alone over the mountains into Maine, and then down onto the preserve.”
“How long did that take?” Arman asked him.
“The entire migration had to have taken thousands of years,” Linus answered, the awe clear in his voice. “But he’s been alone for only ten.”
Keir spoke to Linus then, and asked about me. I knew because Linus answered with my name.
“Tucker,” Keir whispered, inhaling deeply before he answered more questions for Linus.
After a few minutes, he stopped speaking to Linus and turned to me. Taking my hand, he glanced at Linus before his eyes met mine.
“Tucker,” Linus began, “Keir wants me to tell you that he knew you were his when you first spoke to him from the tree, which was what startled him.”
“From what tree?” Quade asked me. “What the hell were you doing in a tree with a broken ankle?”
“It’s a long story,” I replied, chuckling over the absurdity of the whole thing.
“Okay, well, he says that as soon as he caught your scent, he knew you were his mate, his mirmergr, his own, and now his riddari, or knight, as well. You’re his protector, and so he’s put down his bow and sword in deference to you.”
“I’m his mate and his knight?”
“Yes. The deigh, or winter, is protected by his knight. That’s written in our sacred word.”
I glanced at him. “Thank you for explaining.”
His eyes searched mine. “You’re welcome.”
“What are you two speaking?”
“Old Norse,” he answered softly. “And I want to say that I’m sorry he has to meet the princes first. I truly am. All the laws of the glen, like those of the wolves, are tedious, but must be observed if we’re to have order.”
I nodded and turned back to Keir, smiling at him. “It’s okay. I’ve waited a long time for my mate, and by some miracle, here he is. I can be patient a bit longer.”
“Then, both of you, put on your clothes and let’s go make the introductions,” Quade pronounced, striding toward the mouth of the cave. “I want this over and done.”
He wasn’t the only one.
Four
Keir was not at all certain about the château.
We went to my cabin first, because I needed to put on clothes, and as soon as he was inside, he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply through his nose. It smelled like me, which he made clear with several hand gestures, and he was fine there. He dropped his pack, put his walking staff beside the door, and put the heavy furs he refused to leave behind—Linus guessed they came from actual cave bears—in front of the fireplace. He then stood close to me, with his hand around the side of my neck, stroking over the line of my jaw with his thumb. The molten look in his eyes as his gaze raked over me from head to toe, spoke volumes. He wanted me naked on those furs as soon as possible. My mouth went dry as I gazed up into all the inky blue.
Leaving the cabin, we trudged through the snow toward the château, which was hard for me but easy for him. I got stuck, and he turned, swept me off my feet and into his arms, and carried me to an area that had been shoveled. Once he put me down, he stood in front of me, brows lifted.
“You expect a reward?” I teased him, grinning up at the man who had four or five inches on my own six-foot frame.
Gently, tenderly, he cupped my face in his hands, gazing at me like I’d never been looked at before, like I was priceless, again murmuring the word that I’d heard as eel-scan, earlier.
“He’s saying elskan,” Linus explained when we reached the château, spelling the word for me when I asked, “and it means my love.”
“Oh, I like that word,” I husked before Keir bent and kissed me.
It was quick, but thorough and possessive, and he licked his lips when we parted, then said something that flushed Linus a noticeable shade of pink.
“We need to hurry,” he insisted shakily. “Unlike the rest of us, he’s far more animal than human, and his patience has already worn thin. Very, very thin.”
“We’ll go to the ballroom,” Quade told Linus. “Have the princelings and their entourages meet us there.”
Taking Keir’s hand, I followed behind Quade, and we walked together to the enormous ballroom. Once there, Keir stared up at the frescoes on the ceiling, moving around the cavernous area to look at each of them.
I watched him, noting the heavy muscles moving in his back and the way the leather pants clung to his long, sculpted legs and perfect round ass. When he turned to look at me, I felt my face burn hot, like he’d caught me leering at him. Which, of course, he had.
He moved fast, startling Kelvin and Arman with his fluid speed, and was there, in front of me, blocking my vision of anything but him.
“I—” Quick breath as I tried to speak around the yearning that was making me feel like my skin was too tight. “—want to say something.”
I looked down and away, and he cupped my chin and gently lifted my head so my gaze met his.
“I know we’re mates; I can feel that even though we’re not the same kind of animal,” I whispered, my breathing rough, almost labored. “But I want to know you too. I hope we can become friends as well as lovers.”