“Are you sure?” Tristan asked, giving her arm a comforting rub as he pulled her closer.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she lied, knowing that, by the end of the night, she might very well be anything but fine once she found out what they had planned for them.
“Yer father was the king of our area,” Liam said, taking over the conversation and making it very difficult for her to focus.
King?
Seriously?
“He doted on ye when ye were young, which was probably why he indulged ye when ye asked to have Tadgh’s life spared,” Liam explained as he leaned back in his chair and to the side, striking what a lot of women would probably consider a very sexy pose with his perfect muscles bulging in just the right way, but it didn’t do a damn thing for her.
“The two of ye were about the same age when Tadgh went to yer father’s camp. Ye were already promised to another, which was probably why yer father turned a blind eye to the two of ye sneaking off to play together. He didn’t think that he had to worry about Tadgh doing anything foolish.”
“It also probably didn’t hurt that he knew that Shayne here,” Quinn said, gesturing with a nod towards Shayne, “never allowed our little brother out of his sight.”
“Ye had no playmates of yer own, so yer father didn’t see the harm in allowing ye to play with what would one day be one of yer personal guards,” Aidan explained.
“He probably thought that it would create loyalty for ye from Tadgh,” Fergus pointed out before adding, “I doubt the man ever thought that he’d ever have to worry about the two of ye falling in love.”
“I don’t think any of us expected that,” Finn said softly.
She sneaked a peek up at Tristan to find him watching the men in the room and had to wonder if it had been love at first sight then, too. It probably had been, she realized as she looked away. She’d probably taken one look at him and fallen head over heels in love with him even as he’d pissed her off, she thought with a sad smile. She didn’t have to ask to know that this love story probably didn’t have a happy ending.
“What happened next?” she asked when no one made a move to continue telling the story.
After a slight pause, Liam continued where Finn had left off. “When Tadgh wasn’t training, which wasn’t often, he was sneaking off to see ye. At first yer father thought nothing of it, but as the two of ye got older he liked it less and less and made sure that Tadgh knew his place.”
“Whenever Tadgh disobeyed yer father he was punished,” Quinn said.
“Which was often,” Shayne added quietly.
“I don’t think that any of us were really too surprised when we found out that the two of ye had married in secret,” Liam said with a fond smile and a chuckle that was shared by the rest of the men.
“He was a sneaky little bastard,” Shayne said, laughing along with his brothers. “Hid it from us for two whole years before I caught the two of them.”
“We knew that he would have never let her marry that prick,” Fergus said, grinning.
“Nah, we’d have killed the bastard before he touched her,” Finn said with a firm nod that was quickly backed up by several “Ayes” and nods of agreement.
“What happened then?” Tristan asked, making her wonder if she was the only one that noticed his words sounded rushed.
“Once her father found out, he was not a happy man, but it was her choice. Back then we didn’t force arranged marriages and in theory she was free to pick her husband,” Fergus explained even as she waited for the “But”.
“However, her father didn’t see it that way and neither did her betrothed,” Finn explained before Liam once again took over.
“With our help, Tadgh was able to take ye onto the safety of our lands and protect ye until we could figure out a way to get ye off our lands and move ye out of his territory. We thought we had enough time, but then we found out that ye were carrying a babe right around the time that we discovered that there was a bounty on Tadgh’s head.”
“It took some time, but we managed to get ye both out and we were taking ye up north when they caught up to us,” Liam said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“We would have made it, but that’s when the babe decided that it was time to make an appearance,” Shayne said with a shrug.
“Then what happened?” she asked, already having a good idea.
For a moment, no one answered and just when she was about to beg, Finn spoke. “The details aren’t important, lass. What’s important is that all of our fates were sealed that night with a curse.”
“What was this curse?” Tristan asked.
“When he caught up to us,” Liam said instead of answering Tristan, “ye claimed that Macha was yer soulmate, yer one true love, lad. He mocked ye even as he cursed ye…….as he cursed all of us.”
“He bound us to the earth to live a life of pure hell,” Fergus bit out angrily. “We’re stuck in a game that we can never win.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Tristan asked, sounding just as pissed, which usually didn’t take much, but she had a feeling that he was in a lot more pain than she’d thought.
“We’re stuck in this f**ked up existence until we can figure out a way to beat the bastard!” Fergus snapped, his anger becoming more and more obvious with each word until he was practically shouting.
“Calm yerself!” Shayne yelled.
“Fuck that!” Fergus snapped back. “They need to know what’s going on and what’s waiting for them!”
“Not like this,” Finn said evenly.
“Ye came to kill him, didn’t ye?” Fergus said, sounding bitter as her worst fears were confirmed. “The polite bullshit never worked before so let’s just put it all out there so that he knows exactly why we’re about to f**k him over!”
“Oh, and why’s that?” Tristan asked, sounding calm while she was doing her best not to panic.
“Shut the f**k up!” Quinn shouted, moving towards Fergus who looked more than willing to meet him head on.
“Yer scaring her, ye dumb bastard!” Shayne yelled, moving to join them.
“She should be scared!” Fergus shouted, shoving Quinn back. “She’s about to get her heart broken again and there’s not a f**king thing we can do about it!”
“It didn’t have to be like this!” Finn yelled, getting in Fergus’ face and shoving him against the wall.