Highlander's Kiss (Clan Matheson #1)

Highlander's Kiss (Clan Matheson #1)

Joanne Wadsworth




Acknowledgements


I have an incredibly supportive family who allow me so much time to write. Huge thanks go to my hubby, Jason, and kiddies, Marisa, Caleb, Cruise and Rocco. Hugs.

For my readers, I can’t thank you enough for joining me, and taking this journey to where imagination and magic soar.





Gilleoin – The Legend


In the twelfth century, a man named Gilleoin became the first and only known man to hold bear shifter blood, an ability gifted to him by The Most High One. His clan was called Matheson, and when he mated with a woman carrying faerie blood, they created a line shrouded in secrecy, a line that far into the future, now neared extinction…





Cherub – The Fae Angel of Love


The ancient House of Clan Matheson, led by Gilleoin, the Chief of Matheson, Scotland, 1210.



Cherub dashed out from under the high arch over the front door of the castle and into the inner courtyard. She twirled around, her gown of white silk billowing in the wind whipping around her, the golden ribbons at her waist rippling and tangling around her hands. Arms raised, she reached out with her fae senses and allowed the very wind itself to bring to her the secrets it held, as she’d done for over a thousand years.

As an immortal time-walker and the faerie king’s daughter, her duty was to aid those of fae blood who walked this Earth and she did so by ensuring the newly soul bound were brought together across the centuries and no longer separated by time.

Kirk, her warrior soul bound mate, swept in behind her, his chest a delicious wall of heat at her back. Gently, he caught her hands, whirled her around to face him then dipped his head to hers. His beautiful golden shifter gaze devoured her. “My elusive imp, it appears you sense lost souls this night.”

“I do, far into the future, within your own shifter clan.”

“Who exactly?” His excitement thrummed along their merged mind link to her.

“Tavish and Tor, your second cousins, although ’tis Tavish’s need that strikes me the strongest.” Tavish and Tor, brothers and identical twins, had recently sensed their mates on the last full moon, and now, once she brought them here into the same time as their chosen ones, their senses would rear even stronger. Their desire to find the other half of their soul would consume them.

“Tavish is committed to his kin and being on call as our clan doctor. His patients come first, Cherub.”

“Aye, but he will stop at nothing to find his mate, to ensure he makes her his.” She closed her eyes and searched for the lass Tavish’s soul was bound to. There, the intricate golden thread that belonged to Tavish swirled toward Julia’s soul, her dear friend and one of her fae kind right here in this time. Bringing Tavish and his chosen one together across this wide chasm that separated them would require a little of her mischievous fae intervention, but ’twas naught she wasn’t up for. Aye, a mated male longed for the chase and part of his journey in finding his chosen one was in the hunt, one she’d ensure Tavish was given.

On her toes, she reached up and kissed her mate’s stubbly chin. She and Kirk had completed the bond such a short time ago, but she couldn’t imagine her life without him. The moment they’d joined together as one, she’d taken a piece of his soul into her keeping and from that moment on, he too had become an immortal as she was. Her mate would stand by her side, for now and for all time. The exquisiteness of all she’d been gifted made her giddy with need.

Cloaking them both and ensuring none could see them, she rubbed the entire length of her body against his, her heart and soul singing at the luscious contact. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“I could ask the same question. What did I do to deserve you? I was certainly granted my ultimate wish the day I found you.” He seized her mouth with his, his desire hot and hard and so very needy, the very same as hers pulsed. “To the skies, my elusive imp. I wish to show you just how very much I love you.”

With a swish of her fingers, she swept them upward toward the heavens and gave herself over to the depth of the bond they shared and the fierce love they held for each other.

Tomorrow, she’d ensure Tavish and Julia met. Tavish’s coming hunt would be one of the most intriguing she ever set in motion and she grinned wickedly at the thought. What a journey they would have ahead of them. Of that she had no doubt.





Chapter 1


Near the ancient House of Clan Matheson, Scotland, 1210, the following day.