Milly walked out of the castle hand-in-hand with Iain and in a complete daze. Her boss, Iain, was a werewolf who’d grown up in an entire village of werewolves. Her best friend was a werewolf. And now, so was she. Because of her new werewolf status, she no longer had cancer. Furthermore, pretty much every werewolf she’d encountered believed she was pregnant.

Pregnant! Her hand found her stomach. A baby was something she’d never dared to hope for. A miracle so far out of reach for a young woman with her medical history, she might as well have wished to grow a set of wings. But now here she was. A werewolf, healthy and strong enough to carry life within her womb. So yeah…lots to process.

And that was before she saw the crowd gathered on the other side of the bridge. No longer the original twenty or thirty who’d shown up in Iain’s backyard. Now the crowd appeared to consist of the entire village of Faoltiarn.

They’d been talking amongst themselves, but all conversation instantly ceased as soon as Milly and Iain appeared on the other side of the bridge. And once more Milly was subjected to that strange stare down. Not menacing, but so direct Milly could feel their eyes on her skin.

Both Iain and Tara cursed softly. “What do you want to do?” Tara asked him over Milly’s head.

“Flank her and follow my lead.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Milly asked as the two much taller werewolves closed in on either side of her, and started forward across the bridge.

“Fucking Scotland, that’s what going on. Backward-ass country. I knew I should have thought twice before relocating here.”

Not really an answer, but Milly discovered the reason behind their protective stance soon enough.

The moment they stepped foot off the opposite side of the bridge, it started. First one hand, fingers brushing across her skin. Then several more. Someone cried out in Gaelic. And then the touches became a near flurry of fingers, the heavy silence erupting into a frenzy of shouts.

“Banrigh! Banrigh! Banrigh!” the villagers called out as they touched her skin, her hair, her clothes—anything they could reach.

Throughout it all, Iain said nothing, just grimly plowed through the crowd. And even Tara went uncharacteristically silent as she used her body to block as many of the hands as possible.

There was no talk about which car to take when they broke through on the other side of the crowd. They ran as one up the emerald green hill and jumped into Iain’s black Jag, which had been brought to what looked like a screeching halt on the dirt lane just beyond the bridge.

The crowd followed them, however. And by the time Iain had popped the clutch and pushed to start, the villagers were at the window of the back seat Tara had shoved Milly into, banging on the tempered glass. Still shouting that strange word.

“Hold on to her!” Iain yelled at Tara. He jerked the gearshift to the left and slammed it forward. The car reversed so fast, Milly would have fallen into the seat in front of her, if not for Tara’s strong grip.

Iain shifted again, one hand whipping the wheel as he did a dramatic 180, reversing the car’s direction as they sped away back toward the main road out of town.

“What the hell was that?” Milly demanded, looking back over her shoulder at the crowd still standing on the road. They were waving at the retreating car. Like a celebrity had just left their midst.

“The creepiest shit I’ve ever seen,” Tara answered, voice frank.

Iain glared at her best friend through the rearview mirror. “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”

“I didn’t bring her here, idiot,” Tara shot back. “I accompanied her because I didn’t know how to stop her without breaking several international Lupine laws. I mean, do you know how much easier my life would have been all these years if I could have just straight up told her what I was like you did?”

Iain sliced a grim look at Tara through the rearview. “Does it look to you as if telling her the truth has made my life any easier?”

“Normally, I’d say no,” Tara answered truthfully. “But getting banished from that asshole’s pack sort of seems like a win-win to me.”

“I’m only banished for a little bit. This is Scotland, not Canada mind you.”

“Yeah, that sucks,” Tara conceded with a quiet shake of her head. “Sorry you’re from such a backward-ass country.”

“Okay, I am sick of not understanding anything that’s going on!” Milly shouted. “Will you two just tell me? Now? Before I completely lose it?”