The Spirit Walker (BOOK ONE): The Ripple

Chapter Forty-Four: The Skin-Walker

Ness locates a Cameron servant, who quietly ushers us the back way through the castle. The walls thrum with the distant sound of heavy, primal music- the same sort that had taken over the toward the end of the first night in Clan Maclean, when Calum and I had...

I grit my teeth and force my mind away from the memories of writhing against him in time to the drum beats.

We climb a set of stairs off a small breakfast room- one I recognize must only be utilized by the family of the Laird- a soft carpet runner absorbing our footfalls. The servant gestures for us to go down a hallway I vaguely recognize- though I have not been down this side of it quite yet. My suite is closer to the grand staircase, which I assume is somewhere around the corner.

The sound of voices, however, stop me in my tracks.

Euna. And Calum.

I glance over my shoulder, but Ness is nowhere to be found.

"Ness?" I whisper. When she does not materialize, I frown. "Ness!" I hiss, and wait. But nothing. She has vanished.

Gritting my teeth, I creep forward, cursing myself for sneaking and hiding when I am Calum's mate. I shouldn't feel the need to act like a jealous stalker. I should stride down the hallway, chin up, back straight. But I do not.

Instead, I take off my heels and slip forward on bare, silent soles, and peek around the corner.

They are standing close. Too close. Euna's hand is on Calum's bicep, no more than three inches separating them. Her head is tilted up, her full lips parted, and the way Calum is looking at her is too familiar for comfort.

"Let me help you," I hear Euna murmur, taking a step closer to him, nearly eliminating the space between their bodies.

"Euna-"

"It hurts me to see you like this, Calum. You're in pain. Let me give you relief, even if it's only for a moment."

"It's not right, Euna. Raelyn-"

"Is not mated to you yet. And she cannot take care of you, right now. I can."

Euna undoes a tie at her waist, and her dress falls to the ground around her bare feet in a pool of shimmering ivory silk. Even from my place hidden around the corner, I can hear the harsh breath Calum sucks in. Of course he's affected. Euna is perfect.

Her breasts are full, round, and beautifully formed, her belly taught and smooth- like the inside of a halved pear. Her waist is impossibly tiny, her hips full and bell shaped, her legs toned and lean. She looks like a Victoria's Secret model mixed with a porn star.

The woman is my worst nightmare.

She takes advantage of Calum's distraction to slip her hand inside his waistband and pull him- fully hard- out of his kilt.

I see red.

Euna makes a low noise at the back of her throat as she looks down at it. "You're raw," she hisses, honeyed voice full of concern. "You poor thing. It must be taking everything out of you to keep control."

Tears prick my eyes.

Calum seems to recover. He pushes Euna's hands off of him and tucks himself back into his kilt. Euna sinks to her knees and stares up at him through her thick, dark lashes, her plump lips slightly parted.

"Let me take care of you, Calum. Using my mouth isn't any more of a betrayal to her than using your hand. And my mouth is much warmer, and softer..."

She plants a kiss on Calum's belly, right over the line of his kilt, with a familiarity that lets me know Calum hadn't been totally honest with me about his relationship with her.