“No, he’s with Declan doing something.”

“If you need anything, I’m three doors down on the left. Bree and I keep a room here.”

“The bathroom has toiletries. If you need anything else, just ask.” Shay surprised Tavis by wrapping her arms around him and hugging him hard. Her arms were as strong as a man’s. No woman in his time would have done such a thing unless she was family. He supposed she was.

“Thank you.”

Shay stepped away. “I’m going to find Cody. We’re still trying to decide what to do about this wedding. And Matilda. She’s driving both of us crazy. Night everyone.”

Bree stepped up to Tavis and also wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. “Welcome home again, Tavis. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re here. I only wish your entire family were here.”

So did he.

She leaned back and put both hands on his cheeks, which pressed her stomach closer to his. It was still flat, but he thought about the child growing inside, and the child he’d lost. Bree’s eyes closed, and her hands traveled down his neck to his chest. Her forehead wrinkled, and she shook her head. He glanced up at Faelan, alarmed.

Faelan frowned and moved closer but didn’t speak, so Tavis didn’t speak either. Bree’s eyes flew open, and she gasped.

“Bree?” Faelan touched her shoulder.

Bree stepped away from Tavis, but still watched him. “I’m sorry. I just get these weird…feelings.”

“Did you just read his damned battle marks?” Faelan asked.

Bree gave a guilty start. “What?”

“You heard me. Did you?”

“Maybe.”

“You read my battle marks,” Tavis said, fascinated, and more than a little alarmed.

“I might have.”

“Well,” Faelan said, after Bree didn’t speak.

“Uh…I’ll tell you later. I’m getting tired.”

Faelan gave her a disbelieving look. “I thought you didn’t want to rest.”

“I changed my mind.”

“What is she again?” Tavis asked.

“Sometimes she’s a bloody nuisance,” Faelan said, but love poured from his eyes.

“I’m your sister-in-law,” Bree said. “Your family. That’s all that matters now.”

There was a scratching at the door, and Faelan walked to the double doors leading to the balcony. “How’d you get out there?”

A large white cat walked into the room. It looked at Tavis with green eyes that were oddly like Bree’s and Shay’s.

“Matilda’s been looking everywhere for you,” Bree said to the cat as if it could hear her. Was his brother’s wife a little barmy?

The cat walked over and jumped up on the foot of the bed.

Faelan watched it, his brows pulled together like he did when he was unsure about something. “Guess you’ve got the cat tonight.”

“Strange-looking cat.”

“You’re telling me,” Faelan said.

“He’s special,” Bree said.

“She thinks he can understand us.”

Bree shrugged.

“I feel like it’s reading my mind,” Faelan said. “We can’t seem to get rid of it. It’s adopted us. Matilda thinks it wards off vampires. And she swears it saved the President.”

“You jest?”

“I wish,” Faelan said, looking suspiciously at the cat. “But there was a strange incident…never mind about that now. You need rest. And quiet. I know you have a lot on your mind.”

“Thank you, brother. And Bree. I’m glad to be here.”

He and Faelan shared a long look. Each of them knew how much he’d sacrificed. Then Bree and Faelan walked to the door. “Oh, and Anna’s in the next room if you need anything,” Bree said.

“Are you bloody matchmaking?” Faelan asked as the door closed.

“Me?” was Bree’s muffled reply.

“I think Ronan’s right about you.”

Tavis looked at the wall that joined his and Anna’s room. Far different than the bars of a cell. He had no wish to go back, unless it was to kill Voltar and Tristol, but he missed the closeness he and Anna had shared. She was barely speaking to him now. He started to pull off his clothes and remembered the cat. It wasn’t watching him. It had turned its back as if giving him privacy. Damned odd cat. Tavis went to the fancy bathroom and undressed, and then used the shower—a marvel of an invention—before crawling into bed. The cat was still there, paying no attention to him.

He climbed into bed naked. The underthings—underwear—Faelan called them, were too confining. The cat had again turned its back. The sheets felt cool against Tavis’s skin, but his mind was spinning. Not just the drink. With the quiet, the revelation set in. He had a son. A little boy. Had Ian told him that Tavis was his father? Or had Ian let him believe he was his father? If Ian died three years after Tavis went into the time vault, the boy would have been young. Perhaps too young to be told his father was in a time vault and his mother dead. Poor Marna. She’d loved him, he believed, and though he couldn’t honestly say he had returned that love, fondness yes, it made him sad to think of her sweet eyes, her quietly pleasant face.

Tavis’s eyes stung with grief and regret, and his head throbbed with too much drink. The cat watched him from the bottom of the bed, but strangely enough, he wasn’t bothered by its presence. Instead, it was comforting, and he fell asleep dreaming of Anna. The dream had turned decidedly erotic when a noise pulled him from sleep. He opened his eyes and saw a creature above him, leaning over his bed. He threw back the covers and grabbed the dagger underneath his pillow as he leapt from the bed. With an ungodly screech, the creature ran for the door. Tavis followed, hurrying after the intruder, who was running for the door. He followed the howls and raced down the hallway, heedless of his nakedness. One door slammed as others opened, and faces peered out at him. Faelan and Bree, Shay, Cody, Ronan, Nina, Duncan, Sorcha—had she come from Duncan’s room?—and, oh God. Anna.

“There’s something in my room,” he said, and then realized everyone was staring at his groin, so he dropped his hands to cover those parts.

“Well now,” Sorcha said, smiling.

Duncan stepped in front of her to obscure her view.

“Who was it?” Faelan asked. “Did you get a look?”

“I couldn’t see well. It was leaning over my bed.”

“Search the castle,” Duncan said.

A loud screech sounded from one of the nearby rooms, followed by a crash.

Nina clasped a hand to her mouth. “That’s Matilda’s room.”

“Stay back,” Faelan said when Bree followed on his heels. Faelan opened the door, and they stared at the awful sight. The red-haired woman, the barmy one, not Sorcha, stood near the door, red hair sticking up and her eyes wide, black smeared underneath like a raccoon’s, and she held the cat in her arms. Held, as in restrained. It was obvious from the extended claws and puffed fur that the cat was trying to get away.

“Did someone come in here?” Faelan asked.

Matilda shook her head and held on to the cat.

“Wait,” Faelan said. “How did you get the cat? It was in Tavis’s room.”

Nina pushed through the others and faced Matilda. “Matilda, did you go to Tavis’s room to get the cat?”

“I needed it,” Matilda said. “I couldn’t sleep. I had dreams.”

“Matilda!” Nina gave her an exasperated look. “That cat can’t protect you against vampires. There aren’t any vampires in here anyway.”

“You don’t know that,” Matilda said. “No one knew the one was in the castle in Scotland either. They might have followed us here.”

“We have guards,” Shay said.

Matilda caught sight of Tavis, still standing naked, with only his hands covering his front. Her eyes widened. “Oh my.”

Tavis starting backing up toward his room and bumped into someone. He turned. It was Anna. Her beautiful eyes ran up and down his body. “Sorry.” He backed away toward his door and opened it, hurrying inside. He shut the door and grimaced. Darn near everyone in the castle had seen his cock now. The door opened behind him. Anna stepped inside. Said cock surged, and his heart pounded. Had seeing his body made her decide to treat him more kindly? He knew that she was attracted to him in the dungeon.

“You’re in my room,” Anna said.

“What?”

“My room. You’re in it.”

Tavis looked at the scattered covers on the bed and saw that in fact he was in the wrong room. “Damn. I thought this was my room.”

Anna flicked a glance over him again. “You can wait a moment until the crowd thins. I think they’re ripping Matilda a new one. That woman needs a babysitter.”

That would explain the raised voice in the hallway. Nina sounded furious. “I swear I thought she was a demon when I saw her over my bed. And the screeching. I guess that was the cat.”

“She’s obsessed with the cat.” Anna glanced down again and grabbed a small blanket from her bed. “Here, cover up.”

Tavis took the blanket and arranged it around him, and then looked awkwardly around the room.

“You can sit if you’d like.” Anna walked to her balcony and looked out.

“I think I’d rather go out in the hallway naked and be scorned.”

She turned back to him. “Why?”

“It’s a sight better than being ignored.”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

“Yes you are.”

“Well, maybe I am. I’m not good with situations like this.”

“Being cordial? Mere hospitality?”

She scowled. “You know what I mean. We…we…you know.”

“Aye, I do.” And he’d been thinking about it far too much. “I’m ashamed that I’ve added to your pain, after what happened to your mother and to you.”

“You know about that?”

“Ronan told me. He was concerned about you. Can’t we start over? Pretend we’ve just met and that I didn’t do what I did?”