Highland Shadows (Beautiful Darkness Series Book 1) Read Online Free

taken by wolves. But then again, no one ever went out after dark.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Alex’s eyes flitted over a piece of parchment as he assessed the financial state of the MacKenzie clan with Edmund, who had been charged with keeping the clan’s books for nearly twenty years. Alex pushed off the table with his hands, scattering pages to the ground while he stood and began to pace the room. He had hoped the investment he had made in seed over the past two years would have added more to the coffer, but the crops had barely managed to feed his people. Having a surplus to sell at market had amounted to nothing more than a lost dream.
    “’Tis grim, indeed,” Edmund muttered, his slim shoulders hunched over pages that had escaped Alex’s anger. He entered the last of the tallied rents into the ledger and quietly collected the errant pages. Edmund had always been a man of few words, for which Alex had never been more grateful. He did not need his bookkeeper to expound on just how badly their losses trumped their gains. Suffice it to say, the MacKenzies were still impoverished.
    Alex sighed. Another year would pass without being able to buy fresh horse stock. They would breed the same animals and for another year would be no closer to reclaiming the glory of the MacKenzie name. He slammed his fist down upon the table at the same moment a knock sounded at the door. He looked up and stared at the slatted wood. Doubtless, whoever stood on the other side brought only bad news.
    Squaring his shoulders, he opened the door. Jamie leaned his forearm against the wall and rested his head in the crook of his elbow. His blond hair glinted in the torch light illuminating the long corridor. When he lifted his head, weary blue eyes greeted Alex.
    “Ye look dreadful,” Alex said. A frown downturned Jamie’s wickedly full lips. Alex could not help but roll his eyes. Even when Jamie looked like hell he was still painfully good looking. Alex angled his head, presenting Jamie with his left side.
    “’Tis an insult when ye do that to me, ye know.” Jamie pushed past Alex. “Look me dead on, or I’ll knock ye to the ground.”
    Alex cocked his brow at his smaller friend. “I’d like to see ye try.” Jamie was not a small man, but no one compared to Alex in size with the exception of his younger brother, Murdock, who at nineteen was the biggest MacKenzie in the clan. For a moment, Alex’s mind was occupied with concern for his troubled brother whom he had not seen for a fortnight. Murdock frequently disappeared for weeks or even months at a time without sending word of his whereabouts or wellbeing, which frustrated Alex to no end. But he knew not the word or deed that might heal Murdock’s damaged soul.
    “I will leave ye now,” Edmund interjected quietly. His eyes drooped with either fatigue or worry as he shuffled out the open door without waiting for a reply.
    “He’s as loquacious as ever,” Jamie said dryly before collapsing in the chair behind the table.
    “Any sign of Kendrick?” Alex asked.
    Jamie’s frown returned. “Nay.” He glanced at a piece of parchment the bookkeeper had left behind. “Judging by Edmund’s sour face can I assume our coffers are as bare as ever?”
    “Ye made the rounds with me. Ye ken the state of our clan,” Alex said impatiently. “What of Kendrick?”
    Shoving aside the paper, Jamie rested his elbows on the table and dropped his head in his hands. “We’ve found no trace of him,” he said, his voice muffled. “We’ve searched everywhere.”
    Alex suddenly felt tired. His arms hung slack at his sides.
    “’Tis hopeless,” Jamie said.
    “Nay,” Alex snapped. He shook the despair from his thoughts and started to pace the room. “Tomorrow, ye’ll lead another search.”
    “There’s no place left to look, unless ye wish us to enter the forest.”
    Alex whirled around. “Never. Ye’d be as dead as Kendrick.”
    Both Jamie and he locked eyes. He had uttered words he could not take