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

back. Kendrick’s dead .
    Alex shifted his gaze to the ground. “How’s Aggie?”
    “Out of her mind with grief, but I did as ye bid and tried to comfort her, though it should have been ye.”
    Alex shook his head. “I’ve always made her uncomfortable.”
    Jamie snorted. “That’s a blatant exaggeration,”
    “On the contrary, it was an understatement. In truth, I frighten her.”
    “I don’t care. Ye’re her laird,” Jamie snapped.
    “I’m not her laird.” Alex crossed to the window. He pulled the hide back and gazed at the moon peeking through wisps of cloud. “Not yet anyway.” He dropped the hide in place and returned to the table. Flattening his large hands on the surface, he leaned toward Jamie. “More than a decade has passed since the wolves descended. A decade of scarcity and death with no relief in sight. Even if we could fight those beasts, we’ve naught the money to arm our men or food to feed their strength. How am I to change our fortune?”
    Jamie stared him hard in the eye. “Are ye looking to be placated, or do ye seek an honest answer?”
    Alex scowled at his friend, but kept his silence, despite knowing what Jamie would say.
    “Ye should marry. The MacKenzie name is good and your lands vast. Despite our barren coffers, ye could still find a rich wife and change everyone’s fortune.”
    Familiar fury coursed through Alex’s veins. He gritted his teeth and stared at his friend. His eyes swept from Jamie’s rakishly mussed blond hair to his sun-kissed skin to his features that were so fine—almost too fine. Jamie was beautiful. Maids became tongue-tied around him. Feminine eyes followed him everywhere he went. How could a man like Jamie understand his dilemma?
    Alex turned away.
    “Enough,” Jamie barked.
    “Excuse me.” Alex spun back around, glowering at his friend’s audacity. “Are ye actually saying ‘enough’ to me when I’m the one who’s had to listen to that same impossible suggestion every day for the past three years.”
    “Aye,” Jamie yelled. “And ye can be damn sure that I’ll say it again until ye take a blasted wife.”
    Alex’s eyes widened at Jamie’s loss of temper, a rare occurrence even when provoked.
    Jamie folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve had my fill of your self-pity. I say this not just as your closest friend and adviser but as a MacKenzie. Your clan needs ye. May the Lord look with mercy upon your father, but ye and I both know his days are numbered. Ye’ll be chieftain soon and this clan, with all of its heartache, falls to ye. Ye, Alex. Do ye ken? Ye must take a wife, one with fortune. I don’t care what your face looks like.”
    Alex reached out and grabbed hold of Jamie, dragging him out of the chair and onto the table. “Maids do not marry monsters,” Alex growled, then set Jamie on his feet and turned away.
    He reached up and grazed his jagged skin. Fate had cast him into a hell for which he had no escape.
    “Ye’re no monster,” Jamie snapped.
    “Keep your flattery. I’ve heard it all before. I’m a good man. I ken.”
    “Ye’re a blind man.”
    Alex was about to reply that the same could be said of Jamie, when scampering outside the door drew both men’s attention. Margaret, the upstairs maid, flung the door wide.
    “Forgive me for not knocking, my lord. ‘Tis your father. I’m afraid his time has come.”
    Alex’s heart sank. He turned to Jamie. “Find Murdock.”
    “Ye know that won’t be easy.”
    “I don’t care. Just do it,” Alex shot back, already out the door.
    He hastened down the hallway. The door to his father’s room was slightly ajar. Easing inside, he treaded softly to Callum MacKenzie’s bedside and leaned over, pressing a kiss to his brow.
    With his emaciated frame swaddled in blankets, his father looked more like a child slipping away than a man about to meet his maker. Alex held his frail hand. At fifty-two, Callum was not an old man, but his broken soul had invited the sickness