Without saying a word, eibhear walked up behind them and stood. They were tall, but he was taller and he only had to go slightly up on his toes to see what they were looking at.

One look at the lake beneath had eibhear dropping back on his heels and shaking his head in disgust. Disgust! These bastards!

"You know," he barked at them, enjoying the way they all jumped a bit, "that's my brother's daughter you're eyeing, you disgusting bastards."

Uther frowned. "I thought she was your cousin."

"Oh, oh." Caswyn punched Uther in the shoulder, his gaze still locked over the ridge. "There she goes again."

All three refocused on the lake and eibhear felt his lip curl, fangs starting to ease out of his gums. How dare they! She was his brother's . . .

Brannie flew up past the ridge they all stood on, black wings extended from her back, black scales shining in the early-morning suns, and his comrades watching every move she made.

"Look at that tail," Uther sighed.

"I think it's a little short," Aidan complained.

"You're all watching Brannie?" eibhear asked. "Really?"

They didn't bother answering him since they were still busy staring at her, but he didn't really see what they seemed to see. She was just . . . Brannie.

His cousin flipped over and dived back toward the lake. eibhear heard Izzy squeal and he looked over the edge to see her trying to swim back to shore.

Brannie landed in the lake hard, the water exploding out and sending Izzy racing to land. eibhear was convinced she'd drown or worse, but by the time she rolled naked across the ground, the water retreating, she was laughing hysterically.

"You mad cow!" she yelled around her laughter.

Brannie was laughing, too, while floating on her back in the still-sloshing water.

Izzy managed to sit up. She seemed completely comfortable naked, and he understood why. She was perfect. Long body, powerful legs, strong shoulders, and scars across her back, torso, chest, and even her inside thighs. Yet she still moved with grace and strength, getting to her feet easily and stretching her entire body, her arms high over her head, muscles rippling.

"Should you be staring at your niece like that, Uncle eibhear?" Aidan asked him while Uther and Caswyn continued to lustfully gawk at an unsuspecting Brannie.

"Piss off," eibhear growled, moving around the bastard he sometimes called friend.

"Gods, look at the breast scales on her," Uther muttered about Brannie.

Still disgusted and pissed off in general, eibhear rammed the big oaf's head into the tree he stood next to before heading back to camp. "We're moving out in ten minutes."

Izzy was trying to reach the clothes that Brannie had annoyingly put on a high branch.

"You are such a bitch!" she yelled at her laughing cousin, who was back in her human form, dressed, and running back to camp.

Izzy jumped again, hoping to reach her damn leggings without being forced to climb the damn tree. The vision of her splayed naked across that branch did nothing but make her feel uneasy.

Her fingers nearly touched the leggings, but she just missed them, growling when her feet again landed on the ground.

She was eyeing the tree, trying to figure out the best way up, when an incredibly large arm reached around her and grabbed her clothes. Her first instinct was to cover herself with her arms, or at the very least cover her tits. As her mother had always warned her, she'd been a late bloomer. Now she usually kept her chest bound around her troops. But she didn't want to give eibhear the satisfaction of seeing her embarrassed. So she planted her hands on her hips and smiled up at him.

"I think," he said, "that you need to remember you and Brannie aren't alone on this trip."

"Why do you think she put my clothes in the tree? She knows your dirty friends were watching." Izzy took the clothes from him. "Thanks."

"Perhaps you two have spent too much time together."

"Aunt Ghleanna has said that more than once." Izzy dropped her clothes and began to get dressed with eibhear right there. He frowned but didn't say anything. He also didn't turn away. "She says I'm a bad influence on her daughter. Me. A bad influence on Branwen the Awful. I'm not sure how she comes to that conclusion."

"Probably because you get my cousin drunk and she just wakes up in the middle of your insane centaur shit."

"That could be part of Ghleanna's argument." She finished pulling her chain-mail shirt over her head and shook her wet hair out.

"You know," Izzy said, stepping closer to eibhear and placing her hand on his chest. "I'm so glad we made up and that we've put the past behind us."

"Uh." eibhear looked down at her hand and then at her face. "Yeah. Me, too."

"Now we can be the proper uncle and niece that the family has always wanted us to be."

The dragon blinked, his body going stiff. "Uncle and niece?"

"Proper uncle and niece. That must be such a relief for you. Not to have some child running around trying to stroke your hair." She laughed a little, patting his chest. "Thank you for being so patient with me back then. It must have been very hard."

"Well, no, it was-"

"Don't worry about it. It's the past. Now we're family. Kin. My wonderful Uncle eibhear." On a whim, she went up on her toes and kissed him on the chin since she couldn't quite reach his cheek without more effort.

Then she walked away and headed back to camp. She was almost there when Brannie stepped out from behind a tree and yanked her over.

Her friend stared at her. "Uncle eibhear?" she whispered.

Izzy chewed her lip. "Too much?"

Bent over, silently laughing, Brannie shook her head and leaned against Izzy. "You're the best, you evil bitch!" she managed to squeal and whisper simultaneously. "The best!"

Then the friends held each other and laughed until eibhear and the M-runach called for them so they could return to Garbhn Isle.

Chapter 10.

"No. Absolutely not."

Talaith got up and followed Briec while he stalked around their bedroom.

"I think you're being unreasonable," she told him.

"I'm being a father."

"No. You're being your father."

"Well, you don't have to get nasty," he tossed back at her, looping around the bed again.

"Just let her spend the day with him. He must like her if he's still willing to after what you did."

Briec stopped and spun around to face her. "Of course he still likes her. She's perfect. She's-"

"Your daughter. Yes. Yes. We all know. Which means that you should understand exactly how stubborn and difficult your daughter can be when she doesn't get her bloody way."

"She's too young," he now argued.

"She's sixteen, Briec. Not a dragon sixteen either, but a healthy sixteen-year-old girl who likes a boy. There's no shame in that."

"You want her involved with this . . . this . . ."

Talaith crossed her arms over her chest. "Human?"

"I was going to say cock-haver, but human covers it, too."

Rubbing her eyes, she paced away from him. "All she wants is to go into town with him. Do a little shopping and have luncheon at the tavern. Not become his wife."

"No."

"I've already discussed it with Brastias and he says he'll go with them. You know how protective he is of his niece."

"Then why can't I go?"

"Because now when that poor boy sees you, he pisses himself. So that's not a good idea."

"Weakness! Why should my daughter be around someone so weak and useless?"

"You could stop her if you'd like-"

"Good." He headed toward the door. "I will."

"Just like my mother stopped me. Izzy is evidence of how successful that was."

Briec stopped with his hand on the doorknob, his entire body tense.

"Do you really want to be called 'grandfather' by some byproduct of Lord Pombray's bloodline?"

Her mate shuddered at the thought and Talaith bit the inside of her mouth to stop from laughing. When he didn't move, she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She rested her cheek against his back and said, "The Pombrays won't be here for long. Let her do this. Just one day, then they'll secretly flirt until he leaves."

"And Brastias will-"

"Keep a very close eye on them. I promise."

"And if you're wrong about all this?"

"You'll be able to lord it over me from now until our ancestors take us home."

He nodded. "As long as you understand that last bit."

Izzy pulled her horse to a stop beside eibhear's and, like him, gazed down into the town below. Past that town she could see Annwyl's castle, where the sight of dragons circling the tall spires of the building always told her that she was home again.

"You all right?" she asked.

"Aye. Just thinking about how long it's been since I've been back here."

"Sure you don't want to see your mum first? I know for a fact she's missed you greatly."

"How do you know that?"

"Because she said, 'I miss my son greatly.'"

He snorted a little, but the smile was there. "You don't really go for general euphemisms, do you, Izzy?"

"I don't even know what that means, so I'll go with no. I don't." She adjusted the reins in her hand. "I can take your horse for you, if you want to head to Devenallt." Devenallt Mountain was the seat of power of the ruling Southland dragons and where the Dragon Queen, eibhear's mum and Izzy's grandmum-by-mating, lived in safety.

"And be forced to see my father at the same time?" He shook his head. "No. I think I'd rather deal with my brothers first."

"I wouldn't worry," she teased. "I'm sure they didn't even notice you were gone."

"Thank you. That's very nice."

"Just getting you ready for the rest of the family. Isn't that what nieces are for?"

eibhear rolled his eyes. "We're not back here again, are we?"

"Oh, dear old uncle." She patted his cheek ever so gently. "You dear old thing. You know you're my favorite old uncle."

"Vicious cow," eibhear muttered under his breath. "Heartless, vicious cow," he amended.

Laughing, Izzy spurred her horse on and headed toward home and whatever waited there for her.

eibhear watched Izzy ride down the trail toward home. Brannie pulled up next to him, giving him a quick once-over. "Going to Garbhn Isle looking like that, are you?"

"What's wrong with how I look?"

His cousin sighed, shook her head, and followed after Izzy.

He watched them for a bit before he snarled, "And where do you lot think you're going?"

"To the pub," Aidan answered for them all.

"You're not coming with me?"