"This family is ridiculous!"

Shaking her head, Talaith went back to her task, muttering low, "I've been warning her of that fact since birth. Yet she always seems so bloody shocked."

"I can hear you!" Rhi yelled from the stairs, startling them both.

"She flounces quite well," eibhear noted when his niece disappeared in a flurry of pretty pink satin and silk.

"Your brother always tells me I taught her how to flounce, but I've caught Keita giving her lessons several times."

"It's definitely a Keita flounce, with a bit of me mum thrown in."

Talaith chuckled and dunked the cloth she held in a bowl of water, squeezing the material to get out the excess liquid. While his brother's mate had her head down, eibhear watched Izzy walk into the Great Hall with Annwyl. Izzy saw him before Annwyl, her eyes growing wide at the sight of him, then narrowing suspiciously. He grinned and her eyes narrowed more. But when Annwyl turned toward him, he quickly changed the grin into a wince and placed his hand to his head.

"eibhear? Is that you?" Annwyl rushed to Talaith's side. "Gods! What happened to you?"

"Those idiot brothers of his," Talaith complained. She again pressed the cloth to his head.

"What is wrong with them?" Annwyl petted his cheek. "You poor, poor thing."

Behind the women, Izzy's mouth dropped open and she gawked at him.

"It's all right," eibhear said, lowering his eyes to look more sincere and to give himself a moment to get control in the face of Izzy's outraged expression. "I'm sure they didn't mean it."

"They just don't deserve you as a brother," Talaith nearly snarled.

"I'll go talk to them," Annwyl said. But she cracked her knuckles. "Right now."

Izzy cut in front of Annwyl, forced a smile. "Why don't I talk to them? Daddy listens to me."

"You want my sword?"

Izzy blinked. Hard. "No. I don't think that's necessary. To talk to my father and uncles that I adore."

"You want me warhammer then?"

Deciding not to answer Annwyl, Izzy turned and faced her mother. "Hi, Mum."

Talaith went up on her toes and hugged Izzy tight. "I'm so glad you're home."

"Did you send for me?" she asked.

"No." Talaith stepped back. "I didn't. Why?"

"Ragnar said she was wanted home," eibhear explained.

"That didn't come from me."

"Dad?"

"You'll have to ask him. I'm not talking to him right now."

Izzy cringed. "Again?"

Lips pursed, Talaith turned from her daughter. "He's in the war room."

Izzy headed off, but as the other women focused back on eibhear, Izzy turned on her heel and shook her head at him in disgust. Too bad for her that only made him laugh a little.

After getting Gwenvael off the floor and fetching cold cloths for her father and uncles' heads, Izzy asked, "So Mum has been right all this time.... You do continue to fight with him."

"He started it," they stated in unison and Izzy rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers.

"That's pathetic. You're his wiser and older brothers . . . and Gwenvael."

Gwenvael smiled. "I missed you, too, Iseabail."

She kissed the dragon's golden head. "And I you. But I still don't know why I'm here."

The three dragons looked at each other and back at her, then shrugged.

"Why are you here?" her father asked.

"Didn't you send for me?"

"No."

Fearghus cracked his neck. "Last we heard, you were killing ogres. Why would we stop you from doing that? We know how you enjoy it so."

"Ragnar said I'd been sent for. At least that's what he told eibhear." She briefly studied the males. "And why were you fighting with eibhear?"

"He didn't like what we had to say about why he was sent to the M-runach."

"Although, he was lucky," Briec argued. "It could have been the salt mines."

"Did sending him away have anything to do with me?"

"Sending him away?" Fearghus shook his head. "Of course not, Izzy. We'd never do that."

"Good."

"But keeping him away? Aye. That we did."

Izzy winced and had to admit, "That doesn't seem fair to him."

"Perhaps, but it seemed easier that way," Briec sighed.

"Easier for whom?"

"For me. Was I not clear on the importance of me?"

Izzy smiled at Fearghus and Gwenvael. "I love my daddy."

Briec sniffed. "Of course you do."

eibhear grabbed an apple from the bowl on the table, shaking his head as he bit into the fruit.

"Ragnar didn't tell me who asked for her," he said around the bite of fruit in his mouth. "Then again, I didn't ask."

Annwyl, who was sitting on the table and ramming the wood with a dagger, demanded, "How could you not ask?"

"By not opening my mouth and speaking."

Her eyes narrowed. "You and that sarcasm."

"I was actually just being honest."

Talaith checked eibhear's head wound again. "That ointment I put on there should help heal this by tonight."

"Will it leave a scar?"

"Do you care?"

"Maybe. If I'm left hideous, will you still love me as you do?"

Talaith folded her arms over her chest. "Who says I love you now?"

"You do . . . with your eyes." Talaith and Annwyl laughed, and eibhear, grinning, reached blindly over for another piece of fruit. But what he now held in his hand didn't feel like an apple. More like a melon . . . covered in chain mail.

Confused, he looked over and realized that he'd inadvertently taken hold of Izzy's right breast. Even worse, his three brothers stood behind her, all of them focused on where his hand met her chest.

eibhear raised his gaze and met Izzy's. They stared at each other, with eibhear's hand still . . . there.

Izzy raised a brow and asked, "You just going to leave it there?"

"Well," he answered honestly, "it is comfortable."

That's when Gwenvael slapped his hand off and Briec and Fearghus began pummeling him, slamming him to the table. He didn't have to look to know Izzy had walked away.

Chapter 12.

Izzy grabbed some clean clothes from her old room and went down to one of the lakes to take a bath. She scrubbed herself clean in the cold water, trying not to think too much about having eibhear's hand on her. It surprised her, the effect that one touch had had on her. Surprised and annoyed her. She shouldn't have any feelings about eibhear's hands being anywhere-except maybe a slight loathing.

Izzy went under the water once more, hoping the cold would make her forget everything. It didn't.

But as she walked to shore, she smiled at the woman serenely waiting for her by her clothes.

"Lady Dagmar," she greeted.

"General Iseabail."

"Something wrong?"

"There is some . . . thing in my dog kennels. Eating metal, wood, and rocks. And shitting. Everywhere."

"Is he shitting metal, wood, and rocks? Because that would be fascinating."

Prim lips pursed, Dagmar tapped one toe and Izzy giggled.

"I hate that thing, Izzy!" Dagmar finally exclaimed, laughing with her. "Hate it."

"He is loyal and I love him. You said the loyalty of a dog is all."

"I lied," the Northlander told Izzy flatly. "He's ugly. He farts. Constantly. He drools. He's always dragging that giant penis of his around!"

"How is that his fault? And what am I supposed to do about that? Force him to wear doggie leggings?"

"Well, do something because the first thing he did was escape from his run and then try to mount every one of my in-heat bitches he could get next to."

"Was Mum upset about that? Annwyl? Because they are Claimed by others."

The toe-tapping began again, but Dagmar was having a hard time with that smile. She couldn't quite hide it. "Not those bitches, dear niece. The four-legged ones."

"Ahh."

They both laughed and Izzy hugged her aunt. "Don't worry. I'll take him to my house. I'll probably stay there anyway while I'm home."

"You're getting me soaked," Dagmar complained, playfully pushing Izzy away. "I can't be coldly calculating when I'm covered in lake water."

"Never fear, dear aunt. You're coldly calculating no matter what you do."

"You're staying at your house?" Dagmar asked, never one to let something slip by her.

"I like my house. Gwenvael had it built for me."

"He did. But you only stay there when you're meeting with some man-"

"Dagmar!"

"-or you're avoiding another fight with your mother. But usually it takes a little time for you two to get into a good, frothy battle of wills, and I haven't heard anything about you sleeping with anyone at the moment-"

"Wait. How do you know when I'm sleep-"

"-so that leaves a third option, which I'm going to assume is you're avoiding dear, sweet eibhear."