Hell, he was not looking forward to this. He did not want to watch as Marty’s heart broke. He didn’t want to watch as his brother once again lost the only happiness that he’d ever known in this lifetime and he sure as hell didn’t want to see the anguish in his brother’s eyes as Marty took her last breath.

But, he would.

He would do whatever his brother needed. He owed him that much at least.

“Shit! Dad, he’s seizing!” Denny said, trying not to panic as he worked alongside his father to save Tristan’s life.

Shayne was thankful that this family came into Tristan’s life. They’d taken him in, accepted him and loved him and Shayne had no doubt that if they had learned of Tristan’s curse that they would have been there for him as well. They’d made life for Tristan tolerable and Shayne would make sure that when their time came that he was there to help them to the other side. It was the least that he could do for them.

“Park the f**king truck!” Tom yelled at the EMT behind the wheel, losing his cool for the first time since Shayne had come into the picture.

Shayne knew that tone and look well. The man knew that he was about to lose a child and that there was nothing on this earth that he could do to stop it, but that didn’t mean that he was going to sit on his ass and give up. No, not this man.

As the ambulance was put in park, Shayne watched as Tom worked to save his youngest son’s life. He kept working as the backdoors to the ambulance were opened and the stretcher was pulled out. He didn’t stop working even as the stretcher was moved quickly into the hospital, down the hall and through the emergency room doors. He was still working on his son twenty minutes later when Tristan’s stretcher was rushed through the restricted double doors of the surgical ward and then he stood there, looking helpless as he silently said goodbye.

Chapter 38

“Wait for me!” he yelled excitedly, grabbing the wobbly stick that he’d found just that morning and had decided would be his spear.

“Go on back to ma’, lad,” Liam said, barely sparing him a glance as he gestured for him to do as he was told.

Undeterred, he pumped his legs faster until he thought they’d fall off, but he didn’t let that stop him. He was ready to fight with his brothers and he needed to tell them so.

“Pleeeaaassssssseeeeeeeeeeeeee!” he begged unashamed as he dropped his mighty spear and dove for his oldest brother’s legs when he was close enough.

As soon as he had his small arms wrapped around Liam’s thick leg, he promptly followed up his attack by wrapping his legs around his brother’s calf and held on tightly, prepared to hold his brother captive forever if that’s what it took.

He really hoped that it didn’t come down to that, because his doggie was expecting puppies any day now and he really wanted to play with them. That would be impossible to do if he had to keep doing this, but do it he would if that’s what it took. He was a man now and it was about time that his brothers realized that.

Instead of yelling at him or hitting him like most of the men around their land would have done, Liam sighed heavily as he reached down and gently grabbed him by the arms and plucked him off. Tadgh tried to hold on tightly, but being only three, it was kind of difficult to put up much of a fight against his brother who was already as large as a full-grown man.

“Didn’t we talk about this, lad?” Liam asked as he shifted Tadgh in his arms so that he could place his arm over Liam’s shoulder and look his brother in the eye like a man.

“Aye, but that was before,” Tadgh informed him.

“Before what, lad?” Finn asked as he reached over and ruffled Tadgh’s hair.

“Before I found my spear!”

“I see,” Liam murmured as his lips twitched.

“Ye mean this stick?” Quinn asked, stepping around them so that he could show Liam his spear.

“That’s it!” Tadgh said proudly as Liam reached out and took the stick from Quinn.

Liam pressed a kiss against his brow before he set him down on his feet and handed him back his spear. “What’s this about, lad?” Liam asked as he took a knee in front of him.

“I wanna go with you and fight,” he said, not quite able to meet his brother’s eyes as he lied.

“Ye hate fighting,” Liam pointed out as he patiently waited for Tadgh to tell him the truth.

“That’s not true,” Tadgh mumbled as he looked up and met his brother’s gaze. “I like fighting. It’s fun, but I don’t like hurting anyone.”

“Aye.” Liam nodded in agreement, because he understood how he felt. “And ye know that where we’re going we might have to hurt someone so I don’t think that’s the real reason that ye want to go.”

Tadgh shrugged his tiny shoulders. “It’s not.”

“Then what’s the reason?”

Tadgh felt his chin quiver and tried to stop it before it gave him away, but he couldn’t. “I’m going to miss ye,” he shamefully admitted as he hurried to wipe away the tears on the back of his dirty arm before his brothers could see them.

With a kind smile, Liam gently wiped away his tears. “And we’ll miss ye, lad, but we have to go.”

“Do ye promise to come back for me?”

“Always, lad, always.”

*-*-*-*

“Ye shouldn’t have talked back to me Da’,” Macha said in way of greeting as she finished crawling in beneath the tent’s flaps.

“Aye, I’ll try to remember that the next time he’s pulling ye through the camp by ye hair,” Tadgh said dryly, shifting slightly on his sleeping fur and immediately wishing that he hadn’t when the small action caused agonizing pain to shoot through the slices on his back.

“I had it handled,” Macha argued, opening her small satchel. “Besides,” she rushed to continue before he could call her on her lie, “I don’t remember asking ye for yer help.”

He chuckled. He couldn’t help it. “Ye never have to ask fer it, mo shonuachar.”

“Ye shouldn’t be calling me that. If me father hears-“

“Then he’ll know that much sooner that ye belong with me,” Tadgh said firmly, loving the way that she nibbled on her bottom lip as she tried to hide a pleased smile from him.

She didn’t say anything else while she laid out her herbs and cleaning cloths and he didn’t care. He was more than happy to lie there and watch her. She was his heart, his soul and he’d known that since the moment that he’d laid eyes on her when they were nothing more than children.

“Ye need to stop pushing me father,” she said, sounding sad as she set to work to clean his cuts.

“Then he needs to keep his hands off ye, lass,” Tadgh said, trying not to cringe as the herbs stung him.

“He could have killed ye when ye threatened to kill him if he ever touched me again.”

“It was a promise, lass, and believe me, if I ever see him hurt ye like that again I will kill him,” he swore, meaning every word, because he would kill the bastard. He’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.

*-*-*-*

“Please,” Macha said, panting heavily as she shifted beneath him in an attempt to tempt him to take her.

“Please what, mo shonuachar?” he asked, teasing her with the head of his c**k and loving the way she growled in frustration as he pulled away when she tried to roll her h*ps and take the choice away from him.