Highlander's Shifter: Time Travel Romance (The Matheson Warriors Book 1) Read online

  Cover Copy

  He seeks the one his heart desires...

  With their fae-blooded clan teetering on the verge of extinction, Jamie Matheson finds himself battling a deep attraction to one of the few remaining unmated women within his clan, a woman he’s not permitted to touch unless a soul bond forms between them. Like his fellow clansmen, he must ensure her protection, even if that means from himself.

  Annabella wishes to forge a mated bond with only one man, yet when Jamie treks deep into the Highlands in order to put some distance between them, she soon discovers not all is as it seems, not when her very spirit calls out to Jamie’s from across the ages. It appears they’ve both lived in two separate times, here in the future and far in the past, and now if they ever wish to complete the bond and come together as one, they must first right the wrongs of their deadly past. It’s time to return to when they first discovered their mated bond began, the year 1211.

  Come and immerse yourself in this riveting historical time travel romance, one which crosses the centuries and brings together lost souls.

  Also by Joanne Wadsworth

  The Matheson Brothers Series

  Highlander’s Desire, (Book 1)

  Highlander’s Passion, (Book 2)

  Highlander’s Seduction, (Book 3)

  Clan Matheson Series

  Highlander’s Kiss, (Book 1)

  Highlander’s Heart, (Book 2)

  Highlander’s Sword, (Book 3)

  The Fae Series

  Highlander’s Bride, (Book 1)

  Highlander’s Caress, (Book 2)

  Highlander’s Touch, (Book 3)

  The Matheson Warriors Series

  Highlander’s Shifter, (Book 1)

  Highlander’s Claim, (Book 2) Coming Soon

  Highlander Heat Series

  Highlander’s Castle, (Book 1)

  Highlander’s Magic, (Book 2)

  Highlander’s Charm, (Book 3)

  Highlander’s Guardian, (Book 4)

  Highlander’s Faerie, (Book 5)

  Highlander’s Champion, (Book 6)

  Highlander’s Captive, (Short Story Book 7)

  Regency Books (Standalone)

  The Duke’s Bride, Coming Soon

  Princesses of Myth Series

  Protector, (Book 1)

  Warrior, (Book 2)

  Enchanter, (Book 3)

  Healer, (Book 4)

  Hunter #2.5, (Short Story)

  Billionaire Bodyguards Series

  Billionaire Bodyguard Attraction, (Book 1)

  Billionaire Bodyguard Boss, (Book 2) Coming Soon

  ~∞~

  HIGHLANDER’S SHIFTER

  by Joanne Wadsworth

  The Matheson Warriors, Book One

  Table of Contents

  Cover Copy

  Also by Joanne Wadsworth

  HIGHLANDER’S SHIFTER

  The Legend

  The Seer – Nessa

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Coming Next in This Series

  Want More of These Characters?

  Author’s Note

  Joanne Wadsworth

  Newsletter Signup

  The Matheson Warriors Series

  The Matheson Brothers Series

  Clan Matheson Series

  The Fae Series

  Highlander Heat Series

  Billionaire Bodyguards Series

  Princesses of Myth Series

  Copyright: Highlander’s Shifter

  The Legend

  In the twelfth century, a man named Gilleoin became the first and only known man to hold bear shifter blood, an ability gifted to him by The Most High One. His clan was called Matheson, and when he mated with a woman carrying faerie blood, they created a line shrouded in secrecy, a line guarded by the immortal fae princess, Cherub. Through the endless streams of time, she will be there for them, never forsaking her people, either in the present or far into the past.

  The Seer – Nessa

  The ancient House of Clan Matheson, led by Gilleoin, the Chief of Clan Matheson, Scotland, 1211.

  The midnight hour struck. Filled with dread from a vision, Nessa raced downstairs and halted at the edge of the darkened great hall. The large domed room held a sweeping circlet of wooden beamed rafters rising high overhead with a hundred or so battle-weary warriors sleeping on pallets scattered before the flickering fire. In their black battle leathers and clan plaids, their claymores within arm’s reach, her clansmen sought valuable rest following their latest attack from their enemy.

  Two of their clan healers quietly moved amongst the men, kneeling before pallets and ensuring wounds were tended and bound. Having had only a mere hour’s rest since she’d last aided the healers, she searched amongst the men and found Jamie Matheson, her beloved grandson. He’d been moved closer to the hearth, his disheveled dark hair lying matted with fresh blood to his forehead, the soaked strands gleaming red under the glow of the fire where they poked out from under the cotton wrappings. With his broad shoulders filling out his leather cotun, he clenched his fist around his sword hilt, his knuckles straining white. He held her line’s strong fae blood and along with it the “power of thought,” his sought-after skill allowing him to move objects or even people with naught but one thought from his mind alone.

  Eyes closed and with a slight twitch of his fingers, the wrappings around his head and neck unraveled and plopped to the ground. More blood oozed forth and she staggered to Jamie’s side. Her vision had shown her this very moment occurring, one she now dreaded to the depths of her heart.

  On her knees, she touched the sides of Jamie’s head and neck wound, the stitching no longer keeping the rising swell of blood contained. Gently, she scooped Jamie’s head from the pillow and cradled it in her lap. “Dinnae allow the deep sleep yet, my dear.”

  “Grandmother.” Sluggishly, he opened his eyes and with a dazed gaze murmured under his breath, “T-there is naught to be done to heal me. I can sense it. W-when Annabella returns from the v-village, tell her I”—more blood, and far too much—“l-love her.”

  “You must hold on so you might tell her yourself.” Within her vision, she’d seen Jamie’s death, yet she’d also seen what was to come for him. In a time so far from her own, he’d be reborn and his spirit would live on. Even as grief assailed her, the knowledge of his rebirth brought her at least a little peace.

  “You’ve seen my death. That’s w-why you’re here.” His dazed gaze cleared a touch. “Tell me all.”

  “Even though I didnae wish for you to leave us, I’ve seen that an even greater future awaits you in another time. Your spirit will live on and be reborn almost eight-hundred years from now. Far in the future, you will stand at Murdock Matheson’s side, the seer and chief of our twenty-first century clan. Gilleoin no longer needs you, but Murdock surely does.”

  “Then I shall go to Murdock.” He shuddered in her arms. “T-tell Annabella to come to me t-there. Wherever I lead, she follows.”

  “I shall, my dear.”

  His eyes slid shut, his hand sliding limply from his sword and flopping onto the pallet. A gentle, heavenly white glow swirled from his chest, wisped around her and whooshed through the open window.

  Sobs wracked through her and she slumped over Jamie’s chest and rocked. Clutchin
g him to her, she wept until she could weep no more.

  For hours, she remained that way, pushing away the comforting hands of the healers as they tried to soothe her and instead she bid them to leave her be.

  Only as the sun rose and a new day dawned did she finally rise and stagger into the side antechamber where their chief, Gilleoin, often met with his captains.

  Wiping her tears away, she gripped the windowsill and got hit by another vision so hard and fast. Eyes closed, she grappled to pin the rippling images down.

  Annabella shimmered forth, Jamie’s mate and his soon-to-be bride, or at least she had been. In the dark of the night—this coming night—Annabella stood upon the battlements in a corner where the guards rarely patrolled, her white fur cloak tied tightly around her neck and a heavy mist shrouding her.

  Grief stricken, the young lass with the fae empath ability had raced away from her after she’d told her of Jamie’s passing and now Annabella braced her hands either side of the crenellation before her and climbed atop it.

  On the stony edge, Annabella wobbled, her hands raised to the heavens above and tears streaking down her cheeks. Weeping, she cried out, “Jamie, wait for me, for no matter where you reside beyond the veil, I will find you.”

  Nay, she couldn’t lose Annabella too.

  More images hit her, a swirling barrage.

  She herself hurried along the misty ramparts toward Annabella. “Dinnae leave this way,” she cried out and managed to snag Annabella’s hand as the lass launched herself over the edge. She held on to her kin for dear life as the lass swayed against the curtain wall, naught but the jagged rocks below. “Hold tight to my hand, Annabella.”

  “Jamie loves me, Nessa, told me to come to him in the twenty-first century where he’ll be reborn. Wherever he goes, I go. It has always been that way between us, and right now I wish to join the man I love in death.” Annabella jerked her hand from hers and fell.

  “Cherub!” Nessa screamed her fae princess’s name.

  “I’m here.” Within the cloying mist, Cherub shimmered in, caught Annabella in her arms and floated upward with her. In her royal blue gown swishing against her legs and her blond hair swaying to her waist, she muttered to the lass, “You should have reached out to me in your time of grief. I would’ve come.”

  “Jamie perished this morn in a battle and now I wish to join him.” Annabella clung to Cherub, tears spiky and wet on her clumped lashes. “I need to go to him, and it cannae wait any longer.”

  Nessa clutched her chest. “Cherub, I had a vision moments afore Jamie’s death and managed to tell Jamie about it. Annabella as well. That is why she has jumped.”

  “Tell me about your vision.”

  “Jamie is destined to live in the future, his spirit reborn almost eight-hundred years from now. He will stand at Murdock Matheson’s side, the seer and chief of our twenty-first century clan. He asked that I tell Annabella she’s to join him there, and she has chosen that moment as now.” The moon broke fully free of darkened clouds overhead and soft moonbeams shimmered through the fog.

  “If Jamie is to be reborn in Murdock’s time, then by what name will he go by?” Cherub’s sparkly skin shimmered in the moon’s glow, the enchanting sight denoting her strong royal line. “I can travel to him through a portal in time and find him, although those who are reborn usually have no prior knowledge of who they were. Still, I can watch over him and ensure he and Annabella find each other again.”

  “In my vision, I saw that he holds the same name as he does now. Jamie Matheson. Although here he is of fae blood alone, while in the future he holds both fae and shifter blood, through the merging of my daughter’s line with Gilleoin’s line.”

  “Good, that information will aid me greatly.” To Annabella, Cherub said, “Everything unfolds for a purpose and within its own time, but I shall take you beyond the veil with me first and there you shall remain until the right time arrives for your rebirth to occur. You’ll have no prior knowledge of your mated bond with Jamie, but at least in this way I can ensure you dinnae suffer from such a tragic death.”

  “I’ll go anywhere you ask, as long as I get to be with Jamie again.” Annabella hugged Cherub tight. “He is my mate, my chosen one, and we’ve yet to complete the bond. I dearly wish we’d had the chance while he lived. I feel so lost, as if my very soul has been broken in two.”

  “It isnae good that you missed the chance to complete your bond afore Jamie’s death. Your soul and his will never truly be at peace unless I can change your own past and ensure you and Jamie are both given that chance to join as one, although I cannae alter Jamie’s death from occurring, no’ when he is destined for another faraway time. Neither may you change it either.”

  Their fae guardian turned her gaze on Nessa. “For me to work a little fae magic to see this done, you must first attend to one very important chore. Connect with your seer ability to Murdock and warn him of what’s to come, that he’s to keep Jamie and Annabella’s rebirth a secret from them until he sees the time is right. All must occur at the right time in order for Jamie and Annabella to complete their bond here in the past, and of course far in the future where they will soon reside.”

  “Provided I never have to watch Annabella fall to her death, then aye, I will do anything you ask of me.” She reached over the edge and cupped Annabella’s cheek where she bobbed with Cherub. “I love you, as if you were my own granddaughter, and I shall surely miss you in the days and years ahead, just as I already miss Jamie. Travel safely, my dear.”

  “I’ll miss you too.” Annabella turned her face into her palm and dropped a kiss there. “Until I see you again, Nessa. One day I will, beyond the veil or in another time.”

  “Aye, that you shall for we are both of fae blood.”

  “We must go.” Cherub blew her a kiss. “Take care, my friend.”

  “You too, and thank you for coming so swiftly.”

  “I shall always come when you or any of my fae-blooded people require my aid.” Cherub slowly shimmered, her form disappearing and Annabella’s too. Within the blink of an eye, they were gone.

  Nessa opened her eyes where she knelt before the window.

  Speak to Murdock she would, right now, for this vision she’d had would come into being this very night and she had to pave the way for her grandson and Annabella’s rebirth. The future safety of their very hearts and souls might very well depend upon it.

  Aye, ’twas just as well she and Murdock could connect through visions with each other, even across the centuries dividing them. He was a seer as she was, and whenever she’d needed his wise counsel, he’d been there for her, just as she’d been there for him.

  Eyes closed once more, she waited as more images fluttered at the periphery of her mind. ’Twas Murdock. He stood at his solar window on the second floor of Matheson Castle overlooking the same courtyard as she did, the ancient elm tree near his window swaying in the brisk breeze. She tapped into his mind and whispered across the centuries dividing them, “I see you, Murdock.”

  “As I see you, my friend. I also caught a vision of the moment when you lost your grandson. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “More has occurred since that moment. I’ve had another vision of Jamie’s betrothed, Annabella. She and Jamie have never had the chance to complete their bond, and this night she intends on ending her life. Cherub will come for her, will aid her in her ascension so she need no’ suffer a true death, then both she and Jamie will be reborn in your time. Cherub has told me to warn you of what’s to come, that you’re to keep Jamie and Annabella’s rebirth a secret until you ‘see’ the time is right. Cherub wishes to alter Jamie and Annabella’s past, so that they might be able to complete their bond afore Jamie’s death occurred this morn. That is the only way to ensure their souls will ever truly be at peace. I ask that you ensure no one tears them apart.”

  “You have my word I shall guard and watch over them both following their rebirth. Never fear that I won’t.” A spark of det
ermination flickered in his eyes, likely the same spark which always flickered within hers, for as their clan seers they were devoted to their kin. Each and every one of them, no matter what time they might reside within.

  “You have my immense thanks.” She touched her heart. “Until the next time we speak, stay safe.”

  “Aye, until the next time.”

  Murdock’s image fluttered away, lost to her through the ages, but not their deep friendship or the knowledge they shared. He’d ensure all remained on course, and so too would Cherub as she watched over her kin.

  Chapter 1

  Matheson Castle, led by Murdock Matheson, the Chief of Clan Matheson, a man with dual fae-shifter blood, Scotland, current day.

  In the darkened side room attached to the interrogation chamber, Jamie Matheson stood hidden behind thick mirrored glass, his hands clasped behind his back and spine stiff as he awaited their head guardsman’s arrival with his current case’s assailant.

  A thrumming reverberated through him, as it always did when one particular member of his clan drew nearer. Annabella, or Bella as she was known to her closest kin and friends. He narrowed his gaze on the door next to him and with only one thought from his mind, kept it held firmly in place.

  Ha. See if Bella could get in now.

  The door rattled, then stopped, rattled some more then—thump.

  “Let me in, Jamie.” Thump, thump, thump. “I know you’re in there. Release this door now. I need to speak with you.”

  “Is there something of dire importance you wished to speak of?” Not a chance was he releasing that door, not when his inner bear was so damn hungry for her. He touched the knob with one finger, although his skill alone held it firm.

  “Aye, there is.” Through the darkened glass, the door of the connecting interrogation room suddenly swung wide and she strode in with a smirk on her face. “Forgot that door, didn’t you?”