Fierce Highland Longing
(2026)(The second book in the Reckless Hearts of the Highlands series)
A Story by Larissa Emerald
She came to Scotland to feel something again. She didn't expect the sea to feel her back.
Travel photographer Mara Quinn arrives in the remote fishing village of Kilmuir Cove with a broken engagement behind her and a hollow place where her heart used to live. Three days on a windswept coast. A camera between her and the world. That was the plan.
Then a storm drives her into an abandoned boathouse, and she finds something hidden behind the warped boards. A sealskin, dark and sleek and impossibly warm beneath her hand, as if it remembers a pulse.
The same night, she pulls a half-drowned stranger from the rocks.
Ciaran has sea-gray eyes that see too much, a quiet that hides a wound, and a reason to flinch from the iron poker by the fire. The villagers whisper old warnings about the sea taking back what belongs to it. About skins that should never be touched. About men who are not quite men.
When Mara learns who Ciaran truly is, she also learns the cost of what she found. Return the skin, and she loses him to the ocean forever. Keep it hidden, and she becomes no better than the man who stole it from him years ago, a fisherman whose obsession with sea magic is about to bring a storm down on them both.
In a flooding cave, with the tide rising and her heart breaking, Mara will have to choose between holding on and loving freely.
Because the sea only keeps what refuses to love freely.
A windswept, atmospheric romantasy short story perfect for fans of Scottish folklore, selkie legends, and slow-burn paranormal romance with a satisfying ending you'll want to read again.
Fierce Highland Longing is Book Two in the Reckless Hearts of the Highlands anthology series. Each story can be enjoyed as a standalone.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Travel photographer Mara Quinn arrives in the remote fishing village of Kilmuir Cove with a broken engagement behind her and a hollow place where her heart used to live. Three days on a windswept coast. A camera between her and the world. That was the plan.
Then a storm drives her into an abandoned boathouse, and she finds something hidden behind the warped boards. A sealskin, dark and sleek and impossibly warm beneath her hand, as if it remembers a pulse.
The same night, she pulls a half-drowned stranger from the rocks.
Ciaran has sea-gray eyes that see too much, a quiet that hides a wound, and a reason to flinch from the iron poker by the fire. The villagers whisper old warnings about the sea taking back what belongs to it. About skins that should never be touched. About men who are not quite men.
When Mara learns who Ciaran truly is, she also learns the cost of what she found. Return the skin, and she loses him to the ocean forever. Keep it hidden, and she becomes no better than the man who stole it from him years ago, a fisherman whose obsession with sea magic is about to bring a storm down on them both.
In a flooding cave, with the tide rising and her heart breaking, Mara will have to choose between holding on and loving freely.
Because the sea only keeps what refuses to love freely.
A windswept, atmospheric romantasy short story perfect for fans of Scottish folklore, selkie legends, and slow-burn paranormal romance with a satisfying ending you'll want to read again.
Fierce Highland Longing is Book Two in the Reckless Hearts of the Highlands anthology series. Each story can be enjoyed as a standalone.
Genre: Paranormal Romance