Free Wolf Bride by T. S. Joyce Page A

fro in a frenzied fashion. Maybe he was at the barn. I scrambled down the steps toward its general direction as the rain pelted the side of my face until it stung. Sliding and slipping on the muddy earth, my toes scrabbled for purchase and as a great lightning flash lit the sky, I gasped and slid to a stop.
    A black horse bore down on me in the rain, running full speed with a terrified look in the whites of his eyes. He didn’t turn his head from side to side as his hooves pounded the earth toward me, and I doubted he would be able to see me at all before he ran me over. Fear kept the scream lodged in my mouth and I backed up only a step as he thundered toward me. Another lightning flash lit his wet coat and he let out an animal scream as he rushed right for me.
    A tremendous weight hit me from the side and the great animal passed so close the wind was blocked for just a moment from the proximity of his giant body. My lantern had been flung to the side and lay dark somewhere in the mud, but strong arms picked me up and an instantaneous relief flooded my veins. The stinging rain was relentless against my face and eyes, so I closed them tightly and held onto his neck. I’d made it farther from the house than I thought, and the journey back took a long time. So long, in fact, I frowned and tried to open one of my eyes against the rain. My feet hit the mud as realization dawned on me of my vital mistake.
    Matthew Streider grabbed my hair in an iron grip as he covered my mouth with his giant hand. “Death by horse trampling is too gentle an end for you, girl,” he growled through foul breath.
    I bit his hand until the taste of blood was bitter and iron against my tongue, but before I could scream, he slapped me hard enough to stop any warning I meant to give. The darkness was consuming as a million stars shone through the haze of rain and blurred the corners of my vision.
    “No, girl. Don’t you pass out on me now. We’ve got a long way to go together.”
    He hoisted me over his shoulder, and though I beat my fists against his back and kicked wildly, he only gripped my legs tighter with fingers that seemed to dig to my bones. The wind screamed louder than I ever could and I fought until I was exhausted.
    Ricky waited in the woods with two horses, and after I was firmly tied by the hands to the back of a big bay, they mounted up and set out at a quick clip. I struggled to keep up. My feet were bare, and though the mud was soft between my toes, the tree roots, rocks, stickers, and other such cutting items didn’t care about my comfort. Desperate, I tried to step carefully and avoid a twisted ankle but it would be only a matter of time before I couldn’t use them anymore and would be dragged to my death behind the horse. Trampling by the great black horse would’ve been a much easier end than the one I was headed for.
    A sob tore from my throat. I would never see Luke again. I’d die knowing he was angry with me. I’d die before I ever got to tell him the truth about myself; before he ever saw the real me.
    My thin nightdress was soaked through and the fabric clung to me like a second skin. It didn’t hide a single inch of my body, but the men in front only had eyes for their escape with me as their captive.
    We walked for hours in that awful storm before the first light of dawn hit the horizon. I’d never been so thankful for illuminating lightening as I was that night. It had prolonged my life, but as daylight drew closer, I wished I were dead already. My head and shoulders sagged with exhaustion and my maimed, bloody feet dragged. Every muscle in my body screamed against its treatment, and the ropes around my wrists were soaked in the watered down blood of my struggles. My cheek had its own pulse where Matthew slapped me and my eye didn’t seem to want to open anymore. The rain slowed to a constant drizzle and fine water droplets fell from of the ends of my eyelashes.
    Ricky pulled his horse up short and dismounted.