Page 46 of The Stallion & The Tigress
“You’re a liar,” she swore.“A worm, exactlyas Aleksandr named you.I don’t believe he’s dead.A worm such asyou could never kill a man such as he.”
“Yet, here I stand, not him.”
“Aleksandr will come.”She couldn’t letherself think him dead.She wouldn’t, or all was lost.She waslost.“If he does not kill you, my father will.”
“The Black Mane will try,” Yago said, thesharp lines of his face beginning to blur.“Why else do you thinkwe have gone to all this trouble?If you had let me court you andmarry you and poison you on our wedding night, my parents’ revengewould have been quick and sweet.But since you were not agreeableto my wooing, you’ve forced us to improvise.”
She shook her head and closed her eyes tightas her vision swam.When she opened them again, Yago was watchingher, his gaze as black and smooth as pitch over a bottomlesswell.
“My father, my mother.”Her heart dropped atthe realization that she might never see them again.“My brother,Ratter, Aleksandr, they all warned me about you.”
“You should’ve heeded their warnings.”Yagotapped her on the nose and jerked his finger back as she snapped atit.Then he wagged his finger at her.“As you shouldn’t haveentered this race.”He shook his head and tsked.“Did you trulythink that you, a woman, could finish, much less win thisrace?”
“I beat you the first two races.”
The force of his slap slammed her head backinto the tree and left a ringing in her ears.
“You watch your mouth,” he snarled.
She licked her cracked and swollen lips, thecorners raw and bloody from the gag.“Why?”she whisperedhoarsely.
“Because I’ll gag you again if youdon’t.”
“No.”She shook her still spinning head.“Whytake me captive?Why take me to your father?Why not kill menow?”
“To exact revenge on your parents by firstdefiling and then killing you in a public manner.”He grinned,pleased with the chilling effect of his words.“When your preciousmare, Lasair, the last foal out of Storm Chaser and Cloud Dancercomes into season, we will breed her with an ass.”
Sahar swallowed her rising bile.“Killing mewill only lead to more killing,” she said.“To war between ourtribes.”
“Precisely.”
Aleksi made the previous night’s campsiteafter nightfall.The drier weather had held, and with the light ofa hastily made torch, he was able to find the muddy tracks of fourhorses leading east from the camp.One of the horse’s hoof printswere smaller than the others, and had not sunk so far into thedried mud.
“Lasair.”Carrying Sahar.
Until now he’d only had suspicions, but thesetracks were proof.Yago and his pack of curs had taken his tigress.Why, Aleksi could only guess, but he knew Yago to be a lying,vindictive corruption of a man, perfectly capable of exactingrevenge against anyone he perceived had slighted him.Aleksi wouldput nothing beyond the worm, and had worn a hole in the side of hischeek and in his gut worrying about how that revenge would beexacted.He’d spent the better part of the ride back praying toevery god and goddess he could think of that he would get to Saharbefore Yago had his way with her.She was a strong woman, thestrongest he’d ever known, but everyone had a breaking point, evena tigress.
Or an arrogant ass.
It had been Aleksi’s arrogance that had lether come to harm.He had been so cocksure that his presence wasenough to ensure her safety that he hadn’t taken Yago’s threatseriously enough.Not that Aleksi could have foreseen this.Yet, heshould’ve picked up on the signs.He should’ve been more suspiciouswhen she caught the Jackal standing over their bedrolls.Aleksishould’ve listened when she said the wine tasted off.Clearly,their wine had been adulterated with dream flower, and it’dhappened while they were busy with Feroz.Aleksi should have knownsomething was amiss when he woke up late and disoriented.He hadn’tdrunk that much wine.What he had done was become so distracted, sobesotted, that instead of protecting Sahar, he had left her open tothe Wolf’s vile, nefarious attack.Then Aleksi had given the worm afull day’s head start.
“AARRGGHH.”
He smashed the torch against a tree, his ragesplintering into a thousand flaming shards.He had to get her back,before Yago hurt her any more than he had already.Not because ofthe hundred gold pieces, not to be able to look King Asad in theeyes again, but because Aleksi wanted her back.Because he wantsher.He always had, since the first moment he had laid eyes onher.
The torch out, he glanced up at the face ofthe moon, a day away from full and spilling light down the trailbefore him.Yago and his pack may have gained a full day’s rideahead, but four horses traversing muddy terrain should be easyenough to track.With any luck, and the moon’s continuedassistance, Aleksi would be able to make a good portion of thedistance up if he rode all night.
Following their trail turned out to be theeasy part.The hard part was keeping his mind from straying to allthe atrocities the Wolf could inflict upon Sahar.The man was ascheming, spiteful, malevolent bully who had already proved he wascapable of base, vicious behavior.The chance that Aleksi would notfind her in time to save her from whatever horrible fate the Wolfhad planned for her gnawed at him, goading him into riding Zolotoyharder than was safe, or smart.If he injured himself or Z, and wasunable to reach her at all, what then?Even knowing this, hecouldn’t slow his pursuit.He wouldn’t.Not with every hoof beatpounding the image of her beaten, used, and bloody, or worse,deeper into his worried mind.
Sahar knelt on bruised knees at the stream’sedge and quickly lapped up the water from her cupped hands.Thechill of the water both stung and numbed the scrapes on her palmsand wrists, and eased the swelling of her tongue, which she bit asthe Jackal jerked the rope tied around her wrists, causing thewater to splash in her face.He cackled with glee as the icy waterran down the neck of her tunic, and she closed her eyes and slowedher breath to keep from lashing out at him.It would only make hersituation worse.
Yago had handed her leash over to the Jackalthat morning, the second morning of her kidnapping, and the Jackalhad immediately taken to playing with her, exacting his revenge forhis broken nose and laughing with sick pleasure every time heyanked on the rope, causing her to flail and fight to keep her seator to trip and fall onto her hands and knees at their infrequentstops.
The more distress and humiliation she showed,the greater her captor’s amusement, and she’d learned to hide herpain as best she could.The oil of the dream flower that theycontinued to pour down her throat actually helped numb the physicaland the mental pain, as well as taking the edge off the hungerpangs.They fed her only enough to keep her from fainting, but notenough to fill the hole in her belly.It would’ve been easy to givein and welcome the numbing relief, but she needed to keep what witsshe could about her, and had taken to acting more drugged andsubdued than she actually was.The tormenting thought that Yagomight truly have killed Aleksandr and that she was the cause of hisdeath had wormed its way into her mind and festered there, itspoison spreading into her heart, her blood, her marrow, chillingher to the bone.
Then there was the ever-present threat ofrape.A threat she expected would be meted out sooner or later, andthat she would not, she could not, allow herself to dwell on.Otherwise she would be useless.She had only herself to rely on.The possibility that Aleksandr would find her in time was slim tonone.Her willfulness had gotten her into this predicament, and itwould be that same stubborn will that got her out of it.
“Get up, bitch,” the Jackal commanded as shetook one last frantic drink.“To your feet, now.”
