Page 3 of Runaway Hucow

More lies.

Tess’s breasts were just as big as any other hucow’s, but they’d never produced any milk—not a single drop—and the auctioneer knew it too. That was the reason he’d threatened to hurt Tess if she didn’t get sold today. It was also the reason she kept her mouth shut now.

The auctioneer kept going. “I’d love to give you fine gentlemen a demonstration, I surely would, but then we’d have a mess all over this here auction block. And besides, it would be a damn shame—pardon my language—to waste a single drop of the precious milk that’s going to belong to whichever lucky man who ends up taking this hucow home with him today! You don’t have to take my word for it, though. Why, just look at those perked-up nipples, gentlemen. Clearly this is one hucow who simply can’t wait to be milked!”

He finished his little speech by flicking one of Tess’s nipples with the tip of his pointer, and she realized with a rush of dismay that the man wasn’t lying this time.

Her nipples were fully erect.

What the hell was that all about? Tess was no exhibitionist. She didn’t enjoy being stripped and paraded around on stage for an entire crowd to look at. On the contrary, it was all she could do to keep from picking up her dropped clothing to hide her body from the men’s staring eyes.

Then Tess looked at the giant in buffalo furs again, and she had her answer. As soon as their eyes connected, she could feel her pulse throbbing at the tips of her breasts, and a warm, ticklish sensation spread between her legs, working its way deep into her core. Tess had to bite down on her lip to stifle the shameful noises suddenly welling in her throat.

“Just look how she’s trembling,” the auctioneer said. “Why, she’s so eager to be milked, she can barely contain herself. Well now gentlemen, I do believe we’re ready to start the bidding… Do I hear twenty dollars?”

A hand bolted up near the front of the stage. Another man immediately countered with twenty-five, and a third called out thirty. Within a matter of seconds, Tess’s price was already up to a whopping fifty bucks.

The giant in buffalo hides didn’t say a word.

Tess guessed she probably should have been relieved by that. When she had first spotted the giant a few minutes ago, he had chilled her to the very marrow of her bones. But considering the intense way he kept staring at her, she was surprised when he didn’t place a bid.

Surprised and… disappointed?

“Sixty!” the auctioneer crowed beside her. “Do I hear sixty-five?”

The bids kept going off, but Tess was barely listening. All her attention was focused on the giant at the back of the crowd. There was something about him that called to her body on a deep, primal level.

“Eighty-five! Do I hear ninety? Ninety…”

Tess’s eyes remained locked with the giant’s. The rest of the crowd seemed to fade away, until all that remained was that massive, horned shadow standing in the middle of the empty town square, and Tess standing naked and alone on the stage.

Then, all of a sudden, she wasn’t even in Crooked Valley anymore. She was someplace dark and secluded, and the giant was on top of her and inside her, grunting and thrusting all the way to her deepest core. His girth stretched her, and his sacs slammed against her bottom, full and heavy with seed. The air around them grew thick with the scent of their mating.

There was some pain, of course, but Tess’s need was greater than the pain, and she begged him to keep going, not with words, but with her body. Her hips lifted against him, meeting each of his thrusts with a thrust of her own. Her walls squeezed his throbbing shaft, sucking him deeper inside, demanding his seed, milking him. When his climax finally came, it triggered Tess’s own, and she moaned aloud as he emptied himself into her hungering depths.

“Going once… Going twice… Sold, to the gentleman in the gray Stetson!”

And just like that, Tess’s dream was over.

She was back on the stage again, naked and shivering before a crowd of murmuring men who were now beginning to disperse. Her nipples were so hard they hurt, and there was a wetness between her legs that couldn’t merely be sweat.

She raked her eyes over the town square, searching for a horned war bonnet and a pair of dark eyes, but she couldn’t find them. The giant was already long gone.

Tess wondered if he’d ever really been there at all.

CHAPTER 3

Come midnight, Tess found herself inside a rundown stable not far from the center of town. It was owned and operated by the auction house, and it served as a place where customers could keep their recently purchased hucows until they departed. Many of the auction-goers—those who still had a few coins left in their purses—liked to stay overnight to enjoy Crooked Valley’s other attractions. Some tried their luck at cards or dice in the casinos. Others visited saloons to drink and fight the night away. The rest ended up at the brothels.

The man who had purchased Tess didn’t look much like a drinker or a gambler, so she guessed he had probably gone with the third option, despite wearing a gold wedding band on his finger. The man owned a small ranch outside Colorado Springs. Come daybreak, he and Tess would be catching the first train out of Crooked Valley, but tonight he was out on the town, presumably enjoying himself.

And Tess was in the stable.

Chained.

A heavy iron shackle had been locked around one of her ankles, with a short chain that kept her confined to the rear corner of the stable. The only light was what filtered in through gaps in the boards, but those gaps were wide and numerous. That didn’t matter too much on a sultry summer night like this one, but Tess could only imagine how cold the stable must get during the winter months. Moonlight shone faintly off the cobwebs in the rafters overhead. The floor was naked dirt with a bit of hay strewn around. Every now and then, she could hear rats scurrying through the shadows.

In a strange way, Tess was actually grateful for the rats. They kept her from falling asleep. She had dozed once, shortly after nightfall, and she had regretted it.