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“Who did this to ye?” he asked, his voice heavy with anger. Keira would have flinched if anyone else had used such a tone, but she didn’t flinch now. Not with him.
“I need to go,” she whispered, afraid to tell him who had been behind the bruises. She knew she was beyond help anyway. Whomever this man was would not be able to do anything for her. He was an enemy of Eric’s, and in the honorary sense of the word, she was Eric’s prized possession. He would never help her. She only needed to escape, get as far from Eric and this castle as she possibly could.
“There is nay where to go. Tell me who did this to ye,” he asked again, his words restrained as if he was fighting to conceal the anger in his tone.
“It does nae matter,” she replied, running her hands over her arms as a sudden chill overtook her. She turned silent as he picked up her kilt from the ground and wrapped it around her shoulders once again. “I need to go.”
“I asked ye a question. Do nae make me ask again,” he said, his words sounding both urgent and furious, but Keira was not going to give him a name. She was not going to tell someone from the enemy clan that Eric had done this, because then she’d have to tell him she was his betrothed too. She was sure they wouldn’t take this kindly.
“Why do ye care?” she asked back angrily, looking around to make sure her absence was still unnoticed. The man was becoming a hurdle to her escape. “Move. I need to leave. Now.”
“Nay, ye do nae,” he said as if he was deciding for her.
“I said move. I must leave before the battle is over. Ye do nae understand!” she said, clearly frustrated. She pushed against him, but he was built like steel, entirely unmovable.
Before she knew what was happening, he removed his kilt and wrapped it around her, over the plaid she already had on to protect her from the biting winds. She noticed he was wearing breeches underneath. His colors wrapped around her arms. She suddenly felt warm, but not yet safe. She would not be safe until she was as far away from Eric as possible.
“There is no where to go,” he replied. “Ye are coming with me.”
He suddenly picked her up in his arms as if she was weightless, and Keira knew that to him, she most certainly must have seemed weightless. He threw her over his shoulder as if she was a bag of wheat, and she realized what was happening. This man, whoever he was, was taking her away with him. A man she did not know was trying to kidnap her, and Keira could not let this happen. This was her only chance to escape. She could not flee from Eric, only to be captured by a stranger.
“Let me go,” she shouted, kicking with all her might at his thighs and hitting her fists on his back, but he acted as if none of it had an effect. He was built like steel, and his skin felt as if it was pure muscle. He might truly not feel a thing.
“Stop it,” he said when she continued hitting him as he walked with her on his back. Keira could see the battle unfolding in front of her, and she did not know what was going to become of her. The smoke only kept increasing as it filled her lungs, and she was beginning to feel dizzy. She knew if she were still running, she would not have been able to make it much further.
“I need to go,” she shouted, a cry escaping her throat. “Ye do nae understand. I really need to go. This is my only chance. Please let me go.”
“Ye are safe with me, fox,” he whispered as if coaxing a child. Keira only felt insulted and began to hit him harder. The smoke kept making her dizzier, and she was beginning to lose sense of what was happening around her.
She noticed when the handsome stranger suddenly stopped walking and instead placed her on a horse before mounting himself. Keira had no strength left in her body to run away or fight anymore. She was both exhausted and dizzy, and the smoke surrounding them made it even worse.
“I am nae safe. Let me go,” she whispered to the man, who simply looked at her with patience in his gaze. He still did not loosen his hold on her.
Before she could say much else or hear what he was saying, her vision began to darken as things around her started spinning faster and faster. As the man began to move away from the forest and the burning castle, Keira saw Eric. His brown eyes were on her as he watched her ride away with the stranger. Keira knew she was away from him.
She was away from the danger that her betrothed brought to her, but she did not know if the man she was with was safe or just another Eric. She knew she could not trust him, but as her senses began to get even more muddled, she had no choice but to close her eyes against the darkness and hope for things to work out in her favor.
She would not die today.
CHAPTER3
“Where am I?”Keira whispered as she slowly sat up in bed, her body still hurting. The battle. A large man who had picked her up as if she was weightless. Eric’s cold eyes as he stared at her before she fainted. Had she fainted? Keira couldn’t make sense of what was happening, or where she was.
Her memory returned as she realized that she was not home, and she could not be at Eric’s castle. Her bedchamber there never had a burning fire, and Eric had refused to provide her with anything warm to cover herself, leaving her entirely miserable in the cold.
The blanket on top of her had indeed kept her extremely warm, and she felt protected. The feeling reminded her of home, but as she stared at the bedchamber, she knew this was a place she had never been before. The bedchamber was large and lavishly furnished, and from what she could tell, she was inside a castle.But whose castle?Fear gripped her chest as she remembered the man that had taken her. Who could he be?
Keira slowly moved her body to turn around, wanting to look at the other side of the bedchamber as well. Even turning around from one side to the other while sitting up required a considerable amount of strength. Just as she turned around, her gaze landed on the lit fireplace giving the entire bedchamber an orange glow even though it was dark outside. Had an entire day gone by? She could not tell.
As she looked to the side of the fireplace, a small shriek escaped her lips as her eyes once again met the piercing blue eyes she had encountered in the forest. The handsome warrior who had brought her here. Keira’s mouth went dry at the very sight of him. The fact that he was still staring at her in the same way as he had done earlier was not helping at all.
He was dressed in a plain white shirt which was thin enough to reveal the hardened muscles on his chest and stomach, making him appear almost god-like perfection. It felt as if he was not real but molded right out of marble. His strong thighs lay open leisurely as he leaned forward on the sofa he was seated on. His breeches strained against the muscles on his thighs, and his arms were flexed enough for her to see how strong he truly was.
Although, his most striking feature was still his eyes. They were as blue as the sky on a stormy night, and, set against his olive skin, they looked extraordinary. As if God had given them to him to make him appear more heavenly than human. His long, black hair that framed his square jaw was messy as if he had been running his hands through it for a while. Keira had never imagined someone this brutal could be this handsome. He was a warrior through and through. The strength his body emanated made him appear almost terrifying, yet Keira could only find herself drawn to him.
“Who are ye?” she asked, trying her best to not appear meek. She knew it was not easy to look strong in front of a man who was twice her size, but she would not succumb to yet another man. Eric had broken her already, and she was tired. She was not going to sit quietly as whoever this man was did whatever he wished to do with her. She needed to go.
“Why did ye bring me here? I told ye to let me go,” she asked again but knew her question would go unanswered yet again. He was silent still.
