Highland Stallion

by Kate Hill

  “You are. Never forget that.”

  “I won’t.”

  Moments later, they found themselves standing in the room of an inn that made the tack house look like a palace. An inch of dust covered the small table and all the chairs. When Zach dropped his saddle on the bed, dozens of insects scrambled from beneath the pillows. Sophia stifled a scream and Zach snatched his saddle, shaking it off.

  “We’re leaving,” Zach stated. “Let’s go.”

  “But the competition—”

  “I’m flying you home then I’ll come back for the competition.”

  “No! I want to see you in the contest. I’m not going anywhere without you, Zach.”

  His brow furrowed and he cupped her chin in his hand. “I could make you go.”

  Sophia’s spine prickled with anger. “Neither you nor anyone else is going to make me do anything!”

  Shaking his head, he muttered a curse, his flashing eyes fixed on hers. “We can camp out then.”

  “All right. I’d rather sleep in the fresh air than in this pigpen.”

  Luckily the tavern owner was more accommodating and returned Zach and Sophia’s money for the room. He would have no difficulty renting it again, as busy as the town was with the fair.

  It was dark when Zach built a fire and Sophia arranged their blanket on a flat ledge at the base of a cliff outside the city. At least they would be safe from snakes and dirt stingers.

  Sophia cuddled up close to Zach, wanting to be as near to him as possible in spite of the humid night.

  His arms wrapped around her, holding her close to his chest. His skin was hot and moist. It carried his clean, wonderful scent. She breathed deeply, pressing a kiss to his chest before they murmured sleepy goodnights.

  * * * * *

  “Don’t get out of my sight,” Zach told Sophia as she stood with him beneath the shade of a tree on the pulling field.

  They’d awakened at dawn, bathed, and shared breakfast. Though both preferred the stillness and beauty of the outskirts of the city, the pulling contest would begin early and Zach wanted to be there in time to prepare himself.

  The contest would soon begin. The meadow was filled with more people than Zach had ever seen in his life. Most of them looked about as trustworthy as a StoneSnake with a lamb in its coils. People shouted, shoved, and grabbed. The general rudeness reminded him of the way prisoners often treated each other in the mines. There people had fought for survival. Perhaps it was the same in a large city such as this, with everyone desperate for money and clobbering one another simply for breathing space.

  “Zach, I’m not a child!”

  “I realize that.” He held her gaze. “But take a look around.”

  She glanced at the humans and Horsemen mingling. Most looked rough. The Highlanders checking their harnesses and rubbing ointment into their tremendous muscles were rugged giants. Several flung her leering glances, though at a glare from Zach, they chuckled and went about their business. He didn’t doubt that if they hadn’t been focused on the competition, they might have started trouble with him, and he would have no problem finishing it. He was certainly no stranger to violence and though he despised it, any man who threatened Sophia was as good as dead.

  “Even during the competition, stay right by this tree so I can see you.”

  “You’d better focus on pulling and don’t worry about me,” she said, glancing at the other entrants. “There are many more Highlanders here than at the fair in Hornview. Gods, they all look like walking mountains.”

  Zach shrugged. “I guess that depends on who’s looking at them.”

  Sophia’s gaze raked him from head to tail and she grinned. “I guess you’re right.”

  She’d spoken the truth, however. There were twenty competitors that day, and he didn’t doubt some of them would prove challenging. The heat didn’t help, either. The mines had often been stifling, but this tropical humidity was strength-sapping. The insects annoyed him beyond endurance. Sophia wore a light shirt and trousers to protect her skin, but Zach’s bare man-torso and equine-half were more vulnerable. His tail continuously flicked his hindquarters in an attempt to keep the bugs away.

  “One thing’s for sure,” he said, checking his harness, “we’re never moving out of the north.”

  “I’m glad of that.”

  “Damn,” he muttered, “I forgot to fill my water pouch.”

  “I’ll do it for you.” She reached for the container. He placed his harness aside and clasped his hand over hers.

  “Sophia, I—”

  “Zach, the well’s right over there!” She pointed across the field as she backed away. “You’re worse than my parents ever were!”

  Zach watched as she crossed the field, his heart jumping when a huge Highlander almost backed into her while roughhousing with a friend.

  She filled the pouch and headed back, smiling and lifting her hand in a short wave as she neared.

  “Here,” she said, placing the pouch around his neck before sitting under a tree.

  Zach turned back to his harness and his stomach dropped. “No! Bloody hell!”

  “What’s wrong?” She leapt to her feet and stared at his harness, her eyes wide. One of the straps had been cut, rendering the equipment useless. Someone must have sliced it when he’d turned his back to watch her at the well!

  “Oh no,” Sophia sighed. “I’m sorry, Zach. Looks like you can’t compete. I know you would have done well!”

  “Damn. This is probably some kind of payback for killing those men during the rebellion.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Zach.”

  The young bay highlander who had spoken to Zach the previous day in the tack house approached. “Something wrong here?”

  Zach glared at the other Horseman. In spite of the false concern on his face, Zach knew he and his burly brown-coated friend could have been the ones who’d ruined his harness. They had mentioned hearing about his performance in Hornview. Why else would anyone want to keep him out of the competition? He doubted anyone else knew of him. After all, he was nobody to speak of in the pulling circles…yet. He vowed to change that, but he wouldn’t do it standing there staring like an idiot at his harness.

  “Too bad, Zach,” the youth continued. “I bet you’d have made a fairly decent showing.”

  “Don’t count me out yet,” Zach snarled. He turned to Sophia. “Get on my back.”

  “But—”

  “Just do what I say for once, woman!”

  Sophia’s eyes widened a bit, though she accepted his arm up. Before she settled comfortably on his back, he was already moving toward the city square.

  “Don’t ever order me around like that again!” she snapped, her knees pressed to his sides.

  “I’m sorry, but I need to hurry. There’s not much time before the competition starts.” Zach held his torn harness so tightly his knuckles turned white. He knew he shouldn’t have spoken to her so roughly. He paused and glanced over his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I got an idea and want to act on it fast.”

  “What are you going to do? We don’t have enough money with us for a new harness, and without the harness, how can you pull?”

  He stopped in front of a fruit stand and asked where the tack shop or blacksmith’s was located.

  Moments later, they stood in a large but dingy shop, waiting for a gravel-voiced blacksmith to finish speaking with a customer.

  “Excuse me,” Zach said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m in a hurry.”

  “Wait your turn!” snapped the slender gray-coated Horseman speaking with the blacksmith. “Highlanders. You all think because you’re big as houses you can act any way you want.”

  Zach’s teeth clenched, but when he spoke, he managed to keep his temper. “I apologize for my rudeness, but the competition will be starting momentarily and I need a new harness. Mine has been destroyed.”

  “You want to buy new tack?” The blacksmith’s eyes brightened at the thought of a larger sale than he
was getting from the other Horseman who stomped off in a huff.

  “Not exactly,” Zach said. “I thought I might borrow some and pay you out of my winnings.”

  The blacksmith uttered a loud, humorless laugh. “Get the hell out of my shop, idiot! And thank you for chasing off a good customer!”

  “I’ll pay you for two days’ rental instead of one,” Zach said.

  “You don’t have any money!”

  “I will in about an hour or so.”

  The blacksmith shook his head. “Boy, those are some of the best pullers around out there. I’ve never even seen you before, yet you tell me you’re going to win first place. Do I look like a fool?”

  “Listen,” Zach told him, “rent me the harness now and I’ll pay you if I win. If I lose, I’ll give you one month’s free labor.”

  “Zach!” Sophia snapped.

  The blacksmith’s eyes widened as they swept over Zach’s powerful physique. “Even if you lose, I don’t doubt you can give a hell of a day’s work. Of course you’ll agree to this in front of the sheriff?”

  “Where is he?”

  Sophia grasped Zach’s arm, her nails biting almost painfully into his flesh. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “No.”

  The blacksmith laughed. “You’re either an arrogant son-of-a-bitch or pretty sure of your strength.”

  “I think it’s a combination of the two,” Sophia said through clenched teeth. He knew she was furious, and she probably had reason, but he needed that harness! It was the chance to win more money than he’d ever seen in his life, enough to contribute to their household and edge them closer to marriage. It would be tough, but he would win. He felt it. There hadn’t been a load in the mines he couldn’t pull. Other Horsemen had died under the demands set by the slavers, but Zach had beaten them all. He knew his limits and was perfectly willing to wager that no Highlander at the fair could pull more weight further than he could.

  “The sheriff’s right down the road. Hey, Charlie!” the blacksmith bellowed. A man with a leather apron fastened around his waist, his bare, sweat-slicked chest streaked with dirt, stepped out of a back room. “Watch the shop for a minute. I have some business.”

  Zach and Sophia followed the blacksmith to the sheriff who wrote up a hasty agreement for the two men to sign.

  The blacksmith scrawled his name with the fountain pen and held it out to Zach. He stared at it for a moment, feeling heat rise in his face.

  “Getting nervous, are you, boy?” the blacksmith sneered. “I knew it was too good to be true to get a month’s free labor.”

  “I can’t write,” Zach stated, burning with shame. In the mines, there had been no time for education. He’d learned much from an older Horseman who’d taken Zach quite literally under his wing when he’d been a child, but there were many lessons he’d hadn’t been taught.

  “Let me see that!” Sophia snatched the parchment from the sheriff and glanced over it. “Everything seems in order. It says he’ll loan you the harness for payment after the competition, if you win. If you lose, you work a month for him, free of wages. Take the pen and make an X there, Zach, if you’re still determined to be a damn fool!”

  He did as she instructed then turned to the blacksmith. “Get me the harness. Fast.”

  * * * * *

  Sophia stood close to the field, her hands twisting in front of her. Her heart pounded and her entire body felt tense as she watched Zach and the other Highlanders line up for the competition. Though he was positioned almost in the center of the field, he was still a bit taller than most of the other Horsemen, and she saw his brown hair, braided tightly to his neck.

  The Highlanders stood still while blocks of stone, all cut to equal size, were loaded onto their sledges. At a signal from the tall, gray-haired Horseman running the contest, the heretofore noisy crowd fell silent. Sounds drifted from the fair on the opposite side of the field, but everyone watching the contest knew to be silent while the Highlanders pulled since they required the utmost concentration to perform.

  All the entrants pulled their load the length of the field. More stones were added and they pulled again. Sophia felt almost numb with worry. If Zach lost the prize money it was one thing, but if he lost his freedom for a month, it would be terrible! And how would she get back to Hornview if he was forced to stay and work for the blacksmith?

  Five times the Highlanders pulled their loads before one dropped out. On the sixth pull, others were lost, leaving eleven on the field. These Horsemen were much more powerful than the ones in Hornview, lasting longer and pulling more weight. Sophia stared at the grunting Horsemen, their muscles bulging beneath sweat-slicked man-flesh and drenched equine coats. The day grew warmer and the air thickened. Sophia felt perspiration trickle down the back of her neck as she listened to the pullers’ harsh breathing. By the tenth pull, only four Highlanders remained, a tall black-haired Horseman with a black coat, the bay and brown youths from the tack house, and Zach.

  Sophia watched as they stopped at one end of the field. Lather covered their coats near their straps on their equine bodies. Sunlight gleamed on their rock-hard muscles. The black and the bay panted hard while Zach and the brown-coated youth drew deep, steady breaths. Sophia could tell those two weren’t yet close to their limits, while she doubted the others would last for two more tries up the field.

  She was right. The black dropped out halfway through the next pull while the bay finished successfully, but couldn’t budge the next load.

  Zach and his last competitor stood for a moment, composing themselves, while more stones were added to the sledges. They were piled incredibly high, but rather than wood, the sledges were built of metal, made especially for the grueling Highlander competitions.

  “Seems that Horseman of yours has a right to his arrogance,” the blacksmith said from where he stood beside Sophia, his eyes fixed on the field. “But that other boy is just as determined, and he’s won many competitions.”

  “Well, he’s about to lose,” Sophia stated, her pulse throbbing both from excitement and concern. Would Zach win? Could he? He had to, or else they’d be stranded in the tropics for a month!

  At the proper signal, Zach and his competitor leaned into their harnesses. Sophia saw Zach’s muscles swell and his long, powerful legs lift. His hooves sank into the dirt as he edged forward. The brown matched him step for step. As they passed in front of Sophia, she heard their ragged breathing and saw veins and tendons straining beneath their skin and coats. Both reached the end of the field and stood, panting. The brown cast a sidelong glance at Zach, but he was completely focused on the field. She noted his breathing returned quickly to normal while the other Horseman hadn’t quite caught his breath before the next pull began. Zach walked steadily to the end of the field, not pausing once. The brown stopped halfway but managed to continue to the end. A red flush stained the dark skin of his neck and face as he leaned forward, bracing his hands against his equine chest. The Horseman in charge approached him and spoke too low for the crowd to hear. Sophia guessed he was asking if he was able to continue. The youth nodded and straightened as more stones were added.

  Zach and the brown began together, pushing their weight into their harnesses, their muscles straining. Sophia’s stomach hurt from clenching. She wondered how they could stand so much weight. Their muscles must be on fire.

  After several steps, the brown-coated Highlander paused. Grunting, he leaned hard into his strap and tried to follow Zach who was halfway across the field. The brown inched forward, stopping again. By then, Zach had already reached the end and stood, catching his breath, as the brown made a third try. He wouldn’t get a fourth. Only three separate pulls were allowed for each load. Sophia’s brow furrowed and she noticed others in the crowd staring with narrowed eyes as the brown continued with slow, painful steps, his breath rasping, across the field. When he reached the end, his entire body trembled and sweat dropped from his face and equine-belly.

  “Damn,” the blacksm
ith murmured. “I think I’m going to lose my month of free labor.”

  “Looks that way,” Sophia said, a smile playing around her lips. Still, she wouldn’t start celebrating before the contest ended.

  The stones were piled so high that several Horsemen flew the additional ones to the tops of the sledges. Sophia couldn’t imagine any creature hauling so much, let alone appearing as collected as Zach at the end of it. He wiped a hand across his eyes and shifted a bit as the harness must have irritated his torso. While it was a decent piece of equipment, it didn’t fit quite as well as his old one.

  Again the pulling began. The brown walked with Zach for a full two steps before stumbling almost to his knees. As he righted himself, he didn’t attempt to move again, but stared after Zach as he strode down the field. Only the furrowing of Zach’s dripping brow told Sophia that he was beginning to tire. She doubted anyone else in the crowd would have thought so, the way his powerful body swallowed the field with long strides, his great hooves thudding on the dirt.

  Sophia smiled, her pulse racing, when he stopped at the end of the field. The slightest grin tugged at Zach’s lips as well as he stood, his man-torso straight and proud, his broad chest heaving, his beautiful velvet-brown coat frothy. Beside her, the blacksmith cursed but admitted it was the finest pulling he’d ever seen.

  Once Zach was pronounced the winner and given the bags filled with his prize money, the crowd roared, mostly with cheers, though there were some boos from those sour gamblers whose favored Highlander hadn’t won. Sophia rushed to Zach as a crowd began forming around him. He saw her and reached for her hand. She grasped his hot, slick forearms and tugged. He bent, accepting her kiss. He still hadn’t quite caught his breath. A pulse pounded in the base of his throat and his entire body was drenched. Prominent blue veins riddled his chest and abdomen and others created dozens of patterns beneath his wet brown coat. Gods, she wanted him! As soon as he changed to Huform, she needed to feel his big, steely cock deep in her pussy and his powerful arms wrapped around her.