Stallions

by Jade Carr

"You're having sex with him?" Ahote shot a look at Nokoni, who stood statue-like in the desert sun.

  "Yes," Nokoni said, "she is."

  Three simple words, almost nothing compared to what else was going on, and yet they awakened her. The truth was, they hadn't been having sex in the way Ahote undoubtedly believed. Instead, she, Nokoni, and Hah-Tee had been taking their relationship in a direction she'd never believed possible. If she hadn't been at the center of that threesome, she wouldn't be where she was now. Under any other circumstances, she'd be looking for law enforcement leaving four men to do whatever it was men did when testosterone ruled them.

  Four men. Where was Hah-Tee?

  "Terena," Ahote said. "Go home. I—I'll get in touch with you as soon as I can."

  "Unlike when I left a message, asking you to call me?" She didn't want to be angry at her cousin, but how could she help it when she felt as if she'd fallen into a river and was being swept toward a dangerous waterfall? "Sorry, cuz. No can do." She walked up to Ahote's horse and placed her hand on the lassos. "Explain."

  "Terena." Nokoni warned. "Be careful."

  Alerted by the shifter's tone, she sensed him taking a step in her direction.

  "Stop right there." Wood sighted down his rifle at Nokoni.

  Nokoni stood on the edge between man and animal, predator and prey. He wanted to fight. Aggression was in his nature, part of what it meant to be a stallion. At the same time, instinct warned him not to jeopardize his life because the herd needed him—as did the woman who'd entered his life. Terena sensed this, and it increased her awe for him and Hah-Tee.

  He was more than a mustang, greater than a man with little comprehension of the world. He was sex in its most basic form, and yet thinking that wasn't enough. Maybe it all boiled down to his body's impact on hers, the raw and wild nature of their relationship.

  She felt the same way about Hah-Tee.

  "Do what he says," she reluctantly told him, when she hated stripping Nokoni of his courage and fight.

  "Listen to your whore." Wood laughed. "Take your naked ass back where you came from and finish giving it to her. By then, my friend and I'll be gone, along with a couple of meal tickets."

  "Is he right?" she asked her cousin. "You won't stop until you've captured another mustang, or more than one?"

  Nokoni's intake of breath seared her nerves. How helpless he must feel staring at a rifle while every fiber of his being ached for action, but even if he dared charge Wood, could he justify injuring or killing the man? After all, the only thing Wood and Ahote had done was go riding on the reservation.

  "I don't want to be doing this," Ahote said. "But I don't have a choice."

  "We always have a choice, damn it!" Wishing she could shake her cousin, she lifted one of the lassos off the saddle and dropped it on the ground. She reached for the other. "I'm taking these. Go back where you came from."

  Before she could grab the second rope, Ahote slapped her hand away. Her arm stung.

  "What's that?" She struck her cousin's thigh with all her strength. "Damn you, we aren't kids fighting over a toy. This—"

  A deep grunt distracted her. Spinning toward the sound, she saw everything in slow motion. Nokoni had started toward her. That had prompted Wood to knee his mount forward and press the rifle barrel against Nokoni's chest.

  The two men had glared at each other from the beginning, but that was nothing compared to the hostility now spiraling between them. Nokoni's fisted hands, clenched jaw, and inhaled breath again had her drawing comparisons between him and an animal about to attack. Fear for him all but blinded her. She propelled herself at Wood. She wasn't sure what she hoped to accomplish—whatever it took to get her hands on the rifle.

  Wood gripped the rifle with one hand and yanked on the reins with the other. The startled horse jumped back with its head flung high and his ears back.

  Rapid-fire thuds snagged her attention. Hah-Tee, in stallion form, galloped toward them. Coal-black tail flying behind him and the eagle symbol seemingly in flight, he charged.

  "No!" Wood screamed. Tearing her attention off the approaching stallion, she watched as Nokoni and Wood fought over the rifle. Nokoni would win! His strength was greater than Wood's, his determination unwavering.

  Then Wood's horse reared, breaking Nokoni's grip and forcing him back to avoid the flying hooves. Wood had let go of the reins and was trying to grab them again. The rifle wavered, dipped.

  Crack!

  For a mini-second that seemed to last forever, no one moved. Even the rearing horse seemed suspended in midair, and Hah-Tee froze with four hooves off the ground.

  Then Nokoni sank to his knees.

  Get up, get up! You lost your balance, that's all!

  Blood began escaping from the long furrow along his right shoulder. Nokoni was getting to his feet, but maybe he was in shock because he wasn't looking at anything. He seemed unaware of the rifle.

  A sharp whinny tore through her, and she faced Hah-Tee. He'd stopped with his front hooves digging into the ground and the whites of his eyes showing. Despite the stallion's tightly muscled body, she sensed human emotions. Alarm. Fear.

  "What the hell? What the hell?"

  She'd like nothing more than to slap Wood into silence. Instead, she approached Nokoni. She'd asked for a leave because she hated being on the outside during a crisis. Now she was in the middle of one. This wasn't something she could walk away from.

  It would stay with her for the rest of her life.

  "Stop!"

  She opened her mouth to tell Wood to go to hell. His damnable deadly rifle was pointed at Hah-Tee.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Ahote demanded. "You can't shoot him."

  "The hell I can't. The damn beast hates me."

  Hah-Tee pawed the ground. Even though his arm hung at his side, Nokoni looked steady on his feet.

  "Do it, Hah-Tee," Nokoni said. "Kill the man."

  Realization that Nokoni might be more animal than human right now silenced her. Hah-Tee repeatedly pawed the ground.

  "Bastard!" Wood spit out. "Damn killing bastard."

  Great mustang muscles contracted. Sunlight sparked off Wood's rifle followed by a sound like death. A bullet tore past Hah-Tee and struck the rocks. The second bullet hit a boulder and ricocheted off it. The stallion reared. Terena whirled toward Wood. Her foot rolled off a rock, causing her to stumble.

  Another bullet screamed. Hah-Tee's answering whinny punctuated the deadly sound. Her hand over her throat, she stared at the powerful stallion. Before she could think how she might help him, he shuddered, then reared again.

  Crack!

  "Damndamndamn!"

  If not for her burning throat, she wouldn't have known she was responsible for the outburst. Everything happened at once, Nokoni heading toward Wood and his horse, the mount rearing and bucking, Ahote fighting his own terrified horse while holding tight to his rifle, Hah-Tee looking more like a stalking cougar than a stallion. She grabbed a rock.

  Then Wood slumped and fell to the ground. His weapon clattered next to him. Blood stained his shirt. He didn't move.

  "Oh God, oh God, oh God."

  If she'd heard Ahote say that when she was a child, she would have rushed to him and comforted him. Now she stared at her cousin as he clutched the rifle that had been attached to his saddle just moments ago. He didn't look at Wood.

  Nokoni dropped to his knees next to Wood. He used his good arm to turn the man onto his back and pressed his fingers to the side of his neck.

  "He's dead."

  "I didn't mean—" Ahote blubbered. "Terena, you have to believe me. I didn't want to kill him, but I was scared…" He stared at Hah-Tee.

  It fell together for her. Ahote had realized his partner, if that's what Wood was, had been trying to kill Hah-Tee before the shifter could do the same to him. Ahote had done the only thing he could think of: he'd shot Wood.

  Sick and empty, she looked around but couldn't think where she should go or what she should do. A m
an was dead, and her cousin had killed him. Nokoni had been wounded, and Hah-Tee had come close to losing his life.

  Nokoni started to stand, only to sink back down.

  "What's wrong?" she demanded. "We have to get you to a hospital."

  Chapter 21

  No." Not looking at her, Nokoni pushed himself to his feet and approached Hah-Tee. He placed his good hand over the stallion's white chest and muttered something that might be in Comanche.

  Wishing she was anywhere but here, Terena stared as Hah-Tee again became a man. That done, Hah-Tee wiped blood off Nokoni's arm. Ahote still held his rifle but looked as if he might drop it at any moment.

  This was her cousin, the closest thing she'd ever have to a sibling. He was in shock, scared, and undoubtedly filled with a thousand conflicting thoughts. Instead of trying to draw them out of him, she focused on the shifters.

  These men had put her damn stupid and overpowering sexual desire ahead of their own needs. For a few innocent erotic minutes, she'd delighted in how they'd handled her. Their naked bodies had fueled her libido, and their hands had worshipped her.

  But that was before the nightmare.

  "I'm so sorry," she managed. "You don't deserve any of this."

  "Don't we?" Nokoni demanded.

  "That's what we don't understand," Hah-Tee added. "What brought us to the reservation?"

  Nokoni started to flex his shoulder. Wincing, he stopped. "Rifles. Bullets. Men willing to kill because they believe they have a right to get rich off a mustang's speed." He glared at the lasso she'd thrown to the ground. "Men who rob a horse of its freedom, who separate a colt from its mother."

  "Not everyone is like that. There are a lot of good people, men like Yamka and my uncle, who only want to make a living from the land."

  "Maybe there aren't enough like them."

  "What is this about?" she asked. "Look, I understand your anger. I feel the same way."

  "It's more than that." Nokoni again tried to shrug. "I can't shift until this heals. I'm trapped in human form."

  He was right. A horse needed four healthy legs. "There's a health clinic in Moenkopi. When the tribal police arrive, we'll have them take you there, either that or Yamka—"

  "Like this?" Nokoni ran his good hand down his chest and over his cock.

  "If necessary. My cell phone—" She patted her back pocket. "It must have fallen out when…"

  If Hah-Tee was unwilling to again become a stallion and retrieve her belongings, she'd take her cousin's horse or Wood's. Once she had her cell phone, she'd call Yamka. He'd know what to do, how to contact the tribal police, so they could begin their investigation…into what? Undoubtedly Nokoni and Hah-Tee would have to talk to law enforcement.

  Or would they? Maybe they'd have disappeared by then.

  "What are you going to do?" she asked around her inner turmoil.

  What are you going to do?

  The sun would soon set. When it did, summer's harshness would leave the land. Everything would become soft and quiet, but maybe not safe for the mares and foals that depended on him.

  Right now, watching Navajo and Hopi tribal police load Wood's body into a pickup, Nokoni wondered whether anyone cared about Wood and if his death meant the mustangs were safe.

  "I have to leave," Hah-Tee told him.

  "I know."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Follow you."

  Hah-Tee nodded but didn't point out that Nokoni wouldn't be able to keep up. At the moment, although he'd give anything to be with Terena, he and Hah-Tee were standing apart from the others. He didn't trust himself around Terena. He couldn't see her and assumed she was with her cousin who'd started talking to tribal police as soon as they'd showed up.

  Damn it, because of him she could have lost her life today.

  Cell phones were mysterious things—and easier to think about than Terena. Even with the pain in his arm, he recalled hearing her ask her cousin if he had a cell phone. When Ahote handed it to her, she'd called someone she called Yamka and told him what had happened. Long before the tribal police arrived, Yamka arrived with her clothing and the gelding she'd been riding earlier.

  Yamka had acknowledged him and Hah-Tee with a slow nod and even longer study that said he knew the naked men were shifters.

  For reasons he didn't comprehend, he trusted the weathered Native American.

  He wondered if Terena expected him to thank her cousin for shooting Wood, but he couldn't. He wouldn't. If things had gone Ahote's way, his colt would be a helpless captive.

  "Are you all right?" Hah-Tee asked.

  Terena had used the water in her canteen to bathe his wound, and one of the tribal policemen who, to his surprise, hadn't said anything about his and Hah-Tee's nudity, had bandaged it. "Stiff. Sore," he admitted, glad to have something other than Terena to think about. "Wishing I could sleep in a bed."

  "She'll take you to hers if you ask."

  Only a few days ago, Hah-Tee would have never said something like that. Nokoni shook his head.

  "Why not?" Hah-Tee pressed. "Is it because you don't trust yourself around her?"

  No, he didn't. He wasn't sure he ever would.

  "Go," he told the other shifter around the lump in his throat. "Find the herd."

  "Come with me. Once I change, you can climb on my back and ride me."

  "Thank you."

  "Then you'll—"

  "No. Hopefully I'll never have to depend on you that way. I'll follow you."

  Hah-Tee reached out as if to touch his shoulder, then stopped. Hah-Tee nodded at the vehicle holding Wood's body. "I'm not sure I'll ever understand what it means to be human—or that I want to."

  Neither do I. "Go. Wild dogs—"

  "Might try to bring down a foal, I know. Take care."

  "I will. And I want you to do the same."

  Hah-Tee didn't respond. Today, he needed a friend and going by the expression in Hah-Tee's eyes, the other shifter felt the same way.

  Nokoni remained where he was until the growing night enveloped the younger shifter. Not sure what he had in mind, he looked around to discover Yamka was watching him. He nodded at the Hopi who returned the gesture. Then Yamka indicated where Hah-Tee had been.

  "Do you trust him?" Yamka asked.

  "To do what?"

  "He's young. The young believe they know everything."

  "Yes," Nokoni said, "they do."

  "They don't want to listen to the voice of experience. They have to figure things out on their own. You and I know how it is because we were once like them."

  Nokoni couldn't help smiling. "Yes, we were."

  A motor came to life. The truck containing Wood's body started moving. Ahote, who was in the bed next to the body, stared straight ahead. Determined to make Ahote acknowledge him, Nokoni started to hold up his hand. Pain clamped on to his shoulder.

  "Face yourself," he called out to Ahote.

  Ahote didn't respond.

  The tribal officers had come in the same vehicle, which meant only Yamka, Terena, and he remained. Yamka had brought his pickup and trailer. Two of the four horses had been loaded into the trailer, and the others were tied to it.

  When the dust kicked up by the departing vehicle settled, Terena walked over to where he and Yamka stood. Her knotted hands rested on her belly, drawing his thoughts to that part of her. It didn't matter that she wasn't close enough to touch, her presence was like an endless wind on his skin. What if he'd never met her? Would he think something was missing from his world?

  Too late. She'd become part of it, and now he didn't know how to handle her impact on his emotions. Didn't have the strength to face them.

  "I'll let the two of you talk," Yamka said. "Terena, when you're ready to leave, I'll be with the horses."

  Wondering why he was doing this to both of them, Nokoni fingered his aching arm. She drew lines and circles in the dirt with her shoe. Hair like a waterfall at midnight shielded her features. He should leave, walk away, free h
imself from her power.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I don't know what else to say."

  "You didn't shoot me."

  "No, but someone I love was part of what happened. My cousin brought Wood here."

  He grabbed her arm with his good hand. "After what happened, you still care about him?"

  "Love doesn't die that easily. Ahote and I go back a long way. There was a time when I desperately needed him."

  "Needed him to what?"

  "Ahote and I never—did you think he and I'd—"

  "I don't know what it is to be human," he said and let her go.

  Her head had come up when he grabbed her, and now he looked into her blazing eyes. "If you're going to spend the rest of your life on two legs, you'd better learn the rules."

  He placed his hand over the bandage. "If this is what men are capable of, I want nothing to do with them."

  "Then go deep into the reservation. Stay a stallion. You can do that, can't you?"

  "Yes, but I'd quickly age." When she didn't say anything, he continued. "I'd lose more and more strength, speed, and energy. I'd have no role within the herd. Become worthless."

  "Oh, God, I'm sorry."

  She tried to touch him, but he stepped back before she could. His heart pounded. He didn't trust anything about himself.

  "I mean it, Nokoni," she went on after a long silence. "This isn't the life I'd ever want for you. You don't want it either, do you?"

  "No." Their conversation was over, and he needed to follow the younger shifter and try to find a place to spend the night. As for tomorrow…

  "So in time, you'd become an outcast among the mustangs?"

  "Not completely." He had to work at getting the words out. "I can stay at the edge of the herd, but they'll have no use for me."

  Moaning, she raked her hands through her hair. Her gesture sent blood to his cock, and he ached to seal her body to his, bury himself in her, and explode. Trust her enough to leave something of himself inside her.

  "Are you afraid?" she asked.

  I don't know. "Of what?"

  "Leaving one existence and starting another. Forgetting everything you learned and did for the first part of your life and discovering what it is to be a man."