The Bridal Hunt (Brides of the Hunt Book 1)
Page 5
"No!" I grunted a bit myself, figuring it might help, and pushed it back.
"You take. Kirch's." Kirch scowled, pointing at himself, then me, then the blanket, and then me again.
Is he implying I'm his? Like the blanket? "No." And after that explanation, a hell no.
"Take." He grunted and tried again.
"Nope.” There went my head, whipping back and forth again. I seriously, really needed to stop doing that before I kinked something. “Nuh-huh." Dead set on refusing, I crossed my arms belligerently, muttering some very unflattering words under my breath. "Not Kirch's." Index finger extended, I pointed to myself vehemently and told the beast, "Mina's. Mina's. Not Kirch's. Mina's."
The large male went from cajoling to pissed in seconds. "Kirch's! Not Meanie's!" Jaw snapping, he growled adamantly, his wide face flushing in frustration. Indignation pulsing off of him in waves, he gave me a narrow-eyed glare, his thick jaw tightening as his mouth snapped shut.
"It's Mina! Not Meanie! You boob!" My hand slapped over my mouth, but it was too late, the words had already come tumbling out, before I could think better of it.
Okay, so it's not the smartest thing in the world to taunt something that might possibly want to eat you, or whatever else he had in mind, but I’d be damned if I was going to just let him lay claim on me like I'm some kind of... of... possession! I'm alive! I'm a person, damn it!
If I'm gonna be eaten, nobody said I had to go down quietly. Truthfully, I don't even know if that's physically possible for me.
Kirch growled long and low, crouching down, his hackles rising as he prowled towards me. Oh god. I think I just challenged him, sorta.
Sooo not gonna win a fight against him, girly! But you just had to keep pushing, didn’t you, Wilhelmina?! Couldn't just take the fuckin' blanket!
My mouth dropped open in a tiny o as my eyes rounded to saucers. Stumbling to keep my footing, I backed up slowly at his advance, circling the small room, until my back hit the other far wall.
Out of options or places to go, I huddled down into a corner of the room, and damned if I didn't tremble.
Despite my earlier bravado, I magically transformed into a chicken at the fierce look this Kirch male had plastered on his face.
Snarling angrily, his lips pulled back, large, white teeth gleaming menacingly, sharp and deadly, and he snapped them as he approached.
The better to eat you with, my dear.
A small whimper escaped me, but I swallowed the second one, forcing it back.
Kirch paused at the sound, sniffing the air. Leaning a little closer, he grunted, fuzzy eyebrows pulling down as he sniffed the air again, just over my head, a slightly puzzled expression on his face.
Yellow eyes studied my face intently, noticing the subtle shaking in my hands, the tremble in my lips as my eyes watered.
Flushing, I swiped my eyes and shoved my hands behind my back, giving the man-beast a carefully blanked look. I said chicken, not pussy. I'm not going to just outright act like a weenie, I have some pride, after all.
Approaching cautiously, Kirch spared me a quick, watchful glance. Setting the blanket at my feet and backing up a little, he crossed his arms over his thick chest, and chanced another look to me, clearly confused.
His thick, furry eyebrows furrowed, bunching into a befuddled frown. "Meanie scared?"
"Of what? Your smelly blanket?" I blurted, snapping the words out waspishly.
Tempted to slap my hands over my mouth again, I locked my fingers behind my back so tight I thought I might snap them right off. Let him think I totally meant to say that.
What can I say? I'm mean under duress. Quips and snappy comebacks are my go-to. Don't think they're going to be very helpful in my present situation, though.
"Take, Meanie," he said sternly, lips thinning grimly. A grunt on his lips, his chin jutted towards the blanket.
"You take. I don't want it." I spoke quietly but adamantly, making shooing motions at him as I pressed my spine against the wall.
Something about his insistence I take it was striking me as odd. Why is it so important to him for me to wear it?
Something smells fishy around here... It isn't the blanket, and it certainly ain’t me.
Then again... could just be he didn't want Christmas dinner to catch cold and die before he could cook her up properly. Hah! Too bad.
Maybe I'll get too cold and die in my sleep, I thought acidly, trying to figure a way out of this ridiculous situation.
"Sleep, female," he ordered, growling at me when I kept up my refusal. Snarling low, the sound rattling his massive chest as he stalked towards me, he scooped up his blankie and tucked it under his arm. "Bad, Meanie. No listen. Bad female."
My jaw dropping, I glared at him as he snarled at me angrily, watching him as he muttered something that sounded rather insulting, more than likely directed at my person. His head shook as he continued to grumbled and mumble, clearly frustrated, that wild mane of his whipping around him further emphasizing the lion impression he gave off.
Lips curling up to expose his teeth, eyes twitching as he glared one last time in my direction, he swung around, his big body swaying with the motion, and was stomping out in a huff before I’d had time to think twice about it.
Ohhh! So, arrogance in males is universal, then? "Boob!" I shouted indignantly at his retreating back, shaking my fist in the air.
When he stopped suddenly, as if to come back in, I squeaked and ran back to the safety of my corner.
Peering over at me through narrowed, yellow slits, he snorted and grunted, his thick upper lip twitching at the corner when he saw my pinched-lipped expression and saucer eyes.
Kirch grunted again, as if to say, “Yeah, that's right, lady, stay in your corner.” And then finally left.
Wanting nothing more than to scream and pummel him, I stuck my tongue at his retreating figure and slumped down into my space.
Thinking he might just come back, I waited a good fifteen minutes before I even dared to move, just in case. Slowly and quietly—I'm not much for stealth, but I try—I crept over to one of the windows. A sigh of relief escaped me as I peeked through one and saw him heading towards a group of other beasties, all congregating around a big bonfire.
I was tempted to see if I could leave, maybe make a run for it, but the steady influx of snow people walking by at any given moment told me that wasn’t a plausible idea at this time.
Patience, Wilhelmina, I told myself, we'll figure something out, somehow.
Turning my back to the wall, I settled down into a spot near the fireplace and tried to keep warm. Tucking my legs up to hug them to my chest, staring off across the way at nothing in particular, I tried to digest all that's happened so far.
Chapter Four
T
ime passed and eventually other women, quite a few of the ones I'd seen earlier, were ushered into the same small hut as me. The man-beasts that carried them in were all looking a little too pleased when their women each accepted their respective kidnapper’s offered animal furs without a single protest, snuggling up all bundled and warm next to the fire.
If I didn't think the animal furs had a meaning to them, I would have gladly taken Kirch's off his hands, but I knew better. Damn if those suckers didn’t look warm, though.
We all eventually ate the mystery stew in silence, some kind of unidentifiable vegetable mish-mash with no meat. Considering my worries about people-stew, I was relieved, and ate every bite—I even drank the broth.
"Where are we?" A petite blonde woman whimpered, huddling into her fur, trying to wipe stray tears from her eyes. “I want to go home!”
"I don't know," I told her quietly, wrapping my arms around my knees harder, hugging them to my chest tight enough to hurt.
As the night slowly wore on, the temperature dropped, and the cold really started to creep in.
Good thing I’d dressed warmly when I'd ventured out, I thought to myself. Would have been a bitch in pj's or something.
A girl can only take so much, you know. Missing fingers and toes due to frostbite aren’t really my thing.
"What do you think they want with us?" a tall red head queried, her hands shaking a little as she gripped her blanket tighter around her shoulders, huddled up with everyone else.
"What did they say to you?" I asked the room at large, peering around.
"The one who took me just kept sniffing me and saying something about a mate or mates... I don't know exactly. He kept switching back and forth between whatever it is he speaks and English," a stocky, older blonde woman admitted, grimacing at the idea.
"The one who took me didn't say anything. He just kept grunting and growling at me. He's so scary," a petite Hispanic woman whispered.
Someone reached over and gave her a there-there pat as she seemed to curl in on herself, closing herself off, and quietly gave in to tears.
"Mates?" I mumbled, wide-eyed, absorbing what the blonde woman had just said. "Mates! I'm not mating him! Good god! If that's what he's thinking, I'd rather he made good on his promise to eat me!" I blurted out in a rush, my voice going shrill and high-pitched in the wake of that particularly disturbing revelation.
"Eat us?!" the sniffling woman wailed wildly, hiccupping in distress. "If we don't mate with them they're going to eat us?!"
"Oh my god!" someone else cried.
"I don't want to die!!"
And so on and so forth as mayhem broke out.
I swear, the shocked gasps and madness that ensued was not my intention. My mouth had gone off before my brain’d had a chance to catch up.
Note to self: never tell a room full of distraught, stressed out, kidnapped women that your captor is contemplating how well you'd taste with ketchup.
The screaming and hysterical crying that followed my announcement was still making my ears ring.
I’d tried to backtrack, I really had, had tried play it off, but it was to no avail.
Now I'm sitting in the middle of the same hut, minus all of the other women, no one but myself for company. Apparently, I'd been deemed a trouble maker and separated from the herd.
That's alright, I never was much of a social butterfly anyway—I usually tended to keep to myself. Obviously not shy or anything, I just didn’t go out of my way to talk to people, or really put myself out there, so to speak. I’ve grown so used to doing things alone, in fact, I almost prefer it.
Replaying the last hour or so in my mind, I smiled, recalling the looks on the beasties’ faces as they’d collected their women. I couldn't help but smirk. They’d been livid, a sort of accusatory, what the heck did you do? They were fine when we left them, look about them. Heh. Heh.
Grimacing instantly, I sobered for a minute, remembering, feeling bad for accidentally scaring all of those women half to death—but it wasn't like I friggin' did it on purpose.
If the beast-men didn't want shit to go down then maybe they shouldn't have put all their captive women into one room, like a deranged daycare, and gone off to go fuck around or whatever it is they were doing.
They kidnapped me, not the other way around, yet they give me dirty looks? Oh, puhhhlease!
Trying to shuck it all off, snorting at the absurdity of it all, I glanced around. Hmm. Really alone at last, not a single soul or fur covered giant around.
Scooting quietly, hands slipping to the edge of the sill, I peeked out the window by the door. Spotting Kirch right off, I pressed my face closer. He was talking to someone, the two of them deep in conversation, gesturing at each other angrily. Probably one of the snow beasties bitching at him about me. Lips tipping up, I smiled at the thought. Good. I hope a bunch of those stupid beasts gang up on him and they each give him an ass chewing, then beat his butt or something.
Huffing quietly to myself, I eased away, making my way over to the other side of the room, where the other window was on the opposite side.
Slowly, so as not to draw attention, I did the same as before, giving the funny shaped pane a nudge, but this time, unlike the last, it moved. Elation filled me and I slowly pushed it open wide, heart racing excitedly as I poked my head out. Empty. Jackpot! Freedom!
Reaching over, I grabbed the single candle they'd left in the cabin and blew it out, snuffing it and stuffing it into my jacket. It was still warm, but time wasn’t exactly on my side. I needed to be quick about this.
Hesitating at the last possible second, I swallowed hard. Come on, Mina, you can do this. What are you waiting for?
It’s just like that show Grandma used to watch, the one where the guy gets shoved into some impossible situation or another, escaping with the help of nothing more than a paperclip, a fork, and a toothpick. Or whatever. Either way, I can do this.
“I can do this,” I whispered, ready to hoist myself up.
Feeling around in my pockets, my fingers curled around a tiny, cardboard box and a warped safety pin. Giving a silent shout out for my sometimes forgetful nature, I was nothing short of grateful for the raggedy box of matches I’d stuffed in my jacket—the ones I’d used to light the newspaper I’d used to start my fire back in the cabin—and forgotten to put away.
Eyes peeled, ears pricking, silent but alert, I crawled out the window, tumbling and flopping onto the ground in an ungainly heap.
Hoping I hadn’t made too much of a racket, I’d tried to muffle the, “Oomph,” that slipped past my lips as I slipped and fell trying to stand up, promptly plopping hard on my butt.
Grunting as I finally gained my feet, dusting myself off, I took off running, my legs pumping, heart racing as I hauled ass out of there.
No idea where, exactly, I was headed, but the farther away from them the better.
Moments later a shout sounded by my timeout hut, and I tried to pick up my pace, weaving between structures as I sped past.
Run! Run! Run! As fast as I can!
Blurring past me, I saw houses/hutches lighting up like little dots, resembling Christmas lights in the distance as Kirch's very distinct roar echoed throughout the cold night air.
Ohhh. I winced. He sounds mad. So very mad.
Chest prickling, my legs pumped harder.
I hit the woods soon enough and, despite the deep dark of the night, I kept going, preferring to face the unknowns of the forest alone and unarmed as opposed to a really pissed off Kirch.
I didn’t know what direction I was going, or really anything, I just kept running, only stopping long enough to catch my breath when a stitch grew in my side or I felt too winded, and then I’d start right back up again, forging ahead. Gotta keep going... Gotta keep going...
The scenery started to change slightly, when I’d gone far enough into a heavily wooded area, the thick foliage and even thicker trees surrounding me, their heavy branches slapping at me in my haste, beginning to thin out. Even the snow wasn’t as heavily blanketing the ground, the cool air just a shade warmer. Figuring there was no turning back at this point, I kept going.
Not much farther up ahead I came to a break in the trees. There were a bunch of rocks before me, as greenery gave way to soiled dirt and crumbly looking bits of mountainside. The strangely shaped rocks were all different colors, shapes and sizes, some boulders, others no bigger than a baseball, clumping together to form towering rock motifs, surrounded by even stranger plants and vines, as if to block my path.
They broke off, the rocks, openings here and there, as if to make little paths to choose from. They looked as if they each went somewhere different, no two the same. A labyrinth of rocks, I told myself. But which way to go...?
Changing direction slightly, I chose the most promising one—a grouping of boulders not much different than the rock formation that got me here in the first place. It seemed the best way to go, all things considered. Crunching through mushy snow that bled to mud, sludge ahead as far as the eye could see, snow surrounding the outer edges of th
e trail-like path, as if it had been cleared just for me, I headed that way, in the hopes it might lead home.
"Oh my god! Oh, please be close! Please be close!" Those rocks, down to the shape, size, and color, looked identical to the rock formations that Kirch beast had shoved me through. At least, to me they did. This really might be the way home, I thought excitedly.
My lips pulled into a grin in excitement, but I jumped when I heard a loud bellow, then another one in response. Shit. Shit, Shit. No! They're close! Shit! I need to hide, like, now!
Rounding a huge, craggy faced rock with a crack down the center, I spotted what appeared to be a small opening, camouflaged between two flatter looking, misshapen boulders. Hoping for a small cubby of space to hide in, I pressed myself against the entrance, and slowly wriggled inside.
When the small cubby opened up, the deeper I cautiously crept inside, revealing a cave—possibly caves—I was elated. Feeling my way around in the darkness, a sigh left my lips, right as a blast of warm air hit me.
Not a beastie-sized hole, I thought, glancing back to the cave mouth with some relief. Wedging my way through a tight spot just beyond that, I highly doubted any of them could squeeze their overgrown asses in here.
Hands outstretched to move along the cool stones, I followed the length of the smooth rock wall slowly. I’m in a tunnel, a rather wide one, I think. Maybe it leads out to the other side? Or to the rocks? More warm air wafted towards me, as if to chase the chill away, but I shivered.
Worried about being found out, I waited until I was far enough inside the tunnel to light my candle. The flame lit with a hiss, illuminating the space before me. Allowing my eyes a moment to adjust, squinting something fierce, I glanced around. Taking in the many tunnels that weaved in and out, some wide and some low, they all appeared as if to lead back to this one main room.
Hmm... Which one to take? Would they each lead somewhere else as well? I couldn’t decide. “Mm. Eenie, meenie, miny moe... This one it is, then.”
Candle held out in front of me, I followed the passage with the warm air wafting from it, gasping in surprise when the tunnel ended and I found myself in an enormous room with a large pool of water shimmering in the center. Warm steam rose up from the clear, blue liquid as it bubbled and gurgled. A hot spring!