Page 326 of Bride of Choice

Three stumbling steps away and I opened my mouth to scream. Nothing ever became of it. A heavy arm swung at me, clipping me in the side of the head.

Nothing more than a soft yelp left me as I dropped to the ground.

I was pretty sure I blacked out for a bit, as the next thing I knew, I was tossed over a very bony shoulder and we were deep into the snowy woods. It was dark, only a faint sliver of moonlight to guide, and I was freezing.

My vision was off and it wasn’t from half hanging upside down for so long. My arms hurt, swinging limply over my head. My head was killing me. Everything was oddly blurry, the tang of iron rich in the air. My face was wet, a steady drip rolling down the side of my head.

Panic threatened as I realized that pain exploding in my face was a gash that I was bleeding from.

A part of me was thinking it was okay, because that left a blood drop trail for my mates to follow, while the other part of me was panicking wondering how much more I had left to drip in comparison to how much I’ve already lost.

Knowing putting up a fight was probably not in my best interest, my assailant/kidnapper trudged on.

He was shockingly fast for a rail thin wraith.

When he finally stopped, he dumped me into the snow and just left me there. Pretending I was still out, I watched him through tiny slits as he gathered wood, grumble-hissing and growling in his native tongue. Smacking rocks together, he started a fire.

To my shock and further dismay, he walked over, grabbed me up by the back of my coat, and dragged me closer to the fire.

Thinking he might think me dead and thus meant to burn my ass in the flames, I grabbed at his leg, tripping him, and slammed my weight into him with everything I had. Grabbing one of the branches sticking out of his makeshift fire, I jerked up and swung it at his head as he lifted up, a snarl on his lips. Flying back, he roared and grabbed at his face.

Screaming for help, the echo of my voice shockingly loud, I took off at a run.

I knew I probably didn’t stand much of a chance but I had to try.

His snarls were right on me as I trampled through the woods. I probably sounded like a wounded elephant, stomping and stumbling about, making strange bellowing noises.

He was fast. Too fucking fast.

He didn’t run up on me. He dropped down on me, using his claws to do this weird leaping thing from tree to tree high above and land right on top of me.

Catching this too late, I turned to run the other way right as he dropped down atop me. This left his head near my legs.

As if I’d enraged him past the point of any sort of coherence he might have been capable of, he dug his teeth into the first thing he made contact with, which happened to be my calf.

I screamed bloody murder, and kept it up as pain burst and spread.

When he lifted his muzzle to glare at me, blood and black, inky ichor dripped from his lips.

My fingers scooped up dirt and snow and I threw it at his eyes.

A pained snarl tore from his throat as he scrambled to scrub at his face.

He was heavy and I was feeling weak as shit at this point. Trying to drag myself out from beneath him, I rolled, sending him tumbling, and finding I couldn’t stand to escape I crawled.

He was on me once more, but instead of pouncing on me, he dug his claws into the sides of my hips, burying them in my flesh, and dropped down atop me, hunching over me, to tear into my coat with his teeth.

That blinding pain in my leg was crawling up my thigh. I’ve been poisoned. It felt like he’d injected fire in my veins that was rapidly spreading. It made it incredibly hard to move.

Tearing my coat to smithereens above me as I scrambled to buck them off, I felt the kiss of the cold on my upper back, his hot breath as I fought and kicked, then his fangs sank deep.

My scream was more of a howl but I didn’t expect anyone to hear me. I had a horrible feeling we were too far out.

He didn’t stop there.

He pulled back and waited until I started to fight anew beneath him before tearing more of my coat and shirt off to sink his fangs into my side as he heaved atop me.

My mouth opened as venom coursed through me. My heart pounded wildly, blood thrumming in my ears. I was going to die by their hands. All I could think about was my mates. I’d never see them again, any of them. They’d never know what had happened to me. They might even assume my dumb ass had abandoned them.

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