Adrienne Read Free Page A

longer, but on Greg.
    Adrienne looked at Greg. The sock in her mouth muffled her screams, but that didn’t stop her from doing it.
    Moonlight filtered through the treetops and glinted off a sword that protruded from Greg’s stomach. He had released her legs so he could grip the blade.
    She kicked at him to get him away from her. When that didn’t work, she twisted her hands, grabbed the handcuffs and pulled herself closer to the bench. Her eyes never left Greg.
    Movement in her peripheral vision made Adrienne look at Josh. He took two steps back, then turned and ran. She tried to call after him. He was leaving her. A sword-toting maniac had appeared and Josh left her chained to a bench.
    He didn’t get far. The sword was ripped from Greg’s body and sent spinning after Josh. The blade whistled as it cut the air. The spin of the blade caused Josh’s head to come sailing back towards Adrienne when the sword separated it from his neck. It landed a mere inch from her leg.
    There were two faint thuds. Adrienne looked up to see the sword had gotten stuck in a tree and Josh’s body had collapsed. She looked at Greg.
    Blood gushed from his wound. He would be dead soon, as well. Adrienne didn’t want to be next.
    She struggled against the handcuffs. Ignoring the pain in favor of saving her life, she leaned back and shoved with her foot at the same time. There was no way Josh had gotten real handcuffs. She hoped they were novelty cuffs and would break.
    The handcuffs didn’t give. She would wonder how Josh got real handcuffs later. For now, she had to get free.
    It was time for a different tactic.
    The benches weren’t bolted down, so she should be able to tilt it enough to free herself. She braced her shoulder under the bench and pushed. The bench scraped as it slid backwards but didn’t lift. She tried again.
    More scraping.
    Frustrated tears flowed down her face.
    The sound of a twig snapping wrenched a startled cry from Adrienne. She forced herself to turn and look at the killer. He looked strong enough to cause her severe damage without the use of his sword.
    She shied away from him when he stopped in front of her. He reached out to her and she squeezed her eyes shut.
     
     
    Malik lowered to his haunches in front of his bride. With a thought, he ended the shielding spell he’d erected around her before his attack started. Little droplets of the assailants’ blood fell to the ground—blood he hadn’t wanted to taint his bride’s skin.
    The suffocating chill of her fear continued, enveloping his body. He had caused that fear. Killing the two men while she watched showed poor judgment on his part. He would make it up to her at a later date. His priority was her freedom.
    Once she saw that he meant her no harm, she would stop being scared of him. And he could regain a measure of his original warmth. Malik remembered his father telling him that he would feel his mate’s emotions and she would feel his. He hadn’t known this was what his father meant.
    He reached out with the intention of removing her gag. Instead he brushed his fingers across her cheek. She flinched away from him.
    Her reaction made him focus. There would be time to get to know her feel later.
    He removed her gag, then cupped her bound hands in both of his. She tried to pull away but he held her.
    “Don’t hurt me,” she rasped.
    “I do not plan to, my lady,” Malik soothed in a low, soft voice. Her language, while remarkably similar to Otieno’s, felt cumbersome in his mouth. He wanted to use his own but decided the magicks needed to bridge the communication gap could be better used elsewhere.
    With a single thought, he melted her chains. His bride’s earlier struggles had torn the skin around her wrists. Blood seeped from her wounds and coated her hands.
    It was simple enough to heal her the way he had melted her chains, but Malik couldn’t help but make the act more intimate. He brought her wrists to his lips and breathed the healing