Taken by the Enemy Read Free

shook it hard. She yelped as the movement almost unseated her.
    “I don’t think that bird is going to come down, Lucian.” One of the men spoke up, crossing his arms across a broad chest as a younger man knelt to start the bloody work of gutting the boar. The copper smell of death rose up and she fought the urge to gag.
    “I think you’re right.” Lucian glanced back at the men for an instant, then those eyes were back on hers, and he wrapped his other hand around the branch.
    CRACK.
    Emmie was vaguely aware of him jerking his arms down just before her world tilted and she flailed at empty air. She landed hard on her back, all of the air rushing out of her as pain stunned her. The canopy spun for a moment, her body screaming as sensation flooded back into each nerve ending. Her head ached enough to urge her to close her eyes, but then his face appeared, the edge of his mouth tilting up as he crouched next to her.
    I have to breathe .
    Air – she needed air. The first breath was painful, but the second was less so, and the third started to abate the fuzzy ringing in her ears. The initial, stunning pain was fading as well.
    Nothing broken .
    His eyes moved over her as she filled her lungs and waited for her head to straighten itself out. Everything was slowly coming back into focus, and she tested the movement of her fingertips against the fallen leaves. The canopy fanned out high above him, gold and green in the early light, as Lucian shook his head slowly. “That could have gone much differently—”
    “No,” she choked out the word, “it couldn’t.” Using every scrap of her strength, she drove her hand towards his nose, and he didn’t move fast enough. His shout filled her ears as he fell back, but she didn’t wait to see the damage. Throwing herself to the side, she scrambled to her feet and forced her legs to carry her again as she took off into the forest.
    “That bird has some bite!” a man’s voice echoed behind her.
    “And wings!” another shouted, and then there was laughter – and the sound of heavy footsteps crushing the underbrush.
    He’s coming after me .
    Fuck.
    Wincing against the twinge in her side, Emmie tore around a tree, trying to backtrack the manic path she had forged while escaping the boar. Nothing seemed familiar until she saw the downed log she had narrowly avoided just minutes before. This time she leapt it, crashing through the leaves on the other side as she ran for her makeshift camp.
    If she could just reach her pack, she could grab it and run. She’d lose the blanket, and she could maybe try to return for it later, but she wouldn’t make it far without the water. Skidding to a stop, she caught herself on the ground to turn into the little hideaway she had found to sleep in. Scrambling across the ground, she grabbed her pack, throwing it over her shoulder as she moved to dart through the close branches on the other side – but she never made it.
    Lucian’s powerful grip caught the other strap on the pack and he jerked her back, sending her to the ground hard. In an instant, he had tossed her bag to the side and his other hand caught the frantic kick she attempted. “Oh no, not this time, little bird.”
    His nose was bloodied, a red smear across his left cheek, and even as he yanked her towards him over the rough earth, she cheered internally that she’d hurt him. With another useless attempt to kick him, she shouted, “Don’t touch me you bastard!”
    “Touch you? ” He huffed and stopped another rushed attempt to hit him, catching her wrist in his hand. Lucian flipped her to her stomach easily, pulling her arm sharply up behind her back until her shoulder screamed. Biting her lip, she tried to struggle free, shoving herself forward with the toes of her shoes in the dirt, but his knee landed heavy in the small of her back.
    Trapped .
    “Little bird…” His voice sounded exasperated with her, and she yelled in frustration as she fought him.
    “Stop calling me