Read Online Vulcan's Woman by Jennifer LaRose - Free Book Online Page A

over her shoulder to see if the
Barbarians had backed off but she couldn’t afford to pause. The safety of the
trees stood only mere feet away. Just as she swung a branch aside and lunged
into the brush, she was grabbed from behind and hefted into the air.
    She screamed and nearly fainted from fright. “Let me go,” she
shouted, flailing her arms and legs. “Please!” She kicked his knee so hard it
buckled and he stumbled. She didn’t regret it until he threw her upside down
over his shoulder and restrained her legs with his arm. Her hair tumbled
forward. If he wasn’t so tall it would’ve dragged along the ground. She
pummeled his back but it probably felt no harsher than tick bites.
    The fur hide poked into the cuts on her belly and thighs but
she was too scared to feel any pain. How idiotic to think she might have gotten
away with outrunning a Barbarian. “You have no right to take me! I don’t belong
to you.”
    “You’re my,” he bellowed, his voice an echoing roar inside
the headpiece, “possession now.”
    Gut-wrenching fear stopped her heart.

Chapter Five
     
    Wisteria barely breathed and remained totally still while
being lowered and placed into another man’s arms. In fact she hadn’t moved at
all during the long trek to the feared Barbarian camp. He’d had his arms
wrapped so tightly around her rib cage while en route, her chest couldn’t fully
expand within the limited space to breathe. She couldn’t move even if she’d
tried. But she hadn’t tried. She knew better. From the rock-hardness of his
chest, flexed arms and heavy breathing, she realized the extent of his anger.
Maybe she should have thought about the ramifications of fleeing before trying
to outrun him.
    “Where shall I take her?” the man holding her asked.
    She looked into the face of a boar and sucked in a mouthful
of air to repress a scream.
    “Hold her until I return.”
    She glanced at the beast in the bison mask and froze as he
dismounted his horse and walked toward a large hut made of animal hides. He
disappeared behind the flap and she glanced around the area, her gaze slicing
through the scenery while searching for a way out. The huge camp was well
hidden within the forest walls. Tall trees bordered the entire perimeter except
for a wide path leading into the meadow.
    The remaining men tied their horses to trees. As each was
secured, the tribesmen settled inside individual huts smaller than the huge
Barbarian’s.
    Only a few people, one woman and two men, both wearing boar
headgear, sat around a fire that burned within a deep underground pit. A dark
pot hung over the fire from some type of frame with black bars. The woman was
weaving strips of leather together and didn’t miss a stitch when she looked up.
Her lids narrowed when she gazed at Wisteria as if curious about her presence
but she didn’t appear shocked that a strange woman had been carried into their
camp.
    The woman had long black hair that shimmered in the
firelight. A piece of white fur resembling a rabbit’s foot hung from a leather
strap in her hair. Wisteria didn’t mean to stare but the woman was very
stunning. When their eyes met, Wisteria dropped her gaze to the ground.
    “Put me down. Please,” Wisteria begged to the man holding
her like an infant. “I…I won’t run. I…I promise.”
    “She’s right, Tyran. Put her down.”
    Tyran? The Barbarians had names?
    “The chieftain fears she’ll escape,” he replied, his voice a
dull echo inside the mask. “She attempted it once already.”
    “She tried to escape from the chieftain?” The woman glanced
as if Wisteria were maddened. “Stupid, stupid woman.”
    Wisteria didn’t need to be reminded of her actions. Her ribs
still ached from the Barbarian holding her so tightly.
    “Tie her to the stake,” the lady said, nudging her head
beyond the fire.
    Wisteria’s heart lurched. She gulped and glanced over her
shoulder. A thick, charred tree stood tall above the ground. Leather