Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 17251 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 86(@200wpm)___ 69(@250wpm)___ 58(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17251 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 86(@200wpm)___ 69(@250wpm)___ 58(@300wpm)
“You’d do best to stay silent.” It was all he said before he lifted me up and onto his waiting horse. He climbed up a second later behind me, wrapping a thick arm around my middle, keeping me close to him.
I opened my mouth to scream, but he slammed his hand over my mouth hard enough the sting had my eyes watering even harder.
“Make a sound and I will make sure your family pays for it tenfold with pain.” He leaned in close, my entire body tense, my skin puckering from fear. “Your father should’ve taken me up on my offer, Greta. Now he gets nothing, and I get everything.” He kept his mouth right by my ear. “And make no mistake, I’m going to get everything.”
My fear spiked but I said nothing. I had no questions on whether Egil would hurt my family.
I knew he would.
As we started riding off, I looked over my shoulder at my home, the one I’d grown up in, getting farther away. And as I knew my future was uncertain, that my life now belonged to Egil, I also thought about one person.
Calder.
How I wished I would have spoken to him more, told him how I felt.
I wished I’d been honest. My heart might have been broken, but regardless, I would have set the truth free.
Now I would never know what could have happened between us.
Chapter Five
Calder
The fear on Leif’s face was clear, tangible. In fact, the whole family looked ready to break, but it was understandable given the fact Greta had been taken. I wanted to destroy something, kill things with my bare hands.
She’d been taken from her bed in the middle of the night, taken from her family by someone who couldn’t have her. And everyone knew who it was.
Egil.
I curled my hands into fists, my blunt nails digging into my palms. My body was tight, the anger moving through me like a ship in the middle of the ocean, a storm raging all around it. I wanted blood on my body, covering my face, corpses littering the ground at my feet.
And I would get my vengeance for the wrongs committed against Greta. I would make him pay tenfold.
“He must die,” Leif said, his face red from his anger as he paced in front of the fire.
Greta’s brother, Leifson, looked calm and collected, but in his blue eyes I could see the flames of vengeance burning bright.
I should have claimed her last night, told her she was mine. I should’ve taken her into my arms and cupped the back of her head as I pressed my mouth to hers. I shouldn’t have let her walk away, but I would get her back.
“You’re sure Egil was the one who took her?” I didn’t ever question anyone when they wanted me to hunt and track, but I didn’t want to go off in the wrong direction, wasting precious time, especially where Greta was concerned.
Although I’d find her no matter where she was, no matter how far she’d been taken. I wanted to be sure it was Egil who had done the act, because the man I killed for this would die slowly and painfully.
“Yes, it was him. I declined his marriage offer for her earlier yesterday. And then I’d been alerted by Sven’s young daughter that she’d seen Egil riding away from my home with a woman on his horse. It wasn’t until he heard about Greta being taken that she realized that had been the woman.” Anger and fear covered Leif’s face. “It was him, and I want his life for this.”
Oh, he’d get that and much more.
“You’ll find her and bring her back, Calder?”
Her father was right in front of me now, just a few feet away, his eyes wide and wild looking.
“You’ll bring me Egil’s head,” he said with rage in his voice.
I said nothing, just nodded. Killing Egil would bring me great pleasure.
“Please, just bring my daughter back.”
“I will,” I said with no emotion in my voice. I reserved that for Greta.
“Bring her home whole,” Greta’s mother said, the worry in her face almost enough to make me feel empathy.
It was almost enough to make my cold, dead heart beat once more. But it had only done that for one person.
Greta.
I looked back at her father, seeing his anticipation as he waited for what I would say, if I would accept. Although I would find her and bring her back at no cost, there was something I wanted, needed desperately. I’d never felt this burning desire before, but where Greta was concerned it was this living entity in me, stronger than even my need to fight to the death when in battle.
“I require one thing as payment.” Her father nodded, already accepting even though I hadn’t said what I wanted. “I want Greta as mine.” Leif looked taken aback for a moment, and I couldn’t blame him.