The Highlander’s Witch Read Online Free

thought.
    A blur came from her right, slamming into the cougar.
    The cold forgotten, Skye looked as the two animals rolled, snarls and sickening crunching sounds filling her ears.
    “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.” She whispered repeatedly as she watched in horrified fascination.
    It was over almost as fast as it began. The cat lay lifeless on its back, the jaws of a massive dog clamped around its bloodied throat.
    Disgusted by the sight, Skye still couldn’t tear her eyes away. She gasped for air as soon as she realized she had been holding her breath, one hand clutching the tree she was leaning against, the other at her throat.
    Another growl had her head snapping around and pressing back against the trunk.
    There, crouched to spring, was another huge dog with a man on horseback behind it.
    Then her peripheral vision caught more movement to her right and she slowly looked, terrified to take her eyes off the beast and man in front of her.
    Skye whimpered as another man on horseback stood where the animal that saved her from death had come from.
    Her mind was trying hard to sort through her fear and comprehend what she was seeing.
    They looked like they had come from a medieval movie about berserkers as hair streamed in tangles past their shoulders, matted beards covered their faces, and grime coated their clothes and skin.
    “Co thusa?”
    Swinging her head around when she heard the first man speak, Skye was too afraid to comprehend what was going on so she just stared; her eyes riveted on the dog as it growled menacingly.
    Facts rapidly fired through her brain.
    Big men.
    Big dirty men in leather pants with long gross hair.
    Big dirty men on large horses with huge hairy dogs that killed a cougar.
    She did what she should have done as soon as she heard the noises from the forest; she ran.
    Twisting, she took off around the tree opposite from the man on her right and away from the beasts to her left, running as fast as the darkness and her slippered feet would allow.
    She ducked branches and skirted bushes too large to leap over as the pounding of hooves grew closer.
    Too afraid to look, she kept running, her chest heaving with adrenaline and fear.
    Skye could feel the horse’s breath as it came alongside her, its smell invading her nostrils and she darted to the left.
    Oh, shit. She thought, just before a monstrous weight slammed her into a frozen puddle, her breath forced from her lungs by the figure on top of her.
    She struggled, but it didn’t take her long to figure out she wasn’t doing much of anything but getting a mouthful of icy mud as she labored to breathe, so she stopped.
    “I can’t breathe.” She rasped when he didn’t move.
    He lifted himself off her, grabbed a hold of her robe by the neck and hauled her up.
    He stared at her hard. “Ye be English.”
    Even though it wasn’t a question, she nodded, spitting out the mud caking her chattering teeth as she wiped the grime from her eyes, wondering where the hell she was and how she was going to get out of this.
    “What be yer name?”
    “S-s-Skye. My n-n-name is-s-s Skye.” She rasped, hacking until she could spit out the mud in her throat.
    He eyed her with distaste before hauling her bruised body over to his horse and started pulling rope from a sack.
    When she saw his intent, she forgot about the fact that her left foot was missing a slipper and tried to break free, causing him to raise an eyebrow at the futility of her attempt.
    Gritting her teeth, she watched in silence as he bound her hands together, wincing when they cut into her skin, but refusing to make a sound.
    Stiffening to control the shivers racking her body, she took in the long black hair braided on each side of his temple falling in matted waves past his broad shoulders. The heavy beard covered most of his shadowed face but she could sense the anger simmering in him. Not used to having to look up so much to a man because of her height and the heels she normally wore, she was shocked