AllFreeNovel
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She’d been kidnapped, knocked unconscious, locked up, and now she was going home. This was the last man on earth she should dally with, but some part of her just couldn’t stop looking at him. So they were almost at the stables by the time she registered where they were going.
She groaned; she’d forgotten about the horse. Apparently, there was more than one horse.
“Don’t wolves and horses not mix?”
He glanced back at her as he slid open the door. “The wolves aren’t allowed around the horses.”
He walked inside, and she followed quickly. “They’re not gonna be here?”
“Who?”
Shehatedshe had to ask. “The ones who…”
“No. They don’t come near me.” He said this nonchalantly like it wasn’t a completely terrifying thing to hear as looming heads peaked over half doors to get a look at them.
“They put me on a horse.”
He spun. “They did what?”
“I was a little knocked out, but I remember the horse.”
He sniffed the air, reminding her—as if she needed it—that he wasn’t human.
He shook his head once. “Not these horses.”
“Well, that makes everything better.”
He shook his head gravely. “It really doesn’t, because that means they took the prime stock.”
“There aremorehorses?”
He grinned. “It’s what we do. We breed quarter horses. This is nothing. This is just my personal stable. Down the hill, we’ve got hundreds.”
She gaped at him. They weren’t that far away from Harpers Ferry, and there were hundreds of horses in the woods? She thought of the wards that had kept her in. What kind of magic had hidden this and why the secrecy?
Another head popped over a door just to her left, and she leaped away. “That is not a quarter horse. That is a very big horse.”
He snickered, cleared his throat, and then burst out laughing so hard it startled the beast he was leading out, and he had to pull hard on the ropes to quiet the thing.
“Quarter horse is the breed. You’re thinking of a mini horse.”
She took one more step away from the head that was swinging to look down at her. “My mistake.”
“I can get one saddled for you.”
When a horse swung down from her other side, she stepped into the exact center of the alley. “You want me to ride a horse?”
This time she was the one who snickered, tried to stop, coughed, and then started laughing so hard she had to put her hand on her knees. Both of the horses in the nearest two stalls ducked out of sight at the sound. He took a step toward her, and the beast behind him followed, which immediately sobered her. She stepped back to the door of the stable.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You want me to go riding through the woods?” She hadn’t put horse riding on her list of things she did not do but would correct that oversight immediately.
“There’s no way out except on foot.” He glanced down at her feet. “I didn’t think you’d want to use yours.”
She hadn’t wanted to walk until five seconds ago. She didn’t want to be perched on top of a giant horse, either.
She snickered again.
