Tears of the Neko Read Online Free PDF

Damien
snarked back to his guard and one of the few men he'd actually
probably call a friend.
    "They would probably enjoy that," Arnett
stated. Then he turned back to the group of slaves, getting ready
to move them along. He watched as Damien and his guard headed
toward the kitchen door. He hoped that Harrison had had the time to
hide his little surprise.
     

Chapter 3

    Kayden felt the relief slump from his
shoulders when the tall brown-haired man gave him a reprieve on the
death sentence he had demanded. That one smelled of lemon and
tobacco, and he curled his nose at the combination of scents of the
man called Roman. The blond one wasn't so bad; he smelled of pepper
and jasmine, the one called Harrison.
    He didn't want to be any trouble. In fact, he
tried very hard not to, to be as inconspicuous as possible, as
quiet and unobtrusive as he could. He just couldn't help his
reactions to the loud shots.
    He closed his eyes and tried to push away the
images of his mother and father falling to ground after sounds like
that, his strong sense of smell sniffing the blood that blossomed
from their wounds. He had tried to crawl over to them, to comfort
them. His breathing was heavy from racing through the forest away
from the hunters. He had paused too long over his mother's unmoving
body, tears slipping from his emerald eyes, when a rope snagged his
neck and tightened.
    "He's awful little," the hunter said, and the
man had wrestled him to the ground. Kayden hissed and scratched,
but the men were over twice his size and had his arms and legs tied
with a rough rope. "Do you think we'll get anything for him?"
    "We'll get something. Those others were too
old, too feral, anyway. This one's young enough to learn it's place
soon enough. Then we can sell him with the others."
    Kayden bit his lip at the memory of his
parents' death and his capture by the hunters years ago. They'd
been right, and they had been able to teach him his place well
enough, almost too well--his captivity had kept him from growing
and made him too skittish of everyone, too submissive to do
anything of use. The memory of the whips, canes, fists, and chains
was enough torture to keep reminding him that he didn't want to be
there ever again.
    He didn't mean to scratch the master, and
he'd tried to make it better, but it seemed as if all he did was
upset the brown-haired one called Roman. He rose gracefully to
stand under the direction of the slave master Arnett and followed
the yellow haired man toward a huge mansion.
    He'd never seen anything so big before,
besides the forest. He had learned to like the 'inside', especially
in the winter when food was scarce and he felt constantly cold in
the woods, especially in the biting winds. Inside, he was usually
at least fed a little and he didn't usually freeze. Sometimes his
former master at the market would even toss him a thin blanket. He
wondered briefly what his cage would be like here. He hoped it was
big enough to stretch out in; he missed that. He had hated being
cramped up all the time. Unlike the others who shared a huge cage
and could move around and stand in, his had been small, big enough
to sit up in, but not stand or stretch all the way out.
    They had almost made it to the door of the
kitchen when his ears perked up at the sound of a horse thundering
across the ground. It took the blond--Harrison-- a few seconds
longer to hear it.
    "Shit, it's Damien," Harrison cursed as he
quickly grabbed Kayden's thin arm and yanked him roughly into the
kitchen door.
    Kayden had a moment to glance backward to see
a tall dark haired man galloping on his horse towards the stables.
Kayden's breath caught in his throat as he glimpsed the strong,
handsome features of the man.
    "Ysmenia! Is the little store room still
empty?" Harrison snapped to an elderly matron wearing an apron.
    The entire kitchen staff stared at him in
shock at his sudden appearance, but the servant quickly wiped her
hands on her skirts and nodded. "Yes, sir.