The Chieftain’s Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

buttocks. Ishara watched him dry himself. It could not hurt to at least peek while he faced the other way.
    His movements and stature reminded Ishara of the elk that roamed the prairies back in Oolani. They were graceful creatures to watch, but when it came time to stalk and kill one, they reared their massive heads and reminded the hunter with a jerk of its antlers that it would not go down without a fight. The chieftain of the Manahotchi would also not go down without a fight.
    Eventually, Ishara forced herself to look away from his toned thighs and the manner in which his taught shoulders pulled back as he brushed his hands over his dark hair. He would leave without her if she did not keep up, and though she hated to live on his schedule, she did not have a choice in the matter. Mechan spoke the truth—she no longer was a chieftain’s daughter.
    There had to be a way out.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    The journey back to camp exhausted Mechan. He couldn’t get her questions out of his mind as they echoed through him over and over again. Why did he punish the women and children? Who was she to ask him something like that? It annoyed him that something so small, so helpless, so controllable somehow managed to ensnare the emotions that he worked diligently to keep to himself.
    He listened to the soles of Ishara’s delicate feet slap against the muddied path as she followed behind him. Sometime they slowed, and when he turned to make sure she still followed, Mechan caught the young woman staring up into the trees, or at the forest flowers, or the small mountain cat cave half hidden behind creeping vines. The caves seemed to draw her attention the most.
    “What do you look at?”
    “That cave. What lives there?” Ishara willfully started in the direction of the cave.
    Her lack of hesitancy and lack of reprimand, curled his hands into fists. “Where do you think you are going, slave?”
    “If you did not wish for me to go, you would have stopped me by now.” She bounded out of his sight, popping up a few moments later behind a fallen tree trunk. She moved quickly. Stealthily. Gracefully.
    He stared, watching her as if she were his prey, then stalked after her, determined to recapture his wandering slave. “You will come back here. If I have to catch you myself, you’ll regret it, little one.”
    Ishara called back, though Mechan lost sight of her once more, “I told you to stop calling me that.”
    Picking up his pace, his wide strides quickly carried him to where Ishara stopped, crouched down behind a wild berry bush. He reached out, grabbing her by the shoulder, and hissed between clenched teeth, “I told you to stop.”
    Ishara grabbed him by his wrist and yanked him down to crouch beside her. “Shh! Look.”
    Mechan momentarily forgot about Ishara’s mistake when he saw what it was that she watched. A mountain cat, female, followed by two young cubs loped in front of the cave. He glanced at Ishara, who ignored him completely, devoting her attention to the beasts that retreated back into their home. He had to admire her boldness, the way she seemed to gravitate toward nature and become a part of it. But it was enough. She would respect him.
    Reaching behind him, Mechan pulled his spear off his backpack with the intention of hurling it at the family of cats. But as he raised the weapon above his head, Ishara reached out and grabbed at his hands, stopping the forward motion and ruining the only chance he had to strike the mountain cat. The mother and her children disappeared into their cave, and Mechan’s anger rose from deep within his core. That was his opportunity to take away Ishara’s power. To punish her for being so obstinate.
    Dropping the spear, he caught Ishara by her elbow and knocked her to the ground. “I will not remind you again. You are a slave. If you continue to be defiant, I will not show you or anything else any mercy.”
    “That cat did not deserve to be killed so that you could