Virgin Outcast: Bred to the Beast Read Online Free PDF Page A

your fate."
    "Damn you, woman.  I won't fall into this trap!"  His last word was a bitter growl, and Rela's pale mare reared.
    "You already have, Luther," Rela said, calming the skittish horse.  "You and yours, for generations to come.  Krall shall provide; I've seen to that."  She laughed again as she put her heels into the mare's flanks and galloped away.
    Luther stood watching her go, his chest rising and falling with quick, deep breaths.   Then with shocking suddenness, he spun and sprinted off down the road, away from the bridge.
    Kara let out a breath she hadn't realized she held, then slipped carefully behind the tree and tiptoed away.
     
    Kara returned to the cottage, disturbed by what she'd heard.  She pulled the rocking chair out onto the cottage's porch and gazed at the woods .  As she rocked, the exchange between Rela and Luther played out in her head.  She knew that Rela wanted her here in this cottage, and that Luther didn't.  But why?
    The cottage stood on the slopes of the mountain ridge west of Krall, and beyond the trees, she could see miles of rolling farmland, brown and gray now with winter so near.  Over the distant valley, dark clouds loomed, illuminated now and again by flashes of lightning.  Thunder rumbled, faint and distant.
    She pushed the troubled thoughts aside and tried to focus on the memory of her time with Mykal in the smithy, those precious moments of intense passion before they'd been discovered, but even that pleasant memory was tainte d by the intrusion of Mayor Shen's torchlight , by her banishment , and by the dream of Rela and Mykal . 
    She knew it had been real , what she'd witnessed in her sleep ; the details had never faded from her mind, and she could still see Rela's smooth legs wrapped around her betrothed's waist, see him pumping her against the side of his cell while her fingernails raked his back.
    Kara shook her head to banish the memory.  She hated Rela for seducing Mykal, but she was furious with him as well.  How could he let her?  She turned her thoughts to the present.  Would Rela really send for her or had this all been a ruse to lure her to Luther's cottage ?  What would Luther do if he returned and found that she'd not departed?   She wondered if her parents had been told of her exile yet.  Would they try to follow her?
    Questions tumbled through her head, each more unsettling than the last, and none with answers.  She knew she was being led into a trap like a lamb to slaughter, but she couldn't see the trap, much less the way out.  Perhaps Luther was right.  Perhaps she should put Krall behind her and run as far and as fast as possible .   But to walk away from her parents?  From Mykal?  
    She heated the stew at midday, then again for her evening meal, taking water from the stream that ran along the clearing's edge.  As the sun fell behind the mountains, she felt clearer of mind.  She had decided to wait another day to see if Rela would bring Mykal to her.  Luther didn't want her here, but s urely he would shelter her for one more night.
    The thunderclouds grew closer as the shadow of the mountains stretched across the valley, and brown and yellow faded to a mottled gray.  The towering clouds promised rain, the kind of storm that could beat down crops and wash away fields in muddy torrents.  She shuddered at the thought of being caught out in that.
    Luther didn't return, even as darkness fell.  When the last of the sun's light faded, the trees suddenly seemed much closer.  With a wary eye on the darkness, Kara pulled the rocking chair back inside and bolted the door behind her.  Glowing yellow eyes still lingered fresh in her memory.  If Luther returned, he could knock.
    A soft rain began to fall, and a rising wind made branches clatter against one another in the darkness like rolling bones.  Kara built up the fire until the roaring blaze warmed the cottage and banished the shadows from the darkest corners, then huddled beneath the