Never Surrender Read Online Free

and age that
Indians would be shooting arrows at her? This had to be another dream, a very
vivid dream, and she wanted it to end. Why was this continuing rather than her
waking up?
    She brushed back her hair just in time to see an arrow
being aimed straight toward her. As she jumped away from the wagon, the arrow
slammed into the wood, narrowly missing her shoulder. Now she stood in the
open. The swirling dust choked and blinded her.
    From behind, pounding horse hooves vibrated the ground
beneath her boots. A muscular arm snaked out from nowhere, lifted her onto his
horse and back against a rock-hard chest. She twisted her head only to meet the
gaze of the scarred warrior’s.
    “Noooo! Put me down!” She kicked and scratched
frantically, but he held fast. She had to wake up from this nightmare, yet the
terror was too real; his chest too hard. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t
scream. Fear gripped her as the horse galloped away amongst five other mounted
warriors while she was jostled about, thinking she’d be tossed and trampled
beneath the massive hooves.
    In front of her, arrows penetrated the backs of two of
the warriors, and they fell from their horses. She stretched to look back over
her captor’s shoulder. Two more Indians thundered toward them with bows drawn.
These Indians differed from her captors, but she couldn’t say how.
    Kate screamed as the two released their arrows at her
and her captor.
    One struck the scarred Indian’s leg, tumbling them
from his horse. The fall knocked the wind from her lungs as she rolled several
times, stunning her, but she somehow managed to get to her feet. Her life
depended on it. She staggered across the open meadow toward the edge of the
forest as fast as she could muster, knowing the other two Indians were close
behind.
    In less than five strides, she was lifted onto another
horse, and they galloped off into the trees and up the ascending mountainside.
Her new captors changed direction once they were deep in the woods, and swiftly
traveled along the land, neither climbing, nor descending. Kate dodged branches
as the horse moved through the trees. Foliage gave way to a green, open meadow
again.
    She estimated they’d traveled over an hour and not
once had this Indian loosened his hold on her. His warm, bronzed hand splayed
across her stomach, his fingers extending to the other side of her ribs as she
rode in front of him, his hard thighs resting beneath her own.
    His nearness created a sense of deja vu, yet that was
absurd. She thought of the stranger in the brown duster, unable to understand
what the two would have in common. Her mind reeled with thoughts and the past
excitement still raced through her body as though she’d just finished a race.
She couldn’t concentrate on anything but being held so close, yet wanting to
escape.
    Shaking off the eerie foreboding, she gazed out over
the meadow, tracking their direction. For the moment, Kate rode in silence
until they stopped. Still not a sound could be heard but the rushing of blood
through her veins.
    She glanced toward the distant, snow-peaked mountains
where the sun descended, taking with it most of the day’s light and leaving the
promise of a cool evening.
    Defeated and scared, she thought about the massacre of
those left behind, of the one whose scalp had been cut away--something she
wouldn’t soon forget. A warm tear slipped down her cheek for those who’d died.
These savages could easily make her their victim and though she had to escape
somehow, she refused to give them a reason to kill her right now. Why was she
forced to endure this? When would she wake up?
    Ahead, dense trees hugged the hillsides, yet allowed
for large, open areas of grass and sagebrush to spread invitingly across small
valleys. A herd of buffalo grazed to the left near the river. Their large
numbers amazed her when buffalo were nearly extinct.
    She stilled, trying to push away the thought that beat
at her, but it wouldn’t abate. Could