Maddoc turned and strode toward the woodlands on one side of the gardens, calm and relaxed as though he simply came to collect one of his belongings.
Ana held her breath, multiple raw and conflicting thoughts and emotions battering her insides as her mind tried to make sense of what was happening. Behind Maddoc, a battle was being waged in the gardens, every inch of it was filled with men fighting, and a nauseous wave rose to her throat. All this death and destruction. Wherever Maddoc went, this was what happened.
She wriggled in his grip, trying to fight her way out of his hold, but he pressed her tighter against him.
“You will not escape me again, Analisa.” His coarse voice was loud in her ear. “Do not even try.”
Just as she was about to respond, Maddoc abruptly stopped, his body jerking as the clang of swords rang out behind her.
Ana wriggled out of his grip as he fought, until she was able to slip from his arm, but he grabbed onto her and yanked her behind him as he continued to fight. The king’s guard surrounded Maddoc in a close semicircle, engaging him in sword combat but unable to get close enough to her to pull her away from him. Even with one hand, he managed to hold off the kings most trained guards while he held onto her tight.
Looking around for a way to escape, Ana’s heart rose at the sight of her father on horseback, his royal robe streaming behind him, his face grim and determined. He angled his horse toward her and leaned over to one side, his gaze trained on her. Ana’s eyes widened, instinctively knowing what he intended to do. She widened her stance and bent her knees slightly, her heart pounding as Father neared.
The ground trembled as he approached, and as he passed Ana, he leaned over and grabbed her, wrenching her from Maddoc’s grip and using the momentum of his body and her push off the ground to flip her behind him on the horse. Ana tried to find something to cling to in order to maintain her balance, but she was facing the wrong direction and the copious layers of material on her dress were not suited to remain upright on a saddle.
A thunderous roar tore through the air, and Ana held onto her seat as her eyes met Maddoc’s. She wanted to look away, to avoid being targeted with his fury, but she’d never been able to. Tearing his eyes away from her, he threw his whole body into fighting even more furiously against the king’s guard, his sword moving at lightning speed as he dispatched of her father’s most skilled men. As soon as he speared the last one, his bow was in his hands and an arrow was already flying toward her before he’d barely looked up.
Ana didn’t have time to scream. The arrow zipped past her and she heard a grunt behind her, followed by a low gurgling groan. No! Dread froze her heart as her father’s horse began to slow.
“Father?” Ana tried to turn, but she was already trying not to slide off the horse. When her father leaned to one side, his hold on her slipped away, she dropped off the horse and to the ground, a hard jolt shuddering up her hip. “Father!” The commotion of the gardens swallowed her scream, but as she struggled with her dress to get to her feet, shouts of alarm caught her attention.
A few knights of the king’s guard surrounded her father’s horse, bringing it to a stop, but Ana’s whole body turned cold when she saw her father, leaning to one side as the guards pulled him from his steed.
The arrow had shot him straight through his neck.
His guards lay him down on one side, some kneeling down to tend to him, others yelling across the gardens, but Ana couldn’t remove her eyes from him, her horror and panic mounting. The arrow was lodged firmly through his neck and blood poured from the wounds, drenching his armor.
Ana headed toward him, tears stinging her nose as he writhed and clawed at his neck, his mouth opening and closing under his wide eyes. There was no way he could survive such a wound. He was going to die. “Father!” She began to run, but before she’d taken even two steps toward him, a thick arm lifted her off the ground and she was once again against the outlaw’s chest.
He turned away from the gardens, this time running toward the woodland.
“Father!” Ana screamed so loud her throat burned, and she fought Maddoc with everything she had, trying to twist out of his grip and get back to the gardens, but the Alpha wrapped both of his thick, heavy arms around her torso this time, securing her against his chest.
“Let me go!” She punched Maddoc’s arms and dug her fingers into the massive muscles trying to pry him off her. “Father!” She craned her head to look back at the gardens but within moments, her father was no longer in view. The Alpha weaved through the trees surprisingly nimbly, his hold tight, and the cries and commotion from the gardens faded the farther they went.
“Maddoc, put me down!”
He didn’t answer, his breathing steady and heavy as he trudged through the trees.
But the image of her father bleeding on the ground burned into Ana’s mind, fanning the flames of her panic and fear for his life. Using every ounce of energy she could, she fought against his hold, kicking, screaming, punching, twisting, and straining against every part of the Alpha that touched her. She couldn’t leave her father like that. She just couldn’t. He was most certainly dying and she wouldn’t keep quiet or be a good little Omega when her father, who tried to save her from this man, lay bleeding to death in the gardens where her wedding was to take place.
Fresh tears filled her eyes and the more she thought of her father, the man she’d always looked up to, the man who raised her, the more the dread overwhelmed her. She would never see him again. The sobs came so deeply that she could barely breathe, but she still fought, struggling to be released from the bastard who had started all of this, intending to ruin her, and now he had killed her father. She fought him with everything she had, until she was so hysterical that he was unable to hold her.
He abruptly halted, allowing her to slip from his arms, but holding onto her upper arms with both hands. “You’d better fucking behave, Analisa!”
“No!” She wrenched herself from him so hard, pain ricocheted up her arms. “I want to see my father. He is bleeding to death back there!”
“He knew the risks coming here today.” The anger in his bellowing tone roared through her. “He shouldn’t have taken you from my arms after I had already obtained you. It is the height of his dishonor to try and take what has already been claimed by someone else—”
“I don’t give a fuck about your honor!” Ana screamed, her throat burning with each word released. “You said you wouldn’t kill him.”
“What did you expect, Ana?” The growling agitation in his tone made his words even more threatening. “What did you think would happen when you disobeyed me?” The darkness in his eyes reached a ferocity that made her shiver. “I told you no one should touch you, or everyone you care about would die. And instead of abiding by that rule, you ran away to get fucking married!” He stepped forward and grabbed her neck, roughly yanking her toward him, the acrid scent of his fury stifling her. “And you let him touch you.”
Ana’s own fury was fed by his. “He is my—”
“He is nothing,” the Alpha roared. “He has no right to touch what is mine!” He stepped forward, forcing her to step back. “What exactly did you do with him in his mansion?”