Now she was bound and gagged, tossed over his shoulder, with no idea where they were. Her hair had come loose from the club Roggern had put it in and her head pounded in time with each footstep Vargan took.
He’d attacked her and Roggern before noon, yet it was clearly after sunset, so she’d lost quite a bit of time. She’d only had two swallows of the potion so whatever it was, it had to be strong.
Autumn fought against the urge to cry. She had to believe someone would come after Vargan and rescue her, because she couldn’t believe she’d be forced to spend her life bonded to such a brute. She assured herself there was plenty of time before her heat to escape that fate.
Flipping her hair to the side, Autumn tried to get her bearings. While she didn’t know the area around Andtay, she hoped she could tell the direction they were moving. If she got the chance to run it would be useless to run further from any hope of help.
Little light made it through the leaves overhead, but she could tell they were following a game trail. Without being able to see the sky, she couldn’t tell what direction Vargan was taking her though.
With the ocean to the east, that only left three directions for him to go. Siloah was southwest, with Raider and the Tayueta to the north of them, so it seemed more likely that he would head either north or south. She couldn’t hear the crash of waves, but he didn’t have to follow the coastline to go either direction.
Telling herself she only had to wait for sunrise to figure it out, Autumn let her body fall limp again. She didn’t know if Vargan would believe she had fallen asleep, but she figured pretending to be unconscious was her best option as she watched for any landmarks.
There was no way for her to tell how long Vargan kept moving. Considering he was forced to carry her extra weight, it was far longer than she expected since she assumed he hadn’t stopped since morning.
He finally slowed when the night tipped over into the cold, silent time before dawn. Autumn’s body had gone numb from the chill despite the cloak still lying over her, and her mouth was so dry it felt glued together. The gnawing of her stomach was easy to ignore with a shoulder digging into it, but the thirst was harder to overlook.
She expected to slam into the ground when he unceremoniously dumped her off his shoulder, but she was surprised when she landed on something soft. Feeling behind her to figure out what she’d landed on, she realized he must have had a camp waiting for them since a fire sparked to life a few feet away.
Vargan rose and turned toward her, the budding hope in her chest drowning in the panic his attention induced. Heart leaping into her throat, she tried to scoot away from him, but he passed her to dig into a pack hanging from the tree behind her.
She didn’t have time to calm down before he crouched within arm’s reach. A quick jerk pulled the gag from her mouth to dangle around her neck as she stared up at him.
“Open.”
It took a moment to realize he was holding something toward her lips, but as hungry as she was, she turned away. The rough growl he released before lunging at her was the only warning she had to brace herself.
Hand clamped around her jaw, fingers curled into the hollows of her cheeks, forcing her lips to part. Her efforts to buck the alpha off did nothing, Vargan cramming the dried meat into her mouth before releasing his grip on her face.
“Eat it or you won’t get water.”
The threat made her freeze in the middle of trying to push the wad out. As little as she trusted him, just the thought of a drink had her whimpering. The dried meat had sucked away any semblance of moisture remaining in her mouth, and it took effort to chew the tough strip enough to swallow.
Vargan’s face was in shadow with the fire at his back, but she could feel the way he smiled down at her once she’d done as he ordered.
“Good girl,” he purred.
Autumn’s stomach lurched, but she managed to keep the meat down. With her hands bound behind her and Vargan kneeling over her hips, there was nothing she could do to stop his wandering hands from groping as they slid down her body.
She flinched away when something touched her lip before she realized it was the edge of a bottle. Not trusting him, she flared her nostrils and sniffed the liquid inside, but no scent reached her nose. Cautiously tasting a drop to be sure it wasn’t the sleeping potion, she quickly began to guzzle the water until he pulled it away.
Vargan tsked at her.
“Now, now. You don’t want to make yourself sick. Plus, we only have a limited supply.”
The shadow of his bulk moved again, one hand cupping the back of her head to help her sit up enough to drink without spilling it. When she felt the smooth surface of the bottle against her lips again, she eagerly opened.
Bitterness flooded her mouth, her sputtering stopped by Vargan clamping his palm over her lips. Pinching her nose between his thumb and the side of his hand, he forced her to swallow before allowing her to breath.
“Can’t have you trying to slip off while I’m sleeping. We still have a long way to go.”
Vargan chuckled as he rolled to lie beside her. She tried to push away from him, but the way her head was spinning combined with the heavy arm thrown over her waist kept her in place.
She fought against the wave of numbness spreading from her stomach, but Autumn’s eyes slid shut despite her urging them to stay open. Her last thought was wondering if Darcon was looking for her and how long it would take him to find them.
Chapter Fifteen
Darcon
Darcon couldn’t sleep without knowing what happened, so once Larok confirmed all the horses were accounted for, he’d gone down to the beach. He didn’t know which way they would have gone, so he simply started walking, searching for any sign of Autumn and Roggern's passage.
Despite it being night, the moon was almost full and the reflection off the ocean provided him with enough light to walk the shore without tripping over every bit of flotsam left from the receding tide. Unfortunately, too much time had passed for him to find footprints.
He knew it was futile, but he couldn’t give in without trying.
When the cold of the wind whipping off the water finally penetrated too deep to be ignored, he turned back toward the village, still searching for any sign he may have missed. He was coming around a point when he noticed a torch come bobbing in his direction. The running figure was large enough to be an alpha, and his heart leapt into his throat at the thought that something serious had happened and he wasn’t going to like whatever they were coming to tell him.
Feet flying over the sand, Kull’s features came into view. The man was sucking in deep breaths like he’d run flat out for quite a distance.
“We found Roggern,” he gasped. “He’s dead.”
Ice washed down Darcon’s spine, making the chill of the night seem warm.
“Autumn?”
There were wild animals capable of killing an alpha if the man was caught unaware, or the couple could have been caught by the rising tide, though Roggern was aware of the dangers and should have gotten them to safety. There were many paths from the beach up to the cliffs overhead and it was rare the ocean rose so fast that they couldn’t be reached in time.
“No sign of her. Aesir is still searching the fjord where we found his body. Did you pass Kantor?”