The Bridal Hunt (5 page)

Something smells fishy around here... it isn't the blanket and it aint me. Then again... could just be he doesn't want 'Christmas dinner' to catch cold and die before he can cook her up properly.

Too bad.

Maybe I'll get too cold and die in my sleep,
I thought acidly, trying to figure a way out of this ridiculous situation I've found myself in.

"Sleep, female," he ordered, growling at me when I kept refusing his offer of the animal pelt.

He scooped up his blankie and tucked it under his arm.

"Bad, Meanie... no listen... bad female."

I glared at him and he snarled at me angrily, muttering something that sounded insulting as he stomped out in a huff.

Ohhh!

So, arrogance in males is universal then?

"Boob!" I shouted at his retreating back, shaking my fist in the air.

When he stopped suddenly, as if he was going to come back in, I squeaked and ran back to the safety of my corner.

He grunted, peering over at me, his lip twitching at the corner as he saw my pinched lipped expression and saucer eyes.

He grunted again, as if to say, 'yeah, that's right' and then finally left.

I stuck my tongue at his retreating figure and slumped down into my space.

I waited a good fifteen minutes before I moved. Just in case.

Slowly and quietly,
I'm not much for stealth, but I try
, I crept over to one of the windows.

A sigh of relief escaped me as I peeked through one and saw him heading towards a group of other beasties, all congregating around a big bonfire.

I was tempted to see if I could leave, maybe make a run for it, but the steady influx of snow people walking by at any time told me that's not a plausible idea at the moment.

Patience, Wilhelmina,
I told myself,
we'll figure something out...

I settled down into a spot near the fireplace and tried to keep warm, my legs tucked under me as I digested all that's happened so far.

Chapter 4

Time passed and eventually other women
, the ones I'd seen earlier, were ushered into the same small hut as me.

The man beasts that carried them in were looking a little
too
pleased when the women all accepted the offered animal furs, without a single protest, snuggling up all bundled and warm.

If I didn't think the animal furs had a meaning to them, I would have gladly taken Kirch's off his hands.

Those suckers look warm.

We ate the mystery stew in silence, some kind of unidentifiable vegetable mish mash with no meat.

Considering my worries about the meat, I was relieved and ate every bite. I even drank the broth.

"Where are we?" a petite blonde woman whimpered, huddling into her fur as she tried to wipe stray tears from her eyes.

"I don't know," I told her quietly, wrapping my arms around my knees, hugging them to my chest as I tried to keep warm.

Good thing I dressed warmly when I'd ventured out to check the breaker box, would have been a bitch in pj's or something.

Shoot, if that had been the case, I probably would have chased Kirch down by now and sucked it up and asked him for his blankie.

A girl can only take so much, you know?

Missing fingers and toes due to frostbite are not really my thing.

"What do you think they want with us?" a tall red head queried, her hands shaking a little as she gripped her blanket tighter around her shoulders, huddled up with everyone else.

"What did they say to you?" I asked the room at large, peering around.

"The one who took me just kept sniffing me and saying something about a mate or mates... I don't know exactly. He kept switching back and forth between whatever it is he speaks and English," a stocky older blonde woman admitted, grimacing at the idea.

"The one who took me didn't say anything. He just kept grunting and growling at me...
he's so scary
," a petite Hispanic woman whispered.

Someone reached over and gave her a 'there there' pat.

"Mates?" I asked wide eyed, absorbing what the blonde woman had just said. "Mates! I'm not mating
him
! Good god! If that's what he's thinking, I'd rather he made good on his promise to eat me!" I blurted, my voice getting very shrill and high pitched.

"Eat us!" the Hispanic woman wailed, "If we don't mate with them, they're going to eat us?"

"Oh, my god!" someone else cried.

"I don't want to die!!"

And so on and so forth as mayhem broke out.

I swear, the shocked gasps and madness that ensued was not my intention. My mouth went off before my brain had a chance to catch up.

Note to self: Never tell a room full of distraught, stressed out, kidnapped women that you're captor was contemplating how you'd taste with ketchup.

The screaming and hysterical crying that followed my announcement is
still
making my ears ring.

I tried to back track, play it off, but it was to no avail.

Now I'm sitting in the middle of the same hut, minus all of the other women.

Apparently I'd been deemed a trouble maker and separated from 'the herd', only myself for company.

That's alright... I never was much of a social butterfly anyways. I usually tend to keep to myself.

I'm obviously not shy or anything, I just don’t go out of my way to talk to people or really put myself out there, so to speak.

I’m used to doing things alone.

Replaying the last hour or so in my mind, I smiled as I recalled the looks on the beastie
’s faces as they collected their women.

I couldn't help but smirk.

They all had that
'what the heck did you do, they were fine when we left them'
look about them.

Heh. Heh.

I sobered for a minute, feeling bad for accidentally scaring all those women
, but it wasn't like I friggin' did it on purpose!

If the beast men didn't want shit to go down, then maybe they shouldn't have put all their captive women into one room,
like a deranged day care
, and gone off to go fuck around, or whatever it is they were doing...

They kidnapped me, not the other way around, yet they give me dirty looks? Oh, puhhhlease!

I snorted and looked around surreptitiously...

Hmm... Alone at last. Not a single furry covered giant around.

Scooting quietly, I peeked out the window by the door and spotted Kirch talking to someone, the two of them deep in conversation as they gestured at each other angrily.

Probably one of the snow beasties bitching at him about me.

I smiled at the thought.

Good, I hope they give him
an ass chewing and beat his ass or something.

I eased away from the window and made my way to the other side of the room, where the other window was on the opposite side.

I slowly pushed it open and poked my head out.

Empty.

Jackpot!

Freedom!

I grabbed the candle they'd left in the cabin and blew it out, snuffing it and stuffing it into my jacket.

Come on, Mina, this is just like that show Grandma used to watch. You know, the one where the guy gets shoved into some impossible situation or another, escaping with the help of nothing more than a paperclip, a fork and a tooth pick!

...or whatever...

Either way, I can do this!

I felt around in my pockets and gave thanks to myself for forgetting about the book of matches I'd put in there and forgotten to put away the other day.

I crawled out of the window and flopped onto the ground, trying to muffle the 'oomph' that slipped past my lips as I fell on my butt.

I dusted myself off and took off running, my legs pumping, heart racing as I hauled ass out of there.

I have no idea where, exactly, I'm going, but the further away from them, the better.

A shout sounded by the hut they'd deemed mine and I tried to pick up my pace, weaving between structures as I sped past.

Run! Run! Run!

I saw houses/hutches lighting up like little dots, resembling Christmas lights in the distance as Kirch's very distinct roar echoed throughout the cold night air.

Ohhh
...

I winced

He sounds
mad.

I hit the woods and despite the deep dark of the night, I kept going, preferring to face the unknowns of the forest alone and unarmed, as opposed to a really pissed off Kirch.

I don't know what direction I'm going in or anything, I just keep running, only stopping long enough to catch my breath when I feel too winded.

Then I start right back up again and forge ahead.

Gotta keep going... gotta keep going...

The scenery started to change slightly and I saw a break in the trees.

I saw a bunch of rocks and changed my direction slightly, heading that way instead, in hopes that the rocks might lead home.

"Oh, my god! Oh, Please be close! Please be close!"

They look just like the rock formations we went through to get here!
I thought excitedly.

I jumped when I heard a loud bellow, then another one in response.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

They're close!

Shit!!!

I saw what looked like a small opening between two of the rocks and slipped inside, elated, feeling my way around in the darkness as a blast of warm air hit me.

Not a beastie sized hole
, I thought with some relief.

I doubt any of them could squeeze their overgrown asses in here.

I followed it slowly, waiting until I was far enough inside the tunnel I was treading to light my candle.

I glanced around, taking in the tunnels that weaved in an out, all seeming as if they led back to this one main room.

Hmm... eenie, meanie, miny moe...

I followed the one with the warm air coming from it, gasping in surprise when I found a large pool of water with warm steam wafting up from it.

A hot spring!

I walked over and eyed the water dubiously, checking to see what it was like, pleased when I discovered it was
clear on the bottom, no creepy crawlies, beasties, or slithery things in sight.

I glanced back over my shoulder and let out a breath of relief.

"Unless they have any abominables in a mini version, they aint gettin' in here."

Safe... at least for now...

I debated for the longest time, then settled on washing my face and hands in the warm water, not ready to push my luck, just in case they had another way in.

Looking around, I found a nice spot that gave me a perfect view to the entrance of my hot springs cavern.

I hunkered down next to a wall and blew out my candle, trying not to let the complete and utter darkness bother me as I tried to settle my jumbled nerves.

I don't want to make it any easier for them to find me, after all, so no candles for me right now.

My eyelids grew heavy as all the adrenaline from earlier leeched from my body, leaving me feeling tired and drained.

Sleep took over and I let it, unable to fight the pull of it as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Chapter 5

I woke up early the next morning,
daylight peeking in from various holes in the top of the cave's ceiling.

I stretched and shook myself, noting every crack and creak as my overtaxed body protested mutinously.

Phew, looks like they don't have another way in...

If they did, someone would have found me and grabbed me by now.

I got up and took care of business, not very happy with having to relieve myself in a cave, but hey, a girls gotta do, what a girls gotta do.

That taken care of, I decided to explore the tunnels, seeing where each one leads, careful to keep my steps light, just in case there was another entrance to the cave.

A larger one appropriate for a snow beastie to fit through.

I must have wondered for a couple of hours, checking out each and every pathway and cave room, before I came across another hot springs pool. It was closer to the one I had slept in, but this one was on the opposite side, hidden a little off to the side.

"Wow," I whispered, whistling low.

It was a humongous room, filled with small pools that fed water into one another.