Snow didn’t hesitate to tell him the truth since she was upset that Willow had yet to return. “She went into the woods.”

“I would ask why, but she can tell me that when I find her. Where in the woods did she go?” he asked eager to go after her.

Snow explained, then reached her hand out to the shadow that was Slatter to her and he took hold of it. “She had said she would be quick and she’s been gone longer than expected. Please bring her home safe.”

“Worry not, Snow, I’ll have her back to you soon enough.”

He let several oaths fly as he hurried out of the keep and headed in the direction Snow had directed. He paid no heed to the warriors who called out ordering him to halt and he knew he took a chance not stopping when they realized his hasty pace had him headed for the woods.

He didn’t care. He would not suffer any delay in seeing his wife safe.

“Halt!”

Slatter ignored the shout and when he saw his wife just inside the woods, her face pale and her feet pounding the earth as she ran toward him, he took off. He had to get to her. He had to keep her safe. His heart pounded viciously in his chest and fear twisted like a knife in his gut.

Willow spotted her husband and ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Her eyes sprung wide when she saw one of Tarass’s warrior stretch his hand out about to clamp down on Slatter’s shoulder.

She thought they would hit the ground in a tumble of limbs, but they didn’t. Her husband grabbed the warrior’s arm and with what seemed like the strength of ten men flung him over his shoulder and onto his back, then continued to run toward her. Another warrior was almost on top of him and Willow hurriedly jabbed her finger up in the air and over, letting him know another was behind him.

Even in her own flight of fear, she made sure to warn him, to protect him, to keep him safe whatever way she could. Love for his wife hit him at that moment like a punch in the face. He’d do anything for this woman, anything, he loved her that much.

He cleared his head and focused on one thing, reaching his wife. He heard the footfalls get closer behind him and at the right time sidestepped the warrior who had run up behind him. His momentum wouldn’t let him stop abruptly and as he passed Slatter, he gave the young warrior a shove and sent him tumbling to the ground in a flailing of limbs.

Slatter didn’t miss a step, he kept going, picking up speed, desperate to reach his wife and know she was safe and in his arms where she belonged.

Willow stretched her arms out to her husband, desperate to reach him.

From the time Slatter had been a young bairn, he’d always been fast and agile on his feet. No one could keep pace with him or catch him, but for the first time he felt himself far too slow. He needed to reach his wife, needed to get his arms around her and hold her tight.