Samantha Forster sat with her back against the sun warmed rock wall that surrounded her stallion's secret valley. Breathing in the scents of early autumn and horses, she closed her eyes, relishing this moment she had in her favourite place on earth. She couldn't believe it had been almost a year ago she had found out that the valley actually belonged to her family's River Bend Ranch, meaning the wild horses that lived here did too. Sam sighed and drifted into a peaceful sleep.
Soft footsteps walked before her, making Sam's eyes snap open. She gasped and scrambled to her feet at what she saw before her. Tawny gold with a massive, yet almost gentle, head surrounded by fiery mane, a lion stood towering as tall as a horse.
Sam screamed, but then clapped a hand over her mouth, unable to draw a full breath of air. She had to be seeing things. Here she was in rural Northern Nevada, a ranch girl who had never been farther East than New Mexico, and never, in all of her 16 years of life, had Samantha Forster seen a real lion, not even in a zoo.
Jacob Ely was galloping his night black horse, Witch across the Nevada desert when he heard a scream. He knew that voice as well as his own. Sam. The two had grown up together, their ranches being so close together and Jake had never known anyone who could get themselves in more trouble than Sam did when wild horses were involved in the situation.
Jake wheeled Witch towards the direction of his friend's voice, and leaned low on his horse's neck, letting her run over the sagebrush dotted plain. A minute later he knew exactly where he was heading. He was the only other person in the world besides Sam who knew where Sam's long-lost stallion's secret hideaway was.
Damn horse, Jake thought, remembering years ago when the stallion had almost killed Sam on Jake's watch. He wasn't about to let it happen again.