Şahin’s stomach tightened uncomfortably.

His herd seemed to be composed of orphans, of those foals with no fathers and mares whose stallions had left them. Şahin was not typically self-conscious or lacking in confidence, but the thought of losing his family, the mares he lived with and the children he called his own, to the men who had once been a part of their lives scared the shit out of him.

His voice was controlled, carefully neutral as he answered her question. “Well. In addition to seeming a bit less than mentally coherent, he was quite unkempt— covered in sand and seaweed. But he was a buckskin under all that, fine-boned, almost. Said his name was Caspian.” Şahin pressed his lips together, the grooming forgotten although his mouth still rested on her smooth body. After a moment of internal wrestling his morality won out and he emitted a small sigh. “He said his home was the Shore. I’m assuming you know who he is?”

He turned his head to look at her face as he asked the question, wondering how much that encounter in the Falls was going to upset his life. Xina did not seem so fickle as to leave the herd the moment a stallion from her past arrived, but it was a small concern that threatened to grow larger due to the amount of secrecy the mare upheld. She was a very private creature— very fierce, as well, and protective almost to a fault of Esmeralda and Conquistador.

She was a mare he definitely did not want to lose.