Chapter 2: The Broken Brand
That night, the rancher couldn’t sleep.
The word still echoed in his mind.
Shadow.
He checked the records.
Old logs.
Purchase papers.
Training documents.
Nothing.
The horse had no recorded name before the ranch bought it.
But in the deepest drawer of the office—hidden beneath weathered contracts—he found a burned piece of leather.
A brand mark.
Half destroyed.
A symbol: a circle split by three lines.
And underneath it… a faded tag.
“PROPERTY OF HOLLOW CREEK STABLES – UNIT S-07”
The rancher frowned.
Hollow Creek had burned down twelve years ago.
After the fire… no survivors.
Except rumors.
Rumors about experiments.
About horses trained not just to run—
but to obey fear itself.
Outside, thunder rolled.
The stallion suddenly screamed from the corral.
A sound so sharp it shattered the night.
The rancher grabbed his rifle and ran out.
But the moment he opened the barn door—
He froze.
The girl was already inside the stall.
Sitting in front of the stallion.
Whispering something only the animal understood.
And then—
The stallion bowed again.
But this time…
It was not calm.
May you like
It was submission.
Like it was waiting for an order.
