Page 19 of Captured By the Orc

“Like hell they will,” I hiss, and with a swift, trained movement, I slam my heel down on his foot. He grunts in surprise, loosening his grip for just a second—but a second is all I need.

I wrench myself free, adrenaline surging through me, and I run.

“Get her!” one bellows, and suddenly it’s a maelstrom of muscle and fury converging on me. I dodge, weave, and fight with everything I’ve got, but it’s like battling a tidal wave with a teaspoon.

They overpower me, their meaty hands clamping down once more, dragging me toward their ship.

I strain against their hold, screaming.

My vision tunnels, and I know I’m doomed.

“Garoth,” I say again, and the world goes black.

CHAPTER 9

GAROTH

My eyes snap open to a void where Lila should be. The other side of the bunk is cold, the sheets tossed aside like afterthoughts. A sick churn twists in my gut.

I search the ship, but she’s nowhere.

Where the hell is Lila?

The ship’s log blares to life at my touch, pulsing with data that makes less sense every second. There was a pause at a weigh station—she must have hyper-beamed there, no doubt. My mind races; how long has she been gone? An hour, maybe two?

“Dammit, Lila!” I smack my fist down on the console. Diplomat or not, she’s cagey as a star-thief.

I check the ship’s chronometer, its tick mocking me. Every moment wasted is another Lila’s alone out there. I can’t stomach it.

With a grunt, I throw myself into the pilot seat, the leather groaning under my bulk. My fingers fly across the console, demanding more from the battered engine than I should. The thrusters cough and whine, protesting. But I don’t fucking care.

“Come on, you rusted heap,” I growl. The ship shudders, fighting against the quick turnaround. It hasn’t fully recovered from the last hyper-jump with the warlords.

I clench my jaw, focusing on the coordinates of the weigh station.

My ship lurches forward, metal creaking as we tear through the cosmos. Every bone in my body rattles, but it’s nothing compared to the rage inside me. Lila’s face, her defiant gaze, the way her braid swings when she argues—it all claws at me, demanding I find her before something else does.

Her scent lingers in the cabin—something floral and fierce, just like her. It wraps around me, a cruel reminder of what I’ve lost.

No, I can’t think like that.

The hyperdrive whines, pushing past safe limits.

She wants peace. Well, I want her. And if the galaxy thinks it can take her from me, then it hasn’t met me.

The weight station materializes around me—a tangle of metal and neon that buzzes with alien dialects. My boots thud against the docking bay’s grated floor as I leap from the ship onto the weigh station’s deck.

“Lila!” Her name rips from my throat. No sign of her dark braid weaving through the throng, no flash of those defiant blue eyes that haunt me even now.

“Have you seen this woman?” The image on my communicator from an old article about her is a poor substitute for the fire she carries, but it’s all I have. I shove it at passerby after passerby, their nonchalant shrugs grinding my patience to dust.

“Human?” The word slithers out of a young alien, her tentacles curling with caution. “Taken by warlords.” She points a slender appendage skyward, where stars witness silent crimes.

“Thanks.” The word is an asteroid lodged in my throat. My heart drops into my boots, fury taking its place.

Fuck! I storm back to my ship, tasting blood.

As I punch the coordinates for the warlord’s territory into my console. I’m declaring vengeance.

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