Page 8 of The Orc's Bride

I paled. Was he implying…?

“What do you mean?” I asked, half-choked.

“That you will make a delicious mate for me,” he said.

The other orcs, who were now closer and could hear us, chortled and hooted. My face burned with the humiliation of it. I was now stripped of all the control I used to have. My body was acting like it wasn’t mine, and I was being handled like a child or a doll.

Blasted orcs with no courtesy or manners.

“I want to walk on my own legs,” I said again, determined to stand my grounds even in this shameful position.

“You won’t be able to keep up,” he said. “Soon, we’ll reach our horses. You’ll ride with me. Until then, I’ll carry you.”

I looked at the ground, moving past so fast it almost blurred. With a sigh, I stopped struggling. He was right. Even if I ran like hell, I couldn’t keep such a pace.

And he just had to rub it in, didn’t he? How the orcs were so much faster than us. Bigger, stronger, more ferocious. Which was all true, of course.

I shivered with a new apprehension.

Soon, I would be smack in the middle of a city full of orcs. I’d be a mere servant at their mercy. An icy fear gripped me, filling my stomach with roiling uneasiness. The fast pace and the swinging rhythm of the orc’s steps added to the nausea. I gritted my teeth, breathing deeply through my nose. I wouldn’t be sick all over him. I would not.

Hanging on to the last dregs of my dignity, I closed my eyes. I needed to give myself a moment to absorb everything that had just happened. Just to breathe and come to terms with my new reality. I had decided too fast, without thinking it all through. What else had I missed?

I’d probably never see home again.

Never before had I been further from my village than the woods surrounding it. And now, I was travelling who knew how far. Travelling with a pack of orcs. Bloodthirsty beasts who were used to taking what they wanted from humans.

I should have planned some kind of defense. To make these orcs keep their paws off me. To keep this orc who was carrying me as far from me as possible.

Fat chance. But I would deal with it. I always did.

None of this mattered, I reminded myself. When I carried out my plans, I would be free. But until then, I would have to stay sharp. I would have to improvise.

And gather any information I could.

“How long to the capital?” I asked, wondering if the orc would hear me. My head was somewhere in the area of his shoulder blade.

“Four days on horseback,” he replied.

Four days. It seemed like an eternity.

“And how long until you let me go?” I wasn’t sure I had chosen the right words, but that was what I was trying to ask: when he would put me safely on the ground and take his hands off me.

With my limited knowledge of their language, I probably sounded like an imbecile to this orc, I thought. Ironic, since I was pretty sure my human intellect much surpassed his.

But if he thought less of me… maybe he would be less inclined to go through with this marriage.

“Never,” he replied with a dark chuckle. “You WILL be my wife. Even if you don’t know it yet. And my wife will be always by my side. In battle and in peace. At day and at night.”

Gods. Why was he so determined to marry me? He barely knew me! And orcs married human women so rarely. Almost never! So why me?

Was he crazy? That thought gave me pause. Dumb orcs I could deal with. But a mad orc…?

Maybe if I could understand his motives, I would find better ways to discourage him.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Urgan.”

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