Page 56 of Summoning the Orc

I’m not touching it.

“It’snotdark magic, though,” Rudgar said, moving themouseuntil something happened on the box. I didn’t know how they were connected, but I wasn’t going to touch the rodent to find out. “See? If you click on this, you can see the entire building,” hetold me, and images appeared on multiple black boxes in front of me.

I hissed at them, taking a step backward, until I noticed Becca on one of the lower screens. I pointed at it, horror filling me.

“How did my Becca get trapped in there?” I demanded, prepared to smash it to release her. Rudgar tipped his head back to look up at the ceiling, a sigh leaving his lips.

“That’s just showing that she’s home,” he said in a dry voice.

“Where?” I glared at the miniature image, growling low in my throat.

“She’s outside,” he said, scrubbing his hands across his face.

I turned to leave right away, waving my hand at the boxes behind me. “Don’t get trapped in the dark magic, Rudgar. Warlocks don’t play fair,” I warned him.

He grunted and I continued to the elevator, having learned how to use it from Rudgar. The wiring and machinery that facilitated its use was amazing. The plane that we were in now was a wonder.

The doors parted and I hurried through them, lifting my head to search for my female’s scent. My brow furrowed. There wasn’t a hint of it anywhere. I almost returned inside when I spotted her—a flash of gorgeous dark hair.

I grinned, heading toward her, but slowed when I realized that her scent was all wrong. When she turned toward me, her eyes a bright red instead of her usual gorgeous hazel, my eyes widened and I took a step back.

“I’m sorry about this,” Becca’s likeness said, waving her hand in front of her, her appearance changing right away as she held a tome out to me. The female in front of me had short, spiky blue hair and fawn-colored skin. “But you have to go back.”

My lips parted in a snarl. “I’m never leaving her,” I said, but she’d already started saying words that I didn’t understand. I turned, but I felt myself being pulled backward.

I spotted Rudgar running toward me, his eyes wide with horror, but I wasn’t able to make it to him, pulled backward, my world spinning in the way that it had before, when I’d been brought here.

“Tell her I love her and I’ll find a way back,” I bellowed to Rudgar as he faded into nothing.

The wrench of pain in my chest had me falling to my knees, grasping at my heart.

My Becca.

I’d lost her. In my recklessness, I’d run straight into a trap and now I’d lost my female. A loud sob left me as I squeezed the flesh over my broken heart.

I needed her. I needed to return to her.

And I’m going to kill anyone who gets in my way.

As my eyes cleared, rage replacing the pain, I saw that I was back in my cave.

Alone.

I released a loud bellow of pain and fury. The sound of running footsteps behind me, in a cave that had always been empty, had me spinning and facing them.

Becca?

Disappointment and anger replaced the tenuous hope I’d had as the scent of male orcs filled my nose. I looked around, seeing that my once-neat cave now was filled with furs, tools and weapons, all haphazardly piled on each other.

I scowled, baring my fangs as the males entered, axes at the ready.

I know them.

Three clanless mongrel males who’d asked to join me in hunting parties in the past. I’d allowed it, because there weren’t any older males left to train them. Their clan had been hit with the same sickness as mine. I’d even considered asking them to join me, but I was glad I hadn’t.

The little thieves took over while I was gone.

I growled low in my throat and the biggest of the group—Krusk—lowered his axe for a moment in shock.

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