Page 64 of Summoning the Orc

No female touches me but mine.

She lifted her hand away at once, her grin wide. “She’s from where I come from,” she gasped, giving a little hop of joy. “I thought I’d never find a way back after they summoned me here.”

She gave a whoop, spinning and grabbed Savla in a hug instead of me, which I was grateful for. “Now I can go home,” she squealed, spinning with him. He stood stock-still, letting himself be spun and he was looking at us as if he’d like to be rescued.

“You can take us back?” I asked, hope filling my chest. She stopped her celebration to give me a happy nod. The three males were looking between us, confused, not understanding what we were saying.

“Yeah, I can use your bond with your mate as the tether. I didn’t have one before,” she laughed. “This is perfect!”

I grinned, my voice hopeful. “Can you do it now? What do you need?”

She paused, nibbling on her thumbnail as she looked around her and shook her head. “No, damn it. I need my herbs to make the sacred protection circle. I don’t think I can find those here.We need to go back to my house,” she sighed before shaking her head. “But they know where that is. They’ll come find me.” Her brow furrowed and her hands clenched into fists. “I hate them so much.”

Focusing on the fact that she would be able to take me home, I asked, “Where’s your home?”

Her eyes went wide in her face and she shook her head, looking around. “Uh, I have no idea. I’ll be honest, I’m not great at navigating.”

I snorted out a laugh and asked Krusk, “Do you know where she lives?”

He nodded, his gaze swinging between us. “Did you know you were speaking in tongues?” he asked, his eyebrows high and both Savla and Enka nodded in agreement. We both huffed out laughs.

“I’m going home,” she said in that strange, echoey Orcish. “And I’ll take him with me.”

“We need to get her to her house,” I said, “and then she can take us there.”

“They’ll be coming,” Krusk warned and she nodded.

“That’s where they caught me, so it’ll be the first place they look.”

“Then we need to hurry,” I said, gesturing with my chin toward the female. Savla nodded, grabbing her and tossing her onto his back. She yelped, but she held onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck and securing herself against him before she pointed straight ahead.

“Onward!” He rolled his eyes and turned in the opposite direction before jogging away.

“I knew that,” the female announced—which was an obvious lie.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Rok

We made it to a clearing in the forest where a small hut was built. It looked shoddy and patched—which made sense, since the female had only been living on this plane for a short time. I narrowed my gaze at her as she dropped off Savla’s back and hurried toward the front door.

“When did you arrive?” I asked her, lifting my head to scent the area. So far, we were safe.

“About a year ago,” she huffed as she entered her home—which was a scattered mess. “These assholes left my thingseverywhere.”

“And you’ve been trapped here?” I asked, brow furrowed.

She nodded, moving to a cabinet and rummaging around. “They brought me here and tried to trap me, but I escaped. I’ve been a practitioner since I was old enough to know what my powers were. My mom trained me—” she cut herself off at those words, freezing for a moment before seeming to brush it off. “And then thatdickheadbrought me here so he couldbreedwith me.” She spun around to face me, her hands on her rounded hips. “And that’s justpsychotic.He wants me to bear his evilspawn or something. There should besomekind of law and order here to protect innocent people from being treated like this.”

I nodded at her, hoping it would ease some of her ire and she huffed out a breath before turning back to her cabinets to keep rummaging. She grabbed pouches of what smelled like herbs, tossing them onto the rickety table in the center of the room.

“And then I ran into those three,” she gestured toward the three orc males who were guarding the door of the cottage. “And they helped me so much. At leastsomeof you guys are nice,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for saving me, by the way.”

I nodded, quirking a brow as she started sprinkling herbs in a wide circle around her. “I know those three wanted your help finding their mates as well,” I said and watched with amusement as their heads swung in our direction.

“Oh, I’mdefinitelywilling to help them,” she assured me, “but they’re not here.” She made a small humming sound and lifted a satchel of herbs to sniff before going back to the cabinet.

“What do you mean they’re not here?” I asked her and the males had turned toward us, their gazes narrowed at her.

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