Page 86 of Rough Riding Orc Cowboy

No one was coming. Ruugar was still asleep. Cold wrapped itself around my bones, the marrow-deep kind.

A truth settled in my chest like a stone dropped into still water.

I was on my own.

Chapter 31

Ruugar

Beth’s muffled cry cut through the air like a blade. My heart seized. Before my mind caught up, I was already moving, tearing my way out of the tent and onto the dew-drenched grass. I wrenched on the pants I'd snagged as I passed them, and secured the fastening, staring around.

“Beth,” I hissed, then much louder. “Beth?”

Mary poked her head out of their cabin, her silver hair ruffled from sleep. A dim light shone behind her. “Ruugar? What’s going on?”

Beth. Where was she?

I forced myself to breathe, to keep my voice steady. “I’m looking for—” I stopped before her name escaped. “Ben.”

Mary frowned. “Maybe he went to the bathroom?”

“Maybe.” It was a weak answer, but it was the only one I could drag up. My stomach flipped over. Beth wouldn’t have gone off in the dark alone.

I turned, moving fast. The bathroom building stood a short distance behind the cabins, and its wooden door was closed. I rapped my fist against it. “Ben?” No answer. I yanked the door open and stepped inside. Empty.

Panic crawled across my skin. I hurried to the cooking gazebo. Coals from the firepit pulsed to my right, giving off faint heat. No Beth inside the cooking gazebo either.

Unease clawed at my insides. Something was wrong.

A scuffle echoed from the woods.

My head whipped toward the woods. The sound had come from there. The hair on my arms stood up as I sprinted in that direction, the muffled sounds growing clearer. Someone was being dragged through forest, their grunts shouting a struggle. They'd left a clear path for me to follow.

I tore through the thick undergrowth, branches slapping my skin as I ran. My lungs ached, my heart pounded, and when I reached an open area and saw my love, my mate, Beth, held by Bradley, my vision swam with red.

He and another male held her by her arms, but she was kicking. Two other males latched onto her limbs and tried to haul her toward waiting horses.

I stepped into the clearing. “Let. Her. Go.”

The men froze. Beth’s breath caught, and her teary gaze found mine.

Bradley turned, his face smug face, his lips twisted into a cruel pout. “You’re too late,” he sneered. “She belongs to me. Her fathergaveher to me.”

Beth let out a muffled cry that barely broke through the cloth gagging her mouth.

A rage unlike anything I'd known before boiled up, hot and about to blast through the top of my head. My ears rang. My fists clenched.

I bolted forward, a force of nature, slamming into the nearest man, the one gripping Beth’s left leg. A sickening crunch filled the air as we hit the ground in a tangle of limbs. The other two launched themselves on top of me, but I was already swinging. My knuckles met flesh and bone, and one fell back with a hoarse groan.

Bradley wrenched Beth upward, trying to wrestle her over and onto a horse. If her father was here, I didn’t see him. Hiding from the shame of what he’d done to his daughter.

Her panicked thrashing made me roar.

I threw the next man off me and lashed out with my foot, catching another square in the chest. He flew back, crashing hard against a tree. Crumpling, he lay unmoving. The last man standing hesitated, his eyes darting between me and Bradley. With a muffled groan, he turned and vaulted onto a horse, kicking it into a run, fleeing into the night.

Bradley growled a curse, and two more figures slunk from the trees, clubs gripped in their thick hands. From the way they slapped their palms, they knew how to use them.

More muscle.

---