Page 8 of Bred By the Orc
Bargain?
It was only then that I blinked and looked around the clearing. The carnage I had expected did not materialize. There were a half dozen orcs on foot, holding their blades on our guards, who were huddled together near the door of the croft.
They were wounded, but alive, staring at the orcs in various stages of terrorand defiance.
The orcs had not killed them?
“I want more gold!” screamed John.
Confused, I turned back to him, squeezing Effie’s hand. Her eyes were wide in terror, her breathing shallow, as she tried to lean away from the blade at her throat.
A huge, scarred orc warrior swung down from his horse and stalked nearer. “Ye would bargain with us, traitor?” he growled. “Greedy enough to demand more, now that we have the upper hand?”
“Let me live!”
The scarred beast—who stood well over seven feet tall—halted and scowled down at John, although he was still several arms-lengths away. “We are no’ here to kill ye, ye worm. I’ll leave that to Tarbert, when he learns how ye betrayed his daughter for gold.”
Betrayed…daughter? My heart was slamming against my chest; I felt as if I couldn’t breathe.
But John seemed emboldened. “Aye, and now I want more gold. I brought you more women, after all. See?” When he yanked Effie closer, she whimpered, and I saw tears leaking from her eyes.
The scarred orc’s gaze dropped to her, and if anything, his frown grew. “Ye hide behind a woman?”
“Aye, this one is not as valuable as the others. But Lady Sorcha and her sister? They are worth more gold. You wanted human females.”
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.
They were here forus. And our seneschal had made a bargain with the orcs forus.
“We only wanted one female in particular,” the hulking beast growled.
I couldn’t draw a breath. I felt light-headed, my knees weakened. I wanted to collapse, to close my eyes the way Effie did, and pray that when I woke, this would all be a horrible dream.
John, damn him, merely shrugged. “Then I have no use for this one.”
He drew his blade back, as if to thrust it into Effie’s neck, and I lunged forward on weak legs, a scream lodged in my throat.
I need not have bothered, because between one heartbeat and the next, the large orc moved, his huge sword whipping through the air. John’s head split in half, the blade missing Effie by a hair, and she collapsed, sobbing, into Roxanna’s arms.
And then I heard my name.
“Sorcha.”
I turned, that tug in my chest manifesting as a desperatepounding.
The orc on the horse towered over me. I mean, he would have towered over me were he standing on his feet, but atop the mount? He was gargantuan, and I had to tip my head back.
Outlined by the full moon, his dark hair flowed over his shoulders. The lines of his nose and jaw were hard, but his expression was…not soft, exactly, but neutral. As if he knew what would happen and had decided not to hide it.
His lips were framed by tusks which should have been terrifying but were not. From up on high, he lowered his hand, reaching for me. Offering me his palm.
“Sorcha,” he repeated, his voice rumbling through my stomach and chest in time with that insistent tug which I now feared pulled me tohim. “I have come for ye.”
His brogue was uncomfortably appealing. It made me want to hear him speak more, made me want to curl into his lap and play with the tips of the pointed ears I could see peeking from his hair. Made me wonder what he’d taste like.
Taste like? Are you out of your mind?
Aye, mayhap. Mayhap the terror and confusion of the last few moments had driven me mad.
