Page 105 of Orc's Possession
A bolt of blue energy arcs across the market, striking Atox in his chest. A plume of dirt shoots into the air as my mate crashes to the ground.
I try running to him, but my father pulls me toward the carts. “He’s not moving!” I yell, but Atox doesn’t move. “Let me go!”
“He’s dead. He can’t touch you anymore.”
The universe crashes down on me. Atox is dead.
No…no… He can’t be dead! Please don’t let him be dead.
“Atox!” I yell. He doesn’t answer.
Atox lies crumpled on his side, his lifeless eyes staring back at me.
My knees buckle and my father holds me up.
“One less filthy animal on Kovos,” he says as I struggle not to pass out.
Again, I try to run to Atox, but the men hold me tight.
He’s dead.
My orc can’t be dead.
I strain to watch over my shoulder as Sojek runs to Atox.
Atox isn’t moving. Smoke rises from his chest where the blaster fire struck.
Dead.
“No!” I yell.
The men keep pushing me farther from my mate, the man I love.
“You’ll thank me later, when we get rid of that monstrosity growing in you.”
Fear and pain twist inside me, only to be shoved aside by anger at these murderers.
“You won’t touch my baby,” I growl with all the venom I have inside me.
“It’s not your choice.”
“Sleep with one eye open, old man, because if my baby dies, so do you.”
ATOX IM GRAK
Fire spreadsthrough my chest like lightning. The power decimates every nerve in my body, making it impossible to move, to talk, to breathe.
Sound disappears completely and my vision wavers as my body strikes the ground, compressing my lungs and forcing the last of the air from my body. In a haze, I watch my mate moving farther away from me, disappearing with the other humans.
She’s leaving with them… That blow burns worse than the blaster fire.
The pain spreads to every part of my body unlike any I’ve known before. My thoughts are in disarray, confusion overtaking me. The will to live evades me until I remember a warrior doesn’tgive up. A warrior—agrak—kills before he lets another have the advantage. Kills before the enemy takes what does not belong to them.
I took too long to react.
I should have ignored my mate’s words, taken her by force, and returned home.
You don’t deserve to be grak. You’re weak. Like your mother.
