Page 106 of Orc's Possession
My father’s voice fills my mind as images of his atrocities flood my brain. Bile rises from my stomach with the need to satisfy the grak who could never be satisfied. If he weren’t already dead, I would kill him for the damage he did to me and my family. Remaining stuck in the past won’t get my graka back.
I will focus my revenge and anger on those who shot me and took my female. Destroy them, all of them. They are insignificant. Insects I will step on and drive into the dirt until there is nothing left of them.
Then, I will take her back… except she walked away with no concern for me. No desire to remain with me.
I swallow hard, trying to accept the reality.
She lied to me.
Never wanted me.
You’re weak. You trusted the enemy. You will fail.
“Not weak,” I roar as I force my eyes open.
“Grak?” Sojek’s voice calls out. I turn my head to see my bloody and bruised nephew kneeling at my side. “I thought you were dead.”
It is not my time to die. Not until I’ve killed my enemy.
Sojek removes my leather harness which is smoking from the blaster fire. “I failed you, my grak.”
Explaining to him that I was the one who failed, not him, is not a priority. My tunic is singed, and my knives melted into my leather. The string of knives on my harness spread the force of the energy blast leaving me with minor burns on the exposed areas of my chest and arms. My knives are the only reason Isurvived, though with the pain rocking through me, it’s clear how close I came to dying.
Muscles protesting as if I’m carrying three warriors on my back, I force myself up.
Sojek grabs a waterskin from a nearby stand that the humans abandoned along with their wares and pours it over the burns on my chest. He’s smart, a quick thinker.
I take the container from him and swallow the rest of the water. The humans tried to kill me. And my female betrayed me by leaving me.
“Get me to my gorja,” I order Sojek.
My nephew’s eyes catch mine. With a slight nod, he leaves me leaning against the stall as he runs to gather my gorja and the cart.
My hands and feet grow numb from the blast to my body but Sojek returns with both gorjas in minutes, the cart nowhere to be seen. He’ll retrieve the cart later. He understands the urgency and knows I will not be hauled out of here in the cart, to appear weak in front of our enemies. I will praise him later. For now, I will ride out of this stinking market on my gorja so every human here knows I survived.
With great difficulty, I hoist myself onto my mount. Sojek keeps his distance, not offering to help, as that would make me look weak.
“We’re leaving, Sojek. I have an attack to plan,” I say loudly. I no longer have my female, but I am still orc, and our enemies will soon learn what that means.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
ATOX
“It’s only been a month, Grak,” Verig says as he rides beside me south from Mount Racha. “Are you sure you’re healed?”
“We’ve waited too long already. Our response should have been that very day.”
“Agreed, if we were still on Orcos. Here, the rules are different, as are the players.”
“The only rules are those we make.”
He clamps his mouth shut but I see the unease in his face. “Speak, Verig. I made you second for your insight as well as your skills.”
“You promised our warriors females, Atox. And, while I hate the idea of having human females, we need them. We have too few orc females to survive. If we decimate the humans, then we destroy our own future.”
The hooves of the legion of gorjas behind us strike the ground in a rhythmic pattern that used to soothe me, as did the thoughtof crushing the enemy. But not this enemy. Not while my female is with them. She could get hurt.
You’re weak. You will fail, Atox.
