Page 2 of Orc's Promise
No monster should be that handsome.
Then again, I’m the monster. A coward, really. The woman who fled Earth to escape her past.
The horse beneath us lurches and takes off at top speed, reminding me how screwed I am as the orc tightens his grip on me.
I cannot take my eyes off the green-eyed orc in the distance, even as the smoke, fire, and screams fall away and we disappear into the woods.
VERIG
Baloq turns his gorja,and I see the female he’s slung over his shoulder. Long golden hair with eyes the color of water. The moment her eyes connect with mine, I recognize her.
He’s taking my female, but I only have myself to blame. I had watched her fight off Yanzu. Instead of taking her when she ran from Yanzu, I hesitated and let her run off. The last I saw of her, she’d been heading deep into the woods, where my men shouldn’t have found her.
Somehow, Baloq did. And now she’s his.
Vekk, I’d like to kill the male for touching her, but our grak promised him and the other warriors here tonight that they could take any unclaimed female. Their reward for their loyalty, and a way to increase our numbers.
I cannot take her from Baloq, not without defying who I am.
“Let me go, you ass!” she shouts at him, sending a fire through me. This desire to rip his head from his body is beneath a neld.
I should be relieved he’s taken her. I don’t want a female. I don’t deserve one, not after what I’ve done.
A decade ago, when I first became Atox’s neld, Haaka and I bonded. The gods matched her to me when we were younglings. There will never be a mate as warm and sensuous as her. But this human female with hair the color of the sun and eyes bluer than the waters on Orcos captivates me.
“Neld?” Kodex calls me. Tearing my attention from the female over Baloq’s shoulder proves nearly impossible, but I force myself to address my warrior.
“What?” I snap.
He points at another home, questioning if he should burn that one too. I nod, and he removes the occupants before setting it on fire. Three males and a female race outside, the males doing nothing to protect the female, who races toward me to escape my men. When she sees me, she screams and changes direction.
I could take her easily. Grab her as she runs and throw her over my shoulder as my warriors are doing with the other females.
As our Grak’s second, I have enough duties to occupy my time. I do not need a female. Or younglings.
I swallow hard. Veeya would have been six this season.
“Put me down, you monster!” the female with golden hair yells at Baloq.
My lower lip curls slightly at her spirit.
Baloq smacks her ass. “Behave, female.” He braces his arm across her bare thighs, trying to keep her from falling off.
Without conscious thought, I dismount my gorja. It is not my place to interfere, but vekk, I want to rip Baloq from his mount and bash in his face for touching this female.
Myfemale.
Except she’s not mine. By law, she is his now.
She fights with her fingers, nails digging into Baloq’s skin while she kicks her legs. Flailing. Not giving up. Relentless.
She has the spirit of an orc.
No one can replace Haaka. And yet my eyes return to the golden-haired female slung over Baloq’s shoulder.
He raises his hand, about to smack her ass again for being unruly. The male needs to learn to control a female without force, or he will break her spirit. And this female has a lot of spirit.
“Neld, what is wrong?” he asks as I barrel towards him.
