Chapter 10

Norgren

M y poor Tally. How horrid it must be to find your own kind brutalized, maimed, and murdered. The trollkin forces have moved through this territory with reckless abandon, leaving nothing but death in their wake. I can’t imagine what their goal must be. At this moment I’m ashamed to share the world with them, to be one of them. I wonder if Tally thinks of me as trollkin now, as one of these murderers.

But as she comes undone, too distressed by what she’s seen to keep it all inside, I don’t believe so. When the tide has at last receded, Tally sniffs and wipes her face. “Sorry,” she says of her tears, and I tilt my head at her.

“Don’t be sorry.” I brush some of her loose brown hair back behind her ear. “It hurt you.”

She just nods. I hope that with time and distance, she will heal from what she’s seen today.

We don’t go much farther, but far enough to be free of the stench of death, before making camp for the night. Tally tells me with her eyes and her hands what she needs from me, and wrapping her up in my arms, I give it to her. She’s so wet, so warm and tight around me that I have a hard time holding out for her, but one slow, meaningful stroke at a time, I bring her to our place up in the sky where it’s only us, our pleasure mingling into one single being. She shudders around me, her cries and her relentless squeezing nursing me towards a startling, powerful finish.

Afterwards, I pull her in as near as I can and kiss her over and over, wishing I could undo the horrors that have been done.

We travel for another day, higher into the hills. Soon they will give way to the rugged cliffs and peaks where I grew up. Tally flags up a particularly steep path, but she fights when I heft her up into my arms.

“I don’t need help,” she grumbles.

“Yes, you do.” She grunts in dissatisfaction, but does not insist again to be put down. I carry her all the way up to the top, where the sun is blinding. We might have to rest more frequently on this terrain.

“Ahoy!”

The call from down below stops me in my tracks. At the base of the hill stand three trollkin, dressed in mail and leather, one of them with fine metal pauldrons and an insignia on his chest. He’s an orc, and clearly in charge of the others. He’s the one hailing me.

Tally falls still in my arms, and her wide, terrified eyes connect with mine. As the orc waves his arm again, I set her down and push her behind me. She doesn’t object.

“What is it?” I call back, making my irritation obvious. I am not a part of their fight. We have no reason to even speak to one another. But I know they have already seen Tally, and I will either have to talk—or fight—my way out of this .

“What have you got there?” one of the others shouts, a beefy troll twirling a gun. “A little human, is it?”

“None of your business,” I answer. This earns a frown from the guy in charge.

“This is the Grand Chieftain’s territory now,” the big orc says, starting up the hill towards us. Tally backs up, and I keep my body in front of hers. I only hope she doesn’t run and give them an excuse to chase her. They would win. “Humans in our territory is my concern.”

“She’s done nothing. And she’s with me.” Hopefully that is enough. Perhaps if I can convince them that she’s mine, they will leave us alone and let us go on our way.

“With you ?” The orc in command narrows his eyes, and I catch his hand drift towards the hilt of his sword. “And what does that mean, exactly?” The other soldiers have followed him up the hill, and Tally takes another step back. I reach out and snatch her wrist, keeping her from bolting. She glares at me, but doesn’t pull away.

“You heard me.” I take in a big breath of air, trying to make myself look as big as I can. It may be three against one, but I’ve got strength and size on my side. “She. Is. Mine.”

The orc cocks his head, puzzling through this. Behind him, the other orc soldier starts to laugh. He has one ear shaved clean off his head.

“Is that so?” the second orc asks, snorting. “You’ve found a little human to fuck? You stick your cock in that wretched thing?”

The troll spits on the ground. “Absolutely foul,” he says.

The orc in charge nods in agreement. “I understand that we all have needs,” he says with a significant look, “but some things are a blight on our kind.”

In unison, the three of them step closer, and I realize that talking my way through will not work.

“I am not like you,” I answer darkly. “We are not the same. Like I said, she’s mine. What I do with her is none of your concern. ”

A wicked smile spreads across the troll’s face. “It is an interesting thought, you have to admit,” he says to their boss. “Maybe one of us could try putting our cocks in her before we kill her.”

Enraged, the orc turns around and smashes a fist into the troll’s face. The troll cries out and stumbles back, clutching his head.

“What the hell?!” His hand comes away bloody.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” the bigger orc snarls. “We’re here to kill humans, not get our dicks dirty in them.” Once again he turns to me, and takes another step closer. “Just give her up, ogre, and nothing will happen here.”

I look at him like he’s the biggest idiot I’ve ever met.

“You want me to just hand her over?” I laugh with a confidence I don’t feel. “And what, do you intend to kill me over it? One of your own?”

Metal scrapes as the one-eared soldier pulls out his axe. I only brought a single sword of my own with me, not thinking we would run into anything worse than perhaps a lone farmer or a wolf.

“Norgren?” Tally asks me in a quiet, panicked voice. “What’s happening? What do they want?”

There’s no use in lying to her. “They want to kill you,” I tell her. “But I won’t let that happen.”

“How are you going to stop them?” she hisses. “There are three of them and one of you!”

“What’s that you’re speaking over there?” the big orc says, a wicked smile spreading across his face. “You speak the human’s tongue, too? Must be a really fine cunt.”

I growl and place my body firmly in front of Tally. “Stop discussing cunt and do what you’re going to do,” I snap. Then, before any of them can react, I charge.

The big orc is closest to me, and given his rank, probably the most dangerous—so he’s the one I target first. I slash with my sword, which he easily dodges, but it’s a ruse. While he’s focused on my hands, I throw my whole body at him, checking him in the shoulder. He stumbles back and falls to the ground, right in front of the one-eared troll, and I slam one foot down on his leg for good measure.

Roaring in unison, the two other soldiers attack. I block the one-eared orc’s axe first, then twist out of the way as the troll pulls out his blunderbuss and shoots it. The explosion right near my face is deafening, but I don’t need to hear to swing my sword in a full circle and slam it into the gun. It flies out of the troll’s hand, skidding across the ground. While the orc with the axe swings again, I throw myself into the troll instead, bowling him over. He brings me down with him, so I smash my elbow into his face, breaking it.

The troll screams. His orc buddy now swings at me with abandon, enraged. “You’re one of us,” the orc snarls when I block another blow. “Why are you fighting us?”

“That woman,” I say, raising one leg to kick him square in the balls, “is my mate.”

The orc’s eyes go wide right as I smash my knee into his groin, then lift my fists over his head to bring them down on the crown. I hear his neck snap, and his body crumples to the ground.

That leaves only the troll to deal with. He’s still screaming, and so out of pity, I drive my sword through his chest. He falls still, and I don’t think I will ever forget this moment. But I would do it all again for Tally.

“Norgren!”

My mate’s scream takes me by surprise. I turn around to find the orc in charge has gotten back up, and now he’s rushing me, his face dripping with bloodlust.

He wants me dead and he’ll do whatever he must to kill me.

Tally

With a sickening squelch, the orc with the mad look buries his axe in Norgren’s chest. The cry my ogre lets out is agony, and it’s like I can feel what he feels, a terrible pain racing out from the wound and covering my whole body.

Norgren stumbles to his knees, the gash oozing blood. With a terrible roar the big orc leaps on him, throwing him the rest of the way to the ground.

“No!” I shout. The orc raises his axe, then glances over at me. He says something that I can tell is disgusting as he aims for the head. Norgren is trying to throw him off, but his wound has hobbled him.

Then I remember: the gun. The troll dropped his gun, and it’s still lying on the ground. I run for it, and the orc hollers something after me. I’ve never shot a gun before so I just have to guess how it works. I spin around, and the orc has decided that he’s done playing games. As the axe swings down, I press the trigger with all the strength in my arm, and squeeze.

The shot knocks me off-balance and throws my arm back, knocking the gun out of my hand. When I look up, I find the orc wobbling, his axe slowly lowering to the ground. There’s a huge hole in his head, the skin erupted around the wound, blood gushing down the side of his face.

He topples over, leaving Norgren in the dirt.

“Norgren!” I drag myself up and sprint over to him. “Fuck.” I try to help him upright, but the wound is bad, and blood is quickly draining out of it. But he just grunts and pushes me away.

“We’re close,” he grinds out. “We’re close to my family. Go get them.”

“What?!” I glance around us. “No, you have to come with me!” I start breathing harder, imagining Norgren bleeding out here. I imagine him when I’ve returned days later, lying dead in this same spot. “Come on. Get up!”

He just shakes his head. “My uncle. He can heal. You have to bring him here.”

My blood is running fast and hard through my veins. I can’t leave Norgren here alone, there’s just no way. I loop my arm under his and try to tug him upright, but he moans with agony.

Fuck, I can’t cry right now, but I’m like a dam about to burst. I can’t go without him. I just can’t.

“Go!” Norgren suddenly snaps at me, jolting me out of my shock. “Go get my uncle, Tally. Please.”

Please.

I can’t say no. So I nod and kneel down by his head, stroking a hand through his hair.

“Tell me how to get there,” I say.