Chapter 12

Hannah

I was dizzy, and a little disoriented, but fear made my heart pound and forced me to focus on my immediate problems. My body ached in various places, but they were just bruises, nothing serious. When I scrambled to my feet, I could see Blade’s broad back as he swung an ax through the air. He wasn’t attacking, but he was definitely taking up a defensive position against a whole horde of creatures. Orcs and minotaur, the overlords, as he called them.

Up close, they were bigger than I expected them to be. Only three were present, but they towered at least a head above the orcs that surrounded them. Each wore a black kilt and gold capped the ends of their massive horns. The orcs were dressed in similar black armor, but they each had a purple band around their green biceps. The way they lined up protectively in front of those big minotaur made it look so uniform, so military. And they outnumbered my Blade, an impossible force to fight.

“Stand down, orc,” one of the minotaur guys said in a deep bass voice. “We are detaining the human for illegally arriving on our planet. You know the rules.” Blade just growled, his fingers tightening around the handle of his weapon. It was just an ax, primitive against the glowing rifles his opponents appeared to be holding.

If his bike still worked, I would have tried to get him to flee with me, but it didn’t. Some kind of bolt stuck from the gleaming chrome, and electricity crackled along it. Escape was out, which meant I had only one option left, to go with them, or they’d hurt Blade and that was the last he deserved.

I started to move around the side of the bike, to move toward the enemy force so I could face the music. Blade sidestepped, blocking my path. “She’s my mate,” he declared fiercely, “I know the rules.” My heart froze in my chest at the declaration. How could my brave, fierce orc say those kinds of things when we’d only just met? He was tying his entire life to me just to protect me… It was such a selfless gesture, it was so him. I had never in my life had anyone be there for me this wholeheartedly.

“You are lying, orc,” the minotaur standing in the middle declared. He cocked his head sideways, horns gleaming gold, his eyes narrowed impressively as he huffed, “I do not like being lied to.” The orcs in front of him advanced a step, and I felt that threat shoot through me. They were going to punish him, maybe do the same as they were going to do to me. I didn’t even know exactly what they wanted to do.

“I am not lying,” Blade said. Though he was, I hadn’t agreed. “She is my mate. And I’m not letting you ‘escort’ her from the planet. You don’t get to kill her. Nothing will kill her.” He said the last with a fierce glance over his shoulder at me, and I felt that look down to my bones. He was saying so much with just that glance, that he believed I’d be cured, that he wanted to stand by my side no matter what. That look was a wedding vow all in one.

Tears sprung to my eyes, and I started to open my mouth, to do what I wasn’t quite sure. The minotaur was faster. This one had a big brown goatee, and he spoke with an implacable coolness. “She has not agreed. The human must agree. Take them.”

Chaos erupted, and though I shouted at them to stop, they ignored me. Blade charged, clashing with the other orcs in a violent battle. I heard metal sing through the air, heard screams and grunts, and I saw the spray of blood. All the while, the minotaur stood at a distance, watching with condemning eyes.

I believed that if I’d gotten on that hoverbike and flown away at that instant, nobody would have noticed. They weren’t after me right now. They were punishing Blade and his good, noble heart for trying to protect me. He was still protecting me, keeping his body between me and the advancing orcs. His body gleamed with sweat and his muscles strained as he swung his weapon. It was a beautiful sight, no matter how macabre. It was straight out of an action movie.

“Stop!” I shouted again, my heart pounding in my chest. Ignored, I clambered on top of the bike and stood. “He’s my mate!” I shouted again. “Don’t hurt my mate! Blade!” As suddenly as the violence had erupted, it ended. The orcs that surrounded Blade slunk backward, their chests heaving as they held their weapons in front of them, not just rifles, but weapons kitted out with sharp blades like a bayonet.

Blade was left standing at the center of the collapsed stones that I’d not long ago tried fervently to get to work. How foolish that endeavor had been. I should have listened to him all along; they didn’t work. I didn’t need them to, not when I had a man, an orc like Blade, willing to stand with me every step of the way.

“Is that so?” the first minotaur spoke. His black pelt made him look sinister and evil, and his dark tone made it clear he was very displeased by this turn of events. “Are you claiming this orc as your mate, human?” He made human sound like it was a curse, a dirty word he'd much rather forget. It was very clear that all three of these Minotaur thought I was the dirt beneath their cloven hooves.

Their opinion didn’t matter, only Blade’s did. When his brown eyes met mine, they were practically aglow with golden light. “Yes, she is. I told you!” he said, his mouth splitting into the widest grin I had ever seen on him. He looked like a kid at the candy store, or maybe a kid on Christmas morning. So happy that he made it impossible not to smile back at him.

“Yes,” I said more firmly, “This orc is my mate. We are mates.”