Chapter 18

Mia

I break apart when Cragnorr is forced to leave me. All I want is to curl up at his side, circled by his tree-trunk arms, and fall asleep that way. I want to hear his breath next to me, and wake up to his cheek against my hair.

But now I’m alone, and Gru is dragging me to my feet and forcing me to dress before tying the rope around my wrists. He snaps at me to stop crying, but I can’t keep it inside this time.

At least I know I’ll see Cragnorr again in a few days, but that does nothing to quell the feeling that something very important has gone missing.

I remember when he emptied himself on my belly, and wonder how long the King will wait when I never get pregnant. Will he realize we’re fleecing him? If he does... what will he do to Cragnorr? Or me ?

Before, I thought about plans. I watched guard rotations and plotted routes around the camp where I might not be seen, should I manage to get away from Zake’s house in the middle of the night. But now, as I’m led back there and tied up in the corner, I simply feel empty and bottomless. The world could swallow me up, and no one would notice.

The days pass horribly slow, plodding along one agonizing minute at a time. When I next see Cragnorr, Gru doesn’t try to stay and watch. He gives us a strange look as he leaves, almost like he pities us, then bolts the door closed behind him.

Cragnorr lies on the bed next to me, holding me and kissing my forehead, until our babysitter raps on the door and hollers at us to get a move on.

Again I ask him to lie on his back, and again I wrap my lips around his soft cock until he’s hard and throbbing in my hands. This time I crawl on top of him to sink down on it, bringing it inside me and relishing the feeling of being whole again. Cragnorr moans and gasps underneath me, clutching my hips and ass in his hands as I take him slow. When my thighs wear out, Cragnorr gets onto his knees and guides me into the same position, so he can slide in from behind. Once again he flicks the pad of his finger over my clit while he fucks me, claiming me.

And once again, after he’s ejaculated everything onto my back, they come and take him away.

I wish I could sleep beside him, or even eat a meal with him. Instead, Zake watches me as I try to get comfortable on the floor despite the bindings on my wrists. They’re always red now from me moving around in the night.

“Let me sleep in Narria’s tent,” I ask him once, because anything would be better than this. At least with Narria, she’ll speak to me, make conversation with me.

But no, the King wants to watch me break. He simply smiles at me .

“I can’t keep an eye on you there,” he says with a yawn, helping himself to some fresh fruit while I watch from the corner. He tosses me half of an apple, and it skitters across the floor, not even close enough that I could grab it. “I will be the first to know when your blood doesn’t arrive, and then this little game will be over.”

It’s difficult not to let the hopelessness inside me, but late at night in the darkness, I can no longer keep it at bay. I cry, thinking of Cragnorr’s arms, of sleeping in the grass, of the bright sky overhead. How long has it been since he saw sunlight?

My ogre. My lover. My best friend.

Cragnorr

“How are your little visits ?” the orc asks. His name, I’ve eventually learned, is Vagenn. He acts like this is a closely-guarded secret, perhaps fearing it might lead someone back to his mate. I understand his protectiveness over her now. The misery I feel when I’m apart from Mia is endless, a void that continues on forever in front of me.

I don’t have an answer for him. Seeing Mia is like seeing the sun again, like stepping out into the real world. When she’s gone, the weight of her absence is crushing, and I stagger under it. Locked in this cage down underground, we have no grasp of the days, and so it seems random when the short woman with the metal rod comes to get me.

“At least you can see your mate,” Vagenn grunts after a time. “I’ll never see mine again.”

“I’ll probably have to kill you first,” pipes up Pa’zi, who has at least survived the worst of her injury. Her poultice hasn’t been changed in some time, though, and I worry for her .

Vagenn simply shrugs. “I’ve come to terms with that,” he says, though his eyes are sad. “But I will hold out as long as I can.”

It’s not that he fears his own death, but that of his mate. When I am no longer useful to the King, will he sentence me to the same fate? When I die, will I take Mia with me?

One day, a new victim is brought in and tossed into Bino’s old cage. She’s human, not particularly tall, but with shoulders as wide as the orc’s. She says nothing to us as she’s locked in and left to rot, and there is no welcome from Fex.

After a few hours have passed, she suddenly turns around in her cage and grabs the bars. “I’m not staying here,” she growls. She has short, dirty yellow hair and her eyes are as hard as rocks. “You’re content with this?”

“There’s no choice about it,” says Fex.

She laughs scornfully. “Weakling.”

“What about this guy?” Fex asks, gesturing at me. “He could break out, but he gets to fuck twice a week, so he’s happy to stay.”

I glare at him. There is no way out of here, not as long as I stay collared.

The new woman’s eyes drift over to me. “That thing?”

“He can understand you.” Fex settles back into his cage. “So watch your mouth.”

This draws the woman’s curiosity. “Say something,” she insists. “If you can speak Freysian.”

I roll my eyes, a gesture I learned from Bino, and lean back against the bars to close my eyes. I sleep as often as possible when I’m not with Mia to make the time pass faster.

“Hmm,” the woman says. “Curious.”

Fex shrugs. “He’s not very talkative. Not unless his lady is about to get eaten by a lion.”

I cast him a deadly look, hoping he’ll get the message and keep his mouth shut .

“His lady?” The woman arches an eyebrow at me. “As in, a human?”

Fex bares all of his teeth when he smiles, but like I asked, he doesn’t answer. Not that she hasn’t already answered her own question.

The newcomer looks at me with fresh eyes as I try once again to fall asleep. But I’ve barely dozed when our jailor appears, rapping her baton on our cages.

“You,” she says, pointing at the newbie. “It’s your turn. The King paid good money for you, and wants to see what you can do.” Then she turns to Vagenn. “And you...” Maybe the orc can’t understand her, but he knows what’s coming anyway. He closes his eyes and leans his forehead against the bars. “This will be perfect. A human maiden up against a monstrous trollkin?” The woman with the baton wiggles her fingers. “Tantalizing!”

The guards approach and cuff Vagenn, then drag him out of his cage. As they lead him away, he glances over his shoulder at me. “Get out of here, ogre,” he says. “Get your mate the fuck out of here, whatever it takes.”

“Don’t give up already,” Pa’zi calls to him. “We know nothing about this bitch. You can take her.”

Vagenn simply shakes his head. “I just hope fate lets my mate live. And then, maybe someday in the world beyond this one, I can see her and my whelp again.”

I grip the bars as he steps out into the harsh sunlight of the pit to the sound of hollers and cheers. He doesn’t plan to come back.

The new woman is led out next, and the guards toss them weapons. Vagenn wields an axe, while the newbie is handed nothing but a small dagger. How could she possibly defend herself with that? Perhaps she’s the one who’s been sentenced to her death.

When Vagenn is free of his shackles and so is she, they circle one another, each daring the other to go first. They’re both light on their feet, which surprises me for an orc as big as Vagenn.

Then, like a flash of lightning, the woman crosses the pit and leaps on him like a cat. It’s instant, before he can even think of defending himself. The force of it knocks Vagenn to the ground with a loud oof .

Now crouched over him, she raises the small knife in her hand up above her head. Before the crowd can even scream, she buries the dagger in Vagenn’s chest.

Mia

It’s been nearly three weeks since we arrived in this awful place, and I should have bled by now—but still no sign of my visitor.

I try not to think too hard about it, in case Zake reads it off my face. But the idea that we’ve already failed, that Cragnorr and I conceived before this game even started, haunts me into my dreams.

I’ve wondered if I could fake it by cutting into my thigh, but the daggers he keeps on his pile of jewels are too far away.

“It’s like lions and tigers,” the King says one night, lounging on his pillows and drinking wine. “The liger is quite a magnificent creature. Bigger than either of them. No one knew you could breed them together until my daddy did.” He likes to mention his father, frequently, even though the man is long dead. “It’s too bad your ogre killed it. Maybe I’ll try to capture a bear next.”

As soon as Zake knows the truth, Cragnorr’s life could be forfeit. Unless he wants to keep us, and continue making more?—

I can’t think like that. I have to hold onto hope, or I’ll slip away into darkness.

One day, the King returns late, and seems deeply disappointed .

“What a miserable fight,” he grumbles. “No showmanship at all. And she came with a pedigree.” Then a smile turns up his lip. “I thought she’d make it last longer.”

Disgusting. I’ve had to listen to him jack off a few times, which is its own kind of torture. But at least he doesn’t use me to sate his needs.

“You should look happier,” Zake says, tugging me to my feet by the rope. “You get to see your ogre today.”

I can’t help the rush of pleasure I feel at the idea. Whenever we’re apart, it’s like I’m being pulled towards him, right through the ground.

“You like that, don’t you? That fat ogre cock?” Zake laughs. “All right, I’ll hand you off. Gru!”

Gru and I have almost reached a truce. He knows I won’t put up a fight if he treats me with some dignity.

“The two of you aren’t getting up to any funny business, are you?” Gru asks as he leads me down underground, past the room full of cages. I see that one of the two trollkin is now gone.

I wonder if that was the fight that upset Zake so much.

“Funny business?” I ask.

“You know what I mean.” Gru shakes his head. “If you and the ogre are trying to pull the wool over His Majesty’s eyes, it won’t work. He will punish you.”

So he knows that Cragnorr and I have not been obeying orders. I try to repress the shiver that travels through me.

“Thanks,” I say in answer as I’m led in through the heavy metal door. It’s all too late anyway.

Cragnorr waits for me on the other side, and my relief at seeing him after the last few days alone, stewing in my miserable thoughts, overwhelms me. Gru unties my wrists, then leaves the way he came.

The moment he’s gone, I crumple to the ground. Concerned, Cragnorr kneels down next to me. His yellow eyes search mine, trying to find what’s wrong. I fall into him and he catches me, pulling me in close.

I don’t know how to tell him, but I have to. He should be the first to know. Once the King finds out, we may never be able to see each other again.

“Cragnorr,” I begin, my voice trembling. “We already did it. There’s nothing we can do to stop it now.”

He tilts his head down to look at me, confusion in his eyes.

“Remember down here? After your fight?” Saying it out loud suddenly makes it real. I’m pregnant, and I’m trapped here. I can’t help the sobs that take over me. “It happened,” I say through my tears. Cragnorr is very still. “I didn’t know it was even possible. I didn’t think it could, not when we’re so different. But my period hasn’t come yet, and I think that means that—” A quiet sob tumbles out of me. “I’m already pregnant, Cragnorr.”

“Mia.” His low, quiet voice startles me. My ogre pulls away so he can look me in the eyes, and his are red around the edges. “You will have a whelp? My whelp?”

I nod slowly, tears spilling down my face.

A sad smile breaks across Cragnorr’s face. He kisses me, and trails his hand down my body to my belly.

“Here,” I say, resting my small hand over his much bigger one. For this one moment in time, I pretend that this is a celebration, that we’ve done something amazing and it belongs to us. But it only lasts for a moment before I can’t hold in the regret any longer.

When I finally break down, Cragnorr hugs me, squeezing me as tight as he can, and I burrow deep into his chest. This might be the last time I get to touch him at all.