Chapter 19

Mia

I ’m quiet as Cragnorr undresses me, and then peels off the filthy pants he’s been wearing since we were both taken captive. He looks embarrassed, running a hand through his dirty hair. It is a foul kind of cruelty, not to even allow him the dignity of bathing.

As he sits on the bed, his eyes downcast, I crawl into his lap. His arms slip around me, encompassing me, as he buries his face in my neck. I hold him like that as he shakes, as we both mourn something that should have been beautiful.

When Cragnorr’s tears ebb, I urge him to look up at me, and then kiss him thoroughly. He groans as I nibble his lower lip, and I sense him growing hard underneath me. I drag myself back and forth across his lap, so his cock slides through that wet place between my thighs. He moans, his arms wrapping tighter around me, telling me all the words he feels but cannot say. Though we take our time teasing each other, grinding my clit against his length, Gru doesn’t knock at the door .

“At least now,” I say, leaning closer to his ear, “you don’t have to pull out.”

Cragnorr nods in understanding. His hands grow bolder, cupping my ass, glancing over my nipples with his thumbs and then plucking them, one at a time.

“That’s how I’ll feed our baby,” I tell him, wrapping his whole hand around my breast.

His eyes are wide in wonder as he investigates them further, licking them and twirling the nipple around in his mouth. I tangle my hands in his hair and moan, pressing my hips even harder against him. When I can’t take any more, I reach down between us and lift myself up onto my knees, then fit him between my wet, swollen folds.

Cragnorr lets out a moan as I bring him inside me, as far as I can on the first thrust. Again I rise, and again I lower myself onto him, swallowing him up, bringing him home to me. I imagine that we’re no longer in this dark room, on this tiny, dirty cot, but instead have just bathed in a lake and now lie beside it, both of us basking in our joy and excitement at what we’ve created together.

I wrap my arms tight around his neck, holding him as close to me as I can, squeezing my eyes closed to envision a different reality. He gasps every time I spear myself on his cock, his huge hands eclipsing my body as he squeezes and strokes me.

But soon the animal takes over him, and he uses those big hands to push me down onto my back, before pulling my thighs apart and gripping my legs while he takes me. We’re so soaked with our need, with our boiling desire for each other, that each pump of his powerful hips makes an obscene sound. I’m crying out, tangling my hands in his hair, gripping his shoulders tight as he seeks out the place inside me that will make me forget everything else.

Then, suddenly, he’s swelling up even fatter, even thicker inside me, and his big, amber eyes go wide. I’m so full with his cock that it drags me over the edge, hurling me into nothingness. Cragnorr bellows as he finishes, jamming himself deep and spilling himself inside me as I sob out his name.

While we lie there panting, our sweat mingling, he trails a hand over my belly as if drawing something.

“Even if they never know you,” I say quietly, “I’ll make sure to tell them everything about you. How wonderful and perfect you are. How strong, in every way.”

Cragnorr’s eyes are shining with moisture as he lifts his gaze to mine, protectively spreading his hand across my stomach. His shoulders tremble, and I realize that I’m crying, too. He hugs me tight, rubbing his forehead against mine, leaving kisses across my nose and cheeks and licking away my tears.

Gru comes in only minutes later, the guards following. Cragnorr gets up, protecting me with his body. He grits his teeth and curls his hands into fists.

“Don’t,” I beg him. “There are too many of them.”

But my ogre is fierce, and his new knowledge has turned him into an animal. He will protect what’s his. When they try to shackle him, he swings one of his huge arms, knocking a guard to the side.

“Cragnorr, stop!” I try to tell him, but he claws at his captors. They snap on his manacles, and with a hard jerk, they knock him to the floor with a horrible thud . I sob his name as they drag him out of the room. “I’m sorry,” I call after him. “I’m sorry.”

“My Mia.” He shakes his head, and furious determination crosses his face as he’s dragged away. “My kagazen .”

Then the heavy door falls closed behind him.

Cragnorr

My mate is carrying my whelp. And I’m leaving her, perhaps forever, if the King finds out that it’s now growing inside her.

I may never see her, or them, while I’m alive.

Rage fills me as I leave Mia behind. I can’t stand by and let them tear us apart. I fight as hard as I can all the way back to the holding room, gnashing my teeth and yanking on my chains. Other guards are called in to help restrain me and shove me into my cage. Then they slam the door behind me and stalk out, muttering curses about the ogre .

I shake the metal bars, my vision red at the edges as I think about Mia, all alone, holding our whelp in her arms. How dare they keep me from her? The fury spreads, filling my veins like fire. I would kill them all should I get my hands on them.

The thought of Mia consumes me as I look for a way out. I can’t be trapped here any longer. I have to find my mate and escape before I become Vagenn.

At least this time they couldn’t get a chain onto my collar.

“Easy, buddy,” Pa’zi says next to me, holding up her hands. “You’re going to hurt yourself like that.”

I roar at her, as if words are now beyond my reach. All I have left is my wrath.

“What’s with him?” the new woman asks, watching curiously.

Fex narrows his eyes at me. “What did they do to her, ogre?”

“Mine!” I bellow, wrapping my hands around the bars and pulling on them as hard as I can. “Mia is mine !”

It’s not until Pa’zi gasps that I realize I’ve bent the metal bars of my cage. I stare down at them, now curved where I put all of my force into my hands.

A fresh wave of need washes over me—the need to get out of here, to find my mate, to save my whelp. I grab the bars of the cage door in my hands and pull as hard as I can, bracing all of my weight against them.

Mia. My purpose. I will fight my way out of here until I die.

I howl one more time, all of that hot rage pouring into my muscles. The bars of the cage creak as I funnel it into this one thing.

“Holy fuck,” Fex says, backing up a few steps. “Remind me to never get you angry.”

Underneath my massive hands, the door finally gives. The latch snaps off as the bars bend beyond recognition. I shove it open, hurling it out of the way, and it skates across the stone floor with a terrible screech.

I can only think of one thing: getting to Mia.

“Wait, big guy!” Pa’zi calls out. “Do you have a plan? You’re not going to make it out of here alive.”

I barely hear her. None of them matter. I have one goal and one desire, and I will destroy anything in my way.

“Hey.” A quiet, feminine voice breaks through the fog. “Over here.”

I glance up to find the blonde woman standing at the door of her cage. Her voice sounds so much like Mia’s that I pause to listen to her.

“Let me out,” she says. “I can help you find her.”

“Bullshit!” calls Fex. “You don’t know where she’s being kept.”

“Yeah, but maybe together, we have a better shot.” She keeps her eyes on me. “Come on. You want your woman back, right?”

I pant heavily, trying to think through the words she’s saying. She could help me find Mia?

“I know more than she does about the camp,” Fex calls out. “If you let anyone go, it should be me.”

The conscious part of my head says, listen to them. I am alone, it’s true, and those guards from earlier will take me down if I’m faced with all of them on my own. But maybe against the four of us...

“What’s going on?” calls out Pa’zi in Trollkin. She can’t understand anything the humans are saying. I go to her cage first, heat still pulsing in my veins, and grab onto the door. I plant my hands between two bars and squeeze them apart as hard as I can.

The metal gives, and the lock snaps off.

“Whoa,” Pa’zi says, looking down at the mangled metal. She steps through, then stares up at me, cocking her head. “What are you?”

Without a word I do the same to Fex’s cage, and then at last, the newbie’s.

“I’m Marta,” the blonde woman says. She gestures down the hall toward the stairs. “If we go out that way, we’re dropped right into the middle of camp.” That might not be wise, but my blood is still pumping hot, and I need to find Mia.

“We should go through the pit,” Marta says.

“ Through the pit?” Fex glances back at his cage. “Fuck. You shouldn’t have let me out. Now I’m gonna get caught and beaten with all of you idiots.”

“There’s another door in the pit,” Marta explains, ignoring him. “Where they took that orc’s body away.” She tilts her head at me. “Can you break down the big door into the arena?”

I don’t need to be asked twice. I turn around and barrel into it with my shoulder. It’s meant to be opened from the outside, so the middle gives easily.

I smash through it, splintering the wooden door in half, and find myself in the pit. The others follow through behind me.

“Better than a cannon,” Fex says with a whistle.

Marta runs ahead of us and points out the door on the opposite side. “That’s the one,” she says. “It must lead somewhere they can dispose of the bodies. ”

“So, a catacomb, is what you’re saying,” Fex deadpans. “I’m going to vote no on the catacomb.”

Ignoring him, I stalk across the arena, toward the big door. It’s our best shot. Maybe it leads out of the camp altogether, wherever they dispose of the bodies.

Readying myself, I charge into the door, slamming it with all of my weight. It cracks right down the center, splitting in half like a log under an axe. We’re making a lot of noise, so we have to hurry before someone comes to investigate.

Marta slips into the tunnel first, which is pitch black inside. I follow her, with Fex and Pa’zi close behind.

“Where are we going, ogre?” asks Pa’zi, giving the two humans a doubtful look as we descend into the darkness.

I shake my head. She can come or she can stay—it’s of no concern to me. I only have one goal, and it’s to find the way out, and bring Mia with me.

As we walk deeper into the tunnel, Pa’zi grunts and finally follows along. I can’t see anything, but I push onward, because this is the only chance we have. I feel along the walls, and we bump into each other from time to time as we make our way carefully.

There’s a loud clatter. “Fuck,” Fex hisses. “What was that?”

“Probably bones,” Marta says in a bored tone. “Keep going.”

I’m also kicking small objects as we make our way, and I try not to think about what they are. I try not to imagine Vagenn’s body here, or Bino’s, but the stench tells me they likely are.

“Awful,” says Pa’zi, squeezing her nostrils shut. “Humans are animals.”

Finally, up ahead, I spot a tiny band of light. I break into a jog, pushing ahead of the others as we get nearer.

It’s a grate in the ceiling, moonlight shining through, but blocked off with bars.

“Damn it!” Fex stomps one foot. “We’re so close, and then this? ”

I shake my head. I’m not letting one piece of metal stop me now. I gesture at Pa’zi to come closer, and she peers up through the grate.

“Need help, ogre?” she asks. I nod, and she crouches down, offering her hands as a step even though she’s still injured. Marta and Fex seem to gather what she’s doing, and Fex imitates her. Once I’m lifted a few feet off the floor—and Fex groans miserably under my weight—I seize the bars of the grate and yank as hard as I can.

The metal bends, just enough that the edges are pulled away from the dirt. I yank again, and stumble backwards as the grate comes crashing down on top of me. Fex and Pa’zi are both knocked to the ground as I go sprawling, and the metal grate bounces off my belly. I gasp as the wind is knocked out of me.

Marta lets out a little cheer. “You did it!” When I manage to sit up again, she slaps me hard on the back. “Now we just have to figure out how to get up there.”

Without asking, I pick her up around the waist and heave her into the air, high up above my head. She lets out a cry of surprise.

“Grab on, idiot!” calls up Fex. Marta obeys, hooking her arms over the porthole above us, and pulling herself up. Once she’s there, she takes a quick look around.

“We’re not far from the wall,” she calls down to us. “Hurry up, before they see us.”

“Then help me out!” snaps Fex. Marta gets down on her belly and holds her hands out, so Fex can go next.

Pa’zi watches this all with wide eyes. “What about you?” she says to me. “How are you getting out?”

I shake my head. I’m not going.

“What?” she asks in disbelief. “You’re helping us escape, but you’re not coming?”

“Mia,” is all I say. Then I pick up Pa’zi, too, even though she’s quite a bit bigger and heavier, and heft her over my head. She grabs onto the ledge, then hauls herself up without any help from the others.

“You next,” says Marta, holding a hand out to me. “Maybe if all three of us pull him together?”

“Fine,” says Fex, also crouching down to offer me his hand. “We can sure try, but he’s a big boy.”

I shoo them off. Now that we have a way out, I have to go back and get Mia.

I will never leave her behind, never again.

“Ogre!” Marta snaps at me. “This is your chance. Freedom. Don’t throw it away for some girl.”

She’s wrong. It will never be freedom for me without my mate, without my whelp, without my everything.

Pa’zi grabs Marta’s arm and shakes her head, even though they can’t understand each other.

“We’re leaving him,” Fex says sharply. More lights are appearing overhead. “We have to go. Now.” He glances down at me one last time, and gives me a pitying look. “I hope you make it out of here, you big oaf.”

Then Marta and Fex are gone, leaving only Pa’zi. She gives me a small wave.

“Take care of yourself and your mate,” she says, giving me a quick salute before she vanishes, too.

I turn around and head back the way I came at a quick lope. I don’t have much time. But I know I’ll find Mia. I have to.

The moment I step back out into the pit... that’s when I hear someone shout.

“They got out!” It’s two of the guards I’ve become so familiar with. But if there’s only a pair of them, perhaps I still stand a chance.

One raises his gun and points it at me, but he’s too far away to get a sure shot. So I run. I race towards them across the dirt floor of the pit, and the gun fires. It barely misses, howling past my ear.

Then I’m on top of him, smashing him into the ground. While he’s stunned, I reach out for the second guard and yank her down by the leg. I grab her as I get to my feet, and hurl her over my head into one of the cages inside.

She falls to the ground, unmoving.

“Fuck!” the first guard groans in pain. He starts shouting. “Ogre! The ogre got out!”

I have to keep him quiet. I land a foot right to his head, shattering his jaw.

But it’s too late. People appear at the edges of the arena, drawn by the commotion. More guards stream into the pit.

I have failed.