Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

ATOX IM GRAK

V ekk, I cannot stop looking at that female. She raised her voice to the blond male who threatened the other female, the one I caught Ryko watching earlier today. The spirited female pinned the human male with her glare which caused him to back off. He's twice her size, and yet she showed no fear.

Fearless. Like a female orc.

"We did nothing," the pathetic vint slurs, his mouth pressed against the concrete wall as I hold him with my hand around his neck. A neck I can snap quite easily.

"I'm not your enemy orc," the wretched vint sputters.

He is. Everyone here is, except Ryko.

This vint is as weak as the rest of the beings on Kovos. Right now he'll say anything. He thinks I'll kill him. I will, unless I can find a way to use him.

"I wanted to ensure the female was safe," the vint says, tearing my attention from the human female arguing with the guard beyond the ring of observers. "In the interest of good relations with the other colonies."

"What female?" I ask.

"A human. Brown. Curly hair."

The female Ryko wants. I growl loudly, itching to fight. A real fight, as in removing some heads. Starting with Ryko. If he disobeyed my orders and risked my agreement with the humans by touching that female, I'll kill him, then the vint.

I slam the vint against the wall again, mainly because I can. I won't, however, punish my warrior here in Pen'Kesh. That would be admitting that Ryko vekked up and I will not give the humans or anyone else leverage over me.

Wailing, the vint grabs his broken nose. I keep an eye on the limp tail behind him. If I see even a single spike point in my direction, I'll gut this vekker before his tail can rise from the dirt.

"Do you wish to live?" I remove his knife from the sheath at his side and slide it into a vacant sheath on my harness. Vint knives are similar in size to orc knives, but they bear inscriptions that wish the vint good fortune with each kill. That's where their logic is backwards. They expect the kill to bring them good fortune. Orcs believe the kill is good fortune because it means we are still alive.

The vint cowers by the wall. "I'll do anything you say."

He will fit into my plans nicely.

"Take your dead and return to your settlement. Tell your leader if he has an issue with my warrior defending himself and a female against six of his males, then I will gladly meet him in a challenge." I bend the male's hand back until several bones snap. He screams out in pain, confirming he understands me.

"Grak?" Ryko calls out, standing over the three dead vints.

The bruises and cuts on his face and chest will be a lesson he won't forget, but I still plan to punish him for defying my orders. I don't tolerate disobedience from anyone, especially my warriors.

The image of the human female I negotiated for enters my head again. Soft, curvy, with dark brown hair and darker eyes. No green on her, no ridges in her forehead, a smaller nose, and breasts that are larger than a female orc's. I will get used to her physical features. As long as she obeys me, mating her will go smoothly.

"You started a fight, Ryko. Why?"

"I was walking back to the market when I heard a human female call for help. She had slipped on rocks and couldn't free her ankle. After I freed her, the vints intercepted us. They threatened the female, so I?—"

"Enough." Ryko is lying. He's given me enough practice over the years to read him.

His nose flares slightly, as if he's scenting for something or someone nearby. He's tempted to turn, to follow the scent, but that could give away what he's hiding.

The female.

The warrior I trained takes the knife I threw to him earlier. Vint blood drips from the blade. My warrior slams the flat of the knife against his chest. An apology. He means to appease me.

I'm not easily appeased.

"Grak, if the humans discover which female I was walking with, they will punish her."

Human females are the only true commodity that my people need on Kovos. Allowing one to come to harm when she could be used for breeding would be a true crime.

No, the one who will be punished is my vekking warrior for possibly destroying months of planning. He will not escape me unscathed.