Chapter 37

VERIG

Atox won’t speak of the day the humans shot him and took his female, but we all see the change in him. He is… less.

The grak I served on Orcos would have wasted no time taking revenge against the humans. The warriors who ride with us to New Earth now question Atox’s ability to lead. They see a warrior who will not take what is his, but I see behind the mask he wears. I know the reason he hasn’t retaliated.

He”s broken.

Losing a female does that to a male. Breaks him inside. Makes him lose his will to live.

I will never forget my Haaka and the way she rested in the crook of my arm in our furs, telling me how proud she was to be mine. Or how her eyes lit when I held our little Veeya in my arms, rocking her to sleep.

Losing them broke me, but I could not give up. I’d sworn an oath to my grak in the name of my female and our youngling. I will never see them again, smell the sossa blooms in my female’s hair, or feel the softness of Veeya’s skin as I hold her against my chest.

They were taken from me. Atox’s female walked away.

Different situations, but the result is the same. We’ve lost the females that make us whole. Except his situation doesn’t have to remain as is. His female still lives.

To be a powerful grak and not go after his own female… the very notion confounds me but I must honor his decision. He is our grak. He saved our people, and he will again, though he will never be the male I knew… not without her.

Our graka changed him, for the better. When she was with him, vek, Atox was unstoppable. I fully believe she mended the damage Narzik The Cruel caused Atox’s spirit.

I understand how having a female can affect a male like that. Or rather, I did.

As I stand on the periphery of the human colony, watching warriors reach down and lift human females from the ground and setting them across the backs of their gorjas, I wonder if Atox will ever heal.

I don’t suspect I ever will. But Atox has a resilience I lack. One day, he will wake from this haze he’s in and then I will ask him what the vekk he’s doing not retrieving his female. Me, I’ll never have anything but memories.

A human female with long blonde hair and blue eyes the color of water ducks behind a tree, narrowly escaping Yanzu who guides his gorja left. He’s a skilled warrior, though the female appears equally adept as she fades into the shadows, remaining calm unlike the other females yelling and running in all directions.

Yanzu turns his gorja around, returning to where he last saw the female. He lifts his chin to me, acknowledging his neld’s presence. As Neld, I’m neither obligated nor inclined to help him find the female he seeks. He must prove his worth to me, not the other way.

And I find myself… intrigued… by the female as she lifts a shovel and holds it, ready to swing at Yanzu as his gorja heads in her direction.

The female has a slight frame, making me question if she’d survive a good fucking.

My cock swells at the thought of knotting her. With so few females in our colony, I haven’t been inside a female since my Haaka on Orcos. Before The Undoing.

There will never be another like my Haaka.

Though this human female is…spirited. Smart.

Yanzu spots her and pushes his gorja to reach her before another warrior claims her. She swings the shovel, knocking his arm away from her. “Vekk,” he swears.

The corner of the female’s mouth lifts as she readies the shovel again.

“Neld!” Daelix yells out my title. My knees squeeze my gorja, signaling him to move just in time. Blaster fire strikes the ground where we’d been standing.

Vekking humans have blasters now and I didn’t see where the shot came from. “Location, Daelix?”

He points to a wooden structure with a strong smell that turns my stomach even from this distance.

“Go left,” I order as I circle right. I jump from my gorja the moment I see the two humans couched behind the building firing on my men. Three punches and one kick knocks them out before Daelix reaches me.

I toss the blasters to Daelix. “Spread the word. Take any blasters, but don’t use them. I won’t risk the females.”

He slams a knife to his chest. “Yes, Neld.”

The last time we were here, the humans had weapons similar to our own. Knives, swords, bows and arrows. I don’t know if they were hiding the blasters or recently procured them from their sudden alliance with the vints. Regardless, this situation has turned dangerous for our warriors. But we will not leave until we take what is ours.

“Neld,” Baloc calls out as he heads toward me on his gorja. He has a female over his shoulder. Unlike many of the other females already captured by our warriors, this one’s kicking and clawing at him, fighting like a wild sartog. She reminds me of our graka.

Paloma fought Atox for weeks, proving she had the strength and resilience to handle him. I finally learned to respect her, a feat I never thought would happen considering she is human.

These humans have a strange appeal I’ve come to appreciate. And Atox is right; we need them as mates if we want females in our furs and younglings at our fires.

Across the camp, Atox sits atop his gorja, watching our males attack the colony. His face holds no joy or satisfaction as he dispenses orc justice to those who took his female and nearly killed him.

“When we have our females, do we leave?” Baloc asks while trying to contain the flailing female. “Do we take them home to bed them or find a place in the woods nearby?”

“Baloc, you fool, we’re in the middle of a battle. No one leaves until our grak gives the command,” I reply as four of our warriors surround a home, drag the humans out, and force them to lie prone in the mud before setting fire to the building. One by one, homes go up in flames.

We will leave our mark here today, physically and emotionally. As the humans left their mark on Atox.

My grak who watches with cold eyes hasn’t drawn a knife, slayed a single human, or damaged a blade of grass. I’d hoped today would heal the part of him that remained damaged even after his flesh healed.

I should know better; nothing can remove the pain of losing a mate. Or a youngling.

Or both.

“Grak, the men are eager to claim the females,” I say as I ride over to him.

“The females are not to be touched,” Atox orders, his voice stern and loud enough for all our warriors to hear. He’s speaking in Orcan, not the humans’ language. He doesn’t care that the females can’t understand him. His purpose here today is to satisfy his promise to our warriors and ensure the future of our people.

Atox will do whatever is required of him as grak, but he has given up on himself. I know the signs. I’ve lived them for five years.

“No one will force a female,” Atox repeats our law.

He’s right of course, but a display of dominance is in order especially given the number of females captured today.

“Grak, you said they could choose their females,” I remind him, agreeing with Baloc’s desire to conquer his female quickly and avoid any torment similar to what our graka put Atox through. “After we finish here, we should allow the warriors to go where they wish with their females and—” I stop mid-sentence as Baloc turns, and I see the face of the female who’s pounding his back with her fists.

The blonde female that Yanzu had been hunting. She escaped Yanzu only for Baloc to capture her.

My lip curls and I snarl at seeing her slung over Baloc. I should not react to a female so viscerally, especially a human. What the vekk is wrong with me?

Baloc smacks her ass. “Behave, female.”

I spur my gorja over to Baloc where I slide off, fully intending to rip Baloc from his gorja and bash in his face for touching her.

“Neld, what is wrong?” he asks, seeing the anger in my face.

“Our grak said you will not touch any of the females. No one will,” I shout. “Your orders are to take them and return to Mount Racha.”

“But—”

“They are not to be touched, Baloc. Is that clear? Or do you wish to challenge me?” I say quickly, my brain scrambling with what to do. I didn’t plan on taking a female for myself, but I cannot ignore my reaction to this one, for this insane need to protect her, even though Baloc claimed her.

I cannot take her from him. Our laws are clear on the matter. A warrior never touches another male’s female.

“We’re not on Orcos, but our laws remain. You will not force a female. Even a human.”

Especially this human.

Myhuman.

Except she isn’t mine. Vek the creators above and vek Baloc!

Blaster fire streaks past Baloc’s gorja, causing the animal to buck, but Baloc quickly regains control.

“Go! Get the female to safety!” I order as I race toward the human firing from a structure too small to be a home. This one is built from stone and won’t burn, but we can tear it down after I take care of the sartog who shot at Baloc, endangering my female.

I drive my fist into the male’s face, taking the satisfaction in feeling bones crunch. For a split second, I imagine I’m pummeling Baloc, until I remind myself Baloc is not the enemy. This human is.

The weakling drops the blaster, but I continue pounding into him, taking all my anger out on the human. Anger deserved and undeserved.

“Enough,” Atox roars. “He’s already unconscious. Burn the building, then mount up. We have what we came for.”

The females. Twelve of our warriors took females, more than Atox had approved, but he doesn’t object. Two additional females means two more warriors will know pleasure in their furs and in time have younglings to continue our ways.

“If you find a female inside, Verig, she’s yours.” Atox walks off as I drop the male.

I fully intend to take a female. The one riding on Baloc’s gorja, heading to our settlement. At least he better be heading there and not a spot in the woods. If he touches her, I’ll kill him.

“We have not found the graka yet,” I say to Atox, who stops cold in his tracks.

“We didn’t come for her. She made her choice.”

“She chose you, Atox.” Normally, pushing Atox is unwise, but it’s my duty as his second to tell him that which he does not wish to hear. “The risha?—”

“Never should have happened! It was all a deception. She never wanted to stay with me.”

“Then choose another.”

“We’re here for our warriors, not me.” He digs his knees into his gorja, charging down a path between a row of untouched buildings. “Burn them!” he shouts at the warriors in that section of the colony.

“Let me out!” a muffled female voice carries from the stone structure behind me.

More blaster fire shoots across the compound and nearly strike me. A section of the building crumbles and a female screeches inside.

“Telin!” I signal a nearby warrior to find the vekker responsible. Telin charges off at top speed, weaving through the humans still racing to escape our men.

I race inside the building behind me to remove any females before destroying it. Shock slams into me as I take in the sight of our graka… in a cell.

“Graka?”

“Verig?” she says, her voice falling. She left Atox when the humans shot him. Why did they imprison her?

“Thank god you’re here.” Her voice is weaker than I’m used to hearing from her. “Get me out of this cell. I want to go home.”

“You are home.”

“I mean back to the mountain. To Ossa and her kids. To—” She swallows, then squares her shoulders and lifts her chin, attempting to make herself look larger, more commanding. “You’ve never liked me, Verig, I mean Grak, but I am still orc.”

“I am not grak,” I say, trying to figure out what’s going on. But the image of my female slung over Baloc’s shoulder and that lustful look on his face distracts me too much to unravel whatever is happening here.

“Oh, I assumed after…” She inhales and wipes water that leaks from her eyes. “Whoever is grak now, isn’t he here to take me back?”

“Why would we take you back?”

She blinks twice, an astonished expression on her face. “Because I’m still orc.” She adds conviction to the word orc, saying it with pride. It appears Atox changed her, too. This is not the same female I escorted from this colony months ago.

“And I carry a baby that’s half-orc. He or she should be allowed to grow up near Ossa and her children. They’re the only family my baby will have. I can’t stay here. The humans want to kill my baby or sell us to the vints.”

“You carry Atox’s youngling?”

“Yes.”

Surprise then anger fills me. “You lie.” The words spring forth from my lips, making it clear this female would do anything to get out of her prison, one of her own making most likely.

Her eyebrows purse then narrow, anger mounting in her fragile features. “I’m not lying.”

“Atox would have told me if you carried his youngling.”

“I never got the chance to tell him before they killed him.”

“Before…” Vek, she thinks Atox is dead. So much becomes clear.

I shoot out of the jail in search of Atox. Two hundred feet away, he’s holding his sword in the air, giving the signal to withdraw and return home.

“Grak!” I call. “You’re needed here. Now!” I’ve left no room in my words or tone for Atox to ignore me or brush off my request, even in his foul mood. A grak always listens to his neld, even when he doesn’t want to.

He spurs his gorja through a string of burning homes, flames leaping high into the night, even as humans aim water cannons at them. One turns his water cannon on Atox as his gorja races by. The force of the water nearly knocks Atox from his mount, but he ignores it and the human, his focus on me. These humans don’t matter to him. Only one ever held his attention and his heart…