Chapter 2

Telise

H ours later, I'm still not sure why I did it.

I keep telling myself that it worked. I got away, right? I'd done something unexpected, and it took the troll by surprise enough that I was able to make my escape. Otherwise, he would have cut me in half with that axe.

But the more I try to rationalize it away, the more that I'm thinking about what his mouth felt like. It was only a split second, but I found something in that second that I didn't expect to find.

Well, maybe I should have expected it. Deleran has always called me "odd". He's my only real friend, but he's back in the king's city of Culberra doing only gods know what. Probably drinking himself under a table, with women crawling all over him, each wanting a taste of him.

"You've never made a move on me in all the years that I've known you," he said once. We met as kids back in our hometown of Great Oak but left together to do something a little bigger. "Why not?"

"Not interested," I'd said.

"Like, in men, or in me specifically?"

"I'm just not into it." I had shrugged at the time. "Gender irrelevant."

"Who is your type, then?" Deleran asked then, but I had no answer. I felt like I'd know it when I saw it. "You're going to be a virgin forever, Telise."

But it's not that I don't have a sex drive. Oh, I do, and it's loud and angry. It's just that nothing that should turn me on ever has. No, I've been wanting something my whole life, and I just don't know what it is yet.

At least I managed to get away from the situation with the two trollkin, hide intact. Maybe it wasn't a win, but it was a tie.

I decide it better to leave this area and get a new start somewhere else, hopefully farther away from Mr. Axe and Mr. Blunderbuss. Not that I wouldn't hear them coming a mile away, but I don't want to risk another run-in after what I just did.

After setting up my next camp, it's time to scout for any signs of one of my leopards. But I'm so caught up in thinking about the strange trollkin, and the surprisingly intelligent eyes hiding under his heavy brows, that I don't notice the orcs are on me until it's too late.

Raz'jin

We're exhausted by the time we finish for the day. We found a pile of boulders at our destination, but after some hacking away, even blowing a charge, we couldn't find much of anything inside.

"We have to go back, bring some others with us," Blizzek says.

"It's a lost cause. We should just start over somewhere else tomorrow." What I don't want to say is that I'm afraid of running into that little human creature again. I don't like how she made me feel, not one bit. It's like a sharp pain in my side that won't stop until I pry my mind away from her.

Those feral green eyes. That pink mouth pulled back across gritted teeth. She was so angry, so ready to push that dagger through my throat. I have a bit of a hard-on just thinking about those pursed, soft lips against mine, for that split second before she made a run for it.

"Fine." My compatriot clearly isn't happy with me, and, perhaps, thinks me a coward. But I don't care. Along with our failure to find anything concrete today, I'm ready for a strong drink.

As we approach the nearby trollkin town of Hargoth, there's a loud commotion. Orcs and trolls are cheering and growling, like there's a party going on. When we step inside the wood gates, I finally see what all the fuss is about.

Her. I'd recognize that red hair anywhere now. She's strung up by her hands to a massive post, dangling a good five feet off the ground. But now her clothes are torn, so one of her two breasts is exposed to the air. She has pink nipples and the palest flesh I've ever seen. A good part of her pants are gone, too, and there are bloody cuts and bruises all over her. I can see why when someone throws a whole apple at her—but she doesn't cry out.

"It's her," says Blizzek. He howls with glee. "Well, she got what was coming to her, didn't she? "

"Sure." But I'm stuck on her, and the way her fierce face dares anyone and everyone around her to fight. Angrily she yells something at the crowd, which only fuels their fire. There are more jeers, and someone flings a beer all over her.

I can't watch this anymore. I head into the tavern, leaving Blizzek behind me.

"Raz, wait." He jogs to catch up. "What, didn't want to get one in on her? You still have a mark on your head where she kicked you."

Right. I'd almost forgotten about that. She was the one who attacked me .

"They should just get it over with," I say as we sit down at the bar. I shove a coin across, and the bartender hands me a beer. "Kill her, don't torture her."

Blizzek tilts his head. "Hmm." He picks up his own beer and takes a long sip. "Girlie get under your skin a little, did she?"

I roll my eyes. "No."

"That little kiss she stole, eh?" Blizzek elbows me. "That's what does it for you, is it?"

I've had my fair share of trollkin women. Orcesses, trollesses, and everything in-between. They usually gravitated to Blizzek, who's handsome as orcs come. I'm usually the friend that the less attractive women get stuck with.

And I fuck them, of course. A guy's got needs. But I'm always careful to pull out and empty myself out on top of them or in their mouths—I never put my seed anywhere it could go to use. The last thing I need is a nasty little offspring to deal with.

I don't fuck for keeps, is what I'm saying. I get my rocks off and move on, never interested in any one of them enough to stay for a second night .

"I don't have a taste for humans," I say, swishing my beer around.

Blizzek makes a disgusted face. "You're right. Maybe they should just cut her open and be done with it."

Something about the idea of an orc slicing her through at the throat fills me with a kind of horror.

I take another deep swig of my beer. Whatever they do with her is no concern of mine. She's fair game, just another piece of human scum whose head somebody can hang up above their mantelpiece.

"Another beer, please," I call out, hitting my mug on the bar.

Telise

He was here.

For a second, the way he looked at me, I had a fleeting hope that he might come and free me. The way the troll's eyes traveled from my feet up to my breasts to my eyes, I thought he might just stride across the plaza and tear me down from the ropes holding me up.

But he didn't. He watched them pelt me with food, then turned and left.

Well, I can't really blame him. I did try to kill him.

After a while, the other orcs start to lose interest in me and wander away. Instead of facing the jeers of everyone in town, I'm left to hang from these ropes half-naked as the sun goes down. The air quickly becomes chilly, and the ropes are burning and biting into my wrists.

What a miserable way to die. Caught by fucking trollkin and strung up in the town square for ridicule. I wonder if they'll just leave me here and let me starve, or if they'll cut me down eventually and kill me by beheading. I've heard they like beheadings. If Deleran found out, he would probably make fun of me before leaving a flower on my grave.

I start to fade out of consciousness, then drift back in again, in too much pain to fall asleep properly. It feels like my hands might just come off. A little trickle of blood runs down my arm from where the rope eats into my flesh. Just great. I'll die of a blood disease out here.

Finally, I do manage to slip away into a miserable sleep. But I'm suddenly shaken awake by the sensation of my hands moving.

" Grzzan," I hear a familiar voice say. Up above my head, my hands are rattling around as someone cuts through the ropes. Every time one of them moves, it burns like fire down my arms, but I hold in a cry.

It's him.

The troll has just severed one of the two ropes holding my hands in place. As my arm falls to my side, blood dribbling from my wrist, he gets to work on the other rope.

And then, suddenly both my hands are free. I fall down to the ground, my feet unable to hold themselves up.

" Argak!" The troll drops down from the posts and walks over. He's obviously drunk as a skunk, barely able to hold himself up. He kicks me. " Argak!"

Whatever that means, I get the sense he wants me to get out of there. And it's a good idea. I've been given a second chance, who knows why, and I'm not going to let it slip by.

I manage to get my legs underneath me again, and when I stand up, I find I'm looking right into his eyes—those shockingly intelligent eyes, the slim nose that flares into wide nostrils, and the broad mouth. The two tusks that frame his face.

I reach out ever so slightly, and he leans his head away from me like I might attack him. Instead, I let my hand land on one of his tusks. He stops moving completely.

"Thank you," I say, and then turn away and run as fast as I possibly can.