Page 1 of Orc’s Promise (Knotty Monsters #3)

CHAPTER ONE

TANSEY

T he monster facing me, an orc, stands over six feet tall, with green skin, tusks jutting out from behind his lower lip, massive muscles everywhere , very little clothing, and a salacious grin on his face.

“You belong to me, female.”

“The hell I do.”

One knee to the groin stops the half-naked orc cold.

I run as if my life depends on it, because it does, but there’s nowhere to run.

Fire licks the night sky, dancing from roof to roof of the adobe houses in the most densely populated area of New Earth, our settlement on Kovos, turning me away from my people and toward the woods.

My feet strike the ground and my heart pumps harder, drowning out the screams of fleeing men and women.

Off to my left, an orc riding a massive six-legged beast scoops up Macie from the cookhouse.

“Help!” she cries out. She’s trying to fight him, but he’s too massive.

He drapes her over the front of the six-legged beast that is the orc version of a horse, except ugly, massive, and wild, like their owners.

Macie screams again, and I keep running, trying to block out her pleas. I can’t help her. Not when I have Ethan to worry about.

The terror in her voice pierces the mayhem engulfing the area. Shit, I can’t leave her.

I circle back and hide behind a stack of wood where the men have been building a dormitory for single women. I grab a two-by-four, but I’ve lost sight of her in all the commotion.

“Let go!” Macie shouts from atop the orc-horse near the carts we use to go to Pen’Kesh.

I crouch until I’m in position, then I swing the plank at the orc, but he’s too high up on that beast. The board sideswipes the animal’s flank instead, not enough to hurt him, but he rears up, and the orc turns, his sword raised and about to come down on me.

Instead, I’m lifted high off the ground from a second orc on another beast, the two-by-four plucked from my hands and tossed aside as a thickly muscled, green arm locks around my waist. He wastes no time in throwing me over his shoulder and locking my upper legs against his chest so I can’t escape.

His beast races into the heart of the siege, carrying me further from my little Ethan. The thought of never seeing him again terrifies me. This won’t be like the two years I lost watching him grow up while I rotted away in prison on Earth. This will be forever. Women the orcs capture never return.

With all of my might, I kick and punch my captor, who carries me like a slain deer over his shoulder, but his grip doesn’t loosen.

“Put me down!”

“Settle, female. I’m claiming you.”

“Screw you!” I pound my fists against his back, even as he halts his horse.

Orc words fly around me, but I can’t see who he’s talking to, and I don’t care. I dig my nails into his lower back and still nothing. He swats my ass, as if I’m a fly buzzing around a horse, annoying him.

When the orc’s horse changes direction, I see how fucked I am.

There are more than two orcs here. Dozens are raiding the innermost part of the settlement, taking women and setting fire to homes.

In the center of the chaos stands a huge orc watching from atop his horse.

Dark green, lifeless eyes observe the others.

Even though he’s not moving, he’s directing this shit show. I’m sure of it.

A shiver runs down my spine when my eyes lock with the orc beside him. The male is taller, massive, with short, cropped hair and green eyes that could bore a hole through metal. The way he looks at me makes me shudder, and not entirely from fear.

The world crumbling around me disappears as I lose myself in the strength and beauty of the male.

Toned muscles cover every inch of his body, from his thick neck and pectorals to his biceps, abdomen, and thighs.

Every part of the massive male exudes strength.

And those eyes…Green as emeralds, but with an intensity that stirs me.

None of this makes sense. He’s an orc, for fuck’s sake, with long, thick tusks. I should be horrified, but I’m curious…and slightly turned on.

This could be some horrific alcohol-induced nightmare that I can’t wake up from.

An hour ago, I walked to the center of our settlement, where most of our people live, but I didn’t drink with anyone.

I returned a book to Holly, talked about how I’m adjusting to life in my little nook of five houses on the outskirts of our colony, and that’s it.

Nothing to account for this insanity around me.

Houses on fire, people screaming and running, and women being plucked from the ground by huge orcs.

This isn’t a dream, but it is a nightmare. I’m slung over the back of one orc while a second, one with thickly corded arms folded over a massive chest, shouts in this direction.

He’s angry. And staring at me .

Why am I staring back?

I should look away, but I don’t always do what’s right for me.

What is it about him that makes it hard to tear my gaze from his? His eyes? His physique?

No monster should be that handsome.

Then again, I’m the monster. A coward, really. The woman who fled Earth to escape her past.

The horse beneath us lurches and takes off at top speed, reminding me how screwed I am as the orc tightens his grip on me.

I cannot take my eyes off the green-eyed orc in the distance, even as the smoke, fire, and screams fall away and we disappear into the woods.

VERIG

Baloq turns his gorja, and I see the female he’s slung over his shoulder. Long golden hair with eyes the color of water. The moment her eyes connect with mine, I recognize her.

He’s taking my female, but I only have myself to blame. I had watched her fight off Yanzu. Instead of taking her when she ran from Yanzu, I hesitated and let her run off. The last I saw of her, she’d been heading deep into the woods, where my men shouldn’t have found her.

Somehow, Baloq did. And now she’s his.

Vekk, I’d like to kill the male for touching her, but our grak promised him and the other warriors here tonight that they could take any unclaimed female. Their reward for their loyalty, and a way to increase our numbers.

I cannot take her from Baloq, not without defying who I am .

“Let me go, you ass!” she shouts at him, sending a fire through me. This desire to rip his head from his body is beneath a neld.

I should be relieved he’s taken her. I don’t want a female. I don’t deserve one, not after what I’ve done.

A decade ago, when I first became Atox’s neld, Haaka and I bonded. The gods matched her to me when we were younglings. There will never be a mate as warm and sensuous as her. But this human female with hair the color of the sun and eyes bluer than the waters on Orcos captivates me.

“Neld?” Kodex calls me. Tearing my attention from the female over Baloq’s shoulder proves nearly impossible, but I force myself to address my warrior.

“What?” I snap.

He points at another home, questioning if he should burn that one too.

I nod, and he removes the occupants before setting it on fire.

Three males and a female race outside, the males doing nothing to protect the female, who races toward me to escape my men.

When she sees me, she screams and changes direction.

I could take her easily. Grab her as she runs and throw her over my shoulder as my warriors are doing with the other females.

As our Grak’s second, I have enough duties to occupy my time. I do not need a female. Or younglings.

I swallow hard. Veeya would have been six this season.

“Put me down, you monster!” the female with golden hair yells at Baloq.

My lower lip curls slightly at her spirit.

Baloq smacks her ass. “Behave, female.” He braces his arm across her bare thighs, trying to keep her from falling off.

Without conscious thought, I dismount my gorja. It is not my place to interfere, but vekk, I want to rip Baloq from his mount and bash in his face for touching this female.

My female.

Except she’s not mine. By law, she is his now .

She fights with her fingers, nails digging into Baloq’s skin while she kicks her legs. Flailing. Not giving up. Relentless.

She has the spirit of an orc.

No one can replace Haaka. And yet my eyes return to the golden-haired female slung over Baloq’s shoulder.

He raises his hand, about to smack her ass again for being unruly. The male needs to learn to control a female without force, or he will break her spirit. And this female has a lot of spirit.

“Neld, what is wrong?” he asks as I barrel towards him.

His use of my title snaps me out of my haze. I’m not even sure what I intended to do once I reached him. “Our grak said you will not mate any of the females. No one will. Your orders are to take them and return to Mount Racha.”

“But—”

“They are not to be touched, Baloq. Is that clear? Or do you wish to challenge me?”

I want him to say yes, to defy my orders, so I have an excuse to tear his head from his shoulders.

It no longer matters that I had decided not to take a female today, that I gave that privilege to other warriors lower in rank, but I cannot walk away from this one.

I cannot let Baloq or any other mate her.

Yet I cannot take her from him.

A warrior never touches another male’s female. That is one of our most basic laws.

“We’re not on Orcos, but our laws remain,” I state, more a reminder to me than him. But then, I imagine him thrusting into her, and suddenly I’m grateful for our laws. “You will not force a female. Even a human.”

Especially this human.

My human.

Vekk Baloq! Dozens of unmated females in this colony, and the vekker took this one!

The heat from blaster fire singes my left temple and nearly strikes Baloq’s gorja. The beast rises on its hind legs .

A testament to Baloq’s skill as a warrior, he maintains his perch while holding the female and quickly turns the beast about. But that puts my female in the direct line of fire!

“Go! Get the female to safety!” I shout as I run to eliminate the threat to my female and my warriors.

As I charge toward the human firing with no regard to whom he shoots—orc or human—I glance over my shoulder one last time. Blue eyes latch onto me as my female disappears into the woods…with Baloq.