Page 59 of Warlord's Mate

“But you are here now,” he said. His eyes skimmed her body when he stopped in front of her, his nostrils flaring. “I see Jorrick took you from me for more than just revenge. His scent is all over you.” His toothy grin widened. “I can hardly wait until he gets here.”

Marcy knew nothing about the way these warlords behaved but this one's words were enough to tell her that him taking her and the others was just a ploy to get Jorrick to come to him. She straightened her spine and looked him in the eye. “Jorrick isn’t stupid. You have most of his men so he won’t retaliate in a war he can’t fight.”

“But for you he will.”

She snorted a laugh. “Not hardly.”

He inhaled, his nostrils flaring again. “Oh, I think you are wrong, witch. He has marked you.” His gaze landed on her neck where Jorrick had bitten her. He sneered, then did that crazy-fast shuddering thing again. “He will come.”

The warlord took a step back and looked at the others, his gaze lingering on the women before turning to the men. “You will swear your allegiance to me or die. I do not care which.”

He walked to the front of the line. She didn’t know the name of the alien he stood in front of but he was one of the sentry’s Jorrick had scattered around their camp. The traitor fell to his knees, his trembled oath making some of the others mumble words she couldn’t make out.

The warlord went down the line and reached Aryan, every line on his face screaming of arrogance and the determination she saw there said he would never kneel. He lifted his chin, the muscle in his jaw clenching. “I swore my allegiance to Jorrick, and that is where it will stay.”

Aryan was hit from behind and fell so hard and fast, he took down most of the line with him due to their tied hands. Marcy staggered and crawled back to her feet when Aryan’s hands were untied from the others and he was dragged away.

Everyone in the line was asked. Every man but five kneeled. Marcy watched those loyal to Jorrick as they were kicked and beaten before thrown into a hole in the ground much like the pit on the outskirts of Jorrick’s camp.

Allok turned his attention to the females. “Cut their binds and take them away.” He studied them all, his gaze coming back to her and lingering. “Take the witch to my hut.”

They were grabbed and hauled away roughly, Dawn and Tezhila screaming as they were picked up and carried toward the trees. Marcy didn’t scream and pushed away from a blue alien with horns when he reached for her. “I can walk.” He gave her a push in the direction of the hut. Her heart was in her throat when she looked back over her shoulder at the others. They looked terrified and Marcy knew they had reason to be. What this warlord let happen in his camp was anyone’s guess, but she didn’t imagine it was anything good.

The sound of the others screaming followed her into the hut and she wondered as her gaze fell to the bed if being raped would be her fate as well. This warlord seemed to think Jorrick would come for her but she wasn’t so sure. Would he risk his life in a fight with those in this camp when half his men were now dead and the rest of them captured?

Her foolish heart said he would.

The voice of reason whispering in her head said he wouldn’t.

As the curtain covering the doorway of the hut moved, and the warlord walked in, she wasn’t sure it would even matter.

Chapter Twenty-One

How did he win a war when there was no one left to fight? Jorrick paced through the ruins of camp. Three more had died since his hunting party returned and those that remained were being attended, their wounds cleaned and bandaged, but he knew despite the attention, most of them wouldn’t make it. There were no medicines, no clean bandages. Those that didn’t die would be weeks from away from fighting and he’d be left with nothing more than a handful who were even capable of lifting a weapon.

He looked at those who were left. They were a rag-tag bunch and nowhere near capable enough to take on Allok’s men. Those that could stand weren’t fighters. They never had been, and he supposed that’s why Allok’s men had left them. They weren’t of much use to anyone.

He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face and paced a long path past the central fire pit and back. He had few allies on this world and he doubted any of the other warlords would come to his aid. Why would they? He wouldn’t have, had it been someone else.

He blew out a frustrated breath and turned in time to see Jityria stumble from the trees. He hurried across camp and grabbed her as she started to fall.

“Warlord…” She fell against him, her eyes closed. “I tried…”

When she said nothing else, Jorrick wrapped an arm around her waist and held her head up. “You tried what?”

She licked her lips, and he noticed a bruise forming on her cheek. “To get them to safety but—” Her brows lowered, her lips tightening into a thin line. “She gathered them all, warlord and…” She shook her head. “She handed them over. The human—she hit me and helped Allok’s men take the others.”

A cold shiver raced down his spine, the implications of what she was saying sounding so familiar, it gave him a sense of deja vu and in an instant, his past came back to haunt him. Would Mar-see have betrayed him and ran off like—

She is nothing like Zasra.

Jorrick clenched his teeth, old memories whispering through his head. No, Mar-see hadn’t betrayed him. He knew it without question. She cared for him. He felt it in every caress of her hand.

Jityria leaned heavily against him, her head coming to rest on his chest. She’d been here to see everything that happened between him and Zasra, saw how she almost destroyed their camp. Would Jityria use that incident to make him think Mar-see had done it as well? It was no secret Jityria and Mar-see did not like one another. He’d wondered more than once if the bruises he found on Mar-see’s delicate skin were the result of fighting he wasn’t aware of and if they were, then Jityria could have very well given Mar-see over to Allok’s men. If not, why had she been left behind? Even if Mar-see had hit her and helped them take the others, why had Jityria not been collected with the others and taken as well? If the animosity between them was any indication, Jityria should have been the first one Mar-see would have handed over.

He cupped her chin in his hand and lifted her head. “If you are lying to me, I will rip your lying tongue from your mouth with my bare hands.”

A momentary flash of fear sparked in her eyes but was gone an instant later. “I would never, warlord.”