Page 61 of Warlord's Mate

Somewhere in camp, a female screamed. Marcy froze, her heart pounding as the screams intensified and she could only imagine what was causing them. She looked to the door as if she could see beyond the curtain covering it and hoped it wasn’t one of the women from her camp but something told her it probably was, which made her heart ache.

She’d hated being dropped on this planet. Hated being taken as a plaything of a warlord but grew to accept it. Now, she’d do anything to have him march his bossy ass into camp, toss her over his shoulder and haul her back to his bed. But it wouldn’t happen. The camp was gone. Most of his men dead. Would he risk his life trying to rescue her? Her foolish heart hoped he did. It hoped and prayed but she didn’t hold out much hope. She was no one. Jorrick could replace her in an instant and probably would. She just hoped he didn’t.

“Most everyone does as commanded when tortured enough.”

“Torturing me will get you nothing but endless screaming.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I told you, I can’t do magic.”

He grew still again for long moments, then someone pushed through the curtained door. An alien who looked reptilian walked into the hut. He bowed to Allok and waited, nodding moments later as if he’d been given instructions. Could they communicate telepathically?

She assumed they could when the reptilian alien came straight for her. Marcy backed up as he approached, her heart starting to race. He grabbed her by one arm and she bit back a scream as he marched her to the doorway. The bravado she liked to believe she had fled as she was roughly hauled across camp. They headed for the trees. An anguished scream drew her attention to a man strung to wood planks in the shape of an X. He hung upside down, his skin sliced in so many places, his blood ran freely down his limbs. She turned away.

The pits held a stench she smelled long before they reached them. The scent of bodily waste, sweat, and vomit filled the air and grew stronger as they hiked through the trees. As she imagined, the pits were just that. Holes dug into the ground and covered with a crude wooden grate. An alien standing guard slid the grate aside and the one holding her pushed her forward, the grip he had on her arm the only thing keeping her from falling in.

“Choose.”

She looked up at him. “Choose what?”

“Choose someone.”

This pit held nothing but females. “Why?”

His hold on her arm tightened as he shook her. “Because you were told to do so!”

She said nothing else and looked down into the pit. There were so many. Marcy had thought Jorrick was a barbarian most of the time but he was downright civilized compared to Allok. Jorrick hadn’t treated the females in his camp cruelly. They were given clean clothing and a wooden floor to sleep on, allowed to bathe and even though they ate the scraps left over from the meals, she’d never heard a single complaint of hunger. These pitiful creatures were half starved, caked in dirt and whatever else lingered on the floor of the pit.

The faces looking up at her were unfamiliar. She had no idea why he was making her choose one of them but when they all shifted, the one in the corner lifted her head up. It was Dawn. Her heart thumped as she lifted her hand and pointed a finger at her. “That one.” She gave Dawn a tiny smile even though the girl had never been friendly to her. “I know that one.”

The alien holding her pulled her back from the edge of the pit. “You heard her,” he said. “She has made her choice.”

Marcy wouldn’t consider Dawn a friend by any means. She was rude and downright hateful most of the time but if she could help her out and afford her some form of comfort, then she would. All they had on this stinking planet was each other.

Dawn was pulled from the pit. She wasn’t as dirty as the others had been. Marcy wasn’t sure how long she’d been in the hut talking to Allok but judging Dawn’s still halfway clean clothing, it wasn’t long.

Dawn’s eyes were wide when she looked over at her, fear etched onto every inch of her face. The guard who held her turned and marched her back to Allok’s hut, leaving Dawn by the pit. Allok stepped outside, the look on his face as cruel as it had been earlier and when he nodded his head at someone behind her, she heard Dawn scream.

Marcy’s heart stuttered in her chest and she looked over her shoulder, staggering and tripping over her feet when Dawn was pulled away from the edge of the pit and held still by three of the ugliest brutes she’d seen so far, all of them ripping at her clothing. She was stripped bare and tossed from one to the other, their laughter drowning out Dawn’s screams. When one of them grabbed his pants and pushed them down his hips, his erection springing into the air, the other two grabbed Dawn’s legs and pulled them wide. Marcy sucked in a breath and screamed, “No!” as he walked between her legs and grabbed her by the hips

She turned to Allok, struggling in her captor’s hands, fear making it hard to breathe. “Please, don’t do this!”

“It is done.” Allok smiled, the smug expression on his face telling. He enjoyed inflicting pain.

There were so many things to hate on this world but seeing Dawn and knowing what she was about to endure would go down as the most horrific thing she had knowledge of. Tears filled her eyes as she was hauled back into the hut and pushed hard enough she lost her footing and fell. She didn’t try to stand. Her chest ached as if she’d been kicked, Dawn’s screams slowly dying as the laughter of those in camp grew. What had she done? Her tears clouded her vision until everything was a blurry, watery slash of color. She hadn’t laid a finger on Dawn but she was responsible for the atrocities being done to her. She’d pointed her out. Selected her so those foul creatures could—

Marcy let out a choked sob, those tears she’d been holding on to falling down her cheeks when she closed her eyes. She bit her lip and silently cried, begging Dawn to forgive her even though she knew she couldn’t hear her.

She didn’t know how long she’d sat there on the floor begging for forgiveness she knew she’d never receive but the weight of someone staring at her brought her head up. Allok stood in front of her. He bent his knees, stooping to be eye level with her. “You do not demand things of me, witch. You may have Jorrick under your spell, but I will not fall prey to your magic so easily. Now,” he said, cupping his bent fingers under her chin to raise her head. “Let’s start over, shall we?” He smiled, the cruelty she’d seen earlier still there. “What do you need to give me what I want?”

He still thought her capable of magic? The tears still rolling down her cheeks increased. If he allowed his men to torture and rape in order to get her to do what he asked for, then they were all doomed. Their only hope was Jorrick. Somehow she had to find him and beg him to come get the others. If he didn’t, they were all as good as dead.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It took the entire night and half the day of running to make it to the red mountains. Jorrick’s muscles screamed as he stopped long enough to catch his breath. A quick look for any signs that someone was living nearby showed nothing. The sky was clear of smoke. Not a sound could be heard except the rustle of tree limbs and the occasional call of an animal.

He uncorked the top of his water flask and drank long and deep from it, then capped it and stared at the mountains in the distance. He was almost there.