Page 68 of Warlord's Mate
Allok smirked. “You never have before and we both know you’ve had reason to.”
Several of Allok’s men laughed. Jorrick waited. When they all calmed, he said, “I’ll be taking my mate now, along with any of my people you have.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Your camp is surrounded. If you wish to live, you’ll let them go.”
Allok glanced at the trees before meeting his gaze again. The moment he did, Jorrick felt pressure inside his head and knew Allok was trying to get inside his mind. He’d trained with the best teachersTridian IIIhad. He knew how to keep those with the ability to penetrating minds from entering his. Long minutes passed, the pressure inside his head so strong it felt as if his head would pop at any moment but as quickly as it came, it was gone.
Allok grinned at him. “Given enough time, you would allow my entry, Jorrick. Others of your kind have.”
“I’m nothing like the others.”
“Ah, that’s where you are wrong.” Allok nodded to someone who stood behind Jorrick. “Bring him.”
The urge to look behind him was strong but Jorrick feigned disinterest. Keeping a watchful eye on Allok was more important at the moment.
Jorrick saw movement out of the corner of his eye. His gaze was still locked on Allok but he could see enough to know whoever it was making their way around him was one of those stranded on Prison Moon One with him. The flash of golden skin he’d seen was enough to tell him so.
“Are you not even going to look?”
“I’m sure whatever, or whoever it is you wish me to see, isn’t going anywhere.”
Allok looked perturbed but his displeasure didn’t last long. He glanced at Mar-see and said, “From the moment you took my witch, I knew it was to get back at me. I waited for you to come and began to think you never would. Taking your closest confidant had been nothing more than pay back for taking the girl and I had thought his disappearance would be enough to lure you here, but again, I’d been wrong. Sending you piece's of him hadn’t been enough either.”
Jorrick shifted his gaze when whoever it was beside him moved again. When he saw Aris, his entire body jolted, his breath caught in his throat, and it took every ounce of discipline he had not to move. Aris gave him a small, cocky smile, then tilted it in Allok’s direction, a silent sign to let him know he was all right.
Allok took a few steps toward them, the amused look in his eye replaced by a hard scowl. “You left me no choice than to strike first, Jorrick. Had you sent me my witch, the loss of your followers would have been much less. But this one—” He started walking toward Mar-see. “She must be more powerful than I’d hoped if you’d let me torture your own brother just to keep her from me.” He stopped beside her and ran the back of one finger over her bruised cheek. “You would not start a conflict for your own flesh but you risk your life for hers.”
She was staring at him. Coming for her hadn’t even been a question. Jorrick would have fought Allok’s entire camp single handedly if he’d had to. The taunting grin on Allok’s face held a smugness that made Jorrick’s teeth ache and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to knock Allok’s from his lying mouth. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to get on with this.” He turned and looked around the camp, meeting the gaze of everyone he saw before saying, “I challenge you, Allok.” He turned back to face him. “I challenge you for this camp, for your men, and for my mate.”
Allok laughed. Jorrick had lost count of the men who had challenged him over the years. They’d step into his camp, brag about their feats in combat, and challenge his authority publicly. Not one had ever survived to take his camp from him and not many had been much of a challenge to fight but he’d never laughed at them. Allok doing so now just pissed him off.
“We both know who would win a physical confrontation, Jorrick. I cannot win in a battle with you even on my best of days. I’m physically weaker. I will not deny it. Why do you think I wanted the witch?”
“She’s not a witch, Allok. She holds no magic.”
“So she’s said.”
“It is true. Do you not think I wouldn’t have destroyed you already if she could wield magic?”
Allok stilled in a way that was otherworldly. Jorrick took a quick glance at Mar-see. She was still watching him, the tiniest tilt turning the corner of her mouth enough to make him think if Allok hadn’t been there, she would have graced him with one of those smiles she gave only to him. He tried to tell her with nothing more than a heated look that he’d get her out of this. He wasn’t sure how but he’d see her safely away from here if it was the last thing he did.
“Perhaps she lacked the proper incentive to use it.” Allok nodded his head and once again, Jorrick saw a flash of golden skin out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t have to wonder this time who it was as they were pulled to a stop beside Allok.
Seeing Aris was still a shock. The hard look on Aris’s face told him to do what he had to, even if it meant getting him killed. Jorrick looked at his arm. The crude bandage wrapped around his wrist made his gut twist, memories of finding his hand and thinking he was dead still fresh in his mind. He’d known Allok sending him Aris’s hand had been an attempt to get him here. If he had to guess, he’d say it was, so he’d gather his men to confront him and leave Mar-see at camp unprotected for his men to take her. It hadn’t been Aris’s hand that led to her capture, though. It had been nothing more than a pointless hunting trip. A reason to distance himself from her before the others realized how much closer they were growing.
He clenched his jaw. Berating himself over things already done was useless. He’d failed Mar-see and Aris both. There was nothing he could do to change that but he could make it right. “Let them go, Allok.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because I will kill you slowly if you do not.”
Allok glanced at one of his men and a moment later, a blade longer than his arm was pressed against Mar-see’s neck, another placed against Aris’s. “Not before I slit the throat of one of these. Which will it be?”
Aris lifted his chin and leaned forward, the blade at his throat biting into his flesh enough a small trickle of blood ran down his neck. “Take her and run, Jorrick.”
For the first time in ages, he wasn’t sure what to do. Taking Mar-see was his first thought but could he leave Aris behind? Choosing between them was impossible.