Page 7 of Romancing the Orc

Brokk

“Where is she?” I growl, pacing back and forth across the convention hallway. I tug at the neck of the T-shirt I left backstage. These human collars are always too tight. “The signing should have ended by now.”

Sherrie checks the time on her phone. “I don’t know. Lara hates disappointing her fans, so she’ll stay and sign as long as there’s a line.”

“It’s not that.” I shake my head. Something’s wrong. I can feel it in my chest, right where I feel a connection to Lara. But I can’t explain it to Sherrie. Humans don’t have fated mates, no matter how much they write about them in books.

I try the door to the room Lara’s supposed to be in, but it’s still locked. My lips lift in a silent snarl. I’m far stronger thanany human and could break this lock if I wanted, but it wouldn’t look “normal” to do so. I already push things enough by not disguising my green skin—I don’t need to give the humans any excuse to question what I really am.

“Let me call my convention contact.” Sherrie taps at her phone and says, “Hello, this is Sherrie Johnson, Lara Jade’s editor. I’m supposed to meet her after her signing, but she hasn’t come out of the room, and I can’t get in.”

My sensitive fae hearing picks up the other side of the conversation.

“Lara Jade? Let me check,” a woman says. “Okay, we ushered her out of her signing about five minutes ago. She was sent to the back hallway.”

“I’minthe back hallway,” Sherrie says, “and have been for a half hour.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

My teeth grind together, and my magic spirals out of me, but it’s no good. There aren’t any plants in this part of the convention center, and even if there were, there are too many people around for my power to be useful. Asking a plant if it feels a large “animal” nearby might work in the forest, but not here.

Another twang in my chest. Lara’s scared! I take off at a run, thundering down the hallway with Sherrie yelling after me. But I don’t stop to explain. There’s no time.

I strain with everything I have to feel where Lara is, getting only the vaguest sense of direction. Irritation roils within me when I slam into a wall, everything telling me I need to go through it, whether there’s a door or not. Snarling at it, I pivot left and run until I find a door.

An alarm blares as I burst out into the hot humid air of this place called Florida. The sun glares down at me, making me squint even as I turn toward where my mate must be.

A roar of noise fills the air. As my eyes clear, a small plane comes into view on the concrete pad in front of me, its engines revving up to speed.

Three men hurry toward it, one of the larger ones carrying a bright-pink body draped over his shoulder.

“Lara!” I bellow and run forward.

The men don’t even hear me over the engines. They disappear up the short flight of stairs, which retract. Then the hatch closes, locking my mate away from me.

I keep running as the two engines on each side blast down toward the ground, and the plane lifts straight up like something from an action movie.

When I get close, the heat’s punishing, but I keep going. The wheels start to retract into the bottom of the hull a good ten feet overhead.

Chest heaving, heart racing, I leap with everything I am. I will not abandon my mate!

My hands clamp onto one of the wheels, and I let the mechanism pull me up into the belly of the plane. Once it stills, I flex my stomach muscles to lift my feet, wrapping my lower legs around one of the struts so I hang like a hog spitted for the fire.

I don’t care. Discomfort means nothing. I will do whatever it takes to save Lara.

The doors try to close, striking my back several times in punishing blows. I growl, ignoring the pain. They will not defeat me. Orcs are built tough, and I have survived the most rigorous warrior training in all of Faerie.

They finally give up and remain gaping open.

Once the plane reaches a certain height, it shoots forward.

I crane my neck, wanting to have some idea of where we’re going. But the land underneath blurs past, then turns into water as we fly on and on. The air becomes weak and thin, though also thankfully cooler, and I tighten my grip.

Nothing will keep me from my mate.

I come out of my trance-like state when the air around me warms, taking huge breaths that fuel my body once again.

We still fly over deep-blue water, but a speck on the horizon turns into a green dot that grows in size as we approach. It’s an island covered with heavy greenery.

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