Page 51 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

“Mol?” My attention turned to the trees—to the orc standing there with a grin on his face and another knife in his hand. His eyes were all for the injured man on the ground.

And…

I realized I couldn’t let him hurt him.

If Mol was one of Nash’s people, he was one of mine, and… he was already hurt because I’d distracted him.

“Kai, no…”

But I was already running forward and tackling the asshole standing there with every bit of force I had. It sent us both falling back, and I realized with thesmallestounce of regret that we were at the top of a hill.

Well, we hadbeen at the top of a hill. We were going down now.

At least I’d gotten the fucker away from Mol.

That didn’t stop me from getting the wind knocked out of me as we tumbled into the trees. I landed hard on my back with a painfulthud.

I was trying to get my vision to stop swimming when the low grunt of a voice to my left let me know that the guy I’d tackled had obviously landed a little better than I did.

“This is Nash’s human?”

Nash’s human.

I clutched my fingers in the grass beneath me and glanced up through my hair as I forced myself into a kneeling position. I was close enough to the asshole now that I could get a good look at him—the side of his head was shaved, and his eyes were a hard, dark blue color that made me shiver when he looked down at me.

Because he was looking at me like I was some prize he’d just found, some leverage he could use.

Maybe I didn’t always know what was going on, but I was pretty sure this was the guy Nash was hunting down.

The one who he’d been worried about finding me.

The whole reason he’d refused to let me go anywhere out of his sight and the safety of his camp.

“Fuck. I’m about to be Nash’s dead human if he realizes what happened.” I muttered to myself as I tried to push back a few feet to put some distance between me and the danger that was obviously standing in front of me. “You’re, uh… Koth? Yeah?” I tried for a winning smile, but I was pretty sure it failed. What I wanted to do was stand up and swing on him for hurting Mol, for trying to hurtNash.But… well… I needed to buy some time until I could catch my breath.

I needed to pretend I was just a dumb, helpless human.

“Yes, I am Koth.” He’d lost the small knife he was holding at the top of the hill, but that just gave him room to unsheathe a larger blade he’d strapped to his back—the same kind of machete-sword thing Nash carried around. He tipped it beneath my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “And you are correct. Youwillbe a dead human by the time Nash finds you.”

Fuck.I knew Nash was being protective, but I’d kind of thought he was being overly protective.

It was weird—I’d been here for a few weeks and I still wasn’t used to the fact that I wasn’t the biggest guy in the room.

“Look.” I held my hands up, trying to channel my inner helpless maiden that I was sure was buried somewhere deep inside me. “I’m sorry that I tackled you, but I thought you were… uh, trying to rob us up there? I’m just trying to get to the ci—” The sharp feel of metal pressing into my chin cut my lie off before I’d had a chance to get started.

“I know who you are. I know what you mean to him, and I know that you will be the perfect lure to bring Nash to his knees. He would do anything to protect hismate.” From the way the orc in front of me scoffed the word and the snarl on his face, I half wondered if he was some kind of scorned lover, pissed off that Nash hadn’t picked him. He sure as shit was giving off those vibes. “I will make use of your death to make sure his is a long, drawn-out thing.”

I frowned. There was no way I was going to let this fucking asshole use me to get to Nash.

Not when I’d been the dumbass who got myself into trouble even though he’d warned me over and over not to go out alone.

Fuck… not when I was in love with him. Orc magic, dildo-thief karma… whatever it was, I knew it was true.

I loved Nash… which meant I’d do whatever it took to keep him safe. And maybe the asshole in front of me didn’t realize that he wasn’t just dealing with some helpless little human who wasn’t going to fight back.

I’d spent my entire life protecting the people I cared about, and I wasn’t about to stop now.

I jerked away from him and felt a sting of pain along my throat. I wasn’t some hardened orc warrior, and I wasn’t trained in machete-sword orc fighting, or whatever magic Koth probably had.

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