Page 53 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

And if Kai had risked his life to protect him…

“Wewillfind your mate, Nash.” With a determined nod, he started back to camp.

As much as I wanted to help him, I couldn’t. I had to find Kai.

It was easy to see where he’d fallen through the brush—the impression of two large bodies rolling through grass and snapping branches was enough of a trail that I could easily follow it. That, and I could almost feel the pull of him now that I was close. That tether, our mate bond, drew me forward like I was on strings.

It led me into a clearing, where a broad body I recognized was standing like he’d been waiting.

Koth’s shoulders tensed the moment he noticed me, and the grin on his face when he turned was full of a vicious joy that made my stomach drop.

My eyes weren’t for him, though. They were for the thing he held in his hand. Slicked with blood—the same blood that was probably spattered on the ground—was the translator I’d put on Kai’s neck the moment we met.

Thecollar,as he called it sometimes when he was irritated with me.

I’d never seen it off him. It was never meant to come off.

The low, growling snarl that tore from my chest was enough to make Koth’s eyes widen, but when I started forward, drawing my blade, he held the material up between us like it was a barrier.

In a way, it was.

“Careful, Nash. Do you not wish to see your little human again?”

My little human.

“What did you do to him?”

Koth’s expression blossomed, his grin growing as he swiped one booted foot through the blood on the ground.

“I will give it to you that he tried to fight valiantly, all golden hair and bravado.” He watched my face as he spoke, but it was impossible to keep my expression neutral. There was no way that he hadn’t seen Kai, that he hadn’t touched him, hurt him. Not with blood on the collar.

Not when he described him so perfectly—all golden hair and bravado.

“Whereishe?” I snarled through clenched teeth, wondering how I was managing to keep still when every muscle in my body was bristling with pure fury and anger.

“What would you give for him, Nash?”

What would I give for him? The answer was simple, easy—and it was the leverage that Koth had needed all along, the only way he would ever best me.

“I would give everything.”

The expression on Koth’s face, so smug and full of delight, deepened.

“Then that is exactly what you will give, if you wish to see him again.” He studied me for a moment before stepping forward… and I had no choice. I lowered the blade I held between us as he lifted the collar.

At least he gave me time to slip it over my arm and murmur the words to bind it to my skin before he lifted his own blade and pressed it to the center of my chest. “Let us move. I want to show all of Belzod that you would give it up for a human.”

He didn’t understand, though—and how could he? Koth had never believed in mates. He’d scoffed at me for my unwavering determination to find mine. He couldn’t know that I would give up everything… that I would tear through this world, every world connected to us… that I would raze everything to the ground as long as I could keep Kai safe.

Which meant he had no way to understand that if he hurt Kai, if I found my Little Mate harmed when he finally brought me to his camp… there was no world he could run to that could save him.

Chapter twenty-one

Kai

Iwaspissed…Oneminute,I’d been ready to square up and face off against an orc, because it was clear he wasn’t going to leave my mate alone, and the next, there’d been a sharp blade pressed into my back and I realized Koth didn’t fight fair.

I wasn’t sure if I should have been more flattered or annoyed that he had to call in backup when it came to dealing with me. I landed firmly on the side of annoyed, because I had my hands tied up before I had a chance to try to do anything.

---