Page 41 of The Orc's Stolen Shepherdess

“Calm down!Calm down!” The familiar voice of my headman made me want to collapse with relief, even as I saw how tense his usually jovial face had gone. “Susara, thank Fades, you’re all right.”

Father squeezed my arm again, and I took his hand. “I’m just fine, Father. Truly. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

He looked like he was about to collapse. He was so pale and shaky. There was a boulder nearby, and I took his arm. “Here, let me help you sit down.”

“Find Chief Sythcol and his conjurers! Tell them she’s found.” Chief Brovdir’s voice was ragged and sharp as he ordered two warrior orcs I hadn’t even noticed. There were a few conjurers as well, standing back from the crowd. “Fuck, Caivid, we’ve been looking half the night. Where did you go that Chief Sythcol’s magiccould not reach?”

“We were just in the woods,” Caivid said as the orcs ran off to do Chief Brovdir’s bidding. “Near Susara’s pasture that was flooded out recently.”

Chief Brovdir’s eyes widened. “Did you say aflood? Was it growing larger?”

Before either of us could respond to that odd question, one of the villagers cried. “You stole her!”

“We demand justice!”

“Silence!” Headman Gerald’s voice echoed off the trees. “Susara issafe!She’s well. It’s over! You must yield!”

But his words only made the group angrier.

“We will never yield.” Waston stepped forward, her dark eyes peering at me as she spoke with such vigor that it felt like ice had formed in my veins. “Not until this male isguttedfor what he did! Every warrior here should be punished for his horrible crimes!”

Chapter Eighteen

Caivid

“Be calm,” Brovdir hissed into my ear. “Fighting will only make this worse.”

I took deep breaths and tried to follow his orders. My cheek stung from where he’d hit me, but I could tell he hadn’t put even half of his force into it. The punch had only been for show.

The group of villagers was fifteen strong. Their weapons were drawn, if you could call pitchforks and grain cuttersweapons, and their eyes glared daggers right through my chest. They whispered threats behind their hands so loudly I knew they must have meant for me to hear them.

But Susara was fine. She was helping her father to a log. A few of the calmer humans had gone over to check onher. To help her. Only three. And after she reassured them, they returned to the group. Went back to their anger.

The mob wasn’t after her.

They wanted me.

“Waston, be calm.” The village headman’s tone was laced with exhaustion. At least he was being reasonable. He was a tall but plump man with a kind expression that was not mirrored in the faces of the other humans.

“Why should she be calm?” one of the men raged. His black hair was greasy and his dark eyes lingered on Susara far longer than I thought necessary. My fists balled. “One of our women wasstolenfrom herbed.”

“Stolen from my bed?” Susara’s incredulous tone was obvious even as she helped her father to settle on a nearby boulder. “What are you talking about, Jophel?”

Jophel.

The male who wanted her.

I gritted my teeth, and my claws threatened to unsheathe.

“You see!” Jophel shouted. “She is so distraught by what she’s gone through she doesn’t even recall what happened to her!”

“That’s right!” the elder woman called Waston said. Her voice was so high and shrill one could hear it echoing in the trees. “Her mind is so clouded by fear that she cannot think straight!”

“I’m thinking justfine,” Susara said. “And I have no idea what any of you are talking about. Jophel, give me back my crook.”

“Why did you let go of it in the first place?” Jophel’s voice was low and his grip tightened on the crook. His beady eyes narrowed on her before they flashed to me. “What could have caused you such terror as to leave it behind?”

“I didn’t leave it behind interror,Jophel.” She put her hands on her hips but seemed unwilling to go anywhere near him, which was good because I was close to beating this vile male to a bloody, useless pulp.

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