Page 72 of The Orc's Innocent Plaything

Vrogul Stormseeker was watching me intently, and when I lifted my horrified gaze to his, he nodded.

“Yer brother was taken by Tarbert men and held in the depths of his cursed stone castle.”

I felt ill. “For how long?” I croaked.

“Months.” The other male sounded as grim as I felt. “I dinnae ken the details, but when Tarbert brought him up from the dungeons to parade before his guests, Kragorn was filthy, with weeping open wounds.”

By the gods. I bent double, my hands on my knees, imagining my proud brother reduced to such a state, on display for Tarbert’s cronies.

“War,” I gasped, barely able to spit the words past my rage. “We’ll call our allies and tear Tarbert stone to pieces.” I straightened, Myra’s hand at my back, my vision going red as I planned. “We’ll rain fire upon them! They’ll choke on their blood! Bloodfire will?—”

“He is free.”

The words, startling and incomprehensible, had me slamming my mouth shut. ‘Twas Myra who clarified.

“Tarbert let him go?”

“Nay.” The Stormseeker still looked grim as he shook his head. “Yer brother freed himself and got his revenge in the process. I had to leave the next day to make it back afore the full moon closed the pathways, but I assume Tarbert sent men after yer brother. Still…there’s a likelihood he made it through the veil.”

I stared, hardly daring to hope.

“Kragorn…he is coming home?”

“Or he is waiting for ye to go save him?” The other male shrugged and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Hoist yer wee playmate over the side”—he winked at Myra—“and I’ll tell ye what I ken on the trip to the mainland.”

Kragorn was alive! Even if Tarbert had recaptured him, at least we knew where he was. I wrapped my hands around Myra’s waist to lift her onto the warship, suddenly desperate to get back home.

And not just because I had to claim my Mate.

Nay. I had to save my brother!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Myra

We rode hard.

It had taken us three days to get from Bloodfire Village to Jura, and I thought we’d been moving quickly then. But now? I found out exactly how fast a determined orc male could ride.

After the Battleborn told Vartok everything they knew about his brother’s horrific incarceration and dropped us on the mainland, we collected our horses and rode westward. Night fell, but Vartok didn’t stop; just lifted me into his lap and kept riding, using the light of the just-past-full moon as a guide.

I woke a few times as he switched horses to give the animals rest from the burden. But each time he tucked me back against his chest and I fell asleep cocooned in the warmth of his skin and fur.

MyMate.

Vartok was my Mate, and I still had trouble believing it. Nay, I understood it to be the truth—there was a knowing, as Nan had told us. IknewVartok was mine. But after months of thinking he was my enemy, ‘twas difficult to wrap my head about the change.

Or rather, ‘twas difficult to believe my good fortune.

I had a Mate.

I had a Mate and he loved me. He was a creative, gentle male who fought to protect me, who agonized over decisions which might harm his people, and who treated me as someone worthy of worship.

If I had ever stopped to wonder what sort of partner I wanted in life, I would have chosen Vartok. Or rather, I would have, had I seen the Vartok I had come to know in these last weeks, rather than the one I thought I knew.

I was lucky, indeed.

But by mid-morning the next day, I knew my Mate was struggling. He’d ridden all night, carrying me, and the night before had been spent keeping watch for the Battleborn. He must be exhausted.

---