Page 11 of The Bull's Beauty
I push to my feet, storm to the bars, and shake them hard enough that one Orc glares over at me. “Let me out!”
The group outside, including the three huge ones who took me, just laugh again. The tallest one with gold rings through his ears says something in Orcish. Another replies in a teasing tone. They slap each other’s backs and grin at me.
Oh, they think this is a game.
Cassia chuckles. “You’re their new favorite. Congratulations.”
Outside the cage, the tall one with the gold earrings crouches down to get a better look at me. His nose is broad, his ears pointed and pierced, his eyes a bright gold that shimmers like he’s amused.
His gaze drops to my thighs.
Then my chest.
Then back to my face.
I snarl. “What are you looking at?”
“You’ve got spirit, Cow-girl.”
“Cow-girl’s gonna break your face.”
He throws his head back and laughs. The others join in. One mutters something that makes them all laugh harder, and then winks at me.
I immediately despise him the most.
Cassia leans back against the bars, arms behind her head. “That one’s the chief’s oldest son. Rurak. Might wanna be careful with the biting. He might like it.”
As if on cue, Rurak’s voice rumbled through the bars. “I like this one. I might keep her.”
Cassia gives me a pointed look that screamsI told you so. I press my face to the bars and yell, “Over my dead body!”
He just gives me that tusked grin. “Maybe.”
Chapter Nine
Silas
“They passed through here,” Ulric says cheerfully beside me, bouncing on his heels. “I could smell her from two valleys over.”
I dart my eyes sideways at him, and he grins, revealing a sharp canine.
“Y’know what else I smelled?” He continues, “You.”
I sigh, but I don’t respond; he likes it when I do, and I don’t want to encourage him to talk evenmore.
Ulric is practically vibrating with delight as he continues. “Up on that ridge, before the attack. Your scent waspungent,and unless you were mating a tree stump, I’m guessing that was about her.”
Heat flares up the back of my neck.
“She was asleep,” I mutter.
“Why the hells were you halfway across the godsdamn ravine when your female got snatched?”
“I was giving her space.”
“Space?” he echoed, “Space?”
“She doesn’t belong to me.”
