Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Now I suppose I had better see what she’s screaming over. Probably a crab of some kind. Served many sea-ogres, my arse. I’m the only sea-ogre she’s ever met. She’s a liar and I despise liars. My mood sours again, I surface from the waves and stride towards the shore, only to hear another scream.
It’s her—Vali.
“Don’t touch me!” she cries.
I scan the beach, my senses on alert, and spot multiple figures on the sands. She’s found other humans, it seems, her dark, long hair easy to spot. She’s closer to Akara than I am. You told her to stay close, I remind myself. I stride towards her location, scowling, just in time to see one of the men grab her by the front of her dress and rip it down her body.
She plants a fist in his mouth and kicks at the one holding her, screaming with outrage.
My temper soars, too. Who do these men think they are that they can grab a woman and attack her? There is a scatter of shells near their feet, evidence that she was minding her own business.
I snarl as I approach, storming toward them and flexing my four arms to look as intimidating as possible. They’re so focused on Vali’s flailing arms and legs that they have yet to notice me…which only pisses me off more. “What do you think you are doing?”
They turn to look at me, and as they do, their eyes widen. The one clutching Vali by the waist drops her immediately and she falls to the sand, her breasts spilling out of her ripped garment. She cries out, remaining where she is, and glances up at me. There’s a trickle of blood coming from her nostril, and the sight of that incenses me.
They hit her? They came upon a pretty female on the beach and attacked and hit her? Are all humans such monsters?
“Why are you touching my wife?” I snarl at them, moving to stand in front of all three fishermen.
“We didn’t know she was yours,” the oldest—the one that ripped her dress—stammers. “We thought she was an escaped slave. A free prize for anyone.”
“And because you thought she was a slave you attacked her?” I march up to the bearded one, glaring down at him. “Explain this to me.”
He shoots a glance at the other men. “If she was an escaped slave, there’d be a bounty on her head. Easy coin. If not, then we could sell her again. That’s all. We were just looking to have a little taste and make a few coins.”
So they would rape a stranger and sell her to the first buyer all because they thought she might be a slave.
“She’s got cuff marks on her wrists,” protests one of the others. “And she’s wearing a slave shift. We did nothing wrong.”
“I should cut your throats and feed you three to my turtle,” I hiss at them. They quail, shrinking back from me and eyeing my trident. I tap my leg. “Vali, come here.”
That makes her look up. She gives me an indignant stare, clutching the remains of her dress to her breasts, but slowly gets to her feet and moves to my side.
“Should I kill them, wife?” I ask, folding two of my arms over my chest and brandishing my trident with a third hand. “Say the word.”
“Yes,” she says immediately.
I’m surprised. I thought she’d beg for their lives, say it was all a mistake. But her tone is hard and just as angry as mine, and it’s clear there’s a dark streak in her.
“Wait! Wait!” the bearded human says. “We can come to an agreement!”
“We have gold,” says another, taking a step back and glancing at the shack in the distance. He clearly wants to run for it. If he does, he’ll find my trident lodged in his spine.
“Show me your gold and I’ll tell you if it’s enough to buy your lives.” I turn to Vali, gesturing at Akara in the distance. “Return to the tent.”
She shoots me an equally venomous look—and I am surprised by her all over again—but does as she is told and retreats to the safety of the turtle.
The humans do have a fair amount of gold for poor fishermen, and it’s clear Vali is not the first they’ve attacked. I clean them out of their riches and find out which one hit Vali and deliver a hit of my own…and a warning. If they touch what’s mine again, I’ll kill them and rob them. The smell of urine follows me as I abandon them on the beach, as the eldest has pissed himself with fear.
I return to Akara’s side, moving to her head and running a hand over her sharp beak. She blinks large, dark eyes up at me, reaching out with her thoughts. She smells humans on the shore and doesn’t like it. I prod at her, wondering if Vali’s scent bothers her, but she only sends a mental picture of me back—she associates Vali with me now, her scent with mine. Hunh.