To Defend A Bride (Entangled with the Enduar #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

MELISA

Present Day…

I hide in the safety of the tightly packed trees with thirty-two women—all human slaves. A few, like me, are comfort women. The rest have been taken from the breeding pens.

It’s the night of the new Giant King’s coronation, yet we aren’t anywhere near the palace. We’ve come to escape the giant capital, Zlosa.

It’s not going well.

“What’s this?” a giant calls from the open meadow right next to the fence that keeps us all locked in. He stands with several warriors. Enormous, battle-honed conquerors, more akin to mountains than men.

They are strapped with leather armor and spears. Hair is piled high atop their head. Battle scars are on clear display across bulging chest and arm muscles.

One human is free from the cover of the trees. A queen, she calls herself, though I knew her as the High King Rholker’s prisoner.

Estela of the humans and Enduares.

She’s small, hardly coming up to my chin in height, but her shoulders are squared, and her back is straight despite the cold.

Though she is nothing more than a valley compared to the mountainous warriors, she glares up at them without fear. The hood of her cloak is blown back and curly brown hair escapes braids to billow in the night breeze.

She named herself our own personal hero.

I watch, holding my breath and expecting the worst. Many fancy themselves heroes, and most aren’t worth their weight in lumber. People who believe themselves in a certain light—good, noble—aren’t willing to do what it takes to make a difference.

“You are mistaken. The doctor sent us into the woods to search for herbs,” she calls out into the inky black air. A white cloud billows in front of her. It is a normal sight in winter, but it looks like magic spilling out of her soul. “There’s an outbreak of disease.”

The corners of my mouth tug upward.

She’s lying with such ease—perhaps not a perfect hero, after all. Just a woman doing what it takes to get out of this hell hole in one piece.

I respect that.

The giants kidnapped her over a month ago, and the new king himself assigned me to care for her. I helped her bathe, mended her clothes, and dressed her.

Slowly, we became… not friends . Allies, perhaps. So much so that I let her convince me to try to escape Zlosa. A death wish for any slave in ordinary conditions, but the promise of the trolls presents extraordinary circumstances.

I’m skeptical by nature, but I found her passionate confidence contagious. The way she spoke about the home of the Trolls—Enduvida—sounded like just what I was looking for: a safe new life.

I need a new life. Fast. In a place where they don’t care what I did with the giants. The promises of no slavery and men in search of women to care for were just bonuses.

“Disgusting lying, bitches. Step back,” the giant calls.

I fucking hate them.

Another gust of wind almost blows back the cloak covering the costume Estela wears, which would expose her as the king’s escaped pet.

A frenetic energy pulses through the air as I watch Estela. She seems as fearless as any wild animal.

“Wait!” Estela cries.

The giant warrior extends his spear and parts the black cloak that was meant to cover Estela’s ridiculous diamond costume, which makes her look like a godsdamned snow pixie.

The giant’s eyes gleam with surprise. He’s found something very valuable indeed, and now we’re all going to pay the price with blood.

“You belong to the king!” the giant roars. “Men! Find and kill the others. They’re trying to escape!”

“ Maldita sea, hijo de su puta madre, ”? 1 I curse in the human tongue—a rarity for me.

My stomach drops, and I look back at the other slaves.

“Stay in the trees! You’ll be harder to catch,” I yell.

We’ve barely begun to scatter when Abi, another comfort woman I’d personally invited on this death mission, screams. The space before us lights up. Bright white flashes, striking quick as lightning and making me temporarily blind. I fall against a tree.

A wet gurgle sounds from the front of the trees. When the light dims, I see the giant lying on the ground with an arrow sticking out of his neck.

My mouth falls open, and I press my hand to my mouth to silence my scream.

Several more arrows fly through the air and lodge themselves in the ground with an audible thud . Abi’s scream is joined by nearly every woman in the group.

“Are those more giants?” a new woman shouts.

I turn back. “What giant would kill one of its own?”

The woman doesn’t listen, running toward the fence that would lead us to freedom. I grab my skirt and run after her.

“Wait!” I yell, but she still ignores me.

Dodging branches, I use my hands to grab onto tree trunks and propel me forward. When I reach the spot where the copse of trees thins, I draw a deep breath.

“Please! Don’t—!” I start.

One of the giant’s axes swings through the air. Time slows as I watch the blade slice through her clothes, flesh, and bone as if it were nothing.

Nothing .

The bottom half of her falls to the ground, and the top half topples soon after.

There’s more screaming behind me, but I fall to my knees and retch. The sparse contents of my stomach scatter in the snow.

Damn Estela, and damn my secretly optimistic heart for believing her.

We’ll all die before we even meet the monstrous race that Estela claims has saved her. I need to get back to Eneko. There are girls depending on me in the slave pens. I can’t die like this.

I turn back to Abi. “Get them to safety!”

She’s stopped screaming, but her round, curvy face is ashy, and tears streak her cheeks. Her ample chest heaves as she looks at me with wide eyes.

“I can’t?—”

“You can.” I take her soft, half-frozen arms in my hands, willing her to feel the confidence she doesn’t have.

Her already wide eyes seem to bulge out of her sockets.

When I turn back and look up, my words evaporate like mist under the blazing sun.

Charging down the hillside, atop all manner of beasts and strange, flying creatures, is a troop of warriors. The beings I’ve been waiting for have skin as blue as the daylit sky, while dozens of women have different shades of fleshy tones, from black to white.

Trolls… and elves?

There are nearly as many of them as there are of us. Definitely enough to fight off the giants while we escape. It turns out Estela wasn’t quite as delusional as I started to think.

Women start to gather on either side of me.

“The blue demons?” someone asks.

I turn my head and find Estela fighting off a whole godsdamned giant herself.

The beginning of a smile tugs at the corners of my mouth.

Thank you for being right, you crazy bitch.

“They sure are,” I say.

Which means… the rest of my plan will have to come next. If those tall, strong blue men are really so dedicated to their women as Estela has said, then I need to pick one. And fast.

It’s not hard to tell which troll has come for Estela, because he charges straight to her while she fights the giants. His blue eyes shine, brilliant, and dazzling.

Is that magic? Or bloodlust?

My gaze is drawn to the next rider who races toward us. He is tall, just like the king, and gods…

Look at those arms.

They flex as he holds onto the reins of a serpentine beast made entirely of glittering crystal.

He beckons toward us, and I start ushering the women out of the trees.

When his flying stone-like serpent comes to a halt before us, he calls, “Get on!”

I grab the nearest woman and shove her forward. He plucks her out of my arms and moves her to the elf at his flank. More women pass from his mount to the elves riding bears, enormous wolves, and deer.

We repeat this several times until only two of us are left in the forest. My mind races.

Two humans for two riders. One troll, and one elf.

Glancing over my shoulder, I see the woman has almost caught up to me. She reaches out, and I see my chance at safety flash before my eyes. So I leap forward and leave the other woman to climb onto the bear with the elf.

He catches me with ease, looking down and meeting my eyes.

In that instant, while chaos surrounds us, I know I’ve found what I sought.

Estela thought I was escaping Zlosa for the chance to find a mate—my ‘perfect half.’ It is not a husband I seek, but a safe future. If this troll is a kinder and more attractive master than Eneko was, all the better.

When the troll pulls me up in front of him, his large body cradles mine, and the sensation of invincibility settles over my skin. I allow myself to lean back. The smell of leather, incense, and stone overtakes me.

Gods. He definitely will be the one.

A noble man can be manipulated just as easily as a hedonistic one.

I slide my hand around his arm and feel the reaction behind me as he tenses. He needs to feel needed in order to get protective, so I spare a whimper.

It works.

“You are going to be all right now,” he murmurs.

The sound of his voice sends a shiver down my spine. It’s got a light accent that brings out the deep, rich tones of the common tongue.

A feeling deep in my gut that has always guided me begins to spread and take over.This is right.

“Thank you,” I say to him, a touch more pathetic than I feel.

One of the giants hurls into our path. The hulking troll man carrying me is unfazed. He reaches out his arm, and the ground beneath us groans as earthen chunks fling out from under the snow.

A pointed rod of stone forms before my eyes. He conjures something akin to a sword with swirling, sharpened rocks. He then rams the giant clear through.

I scream and press against him.

“Don’t look,” he says, as I hear the crunch of bone. His large hand comes to cover my back.

I lean into him.

This is exactly what I was hoping for.