Chapter 8

Karnak

Two weeks.

Two weeks of kissing Jess, of helping her. Of laughing with Jess, making her smile, cooking for her. Two weeks of falling in love with her.

And feeling guilty as hell.

In ten years in the human's world, I hadn't had a relationship with a woman. I hadn't had any relationships, actually. I'd learned my lesson and kept to myself, so as not to scare others or make them uncomfortable.

But Jess…

Jess was my light. She was addictive and I couldn't stay away, even when I thought it would be for the best.

Four years after finding my Mate, I was finally able to be with her.

And by all the gods, it felt good.

My chest was light, buoyant. When I swam or ran, I had a hard time keeping my thoughts blank because she was constantly on my mind. When I was with her, there was this frantic sort of desperation; I didn't know if it was my happiness warring with my guilt, or if there was something missing.

I know damned well what's missing.

At night, I could close my eyes and still hear her soft little moans as she masturbated that night in the hot tub, and I held those in my mind when I stroked myself.

And now…

Well, this wasn't the first time I'd visited her office, but I was glad I could help her, especially since these had been my idea.

"I still can't believe you carved this," she was saying in awe, turning the homemade stamp over in her hands.

I arranged the small blue paper sacks in front of me on her desk. "It wasn't difficult, once you gave me that enlarged picture of the town's sign. Actually…" I admitted without looking up, "I used a piece of the palm tree from your yard."

The one I cut up the day I pulled down the ruined fence between our yards.

It wasn't until she placed the stamp in front of me that I finally inhaled.

"I think it's remarkable. Being able to stamp the town's name on anything we want, complete with those cute curlicues? It's like we're a brand! But the stamp is so delicate I almost don't want to use it."

Preening a bit under her praise, I inked up the soft wood. "We should definitely use it. It likely won't last long, because palm is such soft wood, but I'll just carve us another one when we need it."

Us. We. As if I had a place here in Eastshore. At her side.

A future.

"Remind me to bring one of the finished bags to the council meeting this Friday, alright? I think they'll get a kick out of this, especially when I tell them it was your idea."

Ah. I shifted in my chair. "That's the one I have to attend?"

"That's the one I asked you to attend." She booped me on the nose, something I noticed she did when she was making a point. "And you agreed. Because I think the council will be one hundred percent on board with the plan once they hear about your friend wanting to move here, and his connections."

"But why do I—"

"Because you're the world's best visual aid." The way she said it made it sound less insulting and more like praise. "And plus I want to see you dressed up. Maybe a haircut?"

My free hand rose to the shaggy mop atop my head. "I probably need more than just one of them cut."

"Oh, okay." She was trying to keep a straight face to go with her sarcasm. "I'll cut two of your hairs."

"Deal."

Snorting, she turned away, back to business. "Right, so you stamp those—do they need long to dry?"

I used the ink pad to cover the stamp again, then transferred the logo to another paper sack. "I don't think so. Thirty seconds or so?"

"Right. Okay." Jess stood with her hands on her hips, surveying her office, which was mostly filled with boxes and filing cabinets. "I'll open up the pallet of goldfish crackers and get them ready to go, then come over and start opening and standing up the bags after they dry."

It had been my suggestion, to use seashore-themed snacks in goodie bags for the kids to take home after the end-of-school beach bash, and I had to admit I'd been pleased by how excited she'd been.

Although the event was still two weeks away, I was helping her set up the bags now, so they could be put aside until the party.

I was surprised how much I was looking forward to the beach bash, honestly. If you'd told me a month ago that I would voluntarily attend one of Eastshore's community events, I wouldn't have believed you.

And now?

Now I would do it, just so I could spend time with Jess. See her smile.

Yeah, I was a lost cause.

Somewhere in the pile of bags on her desk, a phone began to ring.

"That's not mine," she called, bent over a pallet and pulling boxes of gummy sharks out of the packaging. "Good luck finding it!"

I eventually did, hiding underneath a pile of applications for gazebo usage. I answered it by the sixth ring.

"Hello?"

I could hear Sakkara's smile. "There you are. I thought I'd go to voicemail and I'd have to leave a message, which you'd never figure out how to listen to, and thus never respond."

I very carefully didn't look at Jess as I defended myself. "Yeah, but I would've seen that you called, at least, and probably called you back. And you could have texted me."

"Oh, you know how to text now?"

The asshole seemed genuinely surprised.

If I'd been alone, I would've shot it right back at him with a mocking tone, and probably some curse words too. Instead, I just turned a bit so Jess couldn't see my expression, cleared my throat, and said, "I'm learning, okay?"

Sakkara laughed, because of course he did. "Well, look, now that I've told the landlord I want out of our lease, I have some questions about housing options in Eastshore. The internet is less helpful than I expected."

"Actually…" I pushed back from the desk and turned to include Jess in the conversation. "The person you want to talk to is Jess Miller, and she's right here."

When she shot me a confused look, I held the phone out to her. "Sakkara has questions about the housing options."

Her expression lit up, and she snatched the phone from me and pressed a something on the screen. "Mr. Sakkara? You're on speaker. How can I help you?"

"Jess, I'm delighted to finally speak to you." Charming fucker. "I really appreciated all the information you emailed, and let me thank you in person for dragging our mutual friend out of his solitude. Can I also assume you're the one who taught Karnak to text?"

Fucking charming asshole.

As they chatted, I tried not to glower jealously. I mostly succeeded.

After five minutes or so, Sakkara seemed to have all of his questions answered. "The market sounds remarkable. We were planning on renting…"

"Unfortunately, we've lost more people in the last years than we've had move in, so there's quite a few homes on the market. As long as you're not looking for some mansion—"

Sakkara interrupted her, chuckling. "We aren't. And honestly, although it's small, the school sounds ideal. I think Emmy and I could be happy in Eastshore, and since it has Karnak's stamp of approval…?"

When he left it hanging, Jess raised her brows in my direction, and I cleared my throat.

"Yeah. It's alright."

At her scoff and Sakkara' tinny chuckle, I allowed myself to grin. "Kidding. It's a nice little town. Quiet. Friendly."

"High praise, indeed. Well, Jess, thanks for dragging Karnak out of his house and showing him around. And Karnak, thank you for helping her with this project. I think we could all use a place to…just be."

Jess said her goodbyes as Sakkara continued to charm, but I was focused on my friend's words.

Just be.

He was right. That's what he deserved. What Emmy deserved. The chance, and the place, to be themselves. To not have to worry about constantly being judged for what they looked like, or what the media said about orcs.

I guess I deserve that too.

And Jess made it possible.

As she ended the call, I reached for her hand and gave her a tug. With a gasp, she toddled sideways and wound up pressed against my chest. I grinned down at her.

"What?" she asked, obviously flustered.

"Thank you," I murmured, bending down to brush a kiss across her brow. "For finding a place for Sakkara and Emmy. She needs a place like Eastshore."

Jess patted my chest in a distracted manner. "You need a place too, Karnak. I suppose I should work on Cairo next, and then anyone else—"

"You don't need to bother Cairo. He's grumpy and mean."

"Well, yes. But you were reclusive and mysterious."

That wasn't my point. "I would never hurt you, Jess."

"And you think Cairo would?" Her brows rose. "I thought you were friends."

"He wouldn't hurt you, but he can make you feel like horseshit." I pressed another kiss to the crown of her head. "I oughta know. He's my cousin."

Jess straightened so fast the top of her head bumped against my chin. "Really?" She peered up at me, as if looking for the joke. "You're cousins?"

Since she was pushing away, clearly more interested in a conversation than cuddles, I shrugged. "Second cousins? Third? Something like that, we don't have the same sort of idea of cousins. Most everyone in my clan was related, somehow, and Cairo was a few turns—years—younger than me, so I didn't know him well. But I assume that's why he settled in Eastshore after I moved here."

"You assume?" She smacked my chest in exasperation. "You mean you've never discussed it with him? How often do you two see each other? You live on the same island, for goodness' sake!"

I shrugged, trying not to grin at her indignation. "Did you miss the part about him being a grumpy asshole?"

"You're cousins!"

"Hey, you want to start stuffing these bags? The ink's dry."

Chuckling at my deflection, Jess rolled her eyes and reached for one of the bags. As she snapped it open and set it upright on the desk, she shot me an amused glance. "Okay, if you don't want to talk about Cairo, will you tell me about Thebes?"

"I think he's a cousin too, although more distant."

With a huff of exasperation, she arranged the upright bags in a row while I went back to my stamping.

"Are you related to all the orcs in our world?"

"You know, fifth cousins are pretty distant. You probably have a lot of fifth cousins," I pointed out.

Her blue eyes twinkled with delight. "And you're avoiding the question."

She's right. I was.

I stamped a few more logos onto the bags, trying to decide how to answer, while she silently set up more of the dry ones. Once she had about twenty in a row, she scooped up an armful of the packets of goldfish crackers and began to drop them into the bags, one for each kid.

How to explain? "My clan was dying," I finally decided on, without looking up. "We all were. I don't know the science behind it—Sakkara could probably explain it—but fewer and fewer females had been born in the last two hundred years. Many of the males in my clan—in our world—had given up hope of finding their Mates."

"And…that's important?"

It was everything.

I kept my attention on my work, although my Kteer was showing some interest in this conversation. "Mating—sex—is a part of life, but to be Mated—to find your fated Mate?" I shook my head, knowing I was making a mess of this. "It's what every orc dreams of. It—it completes us."

Which is why the last four years, knowing my Mate was next door to me and yet completely unattainable, had been such hell.

"I suppose that's a natural urge," she murmured thoughtfully, dropping the last packet into the last bag, and crossing to scoop up the little boxes of gummy sharks. "All beings want to find companionship, don't they?"

It was a simplification of something which, for me, was built into my very being, but—

Wait.

What was it she'd said? All beings? "Muffin hasn't returned home yet, has she?"

Jess turned, her arms full of candy boxes, and gave me an incredulous look. "Well, that was a non sequitur, wasn't it? No she hasn't."

It had been a month since Jess had last seen the small black cat, and I knew she'd given up hope. But maybe…

"Care to explain?" she prompted.

But I shook my head, not wanting to get her hopes up. "Never mind, sorry. Where was I?"

"Mating," she huffed, turning back to her task.

Right. Mating.

Just hearing the word on her lips made my cock twitch in my shorts.

"My people had known of the humans for generations." Of course we had; the small, oddly colored beings reproduced faster than rabbits and wrecked the nature around them in the name of progress, forcing my people into smaller and smaller enclaves. "And some had even made contact. Every generation there were clans of orcs who advocated greater contact—trade, interactions. Mine was the one that finally decided to do something about it."

She'd finished with the candy and was now standing with her round ass—I would never forget the sight of it bobbing in the hot tub—propped against the desk, her gaze on me. "You and Sakkara and the others left your clan."

It was a guess, but it was correct. "All of us were young and unmated. We had the blessings of the elders, and we knew that although it would place us in the middle, the in-between…it would be the best for our people."

"And…how did it go? When you first showed yourself?"

I had to smile at the memory of the human's initial response to our presence, but the smile faded. "They brought in the military, and we were separated and underwent experiments and testing before we could see each other again."

"Oh, Karnak," she whispered, her brows drawn in.

I shrugged, as if the government's secret laboratories didn't matter, and turned the stamp I'd carved over and over in my hands. "Sakkara had warned us something like this might happen. One of us—Dahshur had always been hot-headed—tried to fight, but for the most part we allowed it. And our captors soon came to treat us as guests."

"Guests?" she echoed doubtfully.

I took a deep breath. "There were…compensations." My lips twitched and I met her eyes. With me seated, she stood even with me. "Can you imagine what curry tastes like—all those flavors!—after a lifetime of raw vegetables? And of course, they paid us well, which we invested. And after a lifetime of knowing we would likely never find Mates, there we were, surrounded by females…"

The memory of one in particular caused me to swallow and look down at the stamp once more.

"Karnak?" Jess prompted.

"I was young—we all were. Humans were new, exciting, unknown—confusing. I'm sure she thought she was just being friendly. I thought it was something more."

"Oh no," she whispered.

Another shrug, and I reached for the bags to stamp more of the blank ones. "I'd learned about kissing, and I thought she wanted to practice with me. I barely got close before she realized my mistake. After she explained, I…"

Maybe I slammed the stamp down a little too hard, because then Jess was beside me, her hand on my arm, halting me.

"What did this mysterious female explain to you, Karnak?"

I stared at the stamp, still pressed against the paper bag. "She…" My voice sounded hoarse, so I flicked my tongue against my tusk and tried again. "She explained that humans had stories of beings like me, in fairy tales and legends. She even showed me some movies, where orcs are…" I shook my head. "To humans, we are monsters, and that is how we will always be seen. A human female would not—can not—look at one of us with anything other than fear."

Jess made a little sound of protest, and moved closer, but I didn't look up.

"I learned how not to be scary. Now I have seen the human world, I don't necessarily want to return home, even if there was a place for me there… But I've done my best to live a life here which won't frighten others—"

"Karnak."

She slid between me and the desk, knocking my arm into my lap as she cupped my jaw in her palms. "Karnak, look at me."

It was difficult, because the deep emotions welling—fine, it was because those magnificent tits were staring me in the face. I dragged my gaze to hers.

"You. Are. Not. A. Monster." With each staccato word, Jess shook my head a bit, squeezing my cheeks in her hands. "You are not scary. You are kind, and you make this world—our world—a better place."

I stared, unable to truly process her words.

"The people of Eastshore see you for who you are, and they will do the same for Sakkara and whoever else wants to join you. This Dahshur guy, maybe?"

"Dahshur is dead." Only it came out "Dahshurh ish ed," because she was still squeezing my cheeks.

"Oh," she murmured, momentarily sidetracked. Then she shook her head. "My point is, here, you can quit hiding. You can all quit hiding. Because I hate to tell you this, Karnak, but that female—I hate her already, FYI—was wrong. You're not a monster. You're not scary."

"I no'?" I'm not? Now my tusks were squeezed against my lips, thanks to her hold.

"You're not," she whispered, leaning closer. "And there are plenty of women in this world who think tall, green dudes with incredible muscles are just about the hottest thing we've ever seen."

Oh.

She kissed me. I snaked my arm around her waist and pulled her into my lap, kissing her right back. That blooming scent of her arousal filled the room, and I felt myself preening under her ministrations.

Kissing Jess made the last decade worth it.

She was the one to finally pull away. One arm was around my neck and the door to her office was open, where anyone could walk past. She didn't seem concerned though, and her fingers toyed with the hair at the nape of my neck.

"Not a monster?" I prompted her with a small smile.

"Well, okay. I suppose some of your appeal is the whole monster thing," she teased. "However…"

"However?" I raised a brow.

"We're going to do something about this hair. You look like a beach bum!"

My heart felt lighter, now that I'd told her more about my people and our history. "Haven't you heard, Jess?" Mate. "I am a beach bum."

She hummed and dropped a kiss to my nose. "You're my beach bum."

And I was hers.