Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Harper

With Sakkara winning the election, Giza spent the evening at his friend's house. Cairo might have as well; he was absent from the impromptu girls' night Meli planned with me and Ashlyn and Jess.

Maybe my sister invited the women she knew best from Eastshore. Maybe she invited ladies she knew best who were also married to orcs .

I dunno, but whatever the case, I spent the evening eating too many cookies and watching comfort movies and listening to them giggling about their Mates. And their cocks.

I really don't think guys understand how much women can talk about cocks, given the opportunity.

"Okay, okay!" I finally declared, holding up my hands in surrender. "The sex is very, very good, okay? Can we stop pestering the poor pregnant lady about her love life?"

The other women dissolved into giggles, and promptly started asking me questions about the pregnancy instead. Not sure that was any better.

But I kept thinking about the way Meli had spoken about being Mated, and the way these women were so…happy. Their Mates hadn't taken over their lives or insisted on control. No, they stood beside their women, and their women were…

Well, I'm going to say "content" because "blissfully happy" seems silly. But yeah, Meli and Jess and Ash were in love and happy with the partnerships they'd built here on Eastshore Isle. Could I be too?

Before she left, Jess took me aside and gave me something to think about. "Sakkara is going to need a good lawyer on his side. Well, not just him, but the town. We'll be looking to post the position soon, I think."

She winked and breezed out the door, arm-in-arm with Ash.

And I fell asleep in the tiny bed in Meli's guest room, where I'd spent the first few weeks of my time on Eastshore. But despite it being only a handful of nights since Cairo had kicked me out, and I'd ended up on Giza's doorstep…it felt wrong to sleep here. I wanted to sleep like I did last night, in Giza's bed, in his arms.

After that last orgasm, he'd wrapped himself around me, and I fell asleep, warm and protected and safe .

That's all he'd ever asked, right? He'd wanted the chance to care for me, and I could admit I enjoyed it. So why was I hesitating?

And why, when I returned to his apartment the next day, did it feel like coming home?

Giza was full of news and plans, and I had to admit I was swept up in Sakkara's vision for Eastshore. It was… fun to be involved with something this electric, and I kept thinking about Jess's nonchalant mention of a lawyer position here on the island.

It wasn't a partner in a firm.

It wasn't prestigious.

It probably wouldn't pay particularly well.

But…

I could help make the world a better place, couldn't I?

And I could be here on Eastshore Isle with my sister and the beach I loved so much and…and Giza.

My hand dropped to my stomach as I watched him clean up from dinner, humming softly. This…being here with him? It felt right . It felt good .

Could I give up everything I'd worked so hard for my entire life in order to be here with him?

"Are you up for a game?" he asked suddenly, turning as he dried his hands on a dishtowel.

I raised my brows. This wasn't the first after-dinner game night we'd had, but I had to admit that I was kinda hoping to entice him back to the bedroom again.

Maybe he picked up on that, or maybe my scent changed, because I saw him slowly smile. " Or we could take our clothes off—"

"A game would be lovely, thank you," I announced imperiously.

And he chuckled. Lord, I loved when I could make him chuckle.

"I made a pie today." He crossed to the covered cake stand on the counter. "I thought it would be a nice dessert."

A fresh pie and a game? This was turning into a wild evening after all. I jumped up to make the tea, and it was amazing how perfectly the two of us fit together in this space. I knew my way around his kitchen as well as my own, and we each took tasks without needing to discuss it.

When we settled down at the table with the pie, the tea, and a box of dominos, I was so busy reflecting on how well matched we were that it took me a moment to realize he seemed almost…nervous.

"We don't have to play," I offered quietly. "We could watch a movie instead or something."

His lips twitched beneath his beard. "I would have to go out and find a television for that."

"Good point," I shot back. "Another night of competitive crosswording it is!"

This time his chuckle seemed to relax him. "Have I ever told you how much I like how we share such similar interests?"

It was one of the things I loved as well. But instead of admitting that, I said, "Instead, how about you tell me what we're going to play?"

He opened the lid to the domino box and began to remove the pieces, placing them facedown slowly as he spoke. "I had thought to teach you the game of om'panna , one my grandmother taught me. She was a gambler and loved the strategy of it."

" But ?" I prompted when he didn't continue. "Is it too complicated for humans?"

He didn't rise to my teasing and shook his head solemnly. "If you can count to eight, you can play om'panna ." He took a deep breath and lifted his gaze to mine, his hands still. "But the game was also a favorite of Rallah, my first love, and I wasn't sure it would be appropriate to share with you, my…"

He continued to stare, but didn't continue. I was certain he'd been about to call me his Mate.

Trying not to frown, I reached across the table to pull the domino box from between his forearms and dumped the pieces on the table. Keeping my attention on the pieces as I flipped them all upside down, I casually said, "I'm not offended. But I'd like to know about Rallah, if you're willing to share."

He began to slowly flip the pieces over as well, joining me in preparing for a simple game of dominos. "I think I would like that very much."

I swept the white dominos into the boneyard, then counted out the correct number for each of us and began to flip mine over. It took that long for Giza to decide where to begin.

"In my world, females are rare. It didn't used to be like that. Our legends tell of vibrant cultures and clans." When I glanced up, he was staring down at the bones he'd turned upright in his hand, but I knew he wasn't looking at them, not really. "But our legends also tell of a time, in the distant past, when our clans interbred with humans. Orc males would bring human females into our world, and the clan would be stronger for those Matings."

Matings . There was that word again, and the revelation that human-orc pairings had a long history.

"Have orcish females always been rare? Is that why you—I mean, orc males—had to Mate with humans?"

His gaze flicked to mine, then away, then back again. "Mating isn't…it's not a choice, Harper. We're taught our Mates have been chosen for us by Malla the Beginner, who sees all."

I remembered our conversation about religion. "Is that what you believe?"

He cocked his head to one side, studying me with those normally dark eyes. Tonight they were greener. "I can't explain it. I…being with you, Harper O'Donnell, completes me. My soul is at ease. Or it should be."

What did that mean? "A knowing," I murmured, repeating what Meli had told me.

He nodded. "My ancestors didn't choose to travel through the veil to steal Mates. They did so because they were compelled, because they had no choice. The other half of their soul was waiting for them."

Wow.

Talk about poetic.

I dropped my gaze to my pile. "Wanna start with double twelves?"

"Are you just asking that because you have double twelves?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Draw?"

"One-two-three-draw," he prompted, and we each pulled a piece from the boneyard at the same time. "No," he stated, and I echoed it.

It took us six draws to find the right domino, and he placed it in position, which means he got to start.

I picked up our earlier conversation. "So I'm assuming your people stopped finding their Mates in the human world. Otherwise we would've heard of you?"

"Right," he murmured, laying out his bones. "There have always been stories of young males who stepped through the veil against the wishes of the elder councils because they couldn't resist the call of the Mates. But the councils had forbidden contact with humans about two centuries ago, once it became clear the land was being covered in settlement."

I thought of Westward Expansion and all the other history I'd learned in school and nodded as I set out my pieces. "So you had to find Mates among your own kind?"

"Those of us who were lucky. But our female population began to diminish, with fewer being born each generation." His left hand rose to his right shoulder, covered by his shirt, and I remembered the chevron design tattooed there, and wondered what it memorialized. "Which meant fewer males found Mates, which meant fewer kits were born for the next generation."

Oh .

I realized I was far more interested in the story than the game between us. "Is it possible your people were meant to Mate with humans? In order to continue the species?"

He immediately nodded. "That is my theory, and one I proposed many times to the council of elders. Of course, I didn't mean me , because I thought…"

My brows rose. "Rallah?"

He sighed and reached for his tea. "Rallah and I grew up together. Most of us in the clan were related in some way or another, but there'd been Matings between distant cousins before. From the moment I understood what it meant to be Mated, I knew Rallah and I would be together."

From the heavy tone of his voice, I knew this wasn't going to be a happy ending. "You loved her?"

"And she loved me." He took a shuddering breath as he swirled his tea. "We were the ones to teach the other about passion and responsibility. We each even left our mothers' household and set up our own home together when we reached the right age. We were…"

"Happy?"

"Yes, but…" He lifted his gaze to mine once more. "We weren't Mated. We liked to pretend we were, but we didn't understand the way our elders would shake their heads sadly. I remember thinking it was because they knew we wouldn't be able to have kits, but really, it was because they knew what we were missing out on."

"What was that?"

His features screwed up, as in frustration. "Until I met you, Harper, I thought what I felt for Rallah would be the strongest I would feel for a female. This…" He gestured between us. "This connection is more than love. "

Oh. Maybe I shouldn't have brought up his first love after all, if we were going to get deep like this. I licked my lower lip, then swallowed.

"She…she died?" I whispered.

Giza shook his head. "Worse, perhaps." He lifted his tea to sip it, but stared down into the depths. "When we were in our late twenties, a group of males from another clan visited. One of them was Rallah's Mate. The realization was…one of the worst times in my life."

I'd sucked in a breath at understanding what that had meant. He'd set up a house with this female, he'd loved her…and then another male had stepped in and stolen her? "I'm sorry, Giza."

His lips twitched crookedly, and he shrugged. "I imagine it was more difficult for her, but I refused to be consoled. We parted angrily, and I mourned the loss of my Mate…"

"But she wasn't…" I whispered.

He met my gaze as he slowly lowered his mug, and his eyes? They were glowing now.

"She wasn't," he agreed. "But it took until you returned to Eastshore for me to fully understand that, Harper. Until I held you again, I didn't truly understand what it meant to be Mated."

Glowing? No, more than that. His eyes were bright green beacons in the middle of the kitchen. I stared, mesmerized.

I was his Mate, wasn't I?

And if I was his, then he was mine.

"She was happily Mated, last I heard," he said, his voice low, intense, as he held my gaze. "Three sons, a good home."

I nodded mutely, unable to look away from the electricity between us. My pulse was pounding in my temples, and I could feel it between my thighs.

"I let her go, Harper, because I knew Mating was a powerful force." His palms spread flat on the table. "I didn't realize how powerful."

I swallowed, and rasped, "How powerful?"

His eyes flashed. "I know now I could never let you go."

"Because I'm your Mate?" I whispered.

Something like joy flashed across his face. "Because I am yours."