4. Turren

Iheard my mate before I saw her. While my clan pendant flared intermittently, reminding me it had chosen her for me, I didn’t need the pendant to tell me she was near.

I also sensed her, as if she stroked her soft hands on my body. I could taste the heat of her kiss, and the way she’d melt against my frame. As it had been for all orcs before me, so it would be between my mate and me. From our first meeting, I’d adore her. If she didn’t feel the same for me immediately, it wouldn’t take long. So the fates decreed.

I only needed to claim her in the name of my clan, and she’d welcome me into her arms.

A rustling in the forest ahead showed me where she was, and with my staff held tight in my hand, I eased forward, making no sound. When I saw her highlighted by a stab of moonlight, my breathing came to a shuddering halt. I remained in place, watching her, caressing her lush frame with my eyes.

She was lovely with her long black hair flowing out behind her and the way she plucked her way carefully through the woods.

Would I be able to find the words to tell her the feelings growing in my heart? Perhaps, with her, I’d finally find my voice.

With a grin on my face, I rushed toward her, striding from the woods and across the small open area, not stopping until I stood right in front of her.

She yelped and reeled away, gaping up at me with complete shock.

“Lovely mate,” I rasped, my heart roaring and my pulse on fire. Words. I’d found the words! “I am Turren Dhivair. I claim you in the name of the Ember Clan.” I took her hand, and warmth flowed up my arm, centering in my groin. My cock responded beneath my loincloth, expanding, thickening with hot blood. “Will you tell me your name?”

She shrieked and wrenched her hand from mine, backing from me. If her gaze hadn’t shot past me, alerting me that someone else was near, the glancing blow of a stick would’ve hit me squarely in the back of my head instead of on my shoulder.

“Go away,” a male cried.

I whirled, determined to protect my mate at all costs, and lifted my staff.

A male stood nearby. He was too lean, but the strong threat in his green eyes told me he’d do all he could to defend himself. “Don’t touch her.”

Did this puny specimen think he could steal my mate from me?

Never.

With a growl, I leaped on him, bringing him quickly to the ground.

He cried out and flailed, smacking me with a stick until I yanked it from his grip and tossed it aside. I grabbed his hands in one of mine and pinned them to the ground on either side of his head.

“Do you die now, or do you relent?” I snarled.

“Leave him alone.” My mate hurled herself on top of me like an ashenclaw defending its young. I shrugged her off, though I snapped my arm out to slow her fall. She landed on the ground on her side and sprung to her feet, tears streaming down her face. “Get away from my brother you . . . you fiend!”

“I’m your mate,” I said softly, puzzled by her response. Didn’t she adore me like I did her already?

And did she say brother? I looked between them, taking in the similar features, the same hair and eye color.

This was a youngling, not a puny man.

Releasing him, I levered myself up and off him, stepping back while he sat up and groaned, rubbing the back of his head.

My mate flung herself in front of him, baring her teeth at me. “Leave us alone. I’m not your mate. I’m not anyone’s mate!”

“My pendant . . .” On cue, it flared brightly, something it would do until I’d fully claimed her supposedly willing body. That was what the legends said, that she’d love me like no other until the day I died, that I’d feel the same. Already, I felt a pull toward her. I wanted to scoop her up, spin around with her in my arms, and kiss her. Nuzzle her throat while I roamed my hands across her sweet body.

However, she did not appear to feel the same way, and that . . . hurt. I ignored the sadness crushing my throat and stepped back a few paces while her brother rose and thrust her behind him.

“My pendant blazes only for you, my precious one,” I said softly, hoping I could somehow, in some way, convince her of the feelings blooming in my heart. Where were my words now that I needed them most? “We’re mates.”

“You need to leave,” she said bitterly. “We’re fleeing the village, not participating in the Hunt. We don’t want or need you around.”

“I cannot leave you.” I struggled to share my feelings that were full of life and hope. “I am tethered to you for the rest of my days.”

That . . . didn’t sound good enough, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

When she crossed her arms on her chest, her breasts swelled upward, the tops straining above her blouse. “Well, then, I feel bad for you, because frankly, being tethered to anyone sucks.” Squinting, she lifted her hand to shield her face. “Make that thing stop glowing, would you? Shaydes will see it from cliks away and race toward us to attack.”

I cupped my pendant, cursing it, though only for a blink of an eye. “It will stop shining . . .” With a sigh, I didn’t name it. She clearly didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to listen.

Didn’t want me.

I felt adrift, lost in the buffeting sands stirred up by a storm in my desert home. What future did I have if my mate rejected me? I would still be caedos. My clan would still welcome me among them as such. But for the rest of my life, I’d feel as if someone has sliced me wide open, cutting away a part of me and tossing it aside.

I’d bleed.

“You said,” I swallowed and made myself speak. “You’re fleeing the village?” I latched onto that one statement.

The youngling lifted his chin. “We’re going to the women’s village on the other side of the forest. We’ll find a welcome there.”

“You’d find a welcome with my clan.” I had to point it out.

“Where’s that?” he asked, frowning.

“Far beyond the forest, in the desert.”

He scoffed. “I’ve heard of the desert, how it’s a torturous place filled with endless sand, wind, and heat that bakes you like clay in the sunlight. How you’ll quickly get lost and starve there. You’ll dry out when you discover there’s no water to be found.”

“There is water there. Life.” Pinching my eyes closed, I tried to think of what might convince them—her. “There’s incredible beauty in the desert.” A beauty I feared my mate would never see. “As for the women’s village, I’ve been there.”

Excitement bloomed in the youngling’s eyes. “You have?”

My mate watched us, saying nothing, her gaze sliding down my frame without the devotion I craved more than I needed to breathe.

“Yes, it’s to the west of here,” I said.

The youngling looked to the east.

“And the orc kingdom is that way, by the sea,” I said, still watching every move my mate made. Did she realize how her eyes warmed when she looked at her brother, how they hardened to a green darker than the rare emerst stone we sometimes found in caverns deep in the mountains? How her feet shifted, and she actually took a step toward me? She must, because her eyes widened with shock, and she moved back to stand behind her brother again.

“Which way is west?” the youngling asked.

“What’s your name? What’s your sister’s name?”

“Don’t—”

He cut her off. “I’m Brunnen. She’s Kaila.”

“Brunnen,” she groaned, peering past his shoulder at me. “You shouldn’t tell this orc anything. He’ll use it against you.”

“So far, well, other than knocking me to the ground and pinning my hands, he’s been decent,” Brunnen said. “Maybe those horrible stories about orcs actually are lies. Maybe the ones we heard whispered by those who’d talked with the women who mated with orcs in the past are the real truth.” He stepped to the side, revealing her watching me, her limbs quivering. She looked ready to bolt, only holding herself back because she didn’t know in which direction to run.

“As I said, the women’s village is to the west. The desert’s to the south.” When it came to topics such as this, it wasn’t hard to speak.

“Thanks.” The youngling stalked over and grabbed the bag he dropped when he attacked me. He hefted the stick as well, holding it in a way that told me he’d one day be quite formidable—with the proper training. “Let’s go, Kaila.”

“You must travel during the day and find shelter at night,” I called out to them.

Far in the distance, a shayde’s chitter rang out.

Kaila and Brunnen froze.

I walked over to stand beside her. “If you travel at night, the shaydes and ashenclaws will hunt you. They scent prey from many cliks.”

“Yet you orcs hold the mate hunt at night,” she said dryly.

I hefted my staff. “We easily fight them off.” I wasn’t bragging. This was true.

Brunnen’s hand tightened on his stick, but his hand shook. He shot me a wild look of panic, and my heart ached for the youngling. He was brave, and he’d do his best to protect his sister, but in this, they were mere orclings.

“It’s also three days’ travel through the dense forest to the women’s village,” I said softly. “Do you have provisions?”

Kaila’s gaze shot to the limp bag that appeared to hold a paltry number of possessions. “We have enough.”

“Water?”

With her chin lifting, her emerst eyes met mine. “We’ll remain close to the river.”

“I can hunt,” the youngling said. “I’ll set traps. I’ve done it before.”

“I can tell you’ll be a strong warrior one day,” I said. The youngling puffed his chest and shot his sister a smug look. “You’ll provide well for your future mate and young.”

“I will,” he said eagerly. “Do you hunt?”

“I’m caedos.” I named this to show my mate I had worth. Despite all that had happened to me, my clan saw my value even if my family never had. When Brunnen’s face creased with confusion, I explained. “I’m the leader of my clan, and yes, I hunt. We all do.”

“Even leaders?” the boy asked. “Why? Don’t you have . . . leadership things to do?” He looked again at his sister. “Our mayor doesn’t do a damn thing. He lets everyone else do it for him. I bet Turren’s a good leader.” Admiration shone in his voice.

“I try my best. None of my people have voiced complaints.”

Kaila huffed, her fingers flexing at her sides. “I’m sure the mayor says the same thing.”

“A good leader doesn’t need to brag.”

“And yet you did.”

Because I was savoring her fiery spirit, my lips coiled up. “If you meet them, you can ask them yourself.”

My words were . . . coming easier. Perhaps because this was my mate and my soul recognized what she still denied?

“We know that will never happen,” she said. “Come on, Brunnen. We need to get going.”

Was there a way to persuade my mate to remain with me for now?

Yes, there was. “I assume you two will find your way to the village eventually, assuming . . .”

They both watched me intently, the boy with a touch of hope and my mate with complete scorn.

“Assuming what?” she finally asked.

“Assuming you can fight off the shaydes.”

As if to punctuate my words, another chitter echoed in the deep woods, much closer now than before.