8. Turren

Ijoined my mate on the next branch and looked around, trying to ignore the sight I’d gotten of her pale legs, so slender and beautiful. Humans were peculiar creatures, small when compared to orcs, and strong, though lacking the enormous muscle mass orcs depended on.

My cock had perked up at the view, but I suppressed it as best I could. I was walking a tight wire high in the canopy and any mistake on my part could send me crashing to the ground.

“This will do,” I said, placing my spear on a nearby branch and sitting with my back against the tree. My blades strapped to my waist would serve as our defense until I could grab my spear, assuming we had need. Predators rarely ventured this high in the canopy. I patted my thighs. “You’ll sleep here, my luscious mate.”

Words kept gushing up from my belly, and I couldn’t seem to suppress them. Since I rarely spoke, I’d decided to let this new Turren guide me in regard to my mate. Would this Turren run out of words to describe her? I’d have to wait and see.

“I’ll do quite fine where I am.” Her finger stabbed at the branch below her feet.

I cocked one side of my brow ridge her way. “Reneging on your agreement already? I thought you’d be true to your word.”

She huffed and fumed, and I gulped as her nicely rounded breasts jiggled with the movement. As if she felt the heat of my gaze there, she stilled, shooting me a glare. “Stop gaping at me.”

“I was merely enjoying the view you so kindly offer.”

“I’m not offering anything!”

Birds squawked and scattered from the dense vegetation around us.

My smile grew wider.

Her scowl grew deeper. “I always keep my word.”

“My lips are grateful.”

“Why do you want to kiss me? You don’t know me. You don’t care for me.”

“I know that you’re mine,” I said with a low growl. “My fates chose you for me.” I tapped my pendant lying on my chest. “I adore you already despite your snarly demeanor. You’ll soon see I’m the perfect match for you.”

“All that adoration and perfect match stuff aside, what do you mean when you say your fates chose you for me?”

As if she’d drawn the light to the surface with her words, my pendant blazed.

She lifted her hand to shield her eyes. “Do you have whisps trapped inside that thing?”

“This pendant was handed to me by a good friend. Every orc has a pendant like this, though the symbol is different for each clan. This symbol,” I held my pendant up proudly. “Flames. They represent the clan of my heart.”

“Clan of your heart?”

I . . . lost my words. Swallowing deeply, I tried to find them again. There was so much I wanted to share, yet so much I didn’t dare share, not even with my mate.

I closed my eyes and found I could speak as long as I wasn’t looking at her. “When an orc meets their fated mate, their perfect match, the fates bring light into their world with their pendants.”

“Do you really believe such a thing is true?”

“You . . . are skeptical in addition to snarly, but in my heart, yes. I know this.” Speaking softly helped as well. With my eyes open, I could still find my words. “I know that I will fall in love with you quickly, that only you will complete me, that I will cherish you until my dying day and beyond. I will be there for you when things go sour or when great joy shines in our lives.”

So many words. So much spoken from the heart. Perhaps that also made the difference.

“I’ve told you I don’t like you. There’s no way I’m going to accept that I’m yours, let alone love you.”

At least she said it kindly.

“I’m a patient orc.” I nodded slowly. “Each day I have with you is precious. If that is only three days, then so be it.”

“If . . .” She shook her head. “You seem like a decent male, but I’m not interested in having a relationship.”

That was hard to accept. “Is it bad to have a male tell you he will love you beyond this life and into the next, that he will do all he can to claim your heart and your devotion?”

“It is if I don’t want it,” she said in a small voice. Her gaze dropped from mine, and for a heartbeat, I could tell she was seriously considering my words. But she shored up her defenses and met my gaze once more, hers full of steel. “I’ll complete our bargain, and I insist that you complete yours.”

I dipped my head forward. “I’m not only a patient orc, but I’m also an orc of his word. You can trust this.”

She snorted. “I just met you. I don’t trust anything about you.”

“You trust me somewhat already. You know I will protect you, provide you with food and security, that I will ensure you reach your destination.” This was a step on her part, and I was going to hold on to it tightly. “That’s enough for now.” I patted my lap. “Come, mate. Sit. Rest. We walk all day tomorrow.”

“Let’s settle a few rules first. No touching me.”

“Am I to keep my arms splayed wide while you sit on my lap?”

“You know what I mean. No accidentally feeling any part of my body other than places you’d naturally need to touch.”

“Not unless you ask me to.”

“That will not happen.” Her smile rose, making my heart pause before thumping faster. What would it be like to have her smile at me because she cared?

For one moment, fear wrapped around my chest like a thick band determined to cut off my wind. She may never love or want me. I could try my hardest, speak everything inside my heart, and she might still reject me.

But no. I cupped my pendant in my hand. The fates would not send her to me if she wasn’t the one who’d make my life complete, who’d bring back the light that had been stolen from me when I was young.

“We’re going to put all this aside until morning,” she said. “I’m too tired to deal with it now.” With that, she pivoted and plopped her ripe ass on my thighs.

My cock essentially groaned. I bit back the sound roaring up my throat.

“Will you perch on my lap all night?” I asked pleasantly. “Lean back. Allow me to wrap my arm around your waist. Then you won’t fall. You’ll rest easier.”

“I’m fine like I am.”

“Very well.” While she sat with a rigid body, I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, doing my best to ignore how arousing I found the little wiggles she made while trying to get comfortable.

“You’re raising your brother,” I said softly. “He’s much younger than you.”

“Ten years. I’m not ninety or anything.”

“I never suggested you were.”

“I’m twenty-two, and I’ve raised Brunnen since he was three. Our parents died.”

“You were a mother to him.”

“Yes.” She frowned. “I feel like I’ve already raised a child.”

“Would you welcome your own?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been a mother for ten years already.”

Then I wouldn’t—yet—share my secret. “I’m sorry about your parents. Mine were killed when they were caught in a landslide with my older brother. Their vox tried to save them but couldn’t.”

“I don’t know what a vox is.”

I explained.

“You raise giant birds, and they fly with you in the sky?” She sounded incredulous. She’d also relaxed against my chest. Progress.

“We’re with them when they slip from the seed. They bond with us, and we raise them. We train them to take us wherever we need to travel.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry about your parents and older brother.”

“Thank you.” I didn’t want to talk about them. Too much pain waited in that direction. “You weren’t one of the two women offered in the hunt.”

She shifted on my lap. “No.”

“Why did you bring your brother into the woods tonight? Predators roam the forest. You’re both defenseless.”

“I didn’t endanger him.” Her voice came out shrill. “We were doing alright until you came along and made demands.”

“I wasn’t judging you,” I said patiently. “There are many dangers here. You must have a good reason to be here at this time. This is no whim.”

Her long sigh rang out. “We had to run.”

“You were in danger inside the village?” A fierce need to protect her slammed through me, and I growled.

“What?” Her head darted this way and that, and she kept her voice low. “What do you see?”

“Nothing I can kill—yet.”

“Are you actually upset that we felt the need to run?”

“Why sound incredulous? You’re my brave mate. I will protect you until the last breath wheezes from my throat.”

“That sounds dramatic to me.”

I grinned. Only a human mate would see things this way. An orc female . . . But I didn’t want an orc female even if offered. I only wanted my true mate. Kaila. “Who was endangering you?”

“It doesn’t matter. We fled, and we’re going to the women’s village. You don’t need to know more than that.”

“You don’t need me to gut someone?”

She actually laughed. “You’d do something like that?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my everything.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that when you don’t mean them.”

Did she hear the croak in her voice?

“And what if I do mean them?” I asked.

“Why?” The word whined from her lungs. “It makes no sense. You just met me. You know nothing about me except my name. For all you know, I’m mean and surly, and I can’t cook.”

“You are surly.”

Her low laugh rang out. “I guess I am. I’ve had to be strong. It’s not easy raising a young boy when you’re basically a child yourself, but I did it. I’m still doing it. He’s amazing, and he’ll be a wonderful man. I take pride in that.”

“As you should.” I paused, keeping my eyes closed so I could see my words, grab onto them, and force them past my lips. “I can cook.”

“You know that’s not what I’m saying.”

“You’re the precious woman the fates gave me.”

“I’m not a gift.”

“To me, you are. My people are dying. Fewer orclings are born each generation. Most are male. Without precious females, our clans will cease to exist.”

“Are you saying you’re happy I was gifted to you because I’m going to be a receptacle for your seed?”

“I’ll happily plant my seed within you when you’re ready, which you will be.”

“You’re much too confident of that.”

“You’ll see.”

She huffed. “Yet you haven’t even stolen the first of the kisses you demanded.”

“I won’t be stealing a kiss.”

“You already are with your bargain.”

She was right, but that wasn’t my point.

“I’m not ready to kiss you yet,” I said. “When I am, you’ll know.” I wanted her to feel it, not remain impassive to fulfill a bargain.

Her breath stilled. “I’d think you’d be all over that as soon as I sat on your lap.”

“Should I kiss the back of your head?”

I realized my eyes had opened—and I could still speak. Her lips must be thinning because irritation came through in her words. “I won’t enjoy your kisses. I’ll grant them to you because I must, but my heart won’t be in them.”

“Yet.”

She growled. “Are you going to talk all night, or are we going to sleep?”

“Sleep, my beautiful mate. I’ll keep you safe.”

I wasn’t sure she’d rest, but her head started nodding backward. When she slid to the right, I placed my arm around her waist, keeping her snug against my chest.

While I didn’t sleep, I dreamed.