The Orc's Captive Mate

by Lily Anton

  The ORC'S CAPTIVE MATE

  Claiming Her Body

  Author: Lily Anton

  Twitter: @lilyantonbooks

  (Visit Author's Page)

  When Vaxa was chosen during the Claiming, it had come as quite a shock to her.

  For one, the Orc that took her, Huldur, had been an Orc she had never met before.

  Usually, the Orcs would try and get to know their human before the Claiming; that way they weren't strangers at the end of the day.

  Huldur, on the other hand, seemed to have just chosen Vaxa at random, simply picking her up and carrying her away.

  Since then, she’d been staying with him.

  He was building a residence for them, which meant living in a tent until it was done. It isn't awful, just kind of weird.

  She wasn’t sure exactly why she stayed...maybe out of fear, or perhaps because she never really had a home to begin with.

  At first, Vaxa kept herself hidden away from the large Orc.

  She screamed any time he tried to enter the small tent, and surprisingly, he ended up building his own. After a while, when she realized he wasn't going to force himself upon her, she risked venturing out of her small space.

  It took her a long time to even suffer Huldur’s presence without grimacing.

  He was a big guy, and while all Orcs were big, Huldur was…bigger.

  It scared her.

  His large muscular hands could easily snap her neck if he so desired, and his biceps were the size of her head.

  He could have picked anyone during the Claiming and yet it was her that he had focused on.

  It had earned him a scar down the side of his jaw, which was already peppered with faded injuries long past.

  Despite his well-respected reputation in battle, it becomes clear to Vaxa while observing him, that he has absolutely zero understanding of how to fend for himself properly.

  The Orc’s cooking skills are pretty much zero; he rarely sees fit to cook anything, and when he does, he simply throws it into the fire pit and waits for whatever it was to char itself.

  If she didn’t want to keep eating the taste of ‘burnt’, it meant it was up to her to sort out the food situation and try and cook.

  "It's good to see you're finally accepting your role," Huldur said as he approached the fire.

  Vaxa can see that he's sweating from work, and watches as he drops a bundle of sticks on the ground near the fire.

  His comment then registers, causing her to glare up at him.

  "Excuse me?" she challenges, lip curling.

  The Orc wiped his brow, unsure of why she was upset.

  "What?" he knelt down beside her and smiled. "You're finally looking like a proper mate."

  He reached out, capturing her chin between his fingers. "Cooking a meal for your hard-working man."

  "Ugh, gross, your hands are sweaty," she groaned, trying to wrench her face free.

  "I'm working hard every day to ensure you have a good life." Huldur reminds her. "You know, I think I'm starting to like you a little more."

  "What?" she grunted at him.

  "Looking at you now, all rosy from the fire, I am trying my very hardest to not get on ya right now,” he says with a smirk. "You know?"

  Vaxa slapped the wooden spoon from the pot on the back of his hand, and he released her.

  "Are you drunk?" she scoffed as she stood up, smoothing out her skirts and walking around to the other side of the fire. "Have you ever actually been around a woman before?"

  Huldur was silent, glaring at her over the soup pot.

  Vaxa sighed audibly and sat back down. "If you ever decided to bathe, I might be able to stand you even a little," she grumbled under her breath.

  Huldur's thick brow pinched together but he remained quiet.

  "I swear, it's like no one taught you how to take care of yourself beyond wielding a sword," she continued, ladling soup into a bowl and offering it to him.

  Huldur gave it a look before taking it from her.

  In typical Orc fashion, he drank from the bowl rather than using a spoon.

  For a long while, he's silent.

  "It's going to get cold," he eventually growled.

  Vaxa looked up at him as the wind blew through her hair.

  "Bad weather is coming," he warned as he swirled the contents of his bowl. "In a few days, it'll probably be too cold. We'll have to combine our tents in order to not freeze in our sleep."

  She jerked at the thought.

  "No!" Vaxa snapped.

  Huldur shot her a dirty look. "You want to survive, don't you?"

  Vaxa frowned in displeasure. She didn’t like the fact that he was right about the weather.

  "If I wanted you, I could have you," he snarled. "Nothing is stopping me except I know it's wrong. I'll only take you if I hear that sweet yes from your lips."

  He slurped down the rest of his soup and set the bowl aside. "So don't worry about sharing a bed with me. I may not know how to handle women, but I know how to handle myself."

  Vaxa’s gaze goes off to the side, actually feeling a bit bad that she had kept waiting for him to try and take her by force.

  The rest of the evening was quiet after that.

  ***

  The next day, Huldur broke down his tent and overlaid it with Vaxa’s, ensuring they would both be protected from the cold.

  The Orc laid his furs and pillows next to hers and is smart enough that he places his bedroll underneath hers in order to keep them both off the frigid ground.

  Despite having felt bad for her thoughts the previous evening, Vaxa dreaded the night to come, part of her thinking she would have been just find dealing the onset of cold weather. Then of course, the winds set in, and as she attempts to cook over the fire pit, it bites at her face and fingers.

  She reluctantly admits to herself that Huldur was right and inches herself closer to the fire.

  Vaxa is so lost in thought that it takes her an indeterminate amount of time to realize that she had not seen the Orc in a while.

  Looking around, he does not appear to be working on the house or nearby, which has her concerned.

  The wind is horrible, and Vaxa lifts her scarf up to cover her face.

  She ends up walking along the river until it spills out into a pond nearby.

  Vaxa finds Huldur’s clothes hanging from the trees, and then she sees him.

  Her eyes are unable to look away.

  He's in the pond, scrubbing down his body with a smooth stone. The Orc is shivering and wet, but he's bathing himself.

  She stares, noting how fine and strong his body is: his thick arms, chiseled chest and belly.

  He turns, stepping from the water and it’s impossible for her not to admire his firm ass.

  Somehow managing to come to her senses, she quickly scurries away just as he steps out of the water and onto the bank.

  Vaxa attempts to sneak away, but there is no way back to the tents without passing by him.

  "Fucking cold," he snarls under his breath along with a string of obscene curse words.

  She then hears him behind her, and he laughs. "How long have you been there?"

  Looking up from her crouch, Vaxa’s face is bright red and not just from the wind.

  "I uhm-" she jumped up and looked him dead in the eye.

  "The food is ready! I couldn't find you."

  Huldur is running a towel along his face. "Oh well, I was just washing up," he shivers a bit. "So you don't find me so disgusting going to bed tonight."

  Vaxa isn’t quite sure what to say, so she remains quiet, simply nodding and turning on her heel, making a beeline back to the tents.

  Her mind is racing and her heart is damn near beating out of her chest.
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  How dare he look so good naked! Men weren't supposed to look that good naked!

  They were supposed to have chicken wing shoulder blades, concave chests and pot belly stomachs with stick legs. They weren't supposed to be broad, muscular, and with a butt you could bounce a coin off of.

  Vaxa stops herself from thinking any further about the subject with a quick shake of her head.

  A minute later and Huldur dumps logs down by the fire, peering into the pot. "Looks good. We'll need it to keep warm tonight."

  Now that she knows what he looks like without clothes, she is having a hard time focusing.

  Vaxa hates it because it completely negates her previous belief that he was made of dirt and grime.

  As he takes a seat on the wooden bench beside her, she can’t help but notice his hair is still wet and hanging limply around his neck and ears.

  "You're going to catch your death that way!" she blurts out. "Stay here and eat."

  Jumping to her feet, she goes to grab her comb and a pair of hair shears, along with a linen shirt.

  Without any further talking, she plops down next him, oblivious to the look of surprise on his face as she begins to comb through his wet locks, gently smoothing out his hair and trimming the ends.

  Some of the knots are stubborn, and have obviously not seen a comb for some time, which means that a gentle approach isn’t going to cut it.

  "Ow!" he roars. "That fucking hurts!"

  "Oh please! You can take an ax to the groin, but you can't handle me pulling your hair?" she says with a raised eyebrow. "Didn’t your mother ever brush your hair?"

  "No!" Huldur snarled.

  Vaxa stills for a moment. "Uh...oh," she eventually whispers. "I'm sorry."

  The Orc grunts in acceptance. "I never knew her. Nothing to be sorry for."

  She continues to brush his hair and eventually speaks up again. "Am I hurting you?"

  "No," he grumbles, eating some of his soup.

  "If you keep up with it, you won't have it get so bad again," she explains.

  Soon, his hair is silky and smooth and much longer than she’d imagined.

  Dammit.

  Huldur touches it and smiles. "Did you have to make it pretty?"

  "It’s your hair," she counters lightly. "I'm going back to the tent."

  Huldur stands up, following close behind her.

  Vaxa says nothing, but this is the first night they’ll be sharing a tent and she’s unsure of whether or not she wants to take her coat off.

  In her hesitation however, the Orc has already removed his clothing and settled into bed, grabbing a hold of her pillow and taking a gentle breath.

  With no other choice really, Vaxa lies down, ensuring that there’s at least some amount of space between them.

  She also can’t resist the urge to grab her pillow away from him and turn her back.

  It takes a little bit of time, but once they’re both settled down, Vaxa realizes just how little space there actually is between them.

  It’s impossible not to feel the heat from his large body or his large presence beside her.

  Closing her eyes, the only thing she can see is that gorgeous ass of his as he had come out of the water.

  Tonight was going to be agony.

  Some time goes by and while she must have fallen asleep, she wakes to the sound of him grumbling beside her.

  "Something wrong?" she asks.

  "Still cold," Huldur grunts, sounding like he doesn’t want to admit to it.

  "You bathed in the freezing cold! I'm surprised your dick didn't fall off!" she grumbled back, pulling her blanket up even more.

  The Orc beside her laughs softly. "How do you know it didn't fall off?"

  For some reason, Vaxa can’t think of a response to that and remains embarrassingly quiet.

  She curses to herself as she senses him rolling over beside her.

  "I see," he purrs. "Did you get a good look at me while I was taking a bath?" he teases.

  Vaxa grumbles some choice words under her breath and attempts to pretend he isn’t there.

  She’s not successful at it.

  "I had a feeling you were watching me," he chuckles. "So? What did you think? If you're worried about my size, you can check again. It was cold in the water, but it's much better now."

  "Disgusting," she says, trying not to think about his cock size now.

  Of course, this means he just keeps talking about it.

  "I'm more of a grower. Actually, it's better when I'm hard and moaning your name."

  He says the last part with his hot breath on her neck.

  Her body’s reaction to it has her turning around in an attempt to shove him away from her. “Leave me the fuck alone.”

  He laughs, grabbing her wrist. "It's much warmer if I'm closer."

  Vaxa squirms in an attempt to free herself. "Stop, you pig!"

  "One kiss goodnight," he says, smiling broadly.

  "You're so fucking stubborn! Get off me!"

  He does let go of her wrist, but her momentum is thrown off by the release and she falls over the bed with

  an undignified squawk.

  She hears Huldur begin to laugh, and as she sits up, finds him clutching his stomach.

  Mortified, she tries to cover it up with a glare.

  "What's so funny?" she challenges, making her way back onto the mattress and grabbing the blanket with a harsh tug.

  Huldur is still snickering as she falls asleep.

  In the morning, she wakes up and stretches, realizing that the tent is all warm and comfortable, and that she slept like the dead.

  Slowly, she sits up and stretches some more before catching herself turning to look at her bedmate.

  Huldur is on his back, which means the obvious tent in the blanket in the area between his legs is practically in her face.

  Vaxa’s eyes widen at the sight and she begins to looking around the tent in panic before telling herself to calm down.

  Her eyes keep getting drawn to the obvious bulge beneath the blanket and she has to begrudgingly admit that it is…impressive. Part of her is tempted to just pull the blanket off him but she’s seen enough of his body in the past 24 hours and she’s not sure she could take anymore without succumbing to it.

  “Huldur," she calls out softly. "Wake up."

  He doesn’t budge.

  Slowly, she moves to touch his cheek. "Come on get-"

  Suddenly she’s pulled down, his whole body cozying up against hers.