“You will treat my wife with respect,” he snarls. Short, sweet and to the point. I do so love my mate.
“Furthermore,” Orgath continues as he slowly strides toward the elves, “my wife is correct in her insights. We do not trust you to not utilize the agreement of the courts of your own selfish greed. Orcs will be no part of such insanity. Instead, we will defend any who wish access to our portals, and do so without mercy to any who may seek to stop them. Now you and your court can remove yourselves from my presence immediately.”
At that, I gleefully throw both arms up like a referee. “BOOM, baby!”
Chapter 19
Orgath
The elves don’t look happy. I don’t really care either. What I do care about is that they dare to threaten my mate. For a moment, I regret leaving Uagoral up in the room, but perhaps it is a good thing. I am too angry to think rationally, and I recognize that fact. If I attack the king of Sehriel, I will be provoking war with the elves. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but I am not of mind to do that just yet. That doesn’t mean I can’t scare them a little.
My attention is so focused on the Sehrielians that it is only from their disgusted expressions that I take note of the presence of another in the room. I turn my head in the direction of their scrutiny and notice that Cavek leans against the entrance, tossing an apple in the air as he grins at my disgruntled guests. After a few deft tosses, he catches the apple mid-air and brings it to his mouth with a loud crunch.
“Don’t mind me,” he says around a mouthful of fruit, his eyes gleaming in the low light of the room.
“A troll,” hisses Irhindral. He turns to me with an affronted look. “You would permit a troll in your territory?”
I shrug, unconcerned. “Why not? Unlike those from the elven court, Cavek has been a pleasant guest and makes himself useful.”
“Trolls are foul brutes,” the elf insists. “They take nothing seriously and are loathsome in their habit and manner. Nothing more than cutthroats, brigands, and beasts.”
“More so than an orc?”
“Absolutely,” he says. “At least the strength and honor of an orc makes up for your many other flaws you possess by nature’s cruel design.”
My laughter grows like a thunderous rumble, though I can sense Sammi fuming at the other end of our bloodbond. She can’t quite appreciate the humor of the situation like we can. All she hears is the insult. I bestow an affectionate smile on my mate, and she relaxes and responds in kind, before turning a fierce scowl once more on the elf king and his small collection of courtiers.
“I’ll thank you to leave now, on your own power if you like—if not, I am certain my guards will be happy to escort you out.”
Laughter spread to the guard now, tusks flashing in malicious humor. The elves, cognizant of just how outnumbered they are, draw back, obviously bristling from the insult. I grin and return to my throne, pulling my wife into my lap as I do so, demonstrating in the clearest way I know just how unconcerned I am with any threat from them.
Ovorhandol, ever the courtly king, swallows back his anger and gives a brisk nod of displeasure. My grin merely widens in response. I know that the elves do not wish to risk war with orcs.
The last war my clan fought against Sehriel was a long and bloody affair. They may disdain us for our crude appearance and simple ways, but the elves learned well that orcs are nothing to trifle with. They also depend on us to keep Ov’Gorg safe from any encroaching force from Ov’Ge, and they will need that even more now that the council of the fae kings opened the roads fully between our worlds.
The Sehrielians spin about with a flourish of their cloaks and proceed with their usual pomp toward the door. They collectively tense with agitation when Cavek chuckles and barely makes room for them to pass. I don’t want to encourage the bad habits of the troll, but I can’t help the faint quirk of my lips.
Sammi leans against my chest. “I can’t believe it.”
A flash of panic sparks in my thoughts. Will Sammi leave Ov’Gorg now that she has the opportunity to safely go home? Will she leave me?
I press my nose against the top of her head, inhaling her sweet scent. “Do you wish to go home, Sammi?”
She stills, but then looks up at me, her face lit up with a smile. “This is my home, Orgath—with you.” She pauses and bites her lip. “I would like to go see my family, though. Everyone must be so worried about me.”
A let out a breath, not realizing until that moment that I’d been holding it. I grin down at her. Such a small and reasonable request. I can fulfill this one little thing for her.
“Certainly, we must go to see your family,” I agree, but then hesitate. “I should warn you that I won’t let you go by yourself. I and at least four of my trusted guard will go with you. I won’t risk the safety of you or our child.”
“Well, that should make Sunday dinner with Mom interesting,” she says with a laugh. She leans forward and presses a brief kiss against my lips, pulling back before I have the opportunity to respond and deepen it. I grin to myself, because I know that is mostly due to her shyness about certain displays of passion with an audience.
“Sounds good to me, babe,” she declares. “When do we leave?”
I mentally do some calculations. “I think I can have the guard prepared in a day. I know Bodi will like to go, and likely Erra if I know my cousins.”
“I shall go as well, with your permission. It would be good for me to gain some direct insights of the humans to return home with,” Cavek offers cheerfully.
I narrow my eyes at him, but it is not an unreasonable request.
“Very well,” I growl. “But do not be mistaken, I will be keeping my eye on you. Be aware that you will be following all orders that I give while we are there.”
He inclines his head in acknowledgment with an almost unsettling grin. I do not know if I trust the troll, but as long as he agrees to follow my direction, I cannot fault his presence among us.
Sammi snorts with disbelief but doesn’t say anything. From the way her eyes are narrowed on him, I suspect she will also be watching him closely.
“Wait, how are you guys going to communicate with everyone?”
“I have that covered,” Cavek says, pulling out an amulet from a bag at his hip. “Courtesy of my father’s court, plenty of enchanted translation talismans. You will be able to speak and understand the spoken language of whatever humans you encounter.”
Sammi’s eyes go wide and she claps her hands together. “You just might be useful yet!”
I incline my head in thanks, but my patience is dwindling. I want my wife in the privacy of our own room, as of now. Eager to distract my wife from any preoccupation with other males, I sweep her up in my arms.
“Come, wife, we may as well prepare for our visit with your family. Two days should be enough, yes?”
“A week,” she says, smirking up at me from against my chest. I grunt in distaste. I don’t know if I care to be among humans for that long.
“Four days,” I counter-offer. Surely, she will not require any longer than that.
“Orgath,” she says, a note of warning in her voice. She then sighs and wrinkles her nose at me. “Five days, and not a day less.”
“Sammi—”
“Five… days…”
“Very well. Five days. We leave at sundown on the fifth day.”
“Not before the evening meal.”
“Fine, but not a moment later.”
“I can live with that,” she says so primly that I bark out a laugh.
***
Sammi
The portal—this being my first time ever seeing one—did not look quite like I expected. I’m not exactly sure what I expected, to be honest. At some point in their history, the clan had erected a stone arch. The few times I noticed it, I thought it was something that marked the passage of time like some authorities suspect of Stonehenge marking the summer solstice. Standing in front of it now, I find out that it’s actually the
portal around which the village had been constructed.
The entire center of the arch fills with a shimmering purple mist.
I lean back from my position on Ethiel and whisper to Orgath, “How do we know where this thing is going to spit us out?”
“We tell it before we enter. The wild portal in the mountains is far less predictable where it sends us, though it always returns us unerringly home, for which we must be thankful, but these fae portals are precise.”
“Well… that’s handy.” That thoroughly explains why Orgath was unable to guarantee returning me safely home before. Anyone who goes through the mountain portal would literally have no idea which mountain range they ended up exiting into. That’s a lot of mountains to risk being stranded in.
“So will this dump us in downtown Anchorage or outside the city?”
“I have no way to guess,” Orgath calmly replies.
Gods, please let it be outside the city. People are going to have a cow if a small company of orcs and one troll appear on Fifth Avenue. I chew my lip uncomfortably.
“Maybe we should leave the delfass cats here in Ov’Gorg,” I say.
Orgath shakes his head adamantly. “No, that would leave us in a vulnerable position.”
“Orgath, it’s going to freak out any human in a fifty-foot radius to see four giant cats.”
“Mate, it is a good thing that I have ceased trying to figure some of these idioms of yours out long ago, else I fear it would make me go crazy before our first child is born. Still, I think I may get your meaning in this case, but let me ask you: will it do more harm than four orcs and a troll already will?”
I consider that. He really has a good point. I sigh.
“Right, terrifying humans it is then. Let’s get the terror train moving,” I say with a laugh. I hope my younger brother doesn’t come out swinging that silly barbarian sword he bought. I don’t even think the edges are sharp… then again, it may give the orcs a good laugh. Bonding moment?
I am grateful when the portal opens up inside the Chugiak Park just within city limits. I know this area. I grew up in this part of town and can make out the trails, and it takes less than twenty minutes for us to make our way to my old neighborhood.
Probably the most uncomfortable twenty minutes of my life.
No one screamed, thank the gods, but there were plenty of wide-eyed stares when we exited the thick line of trees. I suspect that the fae have already made themselves widely known to the world and so now everyone is more or less in a stunned state of shock.
Bodi sits near us on his delfass, his fingers inching around the pommel of his sword. He catches the dirty look I direct at him and pulls his hand back to a safer distance from the hilt. We so do not need anyone overreacting. Especially since I’m fairly certain that it won’t take much to stir every human in the city into a massive panic, even if it were an innocent gesture.
“For such a small species, they certainly are brave staring at us so intently,” Erra murmured from my other side. She’s not making any move toward her weapons, but I notice the tight clutch of her fingers on the scruff of her delfass.
I know part of her anxiety is due to leaving behind Orgul. Neither is comfortable being apart when they are accustomed to covering each other’s backs in battle, but Erra had insisted that her mate stay behind and look after their home and business. She wouldn’t even hear any suggestion that she remain behind.
“Erra, it is not too late to return home,” I say in a whisper so that no one else will overhear. I don’t wish to hurt her pride. “No one will think less of you if you wish to remain with your mate and keep an eye on the village.”
She looks side-long at me and snorts with a rueful grin. “Oh, you won’t get rid of me that easily. I am not concerned for Orgath here—he can handle his own. But I won’t allow any chance of one of these humans getting the idea to try and harm you since you are the most vulnerable one in our company.”
Orgath’s arms tighten around me, and I can feel his anxiety through our bloodbond giving truth to her words. I am his most vulnerable point for anyone to attack. I know without needing to ask that he’d surrender anything—do anything—to keep me safe if it came to that. I sink back into the warmth of his body, allowing my cloak to conceal more of me, and his own cloak to partially obscure me hidden against his body.
When our company arrived before my parent’s house, true to my worst prediction, my youngest brother, all whip-wire lean muscle of youth, comes barreling out of the house, his broadsword replica raised above his head with a battle-cry that would almost do an orc proud. Every member of our group immediately pulls their weapons, preparing to strike back defensively. In alarm, I throw back my hood and shout at my idiot younger sibling.
“Jake, put down the godsdamned sword before you get yourself killed. I swear, if you don’t end up cutting yourself with that dull ass sword, and these guys don’t kill you, I will murder your myself!”
My brother slides to a wide-eyed stop, staring at me like he’s seeing a ghost.
“Sammi, is that really you?”
“Of course it’s me, you big dummy!”
He drops his sword at his feet and comes rushing up. I squeeze my fingers on Orgath’s wrist and he begrudgingly sheathes his ax, signaling the others to do so as well. My brother hesitates a bit as he stares at Ethiel, who looses a light growl, but manages to scurry around at a safe distance to my side.
“Sammi, we thought you were dead! Travis told us he went to meet you at the cabin you rented, but you disappeared, leaving behind all your food and possessions.”
My jaw drops. “That lying little worm! He left me up there by myself so he could play with some girl he met, and I got snowed in with only two days’ worth of supplies. If Orgath hadn’t found me and saved me, I would’ve died from exposure and starvation.”
Jake shifts from foot to foot. “That’s not what he’s been telling the family, Sammi. Mom’s had him over every Sunday for dinner and more or less adopted him as if he were family ‘cause of all this.” He scrubs his hand against the back of his neck and almost seems to grin. “Boy, Mom is going to lose it.”
His eyes zero in on Orgath’s possessive hold around my abdomen and he clears his throat. “Ah, are you going to introduce me to your… friend?” I catch a subtle gleam of eagerness in his eyes. Of course, my brother who’s obsessed with World of Warcraft and D&D is going to be enthralled with the orcs.
“I am no friend,” Orgath growls, offended. “I am her mate, bloodbonded.”
My brother frowns slightly, looking from Orgath to me, likely trying to figure out what he means. I pray that he doesn’t do anything stupid.
“I should probably challenge you for her honor,” he says, thrusting his chest out.
Yep, and there it is.
I don’t even have to look. I can feel everyone staring at him. Hell, I’d be staring at him too, but growing up with him has made this sort of shit cease to surprise me.
“Jake,” I groan, covering my face with one hand in embarrassment.
Orgath chuckles deeply, and I can feel his chest resonate with laughter behind my back. He pats Uagoral at his side and gives my brother an amused look.
“That is very brave to want to protect your sister, but she is my wife now and mine to protect. Are you sure you wish to fight it out with me, boy?”
“Jake,” I hiss, “stop this lunacy right now. You know damn well you aren’t going to be able to take out my husband. Orgath can murder you quicker than it would take me to dismount. Don’t make me come down there.”
He blinks at me and grins reluctantly. “Sorry, sis. Yeah, thanks anyway… uh, Orgath, but on second thought, I don’t have a death wish.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” I mutter.
Orgath laughs again and hugs me against him. I lovingly pat his arm in silent thanks for not dismembering my baby brother.
Jake begins to chortle. “I can’t wait to see what Mom thinks of this!”
On s
econd thought, murdering doesn’t sound like such a bad idea…
Chapter 20
Sammi
My brother doesn’t waste any time running back up the steps, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Mom, Sammi is home!”
I wince because this is not exactly how I envisioned my reunion with my family. In under three minutes, my mother comes flying out the door in a blind rush. I suspect she doesn’t even see the company I’ve brought home with me.
“Samantha Vera Alexander, where have you been?!” she yells and then comes to a screeching halt when she finally sees exactly what’s standing on her front lawn. Her jaw drops open, her mouth only twitching as she attempts to find her words again.
“Momma, this is my husband, Orgath, and his guard.”
“Oh my…” she finally croaks before falling to the ground.
Well, shit.
My dad just stares at us wide-eyed as he silently rouses my mother. She groans, a hand going to her head as she blinks her eyes over at me.
“Hi, Momma,” I say, wiggling my fingers at her. “Surprise.”
With Dad’s help, she manages to sit up. She watches me warily. “Samantha, I don’t understand. What have you done to yourself? Travis said you disappeared on him and here you return home with monsters, and… good gods, what have you done to your face?”
Everyone around me tenses. Monsters… So not starting things on the right foot.
“Momma, this is my family. They are orcs, not monsters. And this,” I repeat, hooking my thumb, “is my husband, Orgath.”
“Husband? What about Travis? How can you do that to him after he grieved for you all these weeks?”
“Do what to him, exactly? Momma, he left me up there so he can hook up with a hot piece of ass. Jake told me what lies Travis has been filling your head with, and he’s completely full of shit! Convenient for him to not come and look for four days.”
“So you went and married an… erm… orc?”
The Orc Wife Page 16
