Page 30 of Secret Twins for the Orc

“Golfing,” she replies, and I hear the sound of mugs clinking in the background. “Oh, did I tell you the news? Mrs. Longspear from next door just helped deliver her second grandbaby a few days ago! Isn’t that wonderful?”

My guilt immediately disappears. I know exactly where this is going.

“Two grandchildren already, and she’s five years younger than me. Can you believe it?”

“I’m very happy for her,” I say stiffly, glancing at my watch again.

“If only I was blessed with the same miracle from my only son…”

“Mom,” I huff, and begin looking in my desk drawer for my tablet. I might as well review some of the files downloaded there from yesterday, while I’m getting a motherly grilling. “I’m never getting married. I’ve already told you this.”

“Oh, you always were so stubborn, Rhokar,” she snorts. “What you need is a good Fated Mates match to come along and force your hand.”

“I’ve met every orc female in town. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now.”

She heaves out a sigh. “You know just as well as I do that Fated matches aren’t limited to race anymore, not for over forty years.”

“The chances are—”

“Just as likely as any other match! You know, you have it so easy these days. No hiding from the mundanes, no sneaking about in glamours to hide your differences, or locking yourself in remote fae towns and never leaving the borders. You have the world at your feet, and yet you still hide away like it was the old days!”

“Mom…”

The distinct clinking of my mother’s mugs starts up again, followed by the sound of a spoon hitting ceramic, and she sighs once more.

“Aren’t you lonely, my dear?”

Her words strike a chord, tugging painfully at my chest, and I frown and slam my desk drawer harder than I’d meant to.

“I worry for you. If you could find a good woman to come home to every day, I’d feel a lot better.”

“Oh, well, if that’s what you want…”

She chuckles. “Didn’t think that would work. Will you be bringing her over to meet me this weekend, then? Or the next?”

I roll my eyes and stand, deciding to check my car for my tablet. “Don’t get your hopes up. I’ve probably met her before and passed right by, never to see her again, knowing my luck.”

“You absolutely have not.”

I open my door and step out with a sigh.

“Don’t you remember any of the stories I used to tell you? There isn’t a possible chance you wouldn’t notice a connection like that. The activation of your heartstring, like a tug in your chest, would pull you towards her with a force you couldn’t ignore.”

I stop walking, for some reason feeling a chill shoot through my spine.

“Her scent would be like the most irresistible elixir to you—there’s no way your body would be capable of missing it, even if she were hidden in a crowd of hundreds. You’d seek her out before you even knew what you were doing.”

I rub at my chest and then force my feet to start walking again, scowling and unsure why my heart is thumping so hard at her words, adrenaline shooting through my system as if in warning.

“And then once you found her, you wouldn’t be able to let her go, no matter how stubbornly you might insist, which is of course exactly what you need.You’d be too driven to protect and nurture. To look after her, feed her, hold her, until finally, the overwhelming urge to perform the Claiming Chase would take you, and then—”

“Alright,” I rasp, hitting the button for the elevator absently, my mind feeling oddly hazy. “Stop.”

“Why? Do you think you’ve felt something like that before?”

I enter and turn, and Ella appears in my line of site, rushing towards the elevator and waving at me to hold the door. Of its own accord, my arm darts out to hold it open, and she steps in beside me with a smile.

“I’ve got to go.” I hang up without waiting for my mother’s goodbye, and the elevator doors close.

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