Page 33 of The Orc's Bride

Oh my.

His teeth, bared, the fangs gleaming much too sharp. His wide nostrils flaring in anger. His forehead sweaty with the effort of running and fighting. And his eyes.

A silver inferno of fury.

“Talk,” he said. “All of it. Now.”

He wanted to know the thing I had been hiding from him. The truth.

My naïve, stupid, unrealistic secret that I had already abandoned. Because I met him.

I looked into his eyes, everything inside me quivering from fear. I didn’t want him to know I had planned to use him. And… I didn’t want him to know how naïve my plans had been. I cared for his good opinion.

But Urgan smelled of rage and gore, and all I had was the truth.

“I was stupid,” I began, looking into his eyes. Dreading the contempt I would see there. “I wanted… When you said you’d take me to the capital, I wanted to go. Not… to be with you. Not to become a servant, either. I wanted to…” I sighed, biting my lower lip. But Urgan snarled, and I flinched. “Lead a rebellion. Among humans. And kill the Imperator. Kill… as many orcs as I could. All… all of you.”

He was still holding my hair. I couldn’t look away, even though everything inside me was screaming to do that. To avoid the sneer that would appear on his face. To avoid seeing his disappointment.

But Urgan didn’t look at me with contempt. He looked… weary. As if he had no hope left. As if nothing was worth caring about.

And that was infinitely worse. I opened my mouth, trying to come up with something, anything that would make him look less defeated, but no words came. There was nothing I could say.

He let go of my hair and turned away from me. Without another look or word, he started slowly making his way back to the camp, his gait heavy and tired. He was nothing like the warrior who had killed that ragghit.

My heart beat faster, panicking. I had done that to him.

I hadn’t realized… but just as I cared about his opinion, so he cared about mine. I winced. I’d just told him I had been planning to wipe out his entire race. It didn’t matter that I was wiser now, that I didn’t believe all orcs should be destroyed… that I respected him. Could probably come to respect other orcs.

But Urgan didn’t know that. All I had told him was… oh gods.

“Stop,” I breathed. My throat was dry, my voice raspy. I panicked harder. What if I couldn’t scream loud enough? What if he didn’t hear me?

What if he left, and I never saw him again?

I started running, barefoot, trying to scream his name. Thankfully, Urgan was walking slowly. I caught up with him and followed, clearing my throat.

“Wait. Let me explain.”

Urgan didn’t even look at me. His jaw was clenched, his eyes unfocused.

“Just… Stop, will you? You don’t know all of it.”

He stopped, then. He still wasn’t looking at me, but at least he was listening.

“What else is there to know, Una? You want every one of my kind dead.”

“Not anymore,” I said. Pleaded. “Please. I… didn’t know any orcs. Not really. I only saw the war, the fights. The rapes. I didn’t know!”

He turned to me now. I recoiled. His eyes were cold and alien. All the warmth, all the shades of Urgan’s emotions… wiped away. I was looking into a stranger’s eyes.

“When I told you I’d take you to the capital and court you,” he said, his voice cool and even, “and you were planning your rebellion… What did you decide you’d do, Una, if I didn’t let you go? Or if I got suspicious? What were you ready to do?”

And this cut deep because we both knew what I’d been ready to do. Kill all orcs.

He was an orc.

“I didn’t know you,” I said, but even to me, it sounded like a weak excuse.

---