Page 67 of Bound to the Orc Warlord

“Why not?” Mother asks.

“Because we don’t know if keeping them like this is a long-term solution.” Ashley waves a hand toward the bird sacks, which flutter and shift with internal movement. “The unicorns are right. The birds in the sacks could die, which would release the rest of the flock to attack.”

Silence hangs heavy, no one having any answers.

“I can ask the dragon elders,” Drakonisrevener says. “The sluagh find it difficult to peck through dragon scales, so we’re not as vulnerable to them as the lesser fae—”

My mother frowns at him calling us lesser, and my lips twitch. At least he didn’t say “inferior” this time.

Drakonisrevener continues, “—but we’ve noticed their number growing over the years, and they attack the edges of our lands more and more.”

“Really? You’d do that for us?” Hope fills Ashley’s voice, her face beaming with a smile. “That’s wonderful!”

“I will.” Drakonisrevener preens under her attention, bobbing his head and spreading his wings.

“Dragons haven’t formed any alliances with orcs or any of the other Wild Fae that I’ve heard of.” I frown. “Are you sure they’ll do it?”

“The lesser fae had nothing to offer before. But now you have knowledge. If I leave now, I can bring an answer in only a couple of days.”

“I will call for our king,” I say.

The youngling hops over to my moon bound and leans in to have her scratch around his crest, his eyes slitting with pleasure.

“Thank you, Drake.” She presses a kiss to his forehead, and he leaps into the air.

With one problem as settled as it’s going to get for now, we gather our things to return to the village, which is a short walk away. Rovann stays with the sluagh until we send another guard to relieve him, and the women head off, Ashley chattering with Olivia as if they’re old friends.

“It’s good to have another human here,” Rovann says.

“Yes,” I agree, watching them talk. My bride will have a place in the clan no matter what she thinks about me.

It should ease my heart.

Greedy man that I am, it does not.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Ashley

“So the cleaning stone is Moon Blade Clan’s main economic resource?” I step over a downed log, my sneakers gripping the moss covering the ground on the far side.

“Yep!” Olivia’s hazel eyes meet mine, her tan face splitting into a grin. “They use a barter system instead of money. Each of the orc villages is near one of the stones that has magic that works all the time. Moon Blade trades cleaning cloths for everything else, like glow stones or moon blade steel.”

She’s pretty, with long brown hair and a medium build. She’s also taller than me, not that it’s saying much, since I’m a shortie. Dravarr told me Olivia’s only been here a couple of weeks, but she’s already dressed like an orc, in leather pants and boots and a purple long-sleeved linen shirt.

And she wears a crystal pendant necklace like I do, the quartz flaring to bright life every time she makes food appear.

I like her already, and it’s such a relief to have an adult who doesn’t feel weird around me. But then why would she? She’s a witch like me, so I shouldn’t feel “odd” or “different” to her.

Olivia’s married to Rovann, and the way he unabashedly kissed her goodbye makes her quite the lucky woman. He looks kind of like Dravarr, if Dravarr lost the beard and smiled a lot more.

Leyna walks on my other side, as tall and muscled as both of her sons. She even carries a sword!

When she sees me eyeing it, she drops a hand to the hilt and grins, wide and infectious. “Like this, do you? You should see me with a battleaxe!”

I grin back even as I shake my head. “I’m no fighter.”

She purses her lips and looks me up and down. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Especially since you defeated a sluagh. There’s more to fighting than poking things with something pointy.”

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