Page 51 of Lost to the Orcs

I rip Jaedasons shirt from her body. Tearing her blouse. As she sputters and screamsmy mates name, I snag the harsh lye soap on the ledge of the pool and begin scrubbing her. Until she’s sobbing. Choking and sputtering on air after I continuously dunk her. Until she is clean. Until my nest,mymate no longer lingers on her disgusting skin.

Then, and only then, do I drag her out of the water. I throw a drying untreated doe like skin onto her body. “Don’t touch my nest or anything of mine again.”

“He gave it–

I hiss at her. Well and truly hiss. Fangs and all. “Mine. I don’t care if he gave it to you. If I see you wearing my mates clothing, smelling of my mates, or near my mates, you will live to regret it.” I bend till our noses nearly touch. “In case you are wondering, this is not a threat. This is a fucking promise I’ll take to my grave.”

“So be it.” She growls back, the flames of hatred in her red rimmed eyes.

I turn my back to her. Surprised to see with all of that screaming that nobody had come to interrupt or check out. But when I exit, Burgrol is standing at the entrance. As if to block off any intruders. His face is the most solemn I have ever seen on him before. In fact, he doesn’t often look serious. To lighten the mood, I fist bump him. “The real mvp Burgrol.”

He shouts a laugh. “Come, I will make you and your mates more food.” That is when I notice the shattered remains of the plates and our meal in the basket he had given me. Tucked neatly against his side.

“Oh, Burgrol, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

He starts to wave it off. “Oak,maybe you will.”

I widen my eyes in comical horror. “I have just signed my soul to the devil haven’t I? I will be on kitchen duty for the rest of my life!”

His eyes are so warm. So friendly, I want to hug him. But I’m pretty sure my mates would not like that any more than I liked Sumira smelling like Jae. “Oak, mayhap.” He ruffles the hair on my head like he would any of his sisters and with a shout, I bat his arm away.

~~~~~

When my mates arrive, they raise a brow at our stripped nest but don’t make a comment. I’m not sure if they’ve heard what I’d done or if the bond is letting them know that I will not act kindly to being questioned; but their silence is a boon.

Eventually, after my favorite pieces are thoroughly washed, we lay in our empty bed and cuddle for warmth. Well,Icuddle for warmth. I’m pretty sure they could sleep alone and be nice and toasty. “Did you give it to her?” My words are quiet, not quite a whisper but not quite talking either. It’s as if I were to speak at a normal volume, it will crack us all into pieces.

“No.” His heart does not stutter. There is no wavering in his voice to denote a lie. “My scent is yours. Naught a person else.” His hand caresses down my arm before reaching and squeezing my hand in reassurance. “What weel you have me do, pretty mate?”

I sigh. “We can’tdoanything. I’ve been sitting in your meetings, remember?” Which I have. And boy were they enlightening. U’s has been sitting next to me translating when an Orc isn’t able to speak fluid human. I’d say English but I honestly don’t know if I’m speaking English or something else entirely andthinkingin English. As some of my words donottranslate to my guys and they look at me like I’ve lost my mind.

But the meetings are wild.

Most of the Orcs are in the mountains. But there are a portion in the far south, Ov’Rjii, translated to ‘the tall grasses’ and I just call ‘The Plains’, that do not come to the mountain and they are not nomadic. Like other settlements and the ones in the far north on that small ever winterly island; that Burgrol came from. The Plains village gets very very mild winter weather. Mostly just winds and rains. Andmaybea sprinkling of snow. The way to their home is kept very secret so that warring human tribes do not attack them. Theirnumbers are nowhere near those in the north. Let alone those here in the mountain. But they get newcomers who do not wish for a nomadic life all of the time. And more often than not, they are the place where the halflings like to settle.

Their village is constantly under threat. There are routes underground that we can take to get to them, but it is still nearly a week's journey, from an Orc’s gait. Wherein I supplied, even though some of the Orcs did not believe a mate should be in on the meetings, why not have a lookout position at the halfway point? We could set up a rotation of guards who can switch off and if there is news, it will take less time to mobilize if we already have a portion of troops there.

The only problem I see is that we would need to trade with the local humans to create a place well fortified for the winters. Maybe even have humans hired to make it seem like it is a human building? A front almost. Or a tavern! It went into discussion and our next meeting it will go into vote.

The thing with Sumira, is that she is the daughter of a high born man. He is extremely wealthy, with a say in many of the cities on this continent. He’s also the one who apparently locked Sumira up her entire pregnancy for the shame she caused. In order to ‘get out’ early Sumira had induced herself. Which is why Arawn and his twin were born so early. If anything were to happen to Sumira under ‘our protection’ there would be hell to pay even if we have her under duress more or less.

Sumira came under the guise of communications with her father. But so far, we have not been able to get an audience with her father to confirm her allegations. And with her arrival at winters door, we knew that she would be staying these months whether we liked it or not.

All this has been discussed in the meetings. We can’t throw her out on her own. But we can’t send her home either. Well, we could but that would be a long journey over land in the snow. I’ve suggested contacting the father in hopes that he’ll provide a carriage to a neutral meeting point. But I don’t think my mates are liking that idea overmuch. The father is probably an asshole, and my mates don’t wish to meet with him.

“Aside from calling her father to rescue her, I don’t know what we can do.” I bite my lip in frustration.

“If you do no’ back off Ay will no’ hesitate t’ throw you off the peak o’ this mountain.” Growls a very pissed off Narod. “Inside with you.” He says in a much softer tone. “Go to your dam.”

“I’mhis dam!” Screeches Sumira, scaring Arawn and he rushes to our room, where we now stand in the doorway. She looks under Narod’s shoulder, not too hard because she’s as tall as me and these Orcs are giants, and she looks imploringly at Jaedason. Who stiffens under her gaze. “Please. He’s my son. They took him from me. I couldn’t do anything else. Please.” She sobs pitifully. “I want my son.”

There is a long silence as she cries in the hall. Her tears a stink I do not want in our sanctuary. For all it smells is of lies.

“Ach.” Jaedason starts and it is my body’s turn to stiffen. “If Arawn wishes to see or speak with you, he may. Supervised. You will no’ have my son any other way.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much Jae, I–

“You–

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