Page 54 of His Orc Lady

He shakes his head. “Only my toe suffered, nothing more.”

I stare up at him, wishing we could simply go on with what we started. His kisses turn my head every time, and I want to continue where we left off yesterday.

But I’ve put this off long enough.

I release him and walk to my bed, where I sit and pat the spot next to me. “Come on. I need to tell you something.”

Owen grimaces, then follows my instructions. “You don’t know how difficult a decision this is for me. I want nothing more than to kiss you and see how we can be together.”

“I have a good idea.” I lean in and kiss his cheek. “We can still do that after.”

I hope. Because he might decide that he doesn’t want what I have to offer after all.

Owen takes my hand and holds it between his. “What is it that you want to talk about?”

I chew on the inside of my cheek, wondering where to begin. Then I take a deep breath and start at the beginning.

“You’re my mate.”

Chapter

Fourteen

Owen doesn’t react to the news with a gasp, like I’d have imagined, but only purses his lips. “I am?”

“Aye. Do you know what that means?”

He shakes his head. “I suppose I know the human meaning of the word, which would be like saying I’m your friend, but that’s not it, is it?”

“Dawn is Gorvor’s mate,” I tell him. “And Willow is Ozork’s. The same thing happened to your soldier, Ian, and my friend Carrow.”

“Ah.” Owen turns my hand over and presses his thumbs into my palm. “So it’s like…a partner? A spouse.”

“An orc only ever gets one fated mate,” I explain, biting back a moan when he continues massaging my hand. “The one person who is so completely right for them, no one else will ever do. We—oh—we recognize them by scent.”

Owen looks up at this. “You’re saying yousmelledme?”

Heat rises in my cheeks at the memory. “You might remember the event. I did drop a whole platter of food and caused a big mess.”

He stops massaging me. “But—you ran away from me then.”

His eyebrows draw in, and I know he’s piecing together the other times we met.

“I did,” I confirm. “I was afraid.”

He doesn’t say anything, only keeps frowning at me, his mouth a tight line. I hurry on with my explanation becausethisis truly frightening, this moment of uncertainty, of not knowing how he’ll react when he learns how I’ve behaved.

“I was scared because you’rehuman. But only because you were always going to leave—and I couldn’t follow you, it’s not about who or what you are.” I flutter my hands, fumbling for the right words. “I mean, I saw you were a soldier. And I know humans need sunlight, and I was afraid that if I told you, if you knew what you were to me, you’d see me as a burden. Because I could never be whatyouneed in a mate. In a life partner or a wife or however you want to name me.”

I take a deep breath, aware that I’m not making much sense.

“Mara…”

Owen’s fingers twitch around my hand, and my heart stutters at the thought that he might try to pull his hand away, so I grasp it tightly, holding on. Ineedto explain this to him, and I need him to understand.

“Please, let me finish,” I whisper. “You can do whatever you want later, just let me get through this.”

A muscle jumps in Owen’s jaw, but he nods, allowing me to go on.

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