Page 5 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

At first there were the questions I always get. Is it true I was found in the castle woods as a babe with no one the wiser as to how I got there? Were there really no unaccounted pregnancies in all the realm? Do I really not know who my parents are?

But after a few days, those faded away, and I became Wranth, the warrior ready to help protect the village. Then once I started assisting the hunters, I became celebrated for the feasts, welcomed when I entered the pub, people asking me to sit and drink with them.

That’s where I’d be now, in fact, if I were still there. I’d be at the pub, listening to Sturrm sing or Branikk tell the tale of this day’s hunt, his voice lively, his hands doing half the talking.

A pang pinches my chest. Something I’ve never felt before. I’ve never had a home, a place I belong, but Moon Blade Village felt like it could become one.

“They’re good people, and the human women are very happy,” I say. “The goddess must have known it would be this way.”

Aldronn grunts but doesn’t disagree. He stops and turns back toward the fire, so I do the same. The dark silhouettes of the other orcs show against the bright orange, their voices carryingas they talk. They have all the easy camaraderie I finally felt in Moon Blade Village.

“If it gets to be too much, let me know,” Aldronn says.

“My King?”

“The hazing.”

Mortification flushes through me at the thought that he knows I don’t belong. “There’s no—”

“No. No lies.” He puts a hand on my shoulder. “I know I may stay a bit apart from all of you, but I still have eyes. With Sturrm gone, it will be harder for you. Yet I value your service, Wranth. I would have you and your strong sword arm at my side.”

“It is yours, My King.”

“Good.”

Yet it turns out I lied.

Because a haunting song pulls me from sleep, light brightening my tent until the leather glows silver.

I throw off my furs and leap outside.

The moon descends from the sky, a swirling ball of pure white shot through with blue lightning. The voice of the goddess sings through me, vibrating my bones and plucking the strings of my heart. A yearning, greater than any I have ever known, pierces my soul, almost sending me to my knees.

“Yes,” I growl, answering her summons with every fiber of my being. “Yes.”

The Moon Goddess darts forward, splashing across my eyes in a blaze of white.

I stand stunned for several moments, and the world wakes around me, the other orcs leaving their tents. As I blink away the afterimages of her brightness, the night returns to darkness. ButI need no light to see where I must go. A rope wrapped around my heart tugs, spinning me toward the southwest.

“You are summoned,” King Aldronn says from behind me. “The goddess has chosen you.”

“Yes.” It’s the only word I can speak, yet it says everything I need to as I enter this new phase of my life. No longer simply the king’s man, I have been called to a higher purpose.

I will ride for however long it takes.

And at the end of my journey, I will claim my moon bound bride.

CHAPTER THREE

Naomi

Light surrounds me, infuses me, becomes me. Time stands still, and I dance through the heavens for a century or a second. Music and motion andfreedom!

Gradually, everything slows, and I take on the familiar solidity of a body. A firm surface appears below me, and a breeze brushes over my skin, even though light still blinds my sight and music still fills my ears.

Then these too fade, the white globe separating to hover in front of me for several seconds before flying up, up, into the night.

I flop backwards, arms outflung, trying to recapture the feeling of movement, of being untethered. It takes a while for my vision to clear enough to notice the sky overhead is a deep purple dusted with winking stars.

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