Page 5 of His Orc Warrior

What in the hell did an orc have to do to find a mate?

It seemed easy for others. Me? Not so much.

Let me think about it.I texted him back quickly, not wanting him to think I was ignoring his messages.

The moment I hit send, my phone rang. My friends would text. It had to be my parents.

Right in the middle of my crisis.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Thrain! I’m so glad you answered. I tried to message you on the app, but it said you weren’t on.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “No, Mom. I’m not always on the app. I have to work, and I have other things to do.”

“Oh. Of course. Chasing down that mate of yours. I wanted to ask you if you thought of Berek.” The orc she was speaking of was my childhood bully so, yeah, I thought of him now and again, but I was a strong, capable orc now. Ol’ Berek wouldn’t stand a chance against me now.

Still, I had an inkling she wasn’t talking about me thinking about him as a child. “Not really, Mom. Why?”

“Well, his mother and father are coming over for dinner. And I know you’re working hard on finding your mate, but if you’re willing to keep your options open…”

I took a long, deep breath. The last thing I wanted to do was have an outburst with my mom, but she continually danced all over my boundaries. “Mom. I really appreciate your enthusiasm. I do. But I’d rather mate a vampire than to have anything to do with Berek.”

“What?” She gasped like she didn’t know what I was talking about. She did. She’d wiped my tears when I was little. He was the reason I’d begun working out and eventually trained to be an orc warrior. “People change, Thrain.”

“Mom. I love you but this is the last time I’m going to say it. I will not mate an orc. Especially not a stinky, rotten tusk, lice breeding, ass-smelling…”

“Thrain!” she exclaimed. “Okay, okay. I understand. No smelly orcs.”

We shared a laugh over it. “Mom. Let me do this, okay? I will find a mate on my terms in my own way. No more trying to set me up.”

“Thrain, I… Okay. I promise.”

I got off the phone after hearing more about her day and how she baked some strawberry cheesecake bread.

When I said goodbye to her, my decision was made.

Let’s do it.

As soon as I sent the text to Saka, my jaw relaxed and my shoulders released their tension. There was only one human willing to come and meet an orc, so I would be there. Everything started with a baby step, right?

Now to start prepping. Saka said we would need some snacks set up.

Humans liked sweets, so I got online and ordered orc-shaped cookies from a baker who would ship them quickly. The human was coming to meet an orc. I wasn’t going to have wine and cheese, pretending that I was some kind of suave gentleman. Sure, I had manners. and orcs had a gentle way of treating their mates, but at the root of me, I was a monster.

Humans and monsters agreed on cookies.

Right?

I sighed and scrubbed my hands over my face. I would wear my warrior outfit, of course. My loin covering and tooth of a dragon as a shield on my biceps. My leather bracelets engraved with the markings of my family name and heritage.

Getting up, I checked myself in the mirror. Omegas on TV, especially human ones, liked longer hair on a mate—even those man buns seemed to make them go wild. I had none of that. I kept my hair shaved close to my skull.

My tusks needed sharpening and cleaning. Of course, I cleaned them every night, as every decent orc should, but I would give them a good deep clean before leaving.

Nerves fluttered in my belly, even though there was only one person confirmed to come.

Maybe this one person could be my mate.

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