Page 13 of Summoning the Orc

A communication device?

I moved toward her and she hurried backward, but stopped at the edge of the flickering light from the torch, not entering the darkness beyond it. With a smug grin, I took the little box from her, turning it over in my hands. It didn’t look threatening, but I held it a bit away from me in case.

“Who is this?” I demanded and there was a long silence on the other end before a female voice carried over from inside the tiny contraption.

“Good morrow,” she said and I quirked an eyebrow at it. EvenIwasn’t that formal when speaking.

“Good morrow,” I responded, my ears twitching at the crackle of noise from the little box. “Who is this?”

“Penelope,” the female in the box said. “You have baked my friend.”

I tilted my head again at the box that contained the mad female. “I haven’t baked anything. What do you do for my mate?How do you work?”

I tilted the little box this way and that, giving it a shake to see if a minuscule female would fall from it. My mate held her hands out and I realized she wanted me to be careful with her toy.

I stopped shaking it, sending her an apologetic smile.

“Mate?” squeaked the female from inside the box.

“Yes, my mate,” I snarled, my lip curling.

Was this female going to challenge my claim? I was certain I could crush it between my fingers without much issue, but it would upset my mate who was staring at the little thing like it was a lifeline.

There was a sound of a scuffle on the other end of the line and then a deep, male voice said, in flawless modern orcish, “Who is this?”

I narrowed my eyes at the box, my fingers twitching with the need to crush it. Who was this male and why did my female carry him around in her pocket? The snarl left my throat before I could stop it.

“I am already mated,” the male said with a hint of amusement and the threatening growl that I hadn’t realized was sounding in my chest stopped. “The female that you’re with. That’s my mate’s best friend.”

My eyes met my female’s and I gave her a smile while she looked at me with a worried expression. “Becca,” I breathe the name.

“Yes. Becca. She told my wife that you kidnapped her and took her to a cave?”

My brow dipped low right away with annoyance. “I didn’tkidnapher.”

I might have kidnapped her.

“Then why did you take her to a cave?” the male in the box asked.

“She’s my mate,” I said with pride. “And I needed to take her tosafety. This was the safest place I could find. We have things to settle between us,” I huffed.

The grunt from inside the box reminded me of my father’s and a pang ached in my chest.

“We’re coming to meet you,” he said and I peered down at the box, wondering how he would appear from inside it. “Keep her there. She might run,” he said.

But my female wasn’t running. She had her arms crossed over her ample chest and her hand held out imperiously.

A growl of contented pleasure rolled through my chest as I held out the tiny box to her.

Chapter Ten

Becca

I was almost certain that my panties were on fire. Listening to this male speak with Dristan had been the hottest experience of my life.

So far I’d only heard short sentences and gruff commands from him aimed my way. But when he conversed—I could onlyjuststop myself from licking the exposed skin of his chest.

He gave me the phone back after he’d been so rude in snatching it from my hands in the first place. It was clear that he wasn’t sure what it was, but he’d taken it as if he had every right to all of my things.

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