Page 43 of My Orc in Uniform

My answer was immediate. “I do. I love you.”

“But…” He slowly exhaled. “You don’t fully trust that that’s going to be enough, do you?”

“What?” I frowned.

“You’re still afraid that I’m going to walk out, because you’re…I dunno, being too adventurous or something, despite me telling you I love that about you.”

He was right. I dropped my gaze to his chin. “Maybe.”

“Dkaar.” When I didn’t lift my eyes, he tugged on my hair just slightly, and I frowned up at him. Simbel grinned. “Dkaar, I can understand how difficult it mustbe to believe that I’m not going to leave you, so I’m going to ask you to do something.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

“Trust in me. Trust inus. And…” He flicked his gaze toward Patrick and back again. “Trust in your son. Trust that you’ve raised him to be a good kid.”

I twisted in his arms to glance at Patrick. “I do. He—you’rea good person, Patrick, you know that.”

My son wasn’t looking at me, but he shrugged as he turned down the burner. “Then trust me to know what’s right and wrong. When it comes to my friends…” He finally met my eyes with a serious look. “And when it comes to you. Simbel isn’t going to desert us.”

“You’re my Mate, Rissa.” Simbel said softly. “That’s like…”

“It’s bigger than marriage, Mom,” Patrick offered. “I told him that he should still propose, in case you’re into that sort of thing. But to orcs—Simbel was telling me this—to orcs, a Mate bond, is like…cement. They don’t get divorced because it’s like, impossible to consider splitting up from your Mate once you find one another.”

I glanced at Simbel to see him grinning. “He’s a quick learner. All that is true, Rissa. I love you, yes, and I love Trick…but the Mate bond…” He captured my hand and pressed it to his chest. “You’re stuck with me, I’m afraid to say.”

And just like that, a weight—a weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying—lifted from my shoulders, and I exhaled.You’re stuck with me. “Forever, Simbel?”

His smile was a beautiful thing. “Forever,Dkaar. Even when we’re mad at one another, or even when I’m being too immature, or when you’re being too uptight, we’re a team. I’m going to be here for you and Trick for the rest of our lives, and I hope you’ll let me help you.”

After sixteen years of doing it all myself… I breathed a sigh of relief. Or maybe surrender.

“Wait.” I narrowed my eyes up at him. “I’m not too uptight.”

Behind me, Trick snorted. “You’re more uptight than a giraffe in a bowtie.”

It took me a moment to get it, but I snorted at the same time Simbel barked a laugh. “Not bad!” His twinkling dark eyes met mine, and I could see the spark of green deep inside them once more. “Our son is smart.”

Our son.

Emotion clogged my throat.Our son. I gave up on hearing those words over sixteen years ago, and now… “You mean that?”

Simbel released me with one arm, and then Patrick was at my side. Simbel wrapped both of us in his arms, and I snaked one arm around my son’s waist. Now all three of us were pressed together in a hug.

“Trick already holds a big piece of my heart, Rissa. If you and I are Mated, then he’s mine as well.” Simbel kissed my head. “I want to help him grow. I want to helpyoumold him into the amazing young man I know he can be.”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, my voice thick with emotion. “He’s already pretty awesome.”

“Mom,”Patrick mumbled, his cheeks pink again. I leaned over and planted a kiss on his jaw.

Simbel squeezed us both. “He is. He’s strong and smart and adventurous, just like his mother. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and he is single-handedly saving the other young men of Eastshore Isle.”

Until last night, until I heard what Simbel had said about Patrick and his friends, I hadn’t thought of it like that. I’d been so worried about their influence on my son, that I’d never stopped to think how a good kid like Patrick might influencethem.

He’d rallied them, and they’d all been heroes last night, no matter how terrifying it had been. I squeezed my son—ourson.

“I’m proud of you, honeybear,” I whispered, throat tight.

Patrick was smiling. Not just at me, but at Simbel too. “Thanks, bro.”

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