Page 3 of My Orc Pen Pal

“Nope, tomorrow. I wanted to be…fresh.”

Nikki snorted. “And are you ready to meet him?”

Was I?

I plopped the chair I was holding on the last desk, upright, so I could rest my chin on the back. “I don’t know,” I whispered. “I hope so.”

“Oh, RoRo.” Nikki pushed away from the doorframe and came across my room. For a minute, I thought she was going to hug me, but she stopped a few arms’ lengths away and eyed me in concern. “Youreallydon’t have to do this. I swear, it’s okay, you don’t have to?—”

“No, Iwantto,” I assured her, blowing out a breath and straightening. “I do. IlikeAkhmim. It’s just… When I started emailing him, I never thought I’d actuallymeethim in person, you know?”

It took a second for Nikki to understand, but then her expression cleared. “You’ve been sharing all this stuff with him for months, probably baring your heart and soul…?”

Nodding, I flipped the chair over. “And then he shows up on my doorstep.”

Well, not quite.

“Sakkara wassoexcited to find the guys,” Nikki murmured, finally moving to stand next to me and rest her hand on my forearm. “It really means a lot to him and the twins—heck, toallthe guys—to have this new batch here in Eastshore. But that doesn’t mean you have to date one of them.”

“One date,” I was quick to assure her. “When Akhmim told me that your Mate tracked them down and offered them a place on Eastshore Isle with all the other orcs, they debated, but he…” Suddenly feeling awkward, I glanced away, not sure if I wanted to share what he told me.

When I realized that’s where you were, sweet Rosemary, it wasn’t a question of if, but when.

“I like him,” I muttered, picking up some of the crayons around Jackson’s desk. “I just didn’t realize I was going to see him inperson.”

“And are you okay with it?” Nikki asked hesitantly. “Because if you’re not, I can get Sakkara to tell him to back off…”

“No.” I straightened and shook my head, then nodded, then shook my head again. “I mean, yeah, I’m okay with it.” Taking a deep breath, I admitted the truth. “I’mexcitedabout it, just nervous. When his email said he’d been invited to live on Eastshore, it was just natural to tell him that’s where I’d grown up. It seemed so…serendipitous, you know? And I know him—really well, by this point. So yeah… I’m excited to meet him in person.”

We were nearing the end of the school year, Nikki’s first. When she joined the teaching team for Eastshore Elementary, she was skittish and introverted. At Christmas, she learned that the guy she’d been crushing on online was actually the town’s mayor, Sakkara, and the father of one of her students.

Now that they were Mated, she was ridiculously happy, and I was happy for her. During one of our girls’ nights,she told me about MonsterSmash, the app she’d used to meet Sakkara—who went by a different name online, of course—and on a drunken dare, I decided to check it out.

I’d never been interested—you know,interestedinterested, pretend I’m waggling my eyebrows—in orcs in that way. I was just curious to learn more about them, and despite having a half dozen loping around town, this seemed like the safest, most non-confrontational way.

Then I’d met Akhmim.

Our friendship had quickly progressed from the chat box on MonsterSmash to email, and for the last few months, we’d written to each other at least daily, sometimes two or three times a day.

I loved his insights, the way he thought about things. I loved hearing his observations of our world versus the one he’d come from, and I loved how willing he was to discuss orcish culture, human politics, favorite ways to spice spaghetti squash—as if the only acceptable answer wasn’tgarlic and more garlic—and a million other things.

He was myfriend.

And tomorrow…? I glanced at Nikki, who was smirking at me.

Tomorrow, I was going to meet him in real life. For a date.

With my pen pal.

Chapter 2

Akhmim

“Gods below, Tarkhan!”I bellowed, pounding on the bathroom door. “Your armpits are clean enough! Get out of there!”

My only answer was the sound of the shower and a quiet snort behind me.

I turned to glare, but Aswan merely twitched a dark brow and went back to the sauce he was stirring over the stove in the kitchen. Hells, this apartment was too small for all of us! I don’t know how Simbel and Memnon had been able to share a space for so long.

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