Page 90 of Orc's Possession
“If Atox returns before then and says yes, will you take me?”
“I won’t refuse an order.”
“This is a request.”
“From our grak, it would be an order. And he would send one or more guards for your safety. Not mine. After what happened the first time you rode in the back of my cart, he won’t trust me with your life.”
“The guards would be for your safety, too, I’m sure,” I say, hoping to make him feel valued, because he is, even if Atox doesn’t know how to show it. “Do you fear him, Sojek?”
The young orc’s eyes move to his mother, but she remains silent. The question is for him to answer. His silence says enough.
“Then I’ll find another way.” Putting pressure on my nephew—hey, I have a nephew, two in fact, and a niece!—isn’t fair. “Don’t fear Atox. He’s trying to balance all his duties, to his people and his family. Stand up to him.”
“That will get Sojek killed,” Duvik says. The teen doesn’t talk much but when he does… wow… his words pack a punch.
“Atox wouldn’t kill a kid, or a young man like Sojek who’s working hard.”
“You don’t know our grak when he’s mad,” Duvik says.
His words stun me. Atox’s family is scared of him. Except Ossa. But she lived with a tyrant for a father and has seen true evil, enough to understand the difference.
I feel sorry for Atox in that moment and decide then and there to mend this family. But first, I need to mend my own, and that means getting to Pen’Kesh.
ATOX IM GRAK
I return to Mount Racha,with two dozen warriors riding in my wake. I’m not sure how I’ll explain to my mate what is tocome. The humans backed out of the treaty, stating we deceived them. They claimed my warriors failed to protect them.
“Tell the men they have three days’ rest to spend as they like, but no one is to leave our territory.”
“Yes, Grak.” Verig steers his mount toward the warriors riding in single file behind us.
Right now, I want to see my female. My mind and body both need rest from five days of riding, the stress of restraining myself from gutting the humans and confusion as to what caused this divide.
I’d expected to return with females, not the contingent of warriors I’d left to protect the humans. With no explanation, the humans pulled out of the treaty, refusing to give us the five females agreed upon at the end of the first two months. Then they ordered me to remove my warriors from their lands, with no chance at earning the other ten females at the end of the year.
My warriors did not fail. The breach in the wall the humans showed us was contrived. I’m certain of it, but I could not prove it. I will not let this duplicity go unanswered.
We have a reputation as fierce fighters, one I must uphold. But first, I need to understand what’s happened. Something else is going on here, something I cannot see.
Before I dismount Caju, a sweet laughter travels the night air despite the late hour. My female. The scent filling my lungs confirms she’s here, at the fires, talking among my people. They’ve accepted her, and she’s accepted them. Already, my heart feels lighter.
I hand the reins of my gorja to Sojek, who left one of the fires when he heard the hooves of the gorjas. “Where is your graka?”
“With my mother and siblings.”
“What do you think of her, Sojek?”
His eyes grow wide, and he grinds his tusks against his lip, debating how to answer, much like I did standing before my grakat his age. I don’t need to hear his opinion of my female. His reaction tells me what I truly wanted to learn; how he feels about me.
“See to Caju and the other gorjas. You may have the next three days to rest, along with the other warriors.”
“But I am not a warrior, Grak.”
“You work as hard as any warrior, which makes you as worthy. You deserve similar rewards.” I squeeze his shoulder. “Go.”
With a slight curl to his lip, flashing the full length of his left tusk, he runs off toward a fire in the distance, where the young males congregate out of the view of their families. A second young male races off with him to collect the gorjas from the returning warriors.
“Atox!” Paloma shouts with glee from across the camp. She runs to me and jumps into my arms. Squeezing her, pressing my flesh to hers… Vekk, nothing has ever felt so good after being away for days. This is home. Not the mountain, but my female.
