Page 94 of Orc's Possession
“You lie, female. Like your people.”
My stomach twists.
“What am I lying about? I’ve told you everything there is to know about me. If this is about New E?—”
“Your people are as stubborn as you,” he snaps. “A quality of your race.” Atox turns from me and heads toward the tunnels.
“Some of us, yes, but not all,” I say as I chase after him. “Does that mean my people, I mean my former people, won’t renegotiate and you’re done with them?” So much for letting him relax first before bombarding him with questions, but he snapped at me. Totally uncalled for. “Have you approached the moxxels yet?”
Atox slams to a halt at the mountain entrance. “I am not done with the humans.”
Alarm bells go off in my head. “What does that mean?”
Ignoring my question, he enters the tunnels, moving past orcs at a brisk pace, knocking over a warrior who doesn’t get out of his way fast enough.
I don’t know what the fuck happened out there, but I hope he won’t do anything rash. I don’t think he’ll start trouble, not before knowing if human women can bear orc babies. We can, but now may not be the best time to tell him my news.
“Grak,” a warrior calls from the edge of the camp. “Ryko’s approaching from the north.”
That stops Atox. He barrels past me to the warriors and speaks with him in an angry whisper, too low for me to hear.
Despite his mood, I walk up to him and the warrior. He doesn’t face me, but he knows I’m there. I see it in how his shoulders tense as he watches for the rider to appear through the trees. I place a hand on his back and stand there and patiently wait for him to acknowledge me.
“Go to our chamber, Paloma. I will be there shortly,” he says, his tone softer now.
I move to his front and search his eyes. There’s worry there. He’s hiding something from me.
“Please, Paloma.”
He’s never used the word please before. The name the warrior mentioned minutes ago finally registers for me.
“Ryko? Isn’t that the warrior who seduced Lily?”
“This doesn’t concern you, Paloma.”
Shortly after my father sold me to the orcs, Atox confirmed Lily was dead. I knew the vints had kidnapped her, but I’d held out hope she’d survived.
Thinking about what happened to her makes me sick. Lily was several years younger than me, twenty-three, and very innocent. Maybe even a bit naïve when it came to men. She’d been so desperate to be loved and fell for an orc, which was taboo among our people. To think, that was only a few months ago, and now my people aresellingwomen, as if that’s okay but falling in love with an orc isn’t.
I had identified with Lily, not because we were both plus-sized gals, but because our male role models weren’t the finest examplesof human men. Her uncle called her names and belittled her about her weight, whereas my father… I swallow, the memories still too raw. Until the day he sold me, he’d never laid a hand on me, but he’d always been emotionally absent from my life. Fortunately, I had my sisters to lean on. Lily had no one.
“If Owen had been doing his job in Pen’Kesh, Lily never would have hooked up with Ryko. Your warrior is the reason the vints attacked and kidnapped her. He bears as much blame as Owen for her death. More.”
“I’ve already disciplined Ryko for risking the treaty with your people.”
“This isn’t about the treaty, but what happened to Lily. And they’re myformerpeople. I’m orc now. You’ve said as much many times.”
Atox’s hand curves around my waist, but his touch feels distant. “Yes, indeed, my mate. You are orc now.”
“Then trust in me. Tell me what’s going on.”
His jaw tightens. “It’s nothing you need to know right now.”
“Did Ryko force Lily?”
“No,” he snaps, releasing me. “Ryko is young, but he would not break our laws.”
“He disobeyed your orders.”
