Page 34 of Orc's Claim
Ryko strokes my cheek. “They will if we give them no choice. I want to mate you. Today. Then, no one can take you from me.”
“Do you mean marry? What about your grak? Will he allow me to live with you if we marry?” I’ve wanted this male from the first day I saw him, but with the way our people hate one another, I don’t know how we can be together for more than a few stolen moments.
Ryko cups my face, one thumb caressing my cheek. “My grak will not hear me. Not on this. Mating, making you mine, will give him no choice. It is the only way. Trust me.”
“I do.” I swallow at the words that I could be repeating soon. Only then it will be permanent. Married… Can we? Should we? I’m still raw from all the doubt that’s burrowed into me these past few weeks. And yet when I search my heart, I trust Ryko. But marrying…. That’s a huge risk, and this time I might lose more than my heart.
He kisses me, his hand caressing the side of my breast.
I grip his hand, stopping him. “Not here.”
His forehead leans against mine and he swallows. Hard. “I lose myself in you. Every vekking time. We will mate, before it is too late.”
The desperation and worry in his face tug at my heart and I want to say yes, but I can’t.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RYKO
Lily’s eyes widen, caution and strength warring within her. “You want to run off with me, get married, and never return? Can we even get away? What if they track us,huntus?”
My people would not hunt me, not for mating a female, even one who is human. Her people remain a threat, however. They could try to kill me, lose many males in the process. Whether they capture me or not, kill me or not, is irrelevant. They will accuse me of stealing one of their females… and that could destroy my grak’s plans to save our people.
“Orc’s don’t run from danger, Lily. We run toward it, but with a plan. We will not flee, and I certainly won’t make you lead a life of isolation. We need the support, the safety, of a people. My people. My grak is speaking with your leaders about a treaty.”
“A treaty?” Her face brightens. “That’s wonderful!”
“That is yet to be seen. Being with you risks my grak’s position. We must be careful in how we proceed.”
“Ryko?” the thunderous roar of my grak carries through the common area of the market.
Vekk!
I push Lily deeper into the shadows. “Go,” I whisper, nodding in the direction away from my approaching grak. “Return to your sector. Quickly!”
With pinched eyes, she flees down the narrowing alley between the two buildings.
“What are you doing, Ryko?” my grak asks as he appears behind me more quickly than I expected. No other warrior can walk as quietly as Atox, which is how he often catches me disobeying orders.
“Observing the crowd, Grak.” Not a lie, precisely.
Atox im Grak stands beside me, peering down the alley. I pray he did not see Lily.
He lifts his chin, his nostrils flaring as he scents the air.
I could move behind him, feign spying a threat… anything to distract him. If he spotted her, he could tell her people, cause trouble for her.
“Verig ordered you and the others to stay away from the human sector. And now I find you watching one of their females.”
My spine straightens and my muscles tense, but I show no fear. “Nothing else in the market interests me.”
“Forget the female. That is an order.”
My jaw tightens, which he notices.
“Do you understand that I’m trying to save our people?”
He’s talking about the imbalance in our colony. Not enough females survived the Undoing on Orcos. The humans on Kovos have plenty in their colony and the cendagi ships bring them more each season.
