Page 35 of Orc's Promise
“No. If you take another human, even a youngling, the warriors who do not have females will follow your example and conduct their own raids.”
“Then perhaps we conduct another raid for another group of females, even a small group, and I take the youngling at the same time. We’ll maintain control of our warriors, especially if they see us continuing to secure the females we need.”
“The humans are deceptive creatures, and they fooled us.Usedus, Verig. They formed an alliance with the same vints they claimed were attacking them. And the vints have armed them. Idid not see what was happening until it was too late. No one approaches the human settlement until we figure out what the humans and vints are planning.”
“Which makes entering their camp with stealth to gather intel a necessity. I can take the youngling after I have the information we need.”
“We have an entire settlement to protect. I won’t risk our plans or our people’s safety for one youngling. Leave the youngling to the humans, Neld.”
“And if the vints and humans attack? What happens to their settlement?” We could never let a strike on our settlement go unanswered. On Orcos, we would have crushed every last one of the enemy, but there are innocents in New Earth. Women and younglings. Tansey’sson.
“This is war, Neld. Losses are to be expected,” Atox says, then turns and walks away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TANSEY
Ican’t believe I slept with Verig. Anorc. I’m not even sure why I slept with him. There are a lot of ways to give in to one’s desires, but sleeping with an orc?
And yet he’s not a monster, not like how the people back in New Earth always talk about the orcs. Nash was the monster disguised as a human. Vengeful, selfish. I fell for his charm and good looks, and didn’t see the monster beneath the exterior until it was too late to escape.
From the moment Nash first punched me to the time he stole Ethan from me, I let fear rule me.
Fuck, that psycho didn’t even want his son. Nash never cared about Ethan, never changed a single diaper, held him, or looked at him with anything but disdain. Taking Ethan from me was the ultimate way of hurting me.
And he paid for it. We both did.
The door to Verig’s quarters opens with a bang and I jump. When I see it’s Verig, my entire body relaxes. “You startled me.”
“Come. Our grak is speaking soon to all our people. Yourpresence is required.” He turns away, as if he’s here only to deliver a message and has no interest in me. As if he’s done with me.
That would make leaving easier.
And yet this need to understand what about him captivates me so deeply, so completely, that for one fleeting moment last night, all I could think about was Verig. I’d forgotten about Ethan… and that scares me.
I grip Verig’s arm, stopping him from leaving. “You never asked why I came to Kovos.”
“The reason all of us are here. The cendagi brought us.”
“I meant me, specifically.”
The ridges on his forehead rise slightly. “The cendagi chose you because you were young and female, capable of bearing many younglings.”
“I wasn’t forced here. Not exactly. Why would you think that?”
“The cendagi brought all five species of Kovos here for a purpose we do not yet know. But it’s clear they manipulated circumstances. Each colony needs something the others have. We orcs need females. The humans need weapons or a way of defending themselves. The bantarans who are rich in technology are poor at feeding their people, despite their technology.”
“What about the vints and moxxels? What do they need?”
“We are not yet sure. We only know the vints cannot be trusted and will attack at any opportunity.”
“And yet you attacked my colony.”
“Because they broke the treaty. We provided protection from the vints along their border, but your people did not give the females promised to us. So, we took what we earned.”
“People can’t be traded like livestock.”
He cups my cheek. “Perhaps they should not be, but they are on many worlds, my little sossa flower. Orcs do not sell or give away our people. Until coming to Kovos, we never needed to acquire females in this manner, but we are desperate. Withoutfemales, we will die out as a species. Humans appear to have no rules against selling their people. Why would you wish to live in a colony that would sell you?”
