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Surely... surely Stug has never made me feel this good?
The thought of my mate is like a douse of icy river water—the way he always wakes me. And like being drenched with cold water, my libido is washed away.
Chapter Nine
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BAKOG:
SHE PULLS AWAY like I burned her.
I want to curse my foolishness. What was I thinking? Who knows what horrors Shalia has been fighting off for these last weeks? Weeks where I didn’t even know she was missing? I’m a horrible, horrible mate to remind her of that. A male who doesn’t deserve anyone as sweet and kind as her, even with her new personality that’s made her into a warrior.
Perhaps she might have been that way if I wasn’t in her early life, always taking care of her and Hisa. There were glimpses of it, sure. Times when she was so quick to learn, where to jab, which pressure points to hit. She seemed to know instinctively.
She has the cunning skill of her father, easily one of the strongest fighters of our clan. But she doesn’t have his size. Which is a benefit in itself, because no one expects the slip of a girl, smaller than most female orcs, to have enough strength to gouge out a male’s eyes without damaging the orbs. To crush his testicles within her palm. To rip his tongue from his mouth.
Not that she ever did any of those things. She had the strength, unfortunately, she had her mother’s heart.
My Aunt Jo-Jo is still friends with a Blackheart male we once held prisoner. They’ve given each other joke gifts throughout the years. Joanna once sending him a rib she’d wrapped for Christmas—a rib because she’d once fed him that in captivity—but it was spring before the weather cleared and the rib was long dried into jerky.
He once sent her a onesie for an infant when Shally was born. ‘Twas made of leather and stitched with gold thread. She’d been delighted, but Latsil refused to let her dress his daughter in Blackheart garb.
When his child was born, Joanna sent a little bright-yellow sundress. Such a hideous child. Green-skinned orcs look sickly in yellow.
So my aunt’s soft heart had her sending black leather dresses with gold after that.
And because Shally has the same soft heart that wouldn’t want me to worry, she’d never tell me if she was harmed. Yes, she can take care of herself, but she was a lone female with five full-grown orcs. If she had to kill their king, it was with good reason.
“’Tis alright, love. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I should remember that you’ve forgotten me, even though I still know you.”
“I just—I don’t—I’m not ready for that. I thought so. My body is, I mean. But then I start thinking—”
“I should have thought of that.” I clench my fists as I ask. “Were you hurt by your males? Is that why you killed your king?”
“What? No, no. I mean...” She takes a deep breath and seems to struggle with what to say. Shalia keeps secrets, then. She doesn’t fully trust me and why should she? She doesn’t know me anymore, and she thinks she knows the foul brutes she’s been living with.
