“Don’t worry, girl, no one will know you’ve been forced to whore for that beast in punishment for my treatment of an enemy.”
Whore.
Girl.
Come back to care for me.
Kragorn was right.
And that knowledge, the knowledge that my father only cared about what I could bring him, bolstered my courage.
I limped closer, forcing my chin up, reminding myself that I was here to protect my clan. My Mate. Kragorn sawsomething I’d never seen in myself and he trusted me enough to make me his Mate. I would not betray that trust.
“Father, Kragorn of the Bloodfire clan is not your enemy any longer.” I nodded to the fierce orcs scowling down at me. “Nor yours. That is…” I glanced left and right, to where my sisters had come to stand beside me. “If you still consider me part of your family?”
“Of course we do,” Roxana blurted. “That is why we are here to save you.”
I shrugged. “It sounds as if Father is here to get his servant back.”
Effie sucked in a gasp at my audacity, but one of the large males, clearly impatient, growled.
“What do ye mean when ye say that Bloodfire bastard isnae our enemy?”
Sorcha took my hand in one of hers and cradled her stomach with the other. “Lillian, this is my Mate, Drakolt, the father of our kitling.”
Kitling. She spoke like one of the orcs. One ofus.
I gave her Mate an abbreviated bow, one I learned from the Stormseeker, to show respect but not obeisance.
“I am honored to meet you, Chief Drakolt, and I wish to negotiate with you.”
“Oh?” he asked, a brow raised.
Father scoffed and spat.
“Negotiate with your rescue party? You stupid girl, get over here.”
I ignored him—sure to enrage him—and kept my attention on Sorcha’s Mate. My heart was thundering in my chest, loud enough that he would hear my terror, for certes. But I squeezed my sister’s hand for courage and took a deep breath and spoke to her Mate who watched me impassively.
“Negotiate with an army set to attack a peaceful village,” I countered.
The chief’s expression didn’t change, but he continued to watch me neutrally.
“What will ye offer to keep us from battle?”
My answer was immediate, learned from watching my Mate and the Stormseeker.
“Alliance with Bloodfire.”
One of the other orcs, the scarred one, spat his disapproval. The chief merely twitched a brow again.
“The Bloodfire clan has been our enemy for generations.”
“Aye.” I took a deep breath, held it, and prayed to my god and the gods of the orcs that this would work.
“But now your Mate’s sister is Mated to the Bloodfire chief. I would ask—nay,beg, if that is what you require—to leave my clan in peace. I can promise, on their behalf, that we will offer you no more danger.”
The last of my words had been nearly drowned out by Sorcha’s gasp and Effie’s delighted squeal. But ‘twas the response of the male in front of me that mattered most.
