The sound was awful and shrill, borne half out of misery, and half out of sheer, barrelling terror. Of course she would run away fromthatinto a cottage with anorc, she knew what happened to women who ended up alone with strange full-grown orcs, they also ended up with swollen bellies and brutalized bodies and bloody necks, ohgods—
Ella scrabbled to escape, grasping at the door behind her as she screamed — but her hands were numb, her entire body caught and frozen. And theorc— oh gods ohgods— who had been standing there, in the middle of her hunting cottage — took two loping steps, and put one huge hand against the door, and the other against Ella’s still-screaming mouth.
“Stop,” he ordered, his voice deep and powerful and authoritative — and without at all meaning to, Ella obeyed it. Just stood there, staring and terrified in the sudden silence, with an orc’s heavy, hot hand against her face, his huge body looming over her, a horrifying black shadow in the darkness.
“Good,” he said, the single word sending a hard, rippling shudder down Ella’s already trembling form. She was trapped, trapped alone with anorc, what would he do, what would he say, what fresh hell was going to come next in this complete and utter disaster of an evening.
But then, without warning, the orc stepped backwards. His hand dropping from her face, from the door behind her, and it occurred to Ella that she should make a run for it, now, now,now— but instead she just kept standing there, shivering, staring at the orc before her.
Gods, he was huge. A good head taller than she was, with shoulders that were nearly twice as wide, and arms as big around as her thighs. And — Ella shuddered again — he was bare-chested, and wearing only a pair of low-slung trousers, andno shoes. And his torso was broad and bare and rippled with hard muscle, clearly strong enough to bend her double and hold her there, to make her do whatever the hell he wanted…
But he still wasn’t moving, only standing there staring back at her, and finally Ella’s frantic eyes found his face in the moonlight. Taking in the heavy square jaw, the thick black eyebrows, the crooked nose that had looked like it had been broken multiple times. The pointed ears — supposedly inherited from the orcs’ long-lost elf ancestors — with an actual goldringembedded in his left earlobe. And his skin might have been almostgreenin better light, and boasted many prominent scars, one looking like a blade had sliced deep across his cheekbone.
And hiseyes. They were glittering black coals in his already terrifying face, they were roving up and down Ella’s body with shameless frankness — and now they were lingering, holding on her face. Just looking, as though almostwaitingfor something, and why, wait,wait—
“Natt?!” Ella’s voice croaked, and the orc actually — smiled.Nattsmiled, flashing her a row of sharp white teeth, and what the fuck, what the hell, what hadhappenedto Ella’s godsforsaken life.
She had to cover her eyes again, try to breathe, try to grasp at the spiralling chaos of her thoughts. She’d been a child, she’d been allowed to run wild all over the grounds, much to her mother’s consternation, and her father’s satisfaction. A lady shouldn’t be out in the sun and muck, her mother had complained, so Ella had only done it more. Until it had felt like this forest had become part of her, and her part of it.
And in this forest, one day, Ella had met an orc. A young orc, greenish and gangly, not far from her in age, clearly tracking rabbits. And rather than running and screaming, guarding her virtue, as Ella had been repeatedly instructed to do, instead she’d thought of her mother, and trotted straight toward the orc, and asked his name.
In hindsight it had been a sickeningly dangerous thing to do — there had no doubt been full-grown orcs nearby, ready to trap her and bite her and infect her with their spawn — but at the time, the gangly greenish orc hadn’t seemed dangerous. In fact, he’d seemed just as unsettled by Ella as she’d been by him, but he hadn’t run or attacked. And instead, he’d given her his name.
I am Nattfarr, of Clan Grisk, he’d said. Natt.
And in the months and years following, Ella and Natt had often met, around the same place. Wary and unsure of each other at first, but once they’d both understood that neither one was about to attack — or worse, involve the grown-ups — they’d become actual, honest-to-godsfriends.
And Ella had found it utterly fascinating, befriending an orc. Seeing how quickly he could run and climb trees, how easily he could kill and skin game with his slim, sharp black claws. How different his skin and hair were — his skin all that pearly greenish-grey, his hair long and thick and black, tied in a gleaming braid down his back. How he spoke the common tongue in an old-fashioned, stilted-sounding way, and how his own language — the orcs’ ancient black-tongue — was a strange, guttural rumbling, made deep in his throat.
And what Ella remembered most strongly — she swallowed hard, as her eyes darted up and down this orc’s huge form — was how oddlyphysicalhe had been. How his body had been such a part of him, such an immediate and truthful channel to his thoughts. How he’d preferred to touch and smell and taste things, rather than seeing them. How he’d sometimes touchedher, his hand smoothing easily over her shoulder or against her hair. And even more strongly, how he’d smelled her whenever they met, his grey-green face angling warm and ticklish against her exposed neck.
Ella’s entire body shuddered again, but thankfully her heartbeat had slowed somewhat, her breath coming in more manageable gulps. It was Natt. He wouldn’t force her, or hurt her. Would he?
“You have not forgotten me,” he said finally, his voice so much deeper, more powerful, than Ella remembered. “This pleases me.”
That shudder rippled again down Ella’s back, but she felt her head moving, much like a nod. “Yes, I mean no, of course I didn't forget you,” she heard her shaky voice say. “I mean — not that I expected to find you here, hiding in ourhunting cottage, on the night of myengagement-party.”
The orc — Natt — smiled again, a flash of sharp white teeth in the moonlight. “No,” he agreed. “I have vexed you, lass.”
Lass. He’d called her that, back then, and until now Ella had entirely forgotten it, and the sound of it was doing something unexpectedly odd in her belly. “No,” she said, “I mean, yes, but I was already vexed, it was my engagement-party, and I found my betrothedhusbandwith anotherwoman, and —”
And gods, why was she telling this to anorc, and she clamped her mouth shut, far too late. While the orc — Natt — gave a sudden, ghastly frown, snapping his head to the side. Causing his long black braid to fall over his shoulder, and there was another strange shock of recognition, or perhaps even warmth, at the sight of it.
“This foul man,” he spat, with a quick flex of his clawed hand, “ought to die, for such an affront against you. When I am given leave, I shall kill him for you. With joy.”
There was another shock down Ella’s spine — Natt wouldkillAlfred? Natt hadkilledpeople? And suddenly, looking at him, Ella realized that of course he had. It had been years since he’d hunted rabbits in the forest, he was a full-grown orc now, and full-grown orcs were raiding ragingmurderers. And before that new peace treaty, how many men had the orcs killed in Sakkin Province, just this past year? Dozens? Hundreds?
Ella had backed up tight against the door again, her hand grasping desperate for the latch, as the orc — Natt — came an easy, silent step closer. Gods, he was sobig, who knew orcs could grow so much, and — and —
“Speak, lass,” he said, his voice suddenly lower, but still with that thread of command in it. “Tell me how you wish it done. Shall I break his bones? Tear off his head? Carve out his guts with my blade?”
His blade, he had ablade? But yes, there, hanging off a loose leather belt at his waist, there was a sharp, gleaming, curved sword. An orc-sword, the kinds the orcs forged and carried andkilledwith, and as Ella watched, Natt’s big hand went to touch, natural and easy, against its hilt. And Ella was truly trembling again, staring at his face. So familiar and yet still so foreign, capable of carrying out appalling words like those.
“No,” she gasped. “No, please. No killing.Gods, no.”
Natt’s head tilted again, his huge hand still clenched on the sword-hilt, and that —that— was the sight of his long black tongue, coming out tolickat hislips. “Foolish lass,” he said. “You should not like to watch, whilst I make this foul man scream?”
“No!” Ella countered, almost a wail this time. “And isn’t — haven’t you orcs just signed thatpeace treaty? I thought you weren’tsupposedto kill people anymore!”
