His ears darkened. Even after claiming me in front of everyone yesterday, the word still affected him.
“Say it again,” he said.
“Kavresh.”
He rolled me onto my back and kissed me while Sofia fled to the living room.
Thirty minutes later, we walked to the facility together. Inside the break room, I claimed my usual spot at the table with my tablet open to adoption paperwork that needed reviewing and my favorite mug with steaming tea near my hand. Brovish settled beside me, stretching out his legs.
The others gathered as well.
Traig entered the break room, his own tablet glowing with whatever schedule or supply list consumed his attention today.
“I’ve hired a human for the front desk position,” Brovish announced. “She starts in two weeks. Her name is Willa Enford.”
My stomach dropped. A new person. Someone who’d walk through these spaces I’d just started thinking of as mine, who’d learn the rhythms we’d established, who’d?—
Brovish’s hand found my knee under the table, his thumb tracing a slow circle that said,breathe.
I pulled in air and focused on what he was actually saying instead of the unease surging up my throat.
“She has experience with animal rescue operations,” Brovish said. “Though not with our specific creatures. Traig, you’ll handle her orientation.”
Traig’s head snapped up fast enough I worried about whiplash. “I don’t do people management.”
“You manage all of us,” Brovish pointed out.
“That’s different. You understand the system. Humans require…explanation.”
“Then you’ll explain.”
Traig’s jaw worked. His grip on his tablet went white. “Alright. But if she reorganizes my filing system, I’ll—” He stopped, clearly searching for a threat that wouldn’t sound unreasonable. “I’ll be very displeased.”
“You’ll weep?” Drogar asked, his grin widening.
“I’ll consider weeping.” Traig’s voice hardened. “Briefly. In private.”
Laughter rang out in the room.
Krem made a note on his clipboard, probably documenting this for whatever archive he was building. Even Greth’s mouth twitched.
Brovish hooked his foot around my chair leg.
The scrape of wood on tile made everyone look up.
He dragged me closer without pausing mid-sentence, still explaining Willa’s qualifications. His arm pressed against my shoulder, and his scent wrapped around me.
My face went hot.
Krem’s eyebrows rose but he said nothing, just made another note on his clipboard that I knew would end up in whatever documentation he was building about orc-human courtship.
Drogar’s grin rose.
Greth grunted.
Traig didn’t look up from his tablet, but his mouth twitched.
Brovish didn’t look at me, just kept talking while our arms pressed together.
