Page 68 of My Orc Package Deal

“You’re going anyway,” I managed sternly, even though my gaze kept being drawn back to Kesha. Mate. “Listen to your mother.”

My son snorted—actually snorted, while lying there bleeding all over me. “You should listen to your Mate. I can’t believe we figured it out before you.”

My twin brother joined the conversation, dropping his hand to the top of my head. “I can’t either. Your twelve-year-old is smarter than you, T’mak.”

The old little brother argument dragged my expression into a scowl as I twisted to glare up at him. “I’m older than you. And no, he isn’t.”

Brak merely grinned hugely. “Congratulations, you lucky bastard. Another chance at happiness.”

And as much as I wanted to tackle him like we were kitlings again, my arms were full of my family. And I knew he was right.

Somehow, someway…I’d gotten luckier than I deserved.

I was in a daze for the next few hours. Thank the gods that Kesha was more on top of things—or at least was handling them better—because I could barely process what was happening.

My kitlings were safe, and I had a Mate.

The gods were smiling up at me.

As Dravik had said, Varron was on duty as one of Eastshore’s newest EMTs. He and his partner arrived at the lighthouse at the same time Jocelyn squealed up in Brakkor’s huge truck. From the way he grabbed her and began whispering, and her occasional excited squeals, he was filling her in on everything.

Jay knew Varron from Bramblebluff, so that was good. The male had been our medic in the mine and was fully competent. He shone a light in Jay’s eyes, cleaned up the cut on his forehead, and kept up a calming conversation with his easygoing manner through it all.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he told both me and his partner. “Orcs have ridiculously thick skulls, you have to trust me on this. You’re in charge of the human calls, right, but you bring me along for the orcs? It’s really common to get groggy after a head injury, but the kid’s brain is going to be okay.”

From the skeptical look his partner gave him, this was news to her.

Since they were treating Jay, I contented myself with holding Kesha and Milo—or rather, Milo held me. When Abydos’s helicopter set down in the parking lot and both boys oohed and ahhed over it, Jocelyn suggested she drive Milo to the hospital on the mainland via the ferry, but he refused to let go of me.

And at that moment, I didn’t want to be parted from anyone in my family, either. Luckily, the ‘copter was big enough to hold us all, minus the stretcher, so Varron climbed in with us, and off we went, Brak and Jocelyn waving to us before they climbed into the truck to head for the ferry terminal.

I held Kesha’s hand the whole way, because my Kteer wouldn’t allow anything else.

Once at the hospital, things moved quickly. Luckily, Varron knew what he was doing, and we got Jay into a room quickly. They kept running scans on him, while he insisted he was fine, and Kesha argued that he’d been too sleepy to be “fine”.

Finally, it was Varron who told her gently, “Look, orc biology is different than humans’, right? The kitling could have been unconscious and not have done any real damage. Was he unconscious?”

Kesha took Milo aside for what looked like a serious conversation, clearly her trying to get him to explain what happened…and when she returned, she looked unconvinced but resigned.

With a shrug, she told both Varron and the doctor: “It sounds like no, he was never completely asleep. Just sort of in and out⁠—”

“I was resting my eyes!” called out my son from where he was being stitched up by a nurse practitioner.

Kesha’s lips twitched. “Maybe he was fainting from the pain.”

“I didn’t faint!” Jay bellowed as Milo giggled and the nurse sighed in exasperation.

The doctor, who was studying a computer screen, shrugged.

“I’m not an expert on orc physiology, although the admin at this hospital has made it clear we need to start reading up on your medical records, since we’re the closest hospital to Eastshore, and we’ve already had a few births here.” She smiled gently at us all. “But I have to agree with Mr. Varron: All the scans of Jay’s head have come back fine. He doesn’t have any sort of concussion that we can see.”

“Orcs have thick skulls,” Kesha, Varron, and I chorused together, then began to chuckle.

Still, despite this good news, we were at the hospital for what felt like forever. Jocelyn and Brakkor arrived, realized what was happening, and went right back out again to get food and supplies. By the time the hospital was ready to release Jay, they’d booked hotel rooms for us all nearby, since the ferry to Eastshore had made its last crossing.

A surprise met us out front as we were debating how to divide up to load into Brak’s truck to get to the hotel: Dravik was waiting for us, arms crossed, glaring at the world the way he did. His expression was almost always neutral, but the scar pulled his face into a permanent scowl.

I realized he was standing in front of two small suitcases.