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That’s when we were taught about the hunters, and all others who would come for us.
I’d allowed this app and the hope of finding a mate to get the best of me, but soon, my anxiety and distrust of the whole thing came crashing back down. It buzzed inside me until I got up from the couch and did the only thing I knew how to ease the pinching, burning downpour of it all—make my way to my training area and work myself into exhaustion.
I’d made a clearing in the woods when we first bought the property and installed some homemade ways to work off my aggressions. I had pulley systems that were hooked to boulders and ran through the Vs of tree branches, creating a weight-lifting apparatus. There were other boulders, thick and solid, that I worked through with pickaxes—huge branches that were cut with axes and even an obstacle course to keep me agile and light on my feet. Other than those things, I worked with my broad ax and my sword. I’d gotten my first wooden sword when I was only four and had a hilt in my hand in one way or the other ever since. I was born to be a warrior—a protector.
If only I had a family other than Saber and Draven to protect.
I went through all the motions for the next six hours until the sun began to rise in the sky. It wasn’t abnormal for me to stay up all night. We orcs didn’t need as much sleep as everyone else, and so it was easy for me to catch up on any rest that I lost during the night.
Once I got back, it was breakfast time. Draven was already at the stove, whipping something in a huge metal bowl. When he turned to face me, I could tell by the dark circles and his puffy eyes that I wasn’t the only one who had lost sleep the night before.
“Breakfast?” he asked, but his eyes didn’t meet mine. There was a bit of a hush over our household since Saber announced the app thing. We were waiting for something to happen. Waiting on someone else to move was the worst.
“Shower first, but yeah. What are you making?”
My best friend, one of them, pulled the ovens open and revealed at least six dishes inside. I smelled everything from meat to eggs to pie crust to cake. Yeah, he was definitely up all night as well. “I’ve got everything covered. Go shower. Wake upSaber before you come back. If we don’t eat some of this, there will be no room in the freezer.”
“Got it. Hey…you’re okay?” I was a bit of a stone-cold bastard, but I cared about the people in my life.
“I’m okay. This stuff with the mate has got me shaken up. I tried to sleep but…”
Nodding, I went over and clapped him on the shoulder. For me, that was a warm, cuddly embrace. “I know. I tried that myself. Mind wouldn’t let me.”
Draven nodded. “I hear that. Maybe this afternoon, after you get your rounds done, we could…maybe some warrior training together. Like the old times.”
I ignored the old-times comment since I kept up my warrior training nearly every day. More lately.
“That sounds good. We’ll make Saber come, too. He needs to step away from the computer for once. Stop getting us in trouble.” I started for my room and called over my shoulder, “Shower. Saber. Breakfast. Rounds. Training.”
Draven chuckled and still was when I closed the door to my room. I flipped on the cold water. It ran through our plumbing straight from the mountain, so, if you didn’t turn on any from the hot tap, you were in for a freeze. And that was exactly what I wanted. To freeze out the parts of me that longed for something out of reach. I was stupid to hope. A grunt came from my mouth as my tusks nearly pierced my top lip as I stood under the spray, shuddering from the chill. A human wouldn’t last two seconds in this cold. If we had a female here, we would have to warn her about the water.
Gods, there I went again, thinking about a female who didn’t exist.
Saber was sure that there was someone on the app who would want an orc. It didn’t even matter if the female wanted an orc. What was important was that she was willing to live with usin peace, secluded in the mountains, and raise a family together. That was the important thing. I wasn’t delusional enough to want or even dream of love. I didn’t know if I was capable of loving a female.
You didn’t have to love a female to fill her full of children, after all.
When I came out of the shower and dressed in a pair of black pants and nothing else, I overheard Saber and Draven having a rowdy discussion in the kitchen. Most of our conversations were rowdy. We were gruff guys.
“Did you see this one?” Draven had his phone out and pushed it in front of Saber’s face. The table was covered with dishes ranging from breakfast to dinner to more desserts than we should be eating in a week.
“Not this again,” I grumped as I pulled out my chair and plopped down, taking a plate. “Is this what we're going to do until we find someone and she inevitably turns us down?”
“What god crawled up your ass this morning? I thought a night of acting like you were in a war would make you more mellow?” Saber sliced a thick cut of meatloaf and set it on my plate. “Here. Eat some meat. Be nice.”
If meat was all it took to change my attitude, I should’ve been a peachy fucking princess. “I don’t want any of us getting hurt,” I said. It was the truth.
“No one is getting hurt here, Menace. With this app, there will be no unheard expectations, and she will see us before she decides to accept the mating terms. We can’t go wrong with this one. I…hold on a minute. We have…it says we have a match. We…look at her.”
Chapter Nine
Ilya
I finally fell asleep just about the time the sun rose. Exhaustion overtook all the other crap currently taking up space in my head. My last act before my eyes closed was sending a message to the guys who had caught my interest.
It had taken most of the nerve I had to type it out. They were the most unlikely ones that I would fall for.
And my first act on opening them was to check my phone to see if I got a reply. My vision still blurry from sleep, I saw the little envelope on the screen that indicated I’d had activity on the Mail-Order Matings app. It could be just about anyone who had looked at my profile or even a message from the app itself. Or new suggestions for matings.
