“No, no need to beat him up. He’s fine,” I said.
“Then, why do you look distressed? Your face looks whiter than normal.” He assessed me again, and I shrunk back.
Finley wrapped his arm around my shoulder, lending me some of his confidence. “She’s fine. She’s just got a lot on her mind: The first human and orc pairing, is all. It’s a lot to take in.”
Olur pushed the meat back on his shoulder. “Well, if it was my female, I would not let her out of my sight. Especially, after my shaft had been lodged into her cunt.”
Cheesus.
Heat rose to my cheeks. Not just at the words he used, but—at the idea that he thought I was claimed. I was wearing a sleeved dress today, so he wouldn’t see a mark on my shoulder. I swallowed heavily and couldn’t look him in the eye.
“I—uh, is it something I said?” Olur stepped forward with drooping shoulders.
I sat up straight and put a smile on my face, because it wasn’t his fault he brought up a sore spot. I mean, everyone around here expects us to be mated already, especially his tribe.
“We aren’t mated, yet. We are—”
“What?” Olur snapped. “You have not been branded? This is—this is terrible! Why would he not brand you, yet? This—this is unacceptable!” Olur huffed and paced around the room, running his free hand through his hair.
I giggled, watching this male hold a large hunk of meat over his shoulder while he mumbled under his breath. The Red Fury looked equally amused, their stances relaxed and even smiling.
“We must remedy this. We shall have to persuade him to hurry this branding along! I have an idea, and I do not have many, but this will be entertaining.”
There was a gleam in his eye and a friendly smile on his face. He looked like a troublemaker, and I was here for all of it.
“Wait here. I will inform the others!” He dashed from the room, while Everett and Finley stood by my side waiting for our surprise.
“Braxton would be so into this,” Everett said as he hoisted me up on his shoulder.
Olur had managed, in such a short amount of time, to recruit the few of the tribe who had stayed behind to look for their mates, to help. They don’t normally stay as long as this, but since Valpar found me, they didn’t want to miss any chances.
Olur was determined to make Valpar angry, feral even, to have him claim me. I didn’t ask for this. I even argued a bit with Olur, telling him I didn’t want to make my mate mad at me, but Olur shook his head and held up his hand in warning. “Valpar has always been the solemn, cranky one. This is payback.”
The tribe got to work and quickly constructed a platform with a chair decorated with flowers, a cushion, and gifts at the base. They said they used to do this long ago when the last of the females were alive and had to take multiple males as mates.
Apparently, females had harems of males.
Which sounded kind of neat, but I don’t think I could ever handle more than one of Valpar.
He was more than enough.
The females would sit on this fancy chair, and the males would compete for her affections. They would bring gifts, feed her food, spar, play games and do foot rubs. The party could last for days until she picked as many males as she wanted.
But, I only wanted one.
The longer I stood and watched as the males constructed the small platform, more guilt weighed heavily on me. I didn’t like this, I didn’t think it was a smart idea. I wanted Valpar, and if he wanted to take his time, there had to be a reason, right?
“Don’t worry,” Olur spoke when he approached me. “We are not claiming you, we are only doing this to hurry Valpar along, to make him sweat. You will pick him in the end. We want our own females.”
I snorted and shook my head. “You guys are bad. What if Vapar goes crazy? What if he hurts you?”
Olur scoffed. “So what? We like this. We are males. We like to rough each other up. Now let’s have fun with this.” Olur stepped away, his big back filled with scars, another sign that they did like to play rough.
Finley scooted me over, so I was resting my other leg on his shoulder as well. “Where is Braxton?” I asked, trying to steady myself on my two guards.
“His mate is becoming of age. He’s stalking her a bit.”
Everett rolled his eyes. “He’s had trouble staying away from her. I can’t say that I blame him. Now that’s she almost of age, he’ll claim her soon.”
