Thick and sturdy? WTF. That’s his justification for choosing me? My sisters are skinny whereas I’m large on top, in the hips, and backside. Okay, my thighs are a little thicker too, but my weight never stopped me from doing anything this family or colony needed.
He’s always had issues with me, criticizing me for my size. “Out of all the women in this colony, you picked me because you think I’m fat?”
“I had to prove I can sacrifice for the good of the colony.”
“How areyousacrificing?”
“Watch that tone of yours. I’m a councilman now. I won’t tolerate being disrespected.” He raises his chin in pride as if he’s a king.
“Councilman?” I question.
“They voted three days ago.”
Now I understand. Forhissacrifice of giving his daughter to the orcs, my father got a seat on the council. Prestige for a man who never could keep a job longer than two weeks back on Earth.
While my father enjoys his new position, I’ll be bred by horrible beasts. Excuse me… one beast, according to some damn treaty I never agreed to with a people we don’t trust.
“If you escape, don’t return empty-handed or I’ll take you back to the orcs myself. Do you hear me, Paloma?” he whispers so the orcs won’t hear.
When I don’t answer, he grips me harshly by my chin. “Answer me!”
“I heard you.”
“Good.” He releases me, then nods with pride. Not of me. Of his new status.
My fists clench just thinking about how he’s selling me, throwing me away like I’m a piece of garbage.
“Maybe I’ll just tell the orcs that you want me to spy on them. That will break this damn treaty wide open.” The best way to escape the orcs is to not be turned over to them in the first place.
“Go ahead, chica, tell them you’re spying. You’ll be the first one they kill. And you’ll endanger everyone here, including your sisters.”
I shut up. He pulled the sister card. I won’t endanger them, and he knows it.
“Bastard!”
He slaps me across the face. Hard.
Okay, it turns out I do have something to lose. The feeling in my cheek.
I cup the stinging flesh, hoping to soothe the fire while I glare at him. At this point, I’m not thinking strategically. I’ll do and say anything to hurt him back. I refuse to leave here letting him or anyone else think that what they’re doing to me is okay.
“I hope my first human-orc kid is a boy, so I can name him Javier after you. A monster should be named after a monster, after all.”
My father raises his hand to strike me again. My entire body tightens, waiting for the blow, but nothing happens. A green hand shoots out and locks against my father’s forearm. My father is shaking, struggling to break free of the orc’s iron grip.
A sense of invincibility moves through me at that moment, because I know my father can’t touch me. This green wall of muscle won’t let him.
My eyes move up that mud-covered arm to the orc who’s protecting me from my father.
The massive beast towers over me. I’m only five-six and this monster has to be at least six-eight. He isn’t the tallest orc I’ve seen or even the tallest of the group standing behind him, but every muscle bulges with power.
Three sets of dark green eyes train on my father and the orc holding his arm. The orcs rest their hands on the knives in the sheaths they wear across their chests, as they stand ready to attack if my father even twitches.
I inhale, finally remembering to breathe. And instantly regret it as the wind carries the putrid stench of the muck-covered orcs to me. I try not to wretch, as that will make a horrible first impression. Not that I want to impress them, but I don’t want to appear weak.
My knees wobble, my stomach churns from more than the smell, and I’m dizzy. This isn’t how I want to leave. I want to hold my head high so my fellow humans see I’m not a coward, even if I feel like one at the moment. I’m deathly afraid of these beasts.
Their mouths sport feral sharp teeth, and two tusks protrude from inside their lower lips. Eyebrows thicker than a human’s rest on a prominent ridge, the first in a series that covers their foreheads. An orc’s nose is larger than any human’s, flatter and widertoo, but still just a nose. Those tusks… I can’t stop staring at them. Only animals have tusks.
