God help me, I’ve traded one green devil for another.
CHAPTER FIVE
VERIG
Baloq paces in the distance as I stand with Tansey and take in her scent. The sartog’s been keeping her prisoner. If Atox had not intervened, I would have gutted Baloq. Not for disobeying me, but for isolating her, forcing her to sleep in his bed. Imprisoning her.
“You’ve heard our grak rule on the matter, Baloq. You are not to keep her prisoner or control her in any way. Or stalk her,” I speak in Common so Tansey will understand what we’re saying.
“This is not fair, Neld.”
“Atox has given you the right to prove your worth to her…from a distance. She’s not to be forced. See to your duties.”
“She’s not yours, Verig,” Baloq persists, using my name and not my title. One hand rests on his side-knife as he paces.
“And she’s not yours either.” I turn my back to the warrior, testing his control. If he attacks me, I’ll know we have more of a problem than an overeager male desperate for a female.
Tansey glances from Baloq to me, confusion on her beautiful face.
“Come, female. I will show you where you will sleep.”
Slowly, she falls in step as I head to our mountain. I suspect her fear of Baloq drives her to my side more than any desire to be with me.
“So, I’m stuck with you now? I don’t see how this is any better. I should be allowed to stay with the other women,” she says loud and clear, nothing like the meek females the other warriors captured in the raid on New Earth.
“You presume too much, especially that I am like Baloq. I am not.” A growl rises too easily at how she would believe this of me.
“He’s a monster,” she says in a low voice, as if she fears him hearing her.
“He’s a warrior who is eager for a female. A warrior who disobeyed orders.” I will not defend him, as there is no defense for his actions, but her words referring to him as a monster concern me. It’s a term many of the human women we took use. Paloma, our graka, used this term when Atox took her, but in time, she accepted us. “We are not monsters. We have laws.”
“He forced me to sleep in his bed.”
I growl again at the image, then contain my anger, reminding myself that Baloq did not mate her. “Our laws prevent him from mating you when you’re not ready.”
“I’ll never be ready for that monster. Or any other.”
“We are orc. Not monsters. Not animals.” I must be patient with her. Let her accept her fate here. In time, she will realize she is safe with us…with me. And hopefully, she will accept me.
Unfortunately, I cannot lay a claim to her unless Baloq renounces his. Three months. That’s how long he has to prove his worth to her. While she can refuse him, as often as she wants, he may still pursue her during that period. Many orc females refuse a male initially, as a way of testing them. It is possible that human females do the same. But I do not believe this is the case with Tansey. I’ve seen genuine fear in her eyes when Baloq approaches her. It pleases me to think she willnever accept him, but that does not mean she will choose me either.
Tansey follows me, her golden hair flying behind her. I long to stroke the silky locks, to feel her warm flesh again. The memory of the heat of her skin against mine last week imprinted on my brain. I’ve been able to think of little else since returning to Mount Racha.
For Tansey, I can be very patient. But Baloq concerns me. He’s not the type of male to surrender a mate. Our grak has ordered him to stay away from Tansey unless she invites him. No one defies Atox. Before this past week, I never imagined Baloq would defy me, but he did. Which is why I can no longer trust him.
“If I’m not a prisoner, then I’m free to go anywhere I want?” Tansey asks.
“Within reason. We’ve marked the dangerous areas of our territory with red flags, namely where the narsi vines grow. Heed those markers, female.”
“Let me go home,” she says, her voice shaking.
“That is not an option.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
I stop a few feet inside the entrance to the tunnels and pull her down a passageway parallel to the main branch into a storage room for privacy. She yanks her arm free of me. She does not like to be touched.
Baloq. He did this to her. Made her wary of males. I’m going to rip his?—
