“Letting another male mate you. Me.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
VERIG
“Isn’t that convenient?” Tansey says, though there’s no true ire to her words. She sighs, her body showing signs of exhaustion.
I growl, upset that I haven’t considered the effect Baloq’s attack has had on her. I vow to the gods, if he ever comes near her again, I will kill him.
“Nothing about this situation is convenient, female,” I say as I wrap my hand around her upper arm and lead her toward camp.
“Where are you taking me?” she says with a tinge of panic in her voice.
“To the tunnels. You need rest. As do I.”
“To the women’s quarters? He’ll find me again. You said so yourself. And I’m not mating you or anyone else, Verig. There’s only one solution. Let me leave. Tonight.”
She’d never survive the journey, and I cannot let her go. Not only would I be disobeying my grak’s ruling, but my own selfish needs won’t allow it. The notion of letting her go turns mystomach almost as much as thinking about that horrific day we left Orcos.
“If you had your son, would you abandon this notion of leaving?”
“He doesn’t belong here. Neither of us does.”
“Then you must get used to the idea of never seeing him again,” I say, because I’m a sartog who doesn’t deserve her or any female. I’d rip out the throat of anyone who kept me from my youngling. And yet I don’t have that opportunity, or the chance to ever see Veeya again.
Tansey’s mouth opens, then snaps shut. “I should have known better. You’re like every other male. A bastard through and through.”
I spin her to face me. “Think of me how you wish, but that does not change your situation. You are never returning to the human colony. You’re here to stay. Now, where do you wish to sleep tonight? In the women’s quarters or with the one male who can protect you from Baloq?”
“I’m not sleeping in your bed,” she says, arms folded across her breasts. They are fleshier than those of an orc female. Shapely. Enticing.
“Eyes up here,Neld.” She points to her face.
As angry as she is, she’s still quite beautiful.
“The choice is yours, female. Sleep in my quarters or the women’s.”
“You won’t touch me?”
“Vekk, female, do you not see we are well-matched? You need me and I need you.”
I swallow hard at the admission that spilled from my mouth. I’ve not needed a female. Ever. Not even Haaka. We’d been matched as younglings by our parents. A match that proved beneficial to both of us. I thrived with her as a mate, and we formed a strong bond, but I never needed her. Not like I do Tansey.
“I need my son,” she says, her voice, expression, and body screaming at me with desperation.
“Tell me to get him for you, female, and I will do so.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I would claim him as my own. He’d be under my protection, my guidance.”
“Which is why he’s staying where he is.”
She does not trust me to keep her or a youngling safe. I haven’t proven myself. I failed to protect her from Baloq.
“If I stay in your quarters, do you promise not to touch me?” she asks, surprising me that she’s considering staying with me. At least she does not fear me.
“I will touch you, female, but only when you beg me to.”
