“Have you seen yourself?”
“Nay.”
I smile grimly. “Well, I have and you’re a mess. So, hold still.” Gently I place the wrapped cube of ice on his swollen eye and cheekbone. My touch is light; it looks sore.
He clears his throat, but the sound of crushed glass remains. “You really don’t have to. I’m used to fights.”
Obviously. But yet, that’s sad. “Hold still, orc. We have to keep you pretty. I’m sure you have a Southpeak female back home, eh?”
He huffs. “Nay.”
I take another piece of ice and use it on his split lip, mindful of how sore it must be to have been cut near his tusk.
“’Tis cold,” he complains.
My lip twitches. “You’re covered in cuts and bruises and you’re complaining of a little ice?”
“Hmph. You have a heavy hand, wench. Can probably slay most males yourself.”
“He’s not wrong.”
I freeze at the sound of my father’s voice. He’s discovered me. I use the word that softens him up. “Daddy.”
“Don’t you butter me up, fruit of my loins. The Southpeak is supposed to keep you safe. Not get tended to.”
“And I am,” I say calmly. “But I can’t have my guard ready to collapse, now can I?”
“I should have raised you with spankings. Mayhap you’d have better sense now.” He scowls.
“Aye, daddy. Would you like me to ask my future mate to spank me whenever I misbehave? Make up for your failings?” I wink at the shocked guard across from me to prepare him for my father’s roar.
“Negan Natalya!Hischen ‘ef galyan gi yaman—”
But Grandpa Brachard’s booming laughter smothers my father’s curses. “Oshin, such language. These are happy times, eh? ‘Tis no one’s fault ye spoiled yer daughter.”
“I spoiled her? Yer one to talk!” Father shouts, throwing up his hands. “Ye bought her a steed before she was three!”
Each slips into their accents, as if feeding off each other.
Then another voice laughs and a sheepish Shalia and Hisa take their seats, escorted by their mates.
“She distracted you,” Brun says wryly to Varguk. “So these other two could spy on the males. You can never trust when these three are together. Lesson one, Varguk, you’re not just guarding Negan from others. You’re guarding her from herself also.”
That’s all he says and I’m sure it’s because he doesn’t want the Southpeak to wonder what Tok and Bakog were actually up to that we decided to spy.
For a moment, both father figures are quiet. They know we’re watching them. “We raise strong females,” Brachard says.
“Too strong,” mine says.
“Aye.”
The two wander off, muttering about the old ways.
Chapter Three
Varguk of the Southpeak Orcs:
THE BRIDGE OF THE Blackheart and West Mountain orcs has the grown males wrapped around her finger. ‘Tis nearly impossible to believe, had I not seen it with my own eyes.
