Page 13 of Buck Wild Orc Cowboy (Brides of the Lonesome Creek Orcs #3)

Sel

S leeping in a hayloft might be fun for a youngling, but a mature orc? Let's just say that I might need to buy a bed when I went into town.

I joined Max and Holly for breakfast inside. She’d made pancakes. I’d had them once at Greel’s place. His mate, Jessi, had made them, and she was an amazing cook.

After we’d finished consuming them all, we explained our plan for Max.

“I get to stay here alone while you’re at work?” he breathed, his gaze shooting to meet his mother’s. “Really?”

“Really.” She smiled, though the twitch of her hand on the table told me she was still a little nervous about this.

“I’m sure my brothers will stop by during the day,” I said. “They’ll show you how to work with the youngling sorhoxes.” And make sure Max was comfortable and safe. That should help reassure her.

Her brow knit. “They’re…”

“Like me,” I said. “We’re all basically the same.”

“You’re not the same, Sel, even if it feels like you are. You’re…” She looked down at her empty plate. “Special.”

My heart flipped over, and I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing. Just nodded as if I was used to women telling me I was special. But, wow, did my blood roar.

Max looked between us, and I swore he smirked, though he leaped to his feet and took his plate to the sink so fast that I wasn’t sure. “You two are riding into town together, right?”

He sure sounded happy about that, though his back was turned and, again, I couldn’t tell.

“Yes,” I said. It might be torture to hold my mate in my arms even for a short time, but I’d willingly do it. Being close to her would feel wonderful.

Once we’d gotten things going at the bakery, I was going to seek out Jessi, Beth, Gracie, and Rosey, my brother’s mates. They often visited together in the morning before digging into their plans for the day.

I needed their advice.

Leaving Max with strict instructions for what he was allowed to do and what he wasn’t, Holly and I rode on Zist into town, dismounting behind the bakery. While he ambled over to the open plain to graze, we went inside and got to work. An hour or so later, I turned to Holly.

“I’m going to check on Max and take care of a couple things,” I said, washing my hands at the sink and drying them with a towel.

Holly looked up from the dough she was kneading but didn’t pause. “Alright.” Her gaze shot to the open doorway. “I'll take care of any customers.”

I needed to hire someone to work out front, but it took time to hire Holly. I did have a few applicants, however, and I'd reach out to them soon for interviews.

When I slipped outside, the warmth of late morning wrapped around me. The air smelled of sugar, baking bread, and sun-warmed wood. Town noises clattered in the background. Boots on the boardwalk, someone shouting for a youngling to stop running. Back here behind the bakery it was quiet.

“Whoop, whoop, whoop,” I called to Zist.

A thudding gallop answered me, and moments later, my sorhox rushed from the pasture. He skidded to a halt a short distance away.

“Good boy,” I said with a smile, leaping up onto his broad back. A nudge of my heels sent him down the alley. The buildings of Main Street faded behind us, giving way to wide green fields and the road back to mine and my brother's homes.

My thoughts jumbled together.

Max’s eyes had shone at breakfast. That joy stuck with me. Then there was the kiss, the way Holly had moved toward me like I was wanted. And that word she’d used to describe me. Special. Like maybe I was everything she might ever need.

A grin tugged at my mouth, though I had no clue what I was doing. Wooing a woman? No idea. Especially one who’d been hurt. But I wanted to learn. No, I had to.

I stopped at my house, finding Max standing at the fence, offering a sorhox a handful of grass. He beamed up at me when I brought Zist to a halt.

“Everything alright?” I asked.

“Yup. I was going to take a walk along the fence. I'll let you know if any of it is down or needs repair.”

This youngling was going to be a big help; I could see that already.

“I appreciate that,” I said. “We'll see you later.” I pivoted Zist and urged him back onto the main road, aiming for Greel's house in the distance.

As I crested a hill, I spotted my brother Hail working on the fencing to my right. He'd rolled up his sleeves and was securing a strand of wire to a post.

He straightened when he saw me guiding Zist his way.

“Hey, Sel. How’s it going?” he called, grinning wide.

I slowed Zist and when he came to a halt, swung down from his back.

“Better than I expected,” I said.

Hail rubbed his chin and looked me up and down.

“You look…different.” He spoke slowly, carefully.

My brother had speech difficulties when he was young.

A stutter, the humans called it. Our mother had worked hard with him to help, and it rarely came out now unless he was stressed. “What’ve you been up to?”

I shrugged. “The bakery, as usual.”

“I heard you'd hired someone.” He secured the wire to the post and dropped his tool into the leather pouch by his feet.

“I did. Her name’s Holly. Her twelve-year-old youngling son, Max, came with her.”

“Oh yeah?” He swallowed and seemed to wrangle with his tongue for a moment. I waited patiently. “How’s… How’s that going?”

“Well. I moved them into my place last night.”

Hail raised a brow. “I thought she would stay at the hotel.”

“There’s more room with me.”

“And where are you staying, then?”

“In the hay loft.”

His lips pressed together, and his gaze flickered down my arm. He grabbed my hand and flipped it palm-up. “Mating mark. Is she the lucky fated one?” With a grin, he knuckled my shoulder, a gesture like a human patting another's back. “Congratulations.”

“It is her,” I said quietly. “Holly.”

His face shifted, less excited now and more curious. “You’ve claimed her…in the ancient orc way?”

“Er, no. Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“The time isn’t right.”

He narrowed his dark eyes and adjusted his cowboy hat to shield his face from the sun. “Wait. Does she know?”

I squirmed under his scrutiny. “I can’t tell her. Not yet.” I dropped my voice. “She’s been through a lot with Max's father. He was bad. He hurt her.”

“We'll kill him,” my brother said simply, but this was the orc way. A threat to one was a threat to all.

“If he comes here, yes.” Orc justice didn't always follow the same rules as a human's.

Seeking him out to slay him was one thing and forbidden in the treaty.

But if he showed up here, in our territory, and threatened Holly or Max, I would not hesitate to act.

The treaty was clear that we could respond to threats.

Hail grunted. Like me, he'd prefer to be proactive about this rather than reactive.

“If I push her too fast, it might make her feel trapped.” I studied the fence, seeing a possible break further ahead. “She might run.”

My brother grunted again.

“I’m worried, Hail.” My chest felt too tight. “I think I could love her. She looks at me but also holds back. She's scared, even when she smiles.”

Hail said nothing, only listened.

“I want her to feel safe,” I said. “Like I could protect her in a way no one else ever has. And when she said I was special…”

“That word meant something,” he said softly.

I nodded. “It made me feel like maybe I have a real chance with her. But only if I don’t mess this up.” Heat climbed into my face and across to my ears. I huffed out a laugh, then blurted out before I lost my nerve. “Do you, uh, do you have any suggestions for how I can win her heart?”

Hail blinked. Then chuckled, a rare sound from him. “Me? Sel, I’ve never even wooed someone before.”

“I…yeah.” My poor brother was so shy and worried he’d say something with a stutter that I wasn’t sure he’d ever spoken with a female, not more than a few words.

He leaned on the post beside him, crossing his arms on his chest. “I listen, and I watch. I've even taken notes.”

My brother, Dungar, had O of the CD, per our Aunt Inla. She said that was why he was so meticulous about everything. Hail admired him greatly and used to mimic him when we were small. If Dungar was taking notes and had lists, so would Hail.

“I don't know a lot, but I do know a few things that might help,” he said.

I waited, hands on my hips, hope blooming in my heart.

Hail’s gaze drifted over the pasture, assessing the sorhoxes grazing there.

“She’s not from here. Everything’s different for her.

The bakery is yours, not hers. And Lonesome Creek is run by orcs she doesn’t know.

The place is filled with tourists who are strangers.

You want to win her?” He spoke carefully, but fast, and I’d swear this was the most my brother had said at one time, but he must be enthused by this topic. “Do small things that show you care.”

“Like what?”

“Ask about her day. Really listen when she answers. Make her food when she’s too tired to stand. Fix something broken without her needing to ask.”

My brow furrowed. “That’s it?”

He shrugged. “Many think it’s supposed to be grand gestures and pretty words. Real love’s quiet. Honest.” He was putting his whole heart in this, and that crushed me. “Does she know you see her, Sel? That you actually see her and not just what’s on the outside?”

Silence stretched between us, the wind sweeping across the long grasses on the plain.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I want her to. More than I’ve wanted anything in a long time.”

Hail’s voice softened. “Then don’t only protect her from the outside. Show her she can rest, too, that you're there to support her in any way you can. Show her the real Sel, the one we all love.”

I hugged him, and he hugged me back. I loved my brothers. They were the best.

“You're wise to hold off marking her,” he said. “I'd do the same thing.”

That was reassuring.

“From what you said, you'll need to let her show you that she's interested before you do anything like that. No pressure. Let her come to you.”