Page 8 of Buck Wild Orc Cowboy (Brides of the Lonesome Creek Orcs #3)

Horns curled forward from behind his ears, ending in deadly spikes. Thick fangs peeked past Brelar’s lips, jutting down.

I pointed. “Long ago, they'd rip through their prey with these, but sorhoxes have been domesticated beasts for many generations.

I'm sure there are still some distant caverns where they roam free.

Those, you'd have to watch out for. But the ones we brought to the surface are the tamer variety.

Sure, you could get hurt if you startled one.

They defend themselves and their young. But they're smart.

They like us. And we've worked with them extensively.

We'd have to if we hoped to make a success of this venture.”

Brelar gave a quiet snort and blinked down at me.

Max moved over to stand beside me. “He's so cool.”

I shot him a grin. “He sure is.” I unlatched the gate and tugged it open. “You'll be riding Brelar to your new home.”

“Just for a short time,” Holly said, caution coming through in her voice loud and clear.

“It's yours for as long as you'd like to stay.” I used equal care with my words. I’d rehearsed that line in my head since she left. Soft tone, proper phrasing, the kind of offer that didn’t rattle someone already held together by frayed threads.

I didn’t want to be the one who tugged them loose.

“If you decide you want to stay beyond the one-month trial period, my brothers and I will build you your own place.”

Her breath caught. “Our own home?”

So much for my thought of moving them to the nearby town.

“The hotel is generally for tourists, those staying for only a short time.

If you're going to live here, you need a home, right?” I made it sound like it was a simple thing, and in some ways, it would be.

“We don't have rental units. We bought this valley and the woods around it, even partway up into the mountains beyond. It was empty then. Everything you see in the area was built by us before we opened.”

“That's a huge investment.”

“The king and queen themselves contributed.” I left the financing discussion at that. Yes, the royal family had interest in this venture, but the funding came from us.

Fymsom was a common stone in the orc kingdom.

We'd quickly realized they called it gold here and that it was highly prized.

We brought small amounts with us and implied we'd mined it in the mountains we now owned.

But whenever we needed money, each of us had a nice stash of fymsom we could take to the bank and exchange.

“I’d never ask anyone to build a home for us,” she said. “That’s too much.”

“It would be easy to buy the materials to build a place for you two.” I took care with my words because, again, I didn’t want to say anything that would drive her away or make her feel uncomfortable.

“We plan to build residences for anyone else who chooses to live here and work. You’d use it for as long as you worked in town.

My brothers and I talked about this and agreed we'd construct homes for long-term employees as we need them. They'll live there for free?—”

“Free?” she barked.

“Yes, free. Because they won’t own them. We won’t allow anyone to own their own places here because we don’t want them sold. We own all the valley, and we wanted it to stay that way. If someone wants to own their own place, they can buy outside the valley and commute.”

“Ah.” She frowned. “We could do that too. Rent at first, of course, but maybe someday…” She shrugged. “That’s for dreaming about later, I suppose. You might decide I won’t work out and then we’ll move on.”

I wanted her to work out, and not only because I could already see she did a great job. I wanted her to stay. A dangerous thought, because I wasn’t interested in being with someone new, but I couldn’t seem to suppress it.

“All of this is amazing.” She stared around in wonder. “The town, the business, and what you and your brothers have built here.”

“It’s a simple barn. About forty feet long and housing ten sorhoxes,” I said, focusing on this building alone.

“We’ll build another barn as we grow, but we purposefully started small.

For now, it’s just me and my five brothers, plus Aunt Inla and Grannie Lil, though she lives here to be close to Jessi, who’s mated to my brother, Greel.

She’s sharing with my aunt, but we’ve started construction on her home already. ”

“That’s nice of you and your brothers.” Holly strolled down the center aisle, her head back to take everything in.

“We store feed above and in the attached silo,” I said. “The last room on the right is for tack. Orcs ride without saddles, and we don’t use harnesses or reins, but the tourists do.”

She stopped partway down and studied a sorhox staring her way. He bucked his head, which meant he was begging for pats. “How do you get them to go where you want if you don’t use reins?”

“All are trained to respond to foot commands. They’re docile creatures in general. Those we work with, that is. Even our regular mounts roam free.”

“You mean they just wander around?” Max asked, blinking behind his glasses.

“They do. They come when we call. We trained them to do that as well.”

“I’ll ride without a saddle and reins?” Max actually sounded excited about the idea, but I’d already seen he was not only a smart youngling but curious and brave. And protective of his mother, as he should be. He’d make a fine man one day.

“I’ll saddle and put a harness on Brelar for you,” I said. “We can work on your foot commands over the next few days and see what happens after that.”

His jaw dropped. “You mean I can ride him more than to your house?”

“If you want.” I watched Holly as I spoke.

I wasn’t going to push this either, but a youngling should be out in the sunshine, not sitting in a bakery all summer long reading books.

A boy his age shouldn't need permission for fresh air and muscle aches.

He should already have it, handed freely like bread after a long day.

But I could see it, the way he kept glancing up at her.

Waiting. As if the world only widened if she let it.

“If your mom doesn’t mind, that is,” I added. “I’ll be happy to teach you and if you feel comfortable, you could take Brelar out on one of the trails.”

“That…” Holly swallowed, a touch of panic flaring in her eyes. “Sounds lovely.”

“You said you have young sorhoxes that need training.” Max stiffened his spine, standing tall. “Can I work with them soon?”

“We’ll see,” was all I wanted to say right now.

Holly and I could talk later, once Max had gone to bed.

I’d misspoken already. I should only offer things to him with her prior approval.

After what she told me about Max’s father, who could blame her for hovering over her son like a mother chumble?

She would protect her young with her life, just like I would her and Max.

Funny how I knew that already.

The more Holly watched me, the more I felt off-kilter. Like my bones itched beneath the skin. It was an awareness. A knowing I had no idea how to analyze. Max watching did nothing to my self-control, but Holly…

I swallowed hard. She looked good. Sun streaming through the back window caught her auburn hair, making it gleam like a sunrise. There was a slow kind of quiet to her right now, and it hit something deep in my chest.

I’d never used creatures to impress anyone before, but I very much ached to impress Holly. Which made it worse. I had no business hoping. Not with her still scanning exit doors like the walls might bite.

She's not impressed, I told myself. She's watching you closely because she’s a survivor . Like a mother chumble, she’d do anything to protect her young, even attack someone twice her size.

But a part of me wondered.

What if she truly was impressed with me?