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CHAPTER 7

TANNER

I was fine. This was fine. Everything was fine.

I was only holding hands with a disguised, giant green being I’d been certain was fiction only an hour ago, after watching him dispose of another of his race.

Just another Thursday.

What the fuck was life?

Mahk—I couldn’t believe I’d been saying his name wrong for weeks—seemed very at ease for someone who’d just admitted to being a career murderer, not to mention a fucking orc, something I didn’t think I could rectify until I saw it with my own eyes. Only problem was, I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Or any of this. I should’ve known ignoring my little stalker’s red flags would’ve ended this way. Of course the first person who showed any interest in me in years was a fucking mythical being hitman.

I probably should’ve been more bothered by the hitman portion of that sentence, but I . . . wasn’t. Yes, murder was wrong, but I’d always believed in the grayscale, and sometimes you had to do what you had to do. Besides, from the little I understood about Mahk’s home world, it was kind of old school, medieval sounding, so it made sense that assassins existed in the mainstream. He’d sworn he hadn’t killed a human and only ended those who deserved it, and I believed him. Not once during that whole encounter had I been scared for my life. Somewhere deep down, I knew I was safe with Mahk.

We walked away from the sink pit and onto the main road with Mahk swinging my arm and humming a tune I didn’t recognize. It was so fucking adorable and tracked with the man I’d gotten to know over the last few weeks. We froze, a little awkward, unsure where to go now. I briefly thought of bringing him back to my house, but no. I was not prepared to answer questions if any of my siblings saw him, and they’d have questions—nosy little shits. Besides, sharing a bedroom with my teenage brother was a bit of a boner killer. But, on the other hand, this also wasn’t a conversation we should be having outside in the middle of the night.

Mahk waited patiently, like he had been doing all night. He seemed to understand my brain was being a little slow on the uptake and was willing to allow me the time to process.

“Do you have some place we can go? Where have you been staying anyway?” I really hoped it wasn’t in the middle of the woods somewhere. Even though I’d grown up with Forest Glen as my backyard practically, I wasn’t the biggest fan of nature. The thought of having to hike through the woods this late at night, having no idea what wild creature was around the corner waiting to make me their next meal? Yeah, no thanks.

“Oh yes. I am staying at a house! We can go there.”

He was? Where? There were some rentals for tourists who chose to stay for the whole summer, but most people who did had RVs and stayed in Forest Glen. We didn’t have a lot of open properties here that he could have rented or bought. And if he did, I was sure I’d have heard about it by now. Destiny was small as shit. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone was in each other’s business.

I allowed him to lead me down the street and away from my home. After about three blocks, my first question popped in my head. Had he dragged that body all this way? Finally, he turned down a dirt path and toward a bungalow that was nestled back in the trees. I stopped moving.

“This is the Cunninghams’ home.”

“Oh, yes, I know,” Mahk responded brightly. “Mrs. Menendez told me all about them. They seem very nice.” He paused, frowning at the expression on my face. “Don’t worry. I haven’t messed up their home, and I plan to make sure everything is cleaned and exactly where they left it. I’m only borrowing it.”

He was saying words, and they were in English, thanks to the magical bracelet that he’d also told me about, but they weren’t making any sense. He’d borrowed the Cunninghams’ house? And what the fuck did Mrs. Menedez have to do with any of it?

“Do they know you’re living here?” I finally landed on.

“The Cunninghams? I don’t think so. I don’t know how they would. Mrs. Menendez informed me they are visiting their children out of state. She is dog-sitting Wonton. It seems like an odd name for a dog that big. Actually, I had never seen a dog in this realm that big before. I asked Mrs. Menedez about it, but all she said was that Wonton was a Great Dane.” Mahk shrugged like everything he’d said was perfectly normal.

I had so many questions. You know what? No, I didn’t. The less I knew, the better. I jerked my head toward the door. “Alright, let’s go. I was already an accomplice to covering up a murder, so why not add breaking and entering to the list?”

I sent a silent apology to the Cunninghams and then followed Mahk inside. He looked worried, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with the fact that he was squatting in my neighbor’s home while they spent time with their first grandchild.

“What?” I snapped, when he kept staring at me, a little ruder than I’d meant to be. But I was internally freaking out a bit. Somewhere in my warped moral compass, being in the Cunninghams’ bungalow without them knowing felt worse than watching Mahk dispose of a body. Maybe because Koth had seemed like an asshole who’d deserved it? Or maybe it was because even if he was ever discovered, the police would never be able to make sense of the massive green orc and would probably cover it up. Or possibly it was because the Cunninghams were sweet as fuck. They’d sometimes look after the girls for me when Chelsey couldn’t, and Mrs. Cunningham made the best baked ziti and always made sure to save an extra tray for us to take home. It kind of felt like I was betraying her trust.

But when we walked in, some of my concerns were alleviated. It looked exactly like it always had. The house was clean, and all of the family photos were untouched. Mrs. Cunningham’s music box collection still sat proudly in the glass display cabinet. I sucked in a deep breath. Mahk seemed to be respecting their place at least.

This was when, once again, my insane attraction to Mahk overrode any sense I thought I had. I started to reason it out. The Cunninghams were awesome. If they knew Mahk needed a place to stay, they’d probably be happy to have him here while they were gone. I could pretend, at least for a little while, that Mahk had gotten permission and I wasn’t committing a crime.

I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes. I’d had a lot of shit thrown at me in my life, but this was simultaneously the hardest and not that bad. I could walk away at any time. It wasn’t like when Mom had gotten sick or when the second stroke had left her wheelchair bound and I’d had to leave school. That was my family. It was heavy and too much and all I wanted to do was bury my head under the blanket and pretend none of it was happening, but I couldn’t. I had a sick mom I had to take care of and four siblings that were too young to take care of themselves. I’d had to face it head-on, as much as I hadn’t wanted to.

I had no obligation here. I could walk away right now, go back home, and get that sleep I clearly needed. I could ignore Mahk when he came into the store or even ask him to leave. I didn’t have to see his orc form or whatever the fuck else. Could go back to my boring ass life and responsibilities.

Yet, I couldn’t. Just the thought of walking away from Mahk hurt, even if I couldn’t explain why. My little stalker had his hooks in me, and as much as the sensible thing would be to end this, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Slowly, like I was in a fog, I sat down on the Cunninghams’ powder-blue couch. I looked at Mahk, who still stood in the middle of the room, looking a little shell-shocked. As much as this was hard for me, I had to imagine it wasn’t easy for Mahk either. This was an entirely different culture and lifestyle that he’d been thrown into. Then on top of that, for whatever reason, he seemed attached to me and cared about my opinions. It was very odd having that kind of attention on me, even now as he stared with his blue/purple puppy eyes and those fucking lashes that were the death of me.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

He didn’t move. “Do what, Tanner?”

I waved at him. “The whole magic thing. Let me see what you really look like.”

His eyes widened and his fingers ticked, something I’d noticed he did when he was nervous. “Are you sure? I do not want to frighten you.”

“I’m sure. I want to see the real you.” I flashed him a small smile. “Besides, I already witnessed you dumping a body. If I haven't run yet, then I won’t because of this.”

Mahk still seemed unsure, but he reached for the gaudy bangle he always wore and took it off.

Where the cute man I’d been crushing on had been now stood an orc. A full-ass, straight out of my favorite monster fucker Yaoi orc. Mahk was now taller than I was by a few inches, thick muscles filling his features. His skin was light green, and I noticed a few scars along his arms that had not been there in the human body. A thick, dark beard covered his face, his tusks sticking out through the coarse strands. His dark hair on his head hung down to his shoulders, and there was that white-blond streak I always found fascinating. He blinked up at me, and his eyes were fully purple now. A deep, intoxicating amethyst color that held me in a chokehold.

Mahk stood very still, his fingers flexing nervously as he watched me. I knew he was waiting for a reaction, but it was taking some time for my brain to reload and get on board with forming a coherent sentence. I wasn’t scared, far from it. I was having a hard time coming to terms with how my body was reacting to the orc in front of me.

His clothes seemed to adjust and grow to fit his body, which made his odd ensemble stand out even more. They stretched over his broader form, and yeah, okay, I looked down at the bulge in between his legs. But trust me, anyone would. Even covered in clothing, it was . . . obvious. I didn’t even think he was hard—he was that massive. Usually when I hooked up, I topped, but my mind was already wandering and delving into fantasies it had no business having.

I forced myself to look up. Mahk was waiting for me to say anything, to ease his nerves, and instead I was ogling the man. The orc? Whatever, it was still inappropriate. So instead, I got lost inside those amethyst eyes. Fuck, they were beautiful. I stood up and slowly approached him. Mahk didn’t move a muscle.

My heart was racing, but I knew Mahk would never hurt me. It was strictly adrenaline. Too much had happened in such a short time and it had my body reacting. I stopped about a foot away. It was a little strange that he was suddenly bigger than I was, though not that much. I looked up with a soft smile and gently reached out until I was cupping his cheek, my palm pushing into his coarse beard.

“Thank you for showing me,” I whispered almost reverently. I didn’t know why I was reacting like this, but it felt appropriate. I couldn’t imagine the amount of trust it took for Mahk to share everything he had. Mahk leaned into my touch, eyes half closed, like he craved nothing more. Slowly, cautiously, he brought a hand up to mine, covering it. I grinned.

“You have the same pretty eyelashes in this form. It’s my fucking kryptonite.”

Mahk smiled, his eyes lighting up, even as he looked confused. “Kryptonite?”

Suddenly, all his odd phrasing and naivety about basic things made sense. He was from a completely different world, so of course he didn’t know those things. “It comes from an old superhero, Superman. Basically, nothing could hurt or kill him, except one thing; kryptonite. It was his only weakness.”

The implication sunk in and Mahk rewarded me with a lopsided smile that had one of his tusks tilting up, and it was so fucking adorable and so reminiscent of the ones I was used to with his human illusion. It warmed me. This was still my little stalker, just slightly larger. And green.

“I’m sorry I kept this from you,” Mahk said eventually. His voice was a little huskier now, gravel in the tone that went right to my core.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I get it.”

The air around us was heavy with anticipation. We were on the cusp of something monumental, something life-changing. I wrenched away, creating some much-needed space between us. I had to be able to breath without his heady scent filling my nose.

We stared at each other, neither one of us finding the words for whatever was happening. I understood the significance of him telling me this. It meant something. He’d finished his job that he was here for. Mahk could’ve easily lied to me and disappeared, leaving me with questions I’d never have the answer to and an ache in my soul. But he hadn’t. He’d told me the truth. I didn’t know why, and I was scared to find out.

Something needed to give, though. I cleared my throat. “So what now?”

Mahk’s lashes fluttered. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you did your job, right? So what happens now? Do you go back to your world?” And leave me here alone? I managed to keep that part to myself.

Mahk froze at my question, one of his tusks digging into his upper lip, and I swore to fuck this massive orc was blushing.

“Well, you see, about that . . .”

Hell, what now?

“What is it, Mahk?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “I cannot return home.”

What? “Huh? How? I thought you said there was a barrier that you could cross. In the cave? That’s how you got here, right?”

“There is.” He looked down at the floral area rug we were standing on, his toes digging into the fabric. “But it kind of closed and won’t open back up.”

“What do you mean it won’t open back up? Is that even possible? Do you know what happened? Have you been trying to find a way home?”

It wasn’t like I was in a rush for Mahk to leave me, but . . . I was realistic enough to know he could not stay here forever. He wasn’t human. He had a life and a family. He was the royal assassin, whatever the fuck that meant. Whatever this was between us wasn’t destined to be permanent, and no matter how much I wished I could have something that was only for myself, something with Mahk, I understood that wasn’t in the cards. I knew what it felt like to be trapped somewhere you didn’t want to be. I didn’t want that for Mahk.

He still looked awkward. There was something he wasn’t telling me. “I know what happened and how to reopen the barrier. I am unable to do so right now.”

“Okay . . . so how do you do it?”

Mahk finally looked up, and I was struck by how vulnerable he appeared. All I wanted to do was kiss him and hold him and make everything better, which, wasn’t that an odd feeling?

“There is a story from my homeland,” he said instead of outright answering. “It talks of how every orc has a person that is destined for them. Fated. The story goes on to say that if yours is from a different realm, one of the barriers will open, but only for the person. They would be allowed into Belzod to meet their mate. But the twist was the border would not reopen until both parties accepted the match.” He laughed a little, reminiscing, “My brother Nash always firmly believed in the stories, and my other brother, Axum, and I would tease him. It wasn’t that I thought they were fantasies exactly, but it seemed so farfetched and unlikely to happen that I dismissed it, as did Axum.”

Made sense. I would never believe something like that either. “That was until both my older brothers met their mates, who crossed the barrier. Still, I never expected it to happen to me, and I had no idea it could occur in reverse, where I would be closed off to my home, but it did, and it can.”

I understood the words and even what they meant. Mahk believed he’d been locked out of his homeland because he had a fated mate here and needed to accept the bond before the barrier would reopen—but that was impossible.

The last few weeks flashed through my mind like a movie, from the first time I’d caught Mahk watching me to all the times he’d brought me food and spent time with me, to all the events today. The way Mahk seemed to fixate on me, seemed to act like I was the most important person in the universe. It implied one thing, but there was no fucking way whatever deities Mahk believed in would somehow decide that I, of all fucking people, was this sweet, slightly deadly orc’s perfect match. It was fucking laughable.

But the way Mahk was staring at me with such earnest want, begging me to understand, to accept him, it was hard to come up with any other conclusion. It was so fucked up, so unbelievably impossible I had to fight the urge to break down in hysterics. But Mahk was being deadly serious, and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him like that.

“Tell me I’m misunderstanding what you’re implying,” I finally implored.

But Mahk looked at me sadly. “You’re my fated mate, Tanner. You were meant to be mine, and I was meant to be yours.”

Oh, fuck me. What did I do now?