Page 19 of Enchanted with the Orc (The Kingverse Orcs #4)

Tasia

I was yanked back to the present by my daughter running up to me to show me the collection of blocks in her hand. I smiled down at her, running my hand across the top of her downy head.

“Me,” she said, pointing to the small purple block, “you,” she announced pointing to the bigger yellow block, “and Abu,” she finished, her chubby little finger prodding the biggest green block. Then she pressed them all together and lifted them toward me. “We’re a family.”

Shock, horror and terror flooded me at the same time, making adrenaline dump into my system.

Oh no. No, no, no.

I forced myself to smile, shaking my head. “No, sweetheart. Abu isn’t part of our family, okay? He’s a friend.”

The mutinous expression immediately took over her face. The one I knew too well that there was no way around. “Abu,” she insisted, smashing the blocks together harder. “Family.”

“He has his own family,” I tried explaining to her. “And we have our own. Right now he’s helping us, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll be together forever, okay?”

Instead of the screaming that I expected, her lower lip trembled and pain clutched at my chest.

“Together forever,” she wailed, sniffling hard, running toward Enka, who was frozen where he was standing a few feet away. She grabbed him around his leg, holding on for dear life as her tiny body was wracked with sobs. “Please, Abu!”

I sent an apologetic look his way, but he was staring at me, his eyes dark with pain. “I’ll be a part of your family as long as you want me to, Tasia.”

Shock slammed into me. “A part of our family?” I asked, the words barely leaving my lips, they were so softly spoken.

“If you want me,” he said, clearing his throat.

He reached down to pick up a still wailing Gabbi, who I couldn’t hear him speak over.

His huge palm covered the span of her back with ease, giving it a gentle rub as her face tucked into his neck with perfect trust. “I’ll be whatever you need me to be,” he whispered, and I took a stumbling step backward.

No, no, no. Please don’t tell me …

“W-why would you do that?” I demanded, my voice still lost in my throat.

“I think you know why,” he said in that same, soft, conciliatory voice that I didn’t know how to respond to.

“I don’t need anything or anyone,” I told him, reaching out for Gabbi. He released her, squeezing his eyes shut as I watched pain flash through them.

Gabbi didn’t let go, though. She held on, and no matter what I did, tickling her or whispering to her, she refused.

“I want to stay with Abu,” she sobbed, and I couldn’t take the sound of her sadness. “ We stay with Abu!”

I pressed my lips together, squeezing my eyes shut, never having been in this position with my daughter. No matter who she was with, when it was time to come back to me, she did it with joy. Yet here we were and I was torn, feeling betrayed and hurt, even though I knew I shouldn’t.

It wasn’t fair to her and I knew it. A child needed more than one person that she could count on. For the longest while I’d hoped I could let her go enough for it to be my coven, but now it seemed that she was demanding that I let her go to someone she chose.

“Okay, Gabbi-girl,” I said, swiping my fingers under my eyes to hide my tears. “We’ll stay with Abu.”

Suspicious, tear-stained eyes turned my way, peering out from Enka’s throat.

He had released her, but kept his hands near her in case she fell, and that was like the nail in the coffin.

He’d treated my girl right and it wasn’t fair that I was pushing him away because of my own selfish reasons. Gabbi deserved him too.

“Promise?” she asked, swiping her sticky little hand across her snot-covered nose and then wiping it across Enka’s cheek. He didn’t even flinch.

I smiled, knowing that he really did consider her his daughter. With that in mind, I tucked my daughter’s hair behind her ear .

She smacked her moist hand against Enka’s cheek, making me wince. I wanted to snatch her away, so she wouldn’t make a mess of his face. But it didn’t look like he needed the help. It looked like he was enjoying every moment of it.

The knowledge made me more settled with my decision to stay here with him. At the very least, my little girl would be happy staying here.

Taking a deep breath and finally deciding to trust my instincts, I reached out for Gabbi and she let me take her, giggling in my arms. “Abu’s going to take me to play,” she told me with finality.

“And I suppose you think I have no say about that, young lady?” I asked, giving her my best stern look.

Her guilty grin told me everything I needed to know.

“She’s going to be a spoiled little monster isn’t she?” I muttered to myself.

“No way,” Enka said in a low voice, smiling down at my daughter. “She’s perfect.”

I rolled my eyes, amusement filling me as well as affection. “If you keep treating her like that, she is definitely going to be spoiled.”

I watched as he took her to the living room, tossing her into the air and catching her. He was so tall and so big that I would’ve been worried if it was anyone else. But Enka was so careful and had proven himself to be gentle.

I couldn’t say that a shiver of trepidation hadn’t gone down my spine when I first met him and saw how big he was. But now I couldn’t even muster up the worry.

A smile crossed my face as I watched them, and for the first time since I met David I felt safe and content. I looked up at the big orc, wondering how much of it was because of him and knowing deep inside that the answer was all of it.