Page 2 of Loved by the Orc (Hidden Hollow #4)

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HARMONY

H idden Hollow is a magical town located somewhere in the woods of New England. I don’t know its exact geographical location—nobody does, I don’t think—but if I had to guess, I’d say it must be somewhere in the foothills of The Berkshires mountain range.

It’s a beautiful place where the weather is almost always perfect because nine months out of the year it’s Autumn at the peak of Leaf Season. It also has a magical bubble around it which keeps anyone who doesn’t have magic of their own—or isn’t magical in some way—out.

Of course, I didn’t know any of that. I just knew I was desperate to get away from the office and from Mr. Price and his cruel comments and arbitrary rules that reminded me so much of my abusive past. So I missed all the details like the gorgeous Fall foliage and the quaint shops lining Main Street.

My eyes were blurry with tears as I came running through the doorway which had magically appeared in place of the ladies room door back home. So blurred, in fact, that I ran right into someone as soon as I came through.

That someone was Tark and it was like running into a brick wall. I mean that literally—I bonked my head on his chest plate (he was dressed in traditional Orc armor for a festival that day)—and fell on my ass right in front of him.

“Ouch!” I cried, my hand flying to my head, which was already throbbing. Had I run into a wall? But there had never been a wall right inside the ladies room before!

“Fuck! I’m so sorry—are you all right?” an inhumanly deep voice rumbled.

An enormous figure was suddenly looming over me. An enormous green figure with glowing golden eyes and wild black hair that spilled around his broad shoulders. He had fangs, too—(I later learned these were tusks)—and he was absolutely huge.

I was at a serious disadvantage—disoriented and with my head still ringing from the abrupt blow I’d taken from his armor. Also, I had never been into fantasy much, so I didn’t even know what the Creature looming over me was. To me, he just looked like a monster. I was so overwhelmed that when he leaned over me, trying to get a better look at the mark on my head, that I tried to scramble away.

“Hey, no, Babygirl!” Tark rumbled. Reaching for me, he scooped me into his arms.

“What are you doing? Put me down!” I gasped, struggling to get free.

But he wasn’t letting me go. His arms tightened gently but firmly around me.

“I don’t think so—not until I see how hurt you are.”

He rose, lifting me to an immense height, and peered anxiously into my face.

At that point, it was all just too much. I felt like I had stepped from one nightmare—my boss’s office—and into another one—whatever the hell this was. My brain overloaded like a computer that’s been asked to run too many programs at once and I fainted.

The last thing I remember was seeing Tark’s golden eyes staring into mine…and then everything went black.