Page 17 of Loved By The Orc (Monster Orc Brides #4)

“Oh, you’ll convince them. You don’t want harm to come to your father and he’s alone right now, eh?

Left early with Brachard, and all the rest of the Blackhearts went home.

You know how we know? Our spy, Varguk. But guess what?

Your father’s left Brachard too. We could intercept him and make it look like an accident way too easily. ”

My father has already finished his visit to Mont Grove, then? They’ve been watching, enough to know he’s alone, which no one should have known unless they have a tail on him. Or, maybe Varguk was reporting to his clan .

Beyond everything else, my feelings, for Varguk, my own shame, my embarrassment… none of it matters. All that matters is my father’s safety.

“’Tis alright, little orcling,” Auglesh grins, and when he does, I realize he doesn’t look like Varguk at all. He’s a weak, flavorless imitation. “I trusted Varguk too. Blood is thicker than water, after all. Bear a brat and everything will be fine. You can go home, no harm, no foul.”

“Can’t get a female on your own, then?” I jeer.

“Sons of the line king? Of course, we can. But this will be a grand arrangement between our clans. I’ll just keep Varguk out of your hair because we all know how much my brother lies.”

Or mayhap he wants me to think so. In any case, I’ll see Varguk soon enough to find out.

“We’ll ride to our village, Lavisse, and the king will decide who gets the fair maiden among his three sons.

” This time when he grins, I notice how his tusks don’t gleam as white.

How his front tooth is crooked. How his nose is straighter than Varguk’s, and yet Var is more attractive with the added character to his face.

Despite the leftover effects of the chloroform, I’m trussed up and tossed on the back of a horse.

The ride to their village goes quickly, as if neither male wants to get caught out on the trails. But a sinking sensation fills me when I feel them relax… it’s the first sign we’re in Southpeak territory.

Others join us—the same males from the challenge. They’re friendly with Leviton and Auglesh while ignoring me and I wonder if what the two had said was true. It was all a set up. I was tricked by all three brothers and now two want their prize. Will they be forced to fight again?

When we finally ride into their own village, more centrally located than the rest of the smaller clusters of outbuildings, I’m pushed off the steed to land in the dirt. My stomach roils, threatening to release the contents. I have to breathe deeply against the pain of the fall .

“Do not bruise her where it’ll show!” Someone barks and another hurries to lift me off the ground.

“Anything broken?” the male who yelled asks.

He’s a slightly older version of Auglesh and Varguk, but like Leviton, has the wicked gleam in his eyes. I’m about to shake my head when the male next to me answers.

“Nay, King Vronas,” the one who pulled me up says. “The wench is fine.”

The king grunts, ignoring me as if I don’t exist. He didn’t care then.

I end up speaking to the back of his head. “I demand to be returned to my family.”

The entire welcoming committee freezes.

The king slowly turns around. Seconds go by and I force myself not to fidget.

Then the male next to me slaps me. Not hard, just jarring enough to get my attention.

“Females don’t speak to our king. This is your first lesson, wench.”

With that, their king turns, giving me his back.

“Any word?” he calls out.

Two of the males step forward. “No one knows she’s missing yet. But two horses left Creede early this morn. Varguk and another human that went north.”

“Hmmph.” Then he eyes me. “Get the wench onto the stage. I shall make my announcement.” Then he yells out into the background. “Get a party rolling! We shall celebrate this eve.”

Celebrate what?

One of the guards grabs my arm and hauls me up onto the platform, raised from the ground by several steps. I’m tied to a pole while the rest of the people bustle around planning for a party.

As the sun sets, I doze slightly, my stomach queasy from a combination of the sun and the drug. I hear laughter and grunting as males carry things back and forth into one of the huts .

“Get up, wench. King Vronas will speak,” the guard from earlier hisses.

I stand, the loosely tied rope around the pole moving with me. The guard takes it and unties the knot and I’m left standing as the king approaches the platform.

This time, he’s bedecked in fine clothing of dark green and even has a metal crown encircling his head. Leviton and Auglesh follow behind him, like proper ducklings, wearing similar outfits of khaki lined with black, and flowing ribbons of dark green that trail behind when they walk.

“Behold! The bridge of the West Mountain Orcs and the Blackheart clan. A prize befitting royalty, and one that we own.”

Cheers roar through the crowd that gather around us.

“It’s safe to say that my firstborn son, Varguk, was the first to realize there was an opportunity to get to know and mate with the infamous bridge between the most powerful clans.

I was impressed with his cunning. For years, no one even knew what she looked like.

She was coveted by many and yet no one knew she was fair of face, aye?

” The king chuckles. “But yet, the bridge stands here today, and who shall deserve this prize? Of the three sons I have, only two stand here with me. So I shall pick.”

The crowd roars with jeering catcalls.

“’Twas quite an accomplished feat to engage the West Mountain clan,” their king says, his gaze sweeping out over the crowd.

“To get Prince Bakog to agree to a mating. Kudos must go to my firstborn son, who is missing here. Varguk was the one who negotiated a path to the West Mountain and Blackheart alliance. But the way I see it, Leviton didn’t give up.

He surged ahead, and accomplished an even greater feat.

He managed to gain the humans’ trust— after the last wench was grabbed from that same village—and became the guard for the bridge. ”

Roaring from the crowd startles me until Leviton preens on stage, taking a quick bow. That’s when I realize it’s cheering .

“Aye, and yet a jealous Varguk became determined to disrupt those plans.” The king scowls.

“Losing sight of the focus. The fact that she was in our hands. But boys will be boys and the two—my firstborn sons—squabbled. Now, we all know they are evenly matched and the resulting challenge was a game of chance. Did Leviton give up?” The king holds up his hand to the crowd to answer.

“Nay!”

The king waggles his fingers to keep more comments coming.

“Never!”

He holds his hand to his ear.

“Not Prince Levi!”

The crowd calms when the king holds out his hands for silence so he can speak. “You would be right. Instead, Levi rode to his own full-blooded brother. The two combined their skills to bring you”—he turns to look at me— “the bridge. The prize.”

“Aaiioop!” The tongue trilling generates deep in the crowd and spreads like wildfire.

“So proud of all my sons,” the king says. “Therefore, it is hereby proclaimed, on this day, that the fair maiden shall be mated—”

“Stop!” A deep voice calls from somewhere in the midst of the crowd. A familiar voice that makes me snap my head around, my gaze scanning the sea of faces for him.

“The prize should be mine .”

“Varguk.” The king is neutral as he says his name, then slowly turns around.

A hush rolls over the crowd, then it parts and he shows up. It’s him, in the flesh, strong and sure, and facing his father. But he keeps in the crowd, one with the people instead of the royalty standing on the platform like it’s a stage.

“Aye, ‘tis me. And if not for me, we wouldn’t have this female.”

Leviton steps up from behind his father. “Doesn’t matter. Best male won. ”

Varguk stares, motionless except for the sickly paleness of his face. “How are you still alive?”

I don’t think I’m imagining the shock strewn across Var’s face.

But Leviton smirks and looks over to me. “You can drop the act, dear brother. The female knows we played her. She knows your objective was to make her fall in love.”

Varguk cuts his gaze to me and I can’t bear to see the truth in his face. I deliberately look out at the crowd in the opposite direction, away from him.

“And now? Do you believe she’s in love with you?” Varguk sneers, his voice cold as Auglesh’s. If Auglesh wasn’t standing on stage with me, I’d think it was him speaking in an odd role reversal.

I try to swallow past the painful knot that forms in my throat, against the sting of tears that I will to go back. ‘Tis true. The biernak aimed to make me fall in love, and foolish female that I am… I fell right into his plans.

“One word to her family and we’ll have both clans on our trail,” Varguk continues.

“On your trail, you mean. Her family still thinks I’m dead and that the bastard son has taken her,” Leviton counters.

Auglesh steps forward with a cold grin. “We made sure it was your face that the people in Creede saw.” He points to his own and then does a little mock-bow.

Varguk’s expression never changes. He obviously expected his brothers to change the plan on him.

“Best males won,” the king says. “Your siblings outsmarted you and took the female right out from under your nose. Some West Mountain guard you turned out to be.”

“Took my pregnant female.”

The crowd suddenly goes silent.

The orc king freezes in place. “She is gestating?”

“She hasn’t had a cycle since I met her. Ask the wench. ”

The bastard was tracking my cycles? Yes, I’m slightly late, but that could be the stress of being kidnapped. And one benefit to the tea is a lighter flow, some months we skip.

The king looks at me and when I take too long to answer, the guard next to me steps forward with his hand raised.

I shake my head, affirming that I haven’t bled since I met him.

Varguk looks satisfied, the king looks even more pleased. Whispers rumble through the crowd.