Page 5 of Marked by the Scarred Orc (Heat & Ink #6)

Chapter Four

Harken

C orinne sits on that couch with little Rhys Irontree cradled in her arms, looking completely natural, completely right.

The image sears itself into my brain. This is what she’ll look like holding our son.

Our green-skinned, tusked, horned son that she’ll carry in her womb and birth and love despite his orc heritage.

I want this female swollen with my orc son.

It’s obvious to me that Corinne wants to be a mother and loves orc offspring already.

Many females, such as both my mother and Kavin’s mother, left the commune after giving birth, never to return.

The idea of an orc son disgusted them and they were ashamed to tell the wider world that they had a child of orc ancestry. Corinne will not be the same.

“I’m not back ,” my female fumes, shifting the baby carefully as her temper flares. “I’m visiting my sister. You’re the one who is following me .”

I almost smile at her fire. This is one of the reasons why I enjoyed her from the first. I scare most humans, especially females.

But even holding a baby and caught off guard, she comes out swinging.

This female has steel in her spine. And I suspect underneath is the biggest heart of any human I’ve ever met.

“Harken is the orc you met last night?” Mia Irontree asks, letting me know they were talking about me.

“Yes.”

“What is happening here?” Kavin questions.

I turn to look at my friend. The male who talked me into leaving the commune and giving the wider human world a chance.

I’m here to create a fresh start after the clan war and the subsequent fall out.

Most of my kind consider my scar a mark of shame, but Kavin and the other orcs in this community are more progressive.

They have welcomed me wholeheartedly, which I appreciate.

“Corinne is the female I met at Heat & Ink last night,” I explain.

“I was about to get to the part of the story where I learned she was your sister-in-law, but then I heard my bride’s distinctive voice in your home and followed the sound. ”

“Corinne is the one you marked last night?”

“Yes.”

I cannot keep my eyes off my future bride. Yes, I’ve marked her, but she is not truly my bride until I’ve planted my seed in her womb and she becomes swollen with my offspring.

And Corrine is checking me out from head to toe. She seems fixated on my bare chest. Do I again scent her arousal? I move closer to double-check.

Mia stands and steps toward her mate. “When Talon made your sister cry you broke down the door to his shop and beat him up,” she hisses at Kavin. “Why aren’t you doing the same right now to Harken? He branded my sister’s ass with his mark, without her consent.”

Kavin runs a hand through his hair. “Calm down. This isn’t the same.”

Mia narrows her eyes. “Both of you are lucky I need to remain calm so Rhys doesn’t get upset. That’s the only thing that’s holding me back from kicking both your asses for hurting my sister’s feelings.”

My eyes widen. This small human female is threatening to fight both Kavin and me while trying to care for her infant? I’m beginning to understand where Corinne gets her courage. It runs in the family.

“No, you won’t. Stop it, Mia.” Corinne hands the baby back to her sister and stands up. “Come with me, Harken, to the back patio. We need to talk. In private.”

“Don’t go out there with him,” Mia warns.

“He won’t hurt her,” Kavin calmly responds.

“He’s already hurt her.”

“That was his mark. Like the mark I put on your ass.”

The silence that follows is deafening. Corinne’s face cycles through shock, confusion, and dawning understanding. “Wait. Mia, you have Kavin’s mark on your ass?”

“Yes. And Krissy has Talon’s mark on her ass too. But neither of us had this happen on the first moment we met and both of us gave our consent.”

They all turn to look at me. The weight of their stares settles on me.

Kavin looks disappointed. The sisters look horrified.

I’m beginning to think I made a mistake when I marked my bride so quickly.

But I can’t bring myself to regret it. Not when I can still scent her arousal.

Not when every instinct I have screams that she’s mine.

Kavin lets out a deep sigh. “He’s only been out of the commune for less than a week.”

“He shouldn’t have been allowed to work with humans yet then,” Mia snaps.

“I wasn’t,” I admit, my voice rougher than intended.

“I was there to ink and brand the other orcs. But then she walked through that door and…” I trail off because how do I explain that her mere presence scrambled every rational thought in my head?

How do I tell them that in that moment, every lesson about patience and human customs flew out the window?

“And what?” Mia demands.

“And I scented her compatible pheromones,” I say simply. “I knew immediately that she was my mate.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to mark her without permission,” Mia fires back.

Kavin holds up a hand. “Mia, you don’t understand orc biology?—”

“Don’t you dare mansplain orc biology to me,” she interrupts, her voice rising. “I’m married to an orc. I live with an orc. I gave birth to an orc baby. I’m an Irontree too now and I think I understand plenty.”

“But you don’t understand the Maine clan traditions,” Kavin continues patiently. “They’re different from others. More…traditional.”

“Traditional?” Corinne speaks up, her voice tight. “Is that what we’re calling lack of consent now?”

“I am a modern orc and this isn’t the dark of winter,” I say quietly. “I didn’t kidnap my female off the street like an ancient orc and I never will. That mark was a claiming. There’s a difference.”

“You can’t just claim women like it’s the old days,” Mia says. “Whether it’s a kidnapping or a brand, both are done without consent.”

“It’s not that simple when biology kicks in,” Kavin argues. “You think I had complete control when I first realized you were fertile? You think any of us do?”

“But you didn’t brand me the first night we met.”

“It was different between us. I was in denial because I didn’t want to mate with any female.”

I watch this argument unfold between Kavin and Mia, fascinated despite myself.

This is what a family amongst humans looks like.

It’s messy, loud, protective. Because I was raised mainly amongst single orcs I’ve never seen anything like it.

There are many mated human females in my commune who choose to live there happily and raise their sons, but I happen to not be close with them.

“He can’t mark anyone without their consent and treat someone like property,” Corinne says, her voice carrying that same steel I heard at the shop.

“But he told me you wanted him,” Kavin points out. “Even drunk, you were attracted to him. He could scent it.”

Corinne’s cheeks flush red. “That’s not the point.”

“Actually, it kind of is the point,” Mia says, surprising everyone. “When I first met Kavin, I wanted him too. But the difference is that I had to chase him, not the other way around.”

“I didn’t treat her like property,” I growl, my temper finally flaring.

“Then why did you mark her like cattle?” Mia shoots back.

The room goes silent except for little Rhys making soft baby noises. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me, waiting for an answer.

“Because,” I say slowly, “where I come from, when you find your mate, you claim her before another male can. It’s protection. It’s declaration. It’s…”

“It’s primitive,” Corinne finishes.

“Yes,” I admit. “It is. But that mark binds us together. It’s not just my initial,” I explain, trying to show her all the reasons why it’s a good thing she has my mark. “It’s my claiming mark. It tells every orc who sees it that you’re protected. That you’re mine.”

“I’m not yours. I’m not anyone’s. I’m my own person.”

“I wouldn’t have marked her if I didn’t scent her arousal for me,” I try to explain. “That’s why I did what I did. I scented it when we first met. She looked me up and down and I knew. So did Oreg and Doril and the nearest other orcs in line. They left her for me to work on and took the others.”

“Biologically speaking,” Kavin says carefully, “you are his now. The mark creates a bond?—”

“All of you, just stop,” Corinne snaps. “I’m tired of being discussed like some science experiment.

” She stands up. “You want to talk about this mark and what it means? Fine. But we’re going to continue without an audience.

” She turns to me, her blue eyes flashing with determination and anger. “You. Outside. Now.”

Mia starts to protest, but Corinne cuts her off. “I can handle this, Mia. I need to do this myself.”

Kavin nods approvingly. “The back patio is private. You can talk without interruption.”

I follow Corinne through the house, admiring the way she moves with such confidence despite everything.

She leads me through a sliding glass door onto a beautiful back patio that’s clearly been designed for relaxation.

There’s comfortable outdoor furniture arranged around a stone fire pit, with soft lighting and privacy screens that block the view from neighboring houses.

The sun filters through the trees. There’s something intimate about this setting, away from the chaos of the family argument inside.

Corinne settles into one of the cushioned chairs, and I take the one across from her, though I immediately wish I’d chosen one closer. The distance feels wrong when all I want is to be near her.

For a moment, we just sit in silence. I can hear the distant sounds of Kavin and Mia still arguing inside, their voices muffled but animated.

“So,” Corinne says finally. “Here we are.”

“Here we are,” I agree, studying her beautiful face in the filtered sunlight.

She leans back in her chair, crossing her arms defensively. “I owe you an apology.”

That’s not what I expected. “For what?”