Page 13 of My Orc Contract Husband (Eastshore Isle #9)

Chapter Seven

Tarkhan

I winced when Abydos’s text came through.

You did WHAT??

He was my best friend, despite his perpetual anger, and I knew him better than anyone. I knew he wouldn’t react well to my announcement, but could he at least pretend happiness? My finger swiped across the keyboard.

I agreed to marry Sami. A year and a day, that’s it.

The fuck “that’s it” you idiot. You’re marrying a human.

It hadn’t been a question, but an accusation.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and yanked open the fridge.

The beer was staring at me, but I wasn’t sure I wanted one this long after dinner.

It had been a long day—work, the lawyer, dinner with Sami’s aunt where I tried to pretend this was a choice we’d made because we were in love—and now I just wanted to go to sleep.

But first I’d wanted to tell Abydos.

When my phone began to vibrate, I sighed and kicked the fridge shut.

Mashing the green button, I spoke before he had the chance to. “When we showed up in Eastshore, there were four of us crammed in this apartment. Seems weird to be alone now.”

Akhmim had Mated Rosemary right away, and Aswan and Hannah were happy in her large house. Abydos was never here, and going forward, he’d be staying at his fancy new cliffside place.

Apparently, my non sequitur had surprised him, but now Abydos growled at me, “So you’re going to change that by getting married?”

Actually, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I guess I’ll move in with her.” I slowly rotated, beginning to mentally catalogue what I would need to pack.

The aloe would be the first to join me. “Her house is bigger. The lease on this place is in your name, and I assume you’ll want to hold onto it until your new house is built. ”

“This conversation isn’t about me?—”

“Are you working?”

A pause. “What?”

“Are you in Colorado?”

A longer pause. “Yeah. So?”

“So, it’s not dinnertime yet there. Are you working? Online, or at the mine office? Or sitting around wracked with guilt about your life choices?”

“ This isn’t about me .”

“So you are doing the guilt thing?”

Another growl, and the sound of something slamming against something else that made my lips curl ruefully. Abydos was a lot of fun to tease sometimes.

“Tark, you don’t know shit about this female. On Monday you were talking about visiting houses with her, and now you’re going to marry her?”

“On Monday I told you I liked spending time with her and thought she was fun.”

“And now you’re marrying her,” he repeated.

Sighing, I padded toward my bedroom, the tiny one with the too-small bed. “I like Sami.”

“You fucking idiot,” Abydos shot at me.

Maybe. “I’m not that dumb. I had the lawyer explain the prenup before I signed it.”

“You signed a contract without me looking it over?” he roared, and something else slammed.

“I trust her.”

“You fucking idiot,” he repeated. “What if you just agreed to give her half of everything you own?”

Like that was so impressive? “What’s she going to do with a miter saw, Abby? Besides, she’s got way more money than I do, and she’s not shy about giving me…”

I trailed off, frowning as I flopped onto the bed. The way the lawyer had explained it, there were no provisions in place to protect Sami’s money when we divorced. I could take half of it, if I wanted. It seemed like an odd oversight for an otherwise extensive contract.

On the other end of the line, I could hear Abydos grumbling about something. Then: “Alright. I can’t immediately see how she could screw you over in a divorce.”

The divorce. The contract stipulated that the marriage only had to last a year and a day, and then we could split, no hard feelings. The thought of it made me uncomfortable and itchy, restless.

I decided not to tell Abydos any of that.

Instead, I propped one hand behind my head. “She’s not trying to screw me over. This is mutually beneficial. The bank counts her income when they’re giving me a mortgage, and she gets?—”

“What does she get, exactly? She’s got a thing for orc cock?”

I sighed, shutting my eyes. Leave it to Abydos to be crude. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about that yet. ”

“Hard to believe. You’re jumping in everyone’s pants?—”

“ Jealous ?” I spat out.

The silence on the other end was enough to make me groan silently and curse myself.

And wonder exactly how lonely my best friend really was. Did he ever think about finding his Mate, the way the rest of us had?

Abydos and I had grown up together as best friends.

In a land without females our age, it had been natural to experiment with one another, and he’d been the one to teach me how much I enjoyed bringing someone else pleasure.

I loved it when their face went slack with their release, I loved the sounds they made, and no matter how bitter Abydos grew, I would never forget those perfect moments of peace we’d shared.

What we’d shared physically hadn’t been as important as our friendship, though, and after Torrah’s death, our casual rendezvous had ended.

But he’d stuck by my side, and although we’d never spoken of it, I knew Abydos had agreed to come through the veil—and bring his brothers with him—because I’d been sent.

“I’m not jealous of her.” His words were icy. “And I’m not jealous of you. You know that.”

Yeah, I did. “I’m sorry, Abby.” Once I’d discovered how many females lived in the human’s world, neither of us had ever considered resuming our experiments.

“Don’t call me that,” he growled.

And he would have nothing to do with humans. Nothing . Not after what they did to him .

“Sami needs me,” I finally said, crossing my ankles, then recrossing them, unable to stay still. “She’s in trouble, and I can save her by marrying her.”

“How?” He didn’t sound as if he believed me.

How to explain without sharing Sami’s personal business? “Her father’s partner is trying to force her into marriage, and he’s powerful enough to either make it happen, or make the courts believe it happened. If she’s married to me—legally binding and whatnot—then it’ll protect her.”

“Let me get this straight.” I heard paper rustling on the other end of the phone.

“You’re getting married in two days because some pretty little human handed you a sob story about how she needs you and you’re her only hope.

And you , being emotionally stunted by shame and filled with the need to fix the world around you in every way, have decided to sacrifice your future to save her? ”

I ticked off his points in my mind, one by one, before I said, “Yeah, basically.”

Abydos paused for a moment, then repeated, “You fucking noble idiot.”

Yep. Sounds about right.

“Are you sure about this?” murmured Aswan under his breath from his place by my side in the front of the human church. “It seems sudden.”

Without glancing at him, I could imagine the concern in his eyes. “You’re just saying that because you and Hannah took your damn time getting around to Mating.”

“Yes, but this isn’t a Mating.”

From Aswan’s other side, Sakkara rumbled, “Isn’t it?”

I dragged my gaze from the door at the back of the church to slam into our leader’s. Sakkara had leaned forward slightly so he could see around Aswan, his expression carefully neutral. When he knew he had my attention, he raised one brow in challenge.

And I straightened my shoulders, my attention flying back to the door through which Sami— my bride —would soon step.

She was going to be my wife.

Not my Mate.

And that was okay.

“You’ll notice he didn’t answer,” murmured Aswan.

“That’s because he’s not sure what he’s doing.”

I’d asked Aswan to stand beside me for my wedding because apparently it was a human tradition to pick favorite friends and honor them by making them wear uncomfortable suits and possibly marry the bride if you chickened out.

Aswan couldn’t marry Sami, since he’d Mated Hannah months ago, but he was the most supportive of the males I knew.

I’d asked Sakkara because he was responsible for me being on Eastshore Isle…and because he already owned his own damn suit.

Abydos owns his own suit .

Yeah, but Abydos had made it clear what he thought of me marrying a human.

I shifted uncomfortably in my new suit—Sami had insisted I buy one, and I figured if she was willing to marry me, this was the least I could do—and did my best to ignore the doubt my friends were trying to instill.

Or maybe not.

“Sakkara, surely you have access to some property for Tark?” Aswan really did sound concerned. “He’s only going through this because she’s his realtor.”

“Not true,” murmured Sakkara in return. “He’s going through it because the bank won’t loan him enough without a second income, so he had to find and marry the richest damn woman on the island?—”

Forgetting the organ music, forgetting the dozen or so people scattered through the church, forgetting the holy man who’d been waiting patiently all this time, I whirled on my friends with a snarl.

“Why do my reasons matter so much to you?”

Neither one of them reared away from my anger.

“Because we care about you,” Aswan said gently, one hand reaching up to rest gently on my shoulder. “And we don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.”

Like marry the most stunning woman I’d ever met? A woman who made my Kteer purr and had my cock throbbing with need, just thinking of claiming her? A woman whose dry sense of humor made me laugh, and who was willing to take a chance on a future—no matter how temporary—with me ?

A woman who needed me ?

Maybe the other male read something in my expression, because Aswan gently squeezed my shoulder, then dropped his hand with a nod. “Never mind.”

Sakkara shifted his weight. “This is about the foster system, isn’t it?”

My lips tipped into a slow frown. The foster system? I… It had been years since I’d given up on that dream.

Shaking my head, I turned back toward the pathway Sami would soon walk down.

When Aswan hummed in question, Sakkara explained under his breath. “The state foster system prioritizes married couples?—”

“Shut up,” I growled, not sure I wanted them to dredge up old plans or examine my reasons right before I made such a big change in my life.

“But you took Emmy—” Aswan began.

“That was different, because she was half-orc,” Sakkara explained. “Tark feels as if he needs?—”

“ Shut up ,” I hissed again.

The holy man, the one in the ill-fitting suit behind me, cleared his throat, just as the music swelled.

And I was saved.

The door in the back of the church opened, and Sami’s cousin stepped through.

At least, I had to assume it was Riven, because she was dressed in a pretty pink strapless gown—the color Sami told me she’d chosen for the “wedding theme,” whatever that meant—and stomped down the aisle holding her bouquet as if she thought this whole wedding was taking too long.

I agreed that I wanted to get on with it.

Sakkara stepped forward and took Riven’s arm when she reached the front, and her flirtatious smile was charming.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying much attention to her, though.

Because the door had opened again, and then Sami was there, meeting my eyes.

She told me that it was tradition for fathers to escort their daughters down the aisle to their future husbands, but since her father’s death was what had put her in so much trouble already, she’d asked her aunt.

After all, Aunt Sharon was more family to her than her father had ever been.

The older woman wore a dress that was the same pink as Riven’s, although more demurely cut, and her smile seemed a little fixed, as if she wasn’t quite sure this was the right move for her niece.

Sami, on the other hand, never hesitated.

She’d taken less than a day to decide this was right , and I loved that surety. Her confidence—in herself, in me, in our future, no matter how temporary—was what made me certain this was the right move.

I would protect her, and once we were married, my name would offer her protection as well.

She walked toward me with her head held high and her shoulders back, that glorious golden hair sweeping down her back.

She’d chosen a pale green strapless gown for her wedding dress. I grinned, remembering how she’d texted before she and her aunt went shopping that she planned to pick something practical. How in the hells was this sparkly thing considered practical?

Maybe my grin was just what she needed because I watched her jaw relax, and sensed the moment the tension in her shoulders eased. A small grin tugged at her lips, and I hoped she could sense that I wanted this.

Almost as much as I wanted her .

She needs you. You can save her. That’s the only reason she’s doing this .

And I would save her. From whatever danger threatened.

When they reached the front of the church, Aswan stepped forward to lead Aunt Sharon away, and then Sami’s hand was in mine. I stared down at this fragile little female who was the strongest I’d ever met, who’d chosen me to entrust her future.

At least, a year and a day of it.

“Ready, dkaar ?” I whispered.

I don’t know how the endearment slipped out. She wasn’t my beloved, and we hadn’t discussed having feelings for one another. This marriage was a contract, a business arrangement.

But she deserved some softness on her wedding day .

Sami’s chin rose again, and the light caught on the pale green stones she wore at her ear lobes.

Peridot. I recognized it from my time in the mountains, and wished I had a stone to offer her for her throat.

Wished I had anything to offer her that was my own; the ring in my pocket had belonged to her mother.

But I was marrying her for money, so I couldn’t afford to gift her gems.

All I could offer her was my strength, my protection…and for a year and a day, my heart.

“Ready,” Sami murmured, her fingers tightening around mine.

I didn’t see hesitation, didn’t scent worry. My bride was certain this was the right decision.

And I would be too.

Taking a deep breath, I allowed her to lead me toward the holy man…and our marriage.