Page 32

Eight Months Later

“One more,” the orc midwife, Cassatine, called out. She’d moved to the island a few months ago to help one of the orc women with their first birth and decided to stay. With our population now over one hundred, and ten of them orcling-bearing aged females, we needed her more than those living in the city every would. They had more than enough healers to help with a birth.

“Push,” she said again. “It’s almost over, dear one, and your lovely orcling will join you and your mate.”

“A boy or a girl?” I grated out as pain shot across my belly, bands tightening to help me deliver Odik’s and my child.

“We’ll know what it is soon,” she said, wiping a cool cloth across my brow.

“Get Odik in here.”

“This is a woman’s place, not a male’s. I’m afraid I cannot permit—”

“Now!”

Madine rose from the chair in the corner of the room. “Now, Eleri. Surely you don’t want your big old orc husband in here when you deliver your precious orcling. He’ll just be in the way.”

“Odik,” I barked. “Now.”

“Very well.” Madine chuckled as she left the room. “I do love her spunk.”

Cassatine wrung out the cloth and wiped my face again while I groaned through another contraction.

Orclings grew large quickly, but with all the other human-orc matchups, they came out small. A saving grace for the women who birthed them.

“Eleri,” Odik cried from the open doorway. He rushed into the room and climbed onto the bed beside me. “What do you need?”

“You.” I held out my hand. “I’m about to deliver our child, and all I need is you holding my hand to make it happen.”

“She just needs to push, actually,” Cassatine said, though kindly.

“Push, love,” Odik said. “Can you do that for me? It’ll be over soon and our dear little orcling will join our family.”

My belly rippled with another contraction.

“Argh,” I cried, pushing while gripping Odik’s hand as hard as I could.

He eased behind my back and held me, his fingers still linked with mine. “You’re amazing, mate,” he murmured in my ear. “One more. You can do it.”

A gush and the head of our child exited my body, followed by the shoulders and the rest of our child’s body. Birth could be a treacherous process, but it could also be the most wonderful experience in a woman’s life.

“A boy,” Cassatine crowed, lifting our child and laying him on my belly. Like all the other orclings birthed by women, he took after his father with rich, greenish-gold skin and tiny horns just nubs on his head.

“A boy,” Odik said. “He’s beautiful, mate. Just beautiful.”

“He is, isn’t he?” I stroked his soft hair, a rich black like his father’s. “What would you like to name him?”

“How about Zur?”

Tears trickled down my cheeks at the thought. “Really?”

“Really. I owe everything to the man who raised you. He watched out for you, he cared for you. And I know you miss him.”

“I do.” I looked up at Odik. “I love you, mate.”

He kissed me. “And I love you.”

Cassatine wrapped Zur up in a clean cloth and handed him to me. Our son slept—for now.

She and Madine crept from the room, their faces creased with smiles.

And Odik and I snuggled with our new son.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed Eleri & Odik’s story.

Would you like to read a bonus scene?

Their son, Zur, is now three, and he’s in trouble!

Visit with them five years from now in Orc’s Craving ,

the next book in the Monster Mate Hunt Series.

I’ve included the first chapter here . . .