Page 10 of The Orc Chief’s Baker (Orc Mates Of Faeda #4)

Chapter

Six

brOVDIR

“ J ust look at how pissed our dear uncle is,” Karthoc chortled as he led the group of warriors along the woodland path.

The scent of the deep forest was soothing despite the predicament they had gotten themselves into.

The chill of the morning was harsh against Brovdir’s naked upper half but that wasn’t the reason he regretted not finding a shirt to wear.

Would the woman be put off by his scars?

His stomach twisted with the thought. It wasn’t logical to think she might, considering she hadn’t been put off the night before. But when he looked back at his brethren, some of whom had far fewer scars and much more attractive frames, Brovdir couldn’t help but wonder.

Would he be compared to them? Would she change her mind about him?

“He’s up there griping. I just know it,” Karthoc said with a grin, bringing Brovdir’s attention back to the matter at hand.

He looked toward where Chief Ergoth was sitting in a cart at the front of the line. His white hair was braided intricately, and his posture was high and regal.

His voice was low, calculating, and too quiet for Brovdir to make out, but the tone was clear.

“He’s plotting,” Brovdir said quietly. He was trying to save his voice.

“He can’t do a fucking thing.” Karthoc’s grin was so wide Brovdir could see all his teeth. “The headman invited us personally. No getting around that.”

Behind him, Brovdir sensed all the other warriors were equally thrilled as they followed the dozen or so wagons that the orcs of Rove Wood were pulling to the trade.

The carts were full of fruits and vegetables that should never have been able to grow in this late season.

Sweet strawberries. Hearty potatoes. Corn and carrots and barrels of fish.

Brovdir’s mouth watered. The males of Rove Wood ate so well . He was lucky to find an edible root in the outer forest. And half the time he was attacked while he was trying to dig it up.

“That woman—Viravia—must have a keen sense of negotiation.” Karthoc didn’t look even the least bit frustrated by the slow gait. At the rate the Rove Wood orcs were going, a dung worm would arrive faster than them.

“I wonder what she said. She wouldn’t even answer the door last night when I went to ask for aid.

I was certain she was ignoring me on purpose.

Almost burned my nose to bits waiting. Just my luck the woman would be obsessed with sage.

” Karthoc sniffed loudly and scrubbed at his nose with the back of his hand.

Of course the woman wouldn’t open the door. She was likely terrified. Warlord Karthoc was so surly he’d scrap with the air if it rustled his hair too hard.

Karthoc glanced at the warriors behind them, some of whom were getting rowdy in their excitement. Brovdir wished he was back there getting distracted by this talk.

But he had to follow the Warlord’s orders. That was his duty.

“Keep in line!” Karthoc barked, and the warriors quieted back down.

Brovdir gritted his teeth against the anticipation gnawing in his gut. What if the woman wasn’t there? What if she’d decided not to attend after all?

“She must not trust Ergoth either, or she would have questioned why I was trying to go around him.” Karthoc’s brow furrowed up. “Blasted odd, that. She was Tavggol’s wife after all. You’d think she’d trust her mate’s sire.”

It was an oddity that Brovdir’s tired mind did not have the desire to puzzle over.

Karthoc chuckled. “Though I suppose I can’t blame her. Ergoth is about as trustworthy as a snake.”

That was the truth. There was something odd in his uncle’s voice, a strange tension Brovdir couldn’t place. It made his hair stand on end.

He was so tired of worrying about it. The Rove Woods may have been peaceful, but Brovdir would have taken a hard battle over calculating manipulation any day.

His woman’s beautiful rounded face flooded his memory, and his tension quieted for a moment. Her sunshine scent flitted into his mind. The memory of her curves under his touch made his fingers twitch.

It had felt like the world had dimmed when she’d walked away.

But now, at this very moment, she was walking back to him.

He had far too much blasted hope. He begged the Fades not to destroy it.

Beside him, Karthoc snorted and Brovdir tensed up, glancing at his brother, wondering if he’d missed something.

The warlord scrutinized him with a hard look that made Brovdir resist shivering. He could feel Karthoc’s eyes burrowing deep into his mind, like he was reading it.

“Go join the ranks.”

Brovdir blinked in surprise at the sudden order.

“I can feel you tensing up. That’s not like you. Go calm down. Now.”

He couldn’t fight a direct order from his warlord so he stepped out of his place at Karthoc’s side and slowed his steps until he was walking among his brethren and their easy chatter.

Fades, it felt different here than up there. The tension was almost gone as the boisterous nature of the warriors surrounded him.

“I don’t fucking know what I’m going to eat while I’m there. Why are you asking stupid questions?”

It was Hendr’s voice who cut through the fray. He sounded more irritated than usual.

“Fuck off, Hendr. You don’t want to talk to me then go fucking walk somewhere else.” Ogvick’s voice was tense and low, and Brovdir could hear the hurt in it.

“I can walk where I Fades blasted please,” Hendr growled.

“I know one thing that’s certainly going to be there to eat.” Caivid’s voice was light as he broke the tension between the two. “ Women .”

Brovdir sucked in a breath as his clothes suddenly felt too tight. The very thought made his mouth water.

His woman had smelled so good .

Would she let him taste her?

“What the fuck are you even talking about? Karthoc would have your hide if you tried to eat one of the humans,” Hendr snapped.

Brovdir looked back toward them, drifting closer to try to see if Hendr was jesting or if he was a complete idiot.

Caivid was looking at him in disbelief before he muttered, “I feel sorry for any woman who ends up lying with you, Hendr.”

The burly males face contorted with anger. “Say that again, you wretch.”

Brovdir’s fists balled as he readied to break up the inevitable brawl.

“You think a woman would actually want our mouths on ’em? Teeth and all?” Ogvick’s question instantly painted a delicious picture in Brovdir’s mind and his attention swiftly turned away from the fight.

He imagined her sweet taste as her thick hips rolled under him. What sounds would she make? What motions? Would she try to squirm away or edge in for more...

“Are you thinking about the woman you met?”

Brovdir snapped out of his little daydream at Caivid’s question. The male was grinning and Brovdir couldn’t deny the truth. The woman was all curled up in his mind like a red squirrel in its burrow. Getting cozy and warm and ready to stay there all winter.

“What did she look like?” Ogvick asked from behind them.

Brovdir scowled at the male but Caivid said, “Must have been a beauty to capture your attention so well.”

Hendr snorted. “You must be jesting, Caivid. Brovdir would fuck a boulder if the shape was right.”

Brovdir honestly couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or slug the male in the face.

“You’re one to talk, Hendr. You’re so ugly, I doubt even a boulder would let you fuck it,” Caivid remarked dryly.

“Shut your fucking mouth.”

“Hey!” Karthoc snapped from the front of the line. “No brawling or I’ll send you back to camp.”

That shut the whole group down. Usually at least one or two would make a quip at such an odd order. Brawling was as common as breathing for the warriors. But no one wanted to risk losing the chance to see the women.

Brovdir knew the silence would be short-lived, and he welcomed the start of the banter again, even if he was on the butt end of the joke.

“Wonder if they’ll be any with dark hair,” Ogvick said, and Brovdir blinked in surprise. Not that the chatty, young male had spoken first but that he had preferences when it came to females.

“Getting picky, huh?” Caivid asked with a grin.

“You ain’t got room to be picky either,” Hendr muttered. “Your mug’s as ugly as Brovdir’s. You couldn’t pull an elk in heat.”

That was a low blow. Ogvick could at least pull a desperate buck if he wore the right pelt.

“Why the fuck you acting like you got an angry weasel up your ass, Hendr?” Caivid growled.

Angry? More like a horny and jealous weasel.

“Just trying to be fucking rational,” Hendr snapped. “These women have seen nothin’ but rosy-assed Rove Wood conjurers. Look yourself straight and tell me you think they’d choose you. ”

At least Caivid looked like he could protect a woman. Most of the conjurers were so scrawny a stiff breeze could blow them into next week.

“Why wouldn’t one pick me?” Ogvick narrowed his eyes. “One chose Brovdir!”

“She wants to trade with him. Doesn’t mean she wants to fuck him.”

Brovdir felt his chest tighten at the truth of that. What she wanted was his blacksmithing skills. She likely did not want his company.

“Doesn’t mean she doesn’t either. What if what she wants to trade is for pleasure?” Caivid asked.

His mouth went dry at the thought.

“She won’t be finding it in Brovdir,” Hendr muttered.

“How would you know?” Caivid asked with a sly grin. “You lay with him before?”

Brovdir snorted with laughter as Hendr sputtered with indignation.

Before the male could think of something logical to say, Caivid butt in. “Brovdir’s been with more women than the both of us combined. If anyone’s gonna pleasure a human, it’s him.”

His good humor cooled quickly. Because although he’d technically been with many women, he’d never actually lain with any of them.

He was just as inexperienced as the rest of them.

“All that and nothing to show for it,” Hendr said darkly, shooting Brovdir a hard look. “Should have a dozen sons being raised at Baelrok by now, but you haven’t even one .”

Brovdir let out a low growl, and the male looked away. It was no question that the first priority for most of these warriors was to produce sons. Their kind were being steadily eradicated by the Waking Order.

Despite this, Brovdir could not bring himself to do it.

He was always with Karthoc. On the move. Seeing battle almost daily. The few sons that the Warlord’s elite had produced were fiercely trained in combat and would one day know just as much hardship and war as Brovdir did himself.

How could he in good conscience bring a child into such chaos?

“We all know how difficult it is to get a woman to lie with us let alone carry a pregnancy to term,” Caivid said. “You really going to blame Brovdir for their deception?”

“All’s I’m saying is that if it was me, if it was my son at stake, I’d never let the woman want for nothing . She’d be so satisfied and hale she’d never want to leave my side, let alone condemn my son.”

Brovdir wasn’t going to argue with that. But a woman willing to open herself up to an orc and accept his care was as rare as blooming roses in a dark cave.

But perhaps... his brave little woman who survived a wild cat and chased down a warrior orc was the kind of beauty who thrived in adversity.

“That’s enough!” Karthoc’s order punctuated over the talk. “We’re almost there. Fall in line! Brovdir, get back up here now!”

Brovdir’s chest tightened with anticipation as he followed his warlord’s order and went to stand behind him on the left.

“Ergoth did something.”

Brovdir went tense. Karthoc’s eyes were trained toward the front cart where Ergoth was sitting. The male looked so regal in his bright robes. Cloth that shimmered in the dappled sunlight and revealed how privileged he was. It looked almost slippery.

“I think Ergoth just released a bird,” Karthoc muttered. “I saw it swoop low and then dart into the trees. And why are we moving so Fades blasted slow?”

Brovdir rose his brows.

“You were right. He is plotting something.” Karthoc hummed a low growl under his breath. “Don’t think questioning him now would do much good. He’d just stonewall us. Just stay alert for anything unusual.”

He nodded.

“I wish Tavggol were still with us.”

He blinked in surprise as he looked at his brother. Karthoc wasn’t one for sentimentality and rarely spent any time mourning, but there was a sorrow in his eyes that unsettled Brovdir. It reminded him of how Karthoc looked after Ovinia had fled.

Hopeless.

But the warlord quickly shook the grief away and said, “Can’t change the past. Can only move forward. And mark my words, I will be moving forward with this, no matter what Ergoth does. His time in that seat of power is coming to an end.”

Brovdir said nothing. There was nothing to say. Karthoc was his superior, and he was a warrior. He was born to follow orders and had never strayed from that Fades-given duty.

No matter how badly he may want to.

He took a deep breath in through his nose. It was a long way off yet, but on the wind, his keen sense of smell picked up the heady scent of dozens of humans.

One of whom was his woman.

He would be with her soon.