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Cedar

T he sound of tearing awoke her.

Cedar blinked her sleep-filled eyes as a great, dark shape entered the tent, his face lit only by the torch in his hand.

“Kargorr,” she murmured as the massive orc dumped the torch into the fire pit. The leather of the tent door had ripped and now hung limp behind him. There was an eerie glow in his eyes, much like the moment Lissa’s dead body fell to the ground at his feet.

Kiya hissed when he woke and scrambled off the bed as Kargorr approached. The massive orc’s teeth were clenched, the fire now swelling up behind him as the torch’s flames caught on the coals in the firepit, bathing his face in shadow while the point of his ears and the tips of his long hair glowed bright red. Cedar felt compelled to flee, to scrunch herself up small in the back of the tent like a rabbit looking into a wolf’s mouth. And yet her body was fiercely, wildly awake now, stirred up by the curl of his fingers, how his black claws reflected the firelight. His tusks looked especially sharp and cruel, like scythes protruding from that heavy, jutting lower jaw.

He grabbed the fur on top of her and flung it aside. Cedar was naked underneath, as he insisted she sleep. A dark growl rumbled in his throat when he saw her exposed. Kargorr yanked down his bloodstained pants to reveal that monster between his legs, the one that was bigger and fuller than she’d ever seen it.

Lord Kargorr didn’t bother with his armor. He kept it on as he pinned her down, his huge hands swallowing up both her wrists at once as he held them up over her head.

A whimper escaped Cedar at the scent of him, so familiar and yet tinged with another smell, something more sour.

Blood. It covered him, even his face, and when he smashed his mouth to hers, she could taste it on his lips. His claws buried themselves so deep in her soft flesh he almost pricked her skin. With a jerk he lifted her hips, his eyes wilder than she’d ever seen them, and his cock sought her out.

“Mine,” he grunted, the head dragging over her clit as it searched for her entrance. “Mine.”

That seemed to be the only word he was capable of uttering. Then he found his prize, and Cedar gasped at how wet she was already, how that broad head slid into her. But he’d spent no time preparing her, so his first deep thrust was brutal, forcing her open. A cry slipped out of her as he yanked his cock back and then plunged it in a second time. He was merciless, and her body devoured it. Still her wrists were trapped in his hand as he took her, claimed her, fucked her into oblivion. His cock scoured every last inch of her for pleasure, squeezing it out of her.

Cedar almost didn’t notice when he finished inside her because he barely slowed his pace, but the sound of each of his thrusts grew wetter and more obscene.

“Soon,” he growled between pumps of his hips, “you will be fat and ripe with my orcling. And you will never, ever leave me.”

These words seeped into her slowly, hovering on the fringes of her vision as her entire body began to squeeze tight. She cried out again and again as he sank into her deeper with every stroke, until those lumps at the base of his cock were urging her even wider.

Kargorr hissed, and suddenly shallowed his movements, snarling something in his tongue that she couldn’t understand. Abruptly he pulled out of her, then flipped her over with very little effort, so her face was in the furs. Then he slammed into her with abandon, and that tiny dot of light in front of her exploded, blinding her. She was at the mercy of her body, of its culmination, and behind her, Kargorr roared as she clamped down around him. And still he kept fucking her, using her until she had given herself over to wave after wave of excoriating bliss.

But those swells at the root of his length didn’t prod at her again. When he jammed himself deep, she could feel the hot rush of his seed inside her, but it made her feel cold.

She wished she could have seen his face as it happened, but he had turned her away—intentionally.

He hadn’t wanted to look at her. Why?

As Kargorr collapsed to the bed behind her, all his muscles twitching, unease prickled Cedar’s skin. Soon, he got off the bed and opened the tent flap, roaring some command for anyone who could hear. Someone returned, and gave him a mug full of beer, and he sat in his chair to drink it.

Kiya shivered in the corner of the tent, clearly frightened by the activity, so Cedar crept over to the kitten and picked him up, soothing him with soft strokes on his head. Lord Kargorr’s eyes remained steadfastly looking nowhere as she returned to the furs, Kiya in her arms, and curled up with him.

When Kargorr lay down next to her many hours later, he didn’t touch her before he fell asleep. Cedar drifted off, wondering what she had done wrong.

Kargorr

She’d been so beautiful with her head tossed back, her hair fanned out behind her, her mouth open and her pleasure streaming from it. As Kargorr’s blood rage faded, as she sapped the fury and violence from his body through his cock, he had wanted nothing more than to sink himself fully inside her, for his sarga to find their home in the soft squeeze of her cunt.

He almost did, against his will.

What was it about this little fleck of a human woman that made his sarga ache to fill her? He had almost truly coupled with her, and at that moment, he understood what he’d been doing wrong.

Lord Kargorr had grown too close to her, much too close. He had let Cedar inside himself, and she was burying her claws deep. If he wanted to achieve his goal, he had to hide her away from his own eyes.

In the night, Cedar awoke frequently to dress so she could take her kitten outside and feed it. Each time, she returned to the pile of furs, keeping a safe distance away from him. How was she so soft and yet tough, so sharp-edged but also sensitive?

She understood what he had said with no words, and it had hurt her. She had seen right through him. It was unsettling.

But she had her place, and she would learn it. He would make sure of that from now on.

Lord Kargorr left the next morning before she awoke and set out to begin the unloading. They had brought home more goods than the parog could possibly use, but he had been high on his victory and his blood had been hungry. Perhaps they could trade their extra goods to another parog and work toward earning their trust. Trade was rare, but it did happen from time to time, particularly where steel and iron were concerned. The grrosek didn’t waste their time mining ore from the ground, but stole it when they needed it, making it valuable and desirable.

As Kargorr and his warriors worked, he spotted Cedar with her new kitten on a leash, taking it from one place to the next while a pair of orclings followed her. The pet had been a smart decision on his part. Now she was occupied and had a place to direct her attentions while he was gone. He watched them for a moment longer, until one of his warriors approached him with a concern about how they planned to butcher the cows.

Lord Kargorr turned away. He had business to attend to.

That night, there was a great celebration for the raid’s success. Everyone ate until they couldn’t eat any longer and then danced and sang into the stars. As the ale flowed, the rutting began. Cedar remained seated on his lap, as she was supposed to, but she didn’t lean back and settle into him, as he had expected. She stayed still and straight, never looking at him, and Kargorr supposed it was for the best. It would make it easy to distance himself from her, to put her in the place she belonged. Occasionally she took a drink or reached down to pet her cat where it lay at their feet, but that was all.

Kargorr shook his head and downed more mead. But as his head grew fuzzy, all he wanted was her , and he couldn’t banish the thought from his mind. Soon he grew tired of the revelry and leaned in to Cedar’s ear.

“It is time for bed, little deer,” he said, keeping his voice soft for her. She removed herself from his lap, picked up her kitten, and walked on ahead of him to the tent without looking back. Somewhere in his gut, it stung.

He wandered into the tent behind her, noting how he had damaged the door last night. He would have to have that fixed.

Inside, Cedar was putting her pet to bed, and he approached her from behind to place his hands on her shoulders. She fell completely, perfectly still, like a figurine.

“Have you named it?” he asked, hoping he could find a crack in her hard armor. If there was one, it would be here, at the juncture of his gift.

She nodded sharply. “Yes. His name is Kiya.”

Kargorr furrowed his brow. “Kiya?” he asked, truly befuddled. It was a familiar word, one that meant... “As in, excrement?”

Cedar whirled around and gaped at him. “No! It means ‘smoke.’ That’s what Rathka told me.”

He couldn’t help it. Kargorr snickered at the woman’s gall. She had lied to Cedar, and his human had eagerly believed her.

“Smoke is sikida ,” he said, shaking his head. “ Kiya are the droppings we leave behind when we’ve had too much to eat.”

His amusement faded when Cedar looked down at the sleeping kitten and her lips pursed together. She had tried to give it an Orcish name, and he felt honored. His gift was appreciated, and the animal’s name was her way of showing it. Now she looked like someone had stomped on her favorite toy.

“He will be a fine steed regardless of his name,” Kargorr said at last, and kneeled beside her over Kiya’s sleeping form.

“I’m keeping it,” she said with a stubborn jut to her jaw. “I think it’s pretty.”

Lord Kargorr kept his laugh to himself. The beer and the mead were swirling in him now, though, and the sight of his people making merry, their cries carrying throughout the parog , made him want to join in.

“That will show Rathka,” he said at last, and finally, she rewarded him with a smile.

When Kargorr took her that night, he gave in. He looked in Cedar’s eyes and drank them up as he sank himself inside her, again and again. When she came around his cock, she didn’t look away, as if beckoning him and daring him at the same time.

He matched her, keeping their gazes locked as he released himself deep in her body, and he wondered if any of his spend had found its way to her womb.

He stayed encased in her, rolling onto his side and bringing her in close. He didn’t let her go, even as he slept, in case she blew away with the wind.

Cedar

She forgave him much too easily.

Kargorr had firmly put her in her place, and so she had become committed to that place, to keeping him at arm’s length. She couldn’t let him gain even more of a foothold, couldn’t give herself over to a fantasy where somehow, things were different between them.

She could be helpless here to his unpredictable push and pull, or she could take control instead. There were two possible outcomes: she found the right moment when she was out with Rathka and succeeded in putting the camp behind her.

Or he caught her and punished her, to never let her out of his sight again. Either option was better than slowly dying on the inside and bearing the brunt of each of his capricious whims.

But then, as if an east wind had taken over a southern one, Lord Kargorr let her in. A hidden trap door opened as he looked into her eyes, as he pumped his cock ever-so-slowly in and out of her, and Cedar wondered just how far she would fall if she stepped through it. Would that dark void inside him swallow her up whole? Would it be warm and soft like the furs, or frigid and harsh like the ice plains from where he’d come?

Uncertain, Cedar let herself put in one foot. Perhaps she could give him a little of herself and watch what he did with it. She would keep her heart hard but her mind open to him, to the idea that perhaps there was something here for her amidst the orcs.

The more she explored the camp with Kiya and Rathka, the more often she saw other humans, men and women alike, toiling like their orc counterparts. They were quiet and meek, and none of them had tried to speak to Cedar so far, but their existence here suggested that she, too, could have a future among the orc horde, if she wanted one. She would need to learn more of the language and the culture to fully ingratiate, but Cedar could do it.

What would that future be like?