Page 2 of Orc's Forbidden Claim

About the time we had begun to settle into something resembling a peaceful norm, there was the weird meteor shower. At first, we all thought that was great. The brain folks were figuring out ways to create and use electricity generated by the meteor rocks, but nothing comes that easy on Tajss. TheInvaders followed soon after and the next thing you know, we’re at war.

I wasn’t, myself, actually fighting of course. What do I know about war? What do I know about doing anything, really? My entire life has been about being pretty and making off-hand comments on fashion or boys. Keep the rumor mill full and make sure that the majority of attention was on me and my group, good or bad it didn’t really matter. We’d use it all, especially Wrenlee. She’d earned her title of Ice Queen more than once for sure.

I’m approaching the end of the ramp. One last, lone torch flickers next to the drop-off toward the arena floor way below. My steps slow as I come close to the end of my journey.

This is stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should not be doing this.

But despite all the swirling doubt and self-recrimination, I don’t stop. Slow down? Sure, but stopping isn’t an option. The empty ache in my chest, the chill on my shoulders, and the butterflies in my stomach all pull me forward. Towards him. Wrenlee’s mate was forbidden, albeit by her own comments and social constraints, but she navigated her way to come out of that intact. As much as I admire her, I don’t think I can pull that off. Not with this. Not with him.

Standing at the heavy leather door I try to slow my heart and breathing. I raise my hand to knock, drop it, close my eyes, then raise it again. I gesture towards the wall but my hand refuses to make contact. My shoulders tense and I can’t keep my arm up, dropping it to my side again.

Deep breath. Exhale. Deep breath. I’ve got this. It’s okay. No one knows I am here.

“Eeek!” I yelp as the leather door jerks aside.

He doesn’t speak, his dark eyes boring into mine. There is an inferno inside those dark eyes. His tusks tremble as he steps through the door, his arms reaching out. I’m frozen in place. Unable to take my eyes off of his. My breath and heart race even faster until I’m gasping for air.

“Dragoste,” he grumbles as his massive arms wrap around my waist and lift me off my feet.

2

KHIARA

Her lips are as sweet as the cleanest water from the deepest springs of the mountain. An electric tingle races from my lips straight into my heart. I pull her slight form into my arms and cup my hands under her perfect round ass.

She runs her hands through my hair, tugging on my braids making me groan. My cock strains against my pants, begging to be free, but that is not possible. Behind us, I hear my brother and his mate moving around our rooms. It’s distraction enough to cause me to break the kiss, no matter how much I do not want to.

“Oh, I missed that,” Saylor whispers, her fingers trailing over my face and then up my tusks.

“I too,” I say, speaking as softly as I can to avoid attracting attention.

“If only we could be alone,” she grouses.

“I know, but they moved someone into the room next to us,” I say, pushing down my anger.

Blasted lizards. They do this to spy on us. There is no trust.

I keep my thoughts to myself. If I’ve learned nothing else after the rise of the Shaman, it was to keep my own counsel and even then to keep it quiet. One misspoken word, even an improper facial expression, could be enough to pull the attention of the Maulavi.

Dilacs and I figured out how to navigate our way through the wreckage of what was once our great society. Now we are so far reduced that we must depend on the lizards. I cannot imagine a worse fate if some great power was designing it specifically to torture us.

But the Queen is alive, and she is with us. Not here, of course, the lizards would not allow that no matter how we fought or argued. When she had acquiesced to their demands, we had no choice. She is our Queen, after all. If she is willing to put her trust in the humans and the lizards, then it is on us to follow. Follow, but that does not mean we have to like it. Those are two very different things indeed.

I study my dragoste. The moment I saw her, I knew she was the one. I was being led by the stupid lizards towards what was to become my unacknowledged prison when my eye caught her in one of the dining areas. She was standing with a group of females, but she outshone them all. It was as if one of the twinkling stars I saw on my journey to the surface had come below the mountain the way she shined and sparkled so brightly. Then I heard her voice, and it was music. As if an entire symphony was playing in perfect synchronicity, performing the most beautiful, incredible song ever crafted. So amazing it must have been shaped by Tajss itself.

Her voice called to my soul. I had stopped dead in my tracks until the stupid lizard had punched me in the back. A coward’s blow, but what else would one expect from a treacherous lizard?

“What are you thinking?” she asks in a whisper that caresses my ears like the touch of a feather.

“Of you,” I say, which is only half-a-lie.

I was thinking of her, but not only her. She smiles and trails her fingers over my cheek and then down my neck.

“I want to be alone,” she says, longing heavy in her voice.

I growl. I can’t stop it from slipping out. I tighten my grip on her waist. She is so tiny compared to an Urr’ki. My hands almost meet around her waist. She rises onto her toes and claims my lips. I give all I am into the kiss, but the moment is broken when I hear footsteps approaching from inside.

I break away, reluctantly but having no choice. The heavy leather door pulls aside with a dragging sound. Saylor and I step apart only a moment before it is open enough for whoever it is to see.