CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lara
When I turn on my backup tablet a few hours later, my messages are overflowing. I send Sherrie a quick, I’m okay! We’ll talk soon.
My fingers hover over the screen as I try to figure out what to send to Mom and Dad to explain how I appeared on the property out of thin air. This is going to be one hell of a conversation, especially since they’ve been asking me to come home for months, hinting that there’s something they really need to tell me.
I’m sure whatever it is, it won’t be as shocking as bringing home an orc.
God, how is any of this going to work? It’s one thing for Brokk to blend into all the wild stuff that happens in New York City. What with Broadway, off-Broadway, and all the other types of performing arts that fill Manhattan, I can totally see why nobody batted an eye at him.
But this is Ferndale Falls. As much as I love this town, it’s tiny, and everyone knows everybody’s business. There will be no anonymity. How can we “hide” what he really is under the microscope of small-town life?
Brokk emerges from the laundry room, wearing his freshly washed pants and an oversized T-shirt of mine that stretches sinfully tight across his muscular shoulders, the white cotton so strained it becomes partially see through.
“Do I look okay?”
“Yes,” I lie, unwilling to admit he looks far too tempting, because there’s nothing else here for him to wear.
He walks over and kisses me, and I melt against him.
God, last night was so incredible! His knot locked us together all night long. Each time I moved, I had a mini-orgasm. But the intimacy of it was even better than the physical pleasure. I feel so close to Brokk now. My fingers brush over my chest, right where I wear his mark. I can feel him in my heart.
My tablet chimes with an incoming message. I glance at it, expecting it to be Sherrie, but instead it’s Hannah, using all caps.
My best friend does not do all caps. She’s the most levelheaded person I know—the kind of woman who graduated college and immediately became mayor of Ferndale Falls, vowing to save our small town from its economic downturn.
OMG, are you in town? Your tablet pinged me. COME TO THE BOOKSHOP NOW! Do not pass go, do not collect $200. NOW!
Wow. She’s even using our old “it’s an emergency” Monopoly-game joke.
“What is it?” Brokk asks, knowing something’s up without me needing to say a word. God, I love that. I love that he truly sees and understands me.
“My friend says I need to get to the town bookstore right now.”
“Is this a publishing thing?”
“No, Hannah’s the mayor not anything in publishing.”
“Then we should go.”
“We?”
“If you think I’m letting you out of my sight for even a single minute until we’re sure the threat from Edgerton is over, then you still have much to learn about orc warriors.”
“Guess it’s a good thing I have you to teach me.” I hook my fingers into the waistband of his pants and grin up at him.
“Minx,” he murmurs, his eyes heating as he looks at me.
I’m in my usual yoga pants and a baggy T-shirt, and he clearly still finds me attractive, which is a relief, because I think I would have started screaming if I needed to wear the hoohaa-hugging catsuit for even a moment longer.
My parents’ cars are gone from the driveway, so I don’t need to feel bad that I don’t know what to tell them yet. My vintage Volkswagen Beetle waits, its mint-green doors opening with the creak of metal hinges. Brokk doesn’t fit in the passenger seat and instead has to half sit, half sprawl across the back.
“Sorry.” I glance at him in the rearview mirror. “It’s not far.”
“It’s okay.”
But it’s not. I immediately start making a new list, adding to the top clothes for him and a car big enough that he fits. I’m not even sure what kind of car that will be. Maybe old Joe from the gas station will have some ideas.
The road winds through heavy forest, finally opening up right as we get to town. We pass adorable gingerbread-trimmed houses and putter down Main Street, going a sedate fifteen miles an hour. I instinctively swerve to avoid the pothole that’s been in front of the ice cream shop for as long as I can remember. The store’s closed down, as are many of the small businesses. It doesn’t matter that the buildings are cute as can be and the waterfall on the outskirts of town is gorgeous—we simply aren’t a hot tourist destination, no matter how hard Hannah tries.
I park right in front of the bookstore, glad the street’s fairly empty. Not many people will see Brokk.
We trot across the sidewalk to the bookshop. The closed sign hangs in the front door’s glass window, but the handle turns under my hand. The scent of books wraps me in a hug, and I chuckle to see that Naomi’s set up a display table full of monster romance, my orc books included.
I wave Brokk inside and point to the wooden bookcases lining the back of the store, murmuring, “Go hide while I explain?”
He nods and disappears just in time.
“You are in town!” Hannah comes out of the back, her beautiful tan face breaking into a huge smile. Tall and thin and with long dark hair, she looks like a runway model, but is one of the most practical people I’ve ever met.
We rush towards each other and hug, and I swear music should be playing like in a movie. Her arms hold me tightly—she must have been so worried.
“I’m okay. I mean, I wasn’t, but I am now.”
She pulls back and shoots me a puzzled frown. “Why wouldn’t you be okay?”
“Um, the kidnapping?”
“The what ?”
I pat at the air with my hands. “I’ll tell you all about it, but something important must be up—you used the Monopoly thing.”
“I got excited when my phone told me you were here. I’ve been trying to get you to come home for ages .”
“Sorry.” I wince. “I got caught up in all the book tour stuff my publisher wanted.”
“It’s okay.” She waves a hand. “There’s something we need to tell you.”
“We?”
Naomi steps out of the back. Big and beautiful with it, she looks happier than ever, her brown curls wreathing her smiling brown face. She holds up the cover of my newest book, Brokk glaring from the cover in full warrior mode. “What’s this?”
“Uh.” My eyes ping-pong between the two of them, but their grins don’t give me any clues. “One of my books?”
“Who’s this on the cover?” Naomi taps at Brokk’s picture.
“My cover model?” God, why does my voice keep going up at the end as if I’m the one asking the questions?
“Do you know how to find him?” Naomi asks. “It’s really important.”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” I say, then raise my voice. “Brokk.”
He steps out from behind a bookcase, and Naomi laughs with delight and yells into the bookshop’s back room. “Wranth, you need to get out here!”
An orc fills the doorway behind her, dressed in brown leather pants and boots and a dark-blue tunic shirt. He grunts and steps forward to clasp forearms with Brokk. “Aldronn will be glad to know you’re all right.”
“Good.” Brokk grins. “I’d like to get word to my parents as well.”
“I can do that.”
Still in shock, I turn back to the women. “You know about orcs?”
“Yep,” Naomi says. “That’s my husband.”
“And Ferndale Falls is now the doorway to Faerie,” Hannah adds.
I give my head a quick shake. “Okay, I’m totally going to need more caffeine.”
“I’ll make coffee.” Naomi bustles over to the little coffee nook she set up in the shop as Hannah pulls me over to the comfy old velvet couches to sit.
I lean forward. “Tell me everything .”
Two cups of coffee and a shit ton of talking later, I sit back, still amazed. All the things that happened to Brokk actually happened here, in my small town. Orcs and werepanthers and evil fae. A door to Faerie. It’s a lot .
And it’s all freaking amazing!
“I told you it was Naomi who opened the doors of Faerie,” Brokk says.
“You did.” I give a slow nod. “But it’s a fairly common name. I had no idea you meant the one Naomi I know.”
“Small world,” Hannah says.
“No, I think it’s more than that,” Naomi says. “I think it’s because we’re witches. We’ve been drawn here—or our families were. There’s something about Ferndale Falls.”
“The sluagh did say there were many witches here,” Wranth says.
Sluagh? That kind of fae really exists, too? I need to find out more about them so I can put them in a book.
“We’re the first magical town in the world,” Hannah says, her face beaming. Then her expression turns wry. “If only I could use it as a tourist attraction.”
“Do you have powers?” I ask.
“I’m supposed to,” Hannah says. “But I don’t know what they are yet.”
“As I mentioned, I can teleport.” In a blink, Naomi’s across the bookshop. Another blink, and she’s back.
“That’s amazing!”
“And you can read languages.” Hannah leans backward and plucks a book off a shelf and hands it to me.
“ Madame Bovary ?” I snort in amusement. “You gave me, a romance writer , the novel a man wrote to complain that women shouldn’t read too much romance?”
“It was the closest book in a foreign language I could reach.” She grins back, unapologetic, clearly still amused by how much I ranted about this novel in high school.
This edition is in the original French. I flip to the opening pages and read the first paragraphs aloud in English.
“You really can read other languages,” Hannah says.
Brokk bristles beside me. “My mate does not lie.”
“I didn’t mean she did. I’m just astonished you’re a witch.” My friend looks at me, breaks into a huge smile, and points. “You’re going to move back to Ferndale Falls and live here from now on.”
“How did you know that?”
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s like one of your lists.” She starts counting things off on her fingers. “We’re all witches, you love an orc, orcs now visit this town, and we’ve got the door to Faerie. Where else are you going to live?”
“It’s what we discussed.” Brokk takes my hand. “I’m even happier to live here now.”
“Me too.” I squeeze his fingers. “It just feels kind of easy.”
“Being kidnapped, shot at, and having to jump off not one but two cliffs sounds easy to you?” Hannah says with a laugh.
“You’re right.” I grin at her. “I guess all of this is the reward for everything Elton Edgerton put us through.”
We eat takeout shrimp linguine from Luigi’s Restaurant and talk through the evening.
Wranth promises to carry a message to the king for Brokk. “We want to station fae warriors here permanently. Now that Ferndale Falls holds the door to Faerie, we need to protect the town. You can be the first.”
“I’ll still be an orc warrior,” Brokk says, his voice ringing with pride.
“You will.” Wranth tips his head. “And we will find a way to compensate you in a currency the humans recognize.”
I lean against Brokk’s side, enjoying the happiness that radiates from him, loving that he can still be the warrior he’s meant to be.
He continues to talk to his friend, and I turn back to mine, catching up on everything. Naomi’s story, if anything, is even wilder than mine. She met unicorns and dragons!
When it gets late, we finally call it a day and agree to meet again tomorrow.
Out on the sidewalk, my tablet pings with a text from Sherrie. Girl, where did you go?
It’s a long story , I type. Am I in trouble with the publisher?
Nah, since Miami was the last stop of the book tour, we’re good.
Great!
She texts, But the stylist wants his clothing back.
I wince. That’s so not going to happen. The shoes are on the island, and the catsuit’s seen better days. Besides, I’m kind of attached to that catsuit and the way Brokk looks at me in it.
Overnight my phone to my home in Ferndale Falls, and as soon as I get it, I promise to call and tell you everything.
Will do.
“I’m going to need to figure out what to tell Sherrie about what happened to us,” I say as I unlock the car. “I’m not sure she’s ready to discover you’re really an orc.”
“Then keep it simple. A delusional man kidnapped you because he thought your fantasy magic was real, and I rescued you.”
“As simple as that? It’s not much of a story.”
“For once, my sweet mate, I think it might be better if you don’t use that brilliant imagination of yours.” He presses a kiss to the top of my head and climbs into the back.
The Beetle putts along the winding forest road, the headlights creating a tunnel of brightness ahead.
I bypass the driveway to the main house and take the smaller one that leads right to the cottage.
When we step inside and flip on the lights, the cottage wraps around me like a familiar hug, decorated in all my favorite things.
I let out a happy sigh.
Brokk enfolds me in his arms. “You’ve been through a great deal today.”
“You have, too.” I nuzzle his chest, breathing in his pine and leather scent, then look up at him. “How are you doing?”
“I’m better than ever!” Pleased satisfaction fills his voice. “I have you, my dear mate, and I am again an orc warrior.”
I say, “Ferndale Falls couldn’t have a better protector.”
“It’s as I said. I was always meant to be here with you.”
I nod, starting to make a list of everything we need to do.
“What is it?” He brushes my temple with his fingertips.
“There’s still a lot to work out about how we’re going to make sure you have a good life here on Earth. All the paperwork. Dealing with your modeling agent, and—”
“Shhh.” He presses his fingers to my lips. “It sounds like it’s time for me to calm that busy brain of yours.”
Yes, please! My thighs clench in anticipation.
He grins down at me. “What would you like me to do?”
“I don’t know.” I glance up at him, a coy smile curling my lips, and walk my fingers up his chest. “I can think of one thing that would make all of this better.”
“Anything.”
I take a step back and finally speak the phrase I’ve been secretly dying to say for months. “Brokk, take off your shirt.”
His eyes heat as his lips curl into the wicked grin that always makes me melt. The T-shirt bunches in his fists, the fabric parting with a loud and satisfying rip.
Brokk scoops me up and crushes me to his bare chest, his mouth eating mine in a kiss full of love and magic and passion.
Thanks for reading Romancing the Orc . I hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it.