Laina
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Moving a new mother and her twins out of a cave in the Maine woods was not a fast operation.
Brovish had the cart positioned at the outcropping entrance and with the back gate open by the time I’d finished my final checks on the twins.
He’d done it without asking what I needed, which I was starting to understand was how he moved through life.
He passed a blanket to me outside, and I lined the cart bed with it.
We talked through the logistics in low voices so we wouldn’t stress Abagail.
“She’ll follow if I lead her,” he said. “But she won’t leave the twins inside the cave.”
“So we take the twins first.”
He looked at me. “You believe she’ll permit that?”
“She’s tired, and she trusts us.” I picked up the smaller twin, who immediately wrapped her front paws around my neck. “She chose us both. Remember?”
He held my gaze for a moment, then reached for the larger twin without another word.
Abagail followed us out of the cave like it had been her plan all along.
Getting her settled inside the cart took patience and Brovish making a low sound in his throat I hadn’t heard before, something between a hum and a murmur.
Abagail leaned into it. The twins burrowed into the blanket beside her, and we attached a mesh structure over them to keep them from being able to jump out.
Sofia circled once overhead in the early light, approved the arrangement, and posted herself on the cart’s side rail.
We got into the off-road vehicle, and he started the engine. As he turned the vehicle around and started through a somewhat clear part of the woods, the cart rocked behind us. The woods were still wet, light coming through the pines in flat silver strips.
“Cooper will be wondering where we are,” I said.
“I should’ve checked on him last night.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. He’s getting better.”
He glanced over and gave me a half smile, the kind that showed his tusks.
I looked back at the trail and felt something settle in my chest that had been slightly off-balance for months.
We arrived and got Abagail and the babies settled in her pen.
Brovish rebuilt the latch mechanism on the rear gate that had allowed her to escape while I ran one final check on the twins, my hands moving over their small, warm bodies.
I listened to their breathing and assessed their mouths.
The larger one headbutted my shin and then sat down, I swear giving me a scowl.
“Did you want to knock me over, little one? Not until you’re as big as your mama.”
The smaller one fell asleep against my knee during the examination and woke when I lifted her. When I put her down, she wobbled over to her mom, dropped to the ground, and started to nurse.
“The gate’s secure,” Brovish called out.
I got up and left the enclosure, pausing beside him to watch the babies. There was something wonderfully miraculous about witnessing a birth.
And something equally wonderful about sharing it with the orc beside me.
We went inside, pausing in the entryway.
“I’ll be back in a bit.” I gestured at myself. Cave hair. Mud on my boots and clothing. Afterbirth…well, in places I didn’t want to examine closely. “I need to shower and change.”
“Of course. I’ll see you later.”
I drove Bertha home. My cottage felt different when I arrived. Mine but not quite mine any longer. It felt more like my dad’s than the home I’d fallen into each night after a long day at the clinic.
I stripped on my way to the bathroom, tossing my clothing into the hamper, and stepping underneath the spray. The hot water couldn’t wash away the feeling of Brovish holding me all through the night.
What would it be like to wake in his arms each morning? I wasn’t sure I dared dream of something that amazing.
I’d been standing under the spray for twenty minutes, pretending I needed to get all the cave dirt out of my hair while replaying the moment Brovish had curved his body around mine in the dark.
The weight of his hand splayed across my belly.
How I’d pulled his hand closer when I should’ve been focused on monitoring Abagail and the twins.
I’d delivered plenty of animals in my career. I’d never once woken up thinking about the person who’d handed me the towels.
Sofia peeped from the bathroom counter, watching me through the glass shower door with her round, knowing eyes.
I turned off the water and reached for my towel, catching my reflection in the fogged mirror. My hair was a disaster. My eyes looked different. Brighter, maybe, or just more awake than they’d been in months.
Abagail chose us both.
The words had lodged in my spine and refused to budge.
When a snugglethorn chooses two, it means those two are bonded through her care. She’d decided we belonged to each other because we both belonged to her. What was I supposed to think about that?
I’d made plenty of life-changing decisions in my life. Vet school. Taking over Dad’s practice. Selling out my partnership. Even moving into Dad’s cottage after he died.
None of them had involved a seven-foot orc who wrote my name in his notebook as if he was writing a love letter.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
Brovish.
Duchess Filandra appears to be refusing breakfast unless you’re present. That’s my assumption of her behavior.
I smiled at the screen, my wet hair dripping onto my shoulders.
Tell her I’m on my way.
A pause followed before he replied. She indicates that’s acceptable.
I pulled on clean clothes that didn’t smell like cave and amniotic fluid.
My hands fumbled the buttons on my shirt twice.
This was ridiculous. I was a professional, and professionals didn’t get flustered about seeing their colleagues after spending one night in close quarters during a medical emergency.
Except we’d kissed, and it had been amazing.
And he’d written in his notebook that I spoke to hours’ old creatures like I’d known them all my life, and I’d held his hand under a blanket while listening to him breathe, and—
Sofia launched off the counter and landed on my shoulder with enough force to make me grab the sink edge.
“Okay,” I said. “I get it. Time to head back to the rescue.”
She settled against my neck, and I drove back to the facility thinking about absolutely nothing except the road ahead and definitely not about what would happen when I saw him again.
The lie lasted until I pulled into the parking lot and spotted his truck.
The transport vehicle bringing in new creatures hadn’t returned yet, but it would soon.
I made quick rounds out back, making sure the creatures were safe and healthy, stopping at the driftwhisp enclosure on my way back inside. Five shapes pressed against the inside of the netting, their silver tendrils already lit.
Brovish had repaired the gap in the mesh, and they couldn’t escape to reach me.
I leaned closer while they fluttered at face height. “Aren’t you all beauties?”
They quivered with excitement. Steven floated closer, his black feathers puffed forward. The others arranged behind him like they’d discussed the order in advance.
I unlatched the gate and tilted my head. “Come on out, guys. I’m feeling unadorned.”
They filed out one by one, each choosing a spot on my head as if they’d had a lengthy discussion and knew where they needed to be.
Steven threaded his tendrils behind my right ear, clutched clumps of my hair, and went still. The second and third settled behind my other ear. The fourth went to the crown of my head and the fifth hovered a moment, assessing, and settled at my right temple.
With a laugh, I continued my rounds before going inside.
I found Brovish in the medical bay.
He’d showered and pulled his damp hair back, which meant I could see the full line of his jaw and the way his tusks caught his upper lip when he concentrated. He was reorganizing the supply cabinet—the one I’d already organized last week.
“Good morning,” I said from the doorway.
He turned fast enough that the cabinet door swung shut, making a bang. His eyes found mine and held, and the air between us shifted into a frequency I couldn’t name but felt in my teeth.
“You’re back.”
“I said I would be.”
“You did.” He set down the box he’d been holding, and I followed his hands, remembering how carefully they’d checked the twins and how they’d cradled my face before he’d kissed me. “I was…ensuring everything was prepared for the day.”
“You were reorganizing my cabinet.”
His ears darkened. “I thought perhaps a different arrangement would be more efficient.”
“More efficient than the system I set up already?”
“Yours was…” His gaze dropped to my mouth before jerking back up. “Very organized.”
I walked closer.
He didn’t step back.
We stood with the exam table between us, the scent of antiseptic filling the space.
“Brovish.”
“Yes?”
“Did you sleep much last night?”
His jaw worked. “Some.”
“How much is some?”
“Perhaps an hour.” He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, the gesture pulling his shirt tight across his shoulders. “Duchess Filandra was displeased with your absence. She expressed this displeasure at length.”
“Just Duchess Filandra?”
His long sigh rang out. “Not just the duchess.”
My pulse kicked up.
“I kept thinking about the cave,” I said. “About waking up and you were—We were—”
“Laina.”
“Yes?”
“May I—” He took a breath. “In my culture, when orcs court someone, there are customs. Gifts. Proper words. But I don’t know the right words for what I want to ask, and I don’t want to ask it incorrectly.”
“Ask anyway.”
He came around the exam table and stopped close enough that I had to tip my head back to hold his gaze.
“May I kiss you again?” His voice had dropped to a bare whisper. “Here, in daylight, when we’re not cold or frightened or tending creatures who need us. May I kiss you because it’s all I’ve thought about since you drove away?”
My breath caught somewhere between my lungs and my throat.
“Yes.”
His hand came up to cup my face, and he gently stroked my cheekbone. Then he leaned down and kissed me.
It wasn’t like the cave. That had been discovery, surprise, a tentative question.