Chapter Nine
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Francesca
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I hold my breath, waiting for Jasmine to answer. Mate with the orcs or die. Those are my options. Same as hers, right?
"Nooo... oh no... Not at all," Jasmine says. "You're totally fine," she adds, pointing her finger and then waving it at me. "You might always be stuck with the heartfire—I'm sorry about that—but over time it will just fade away."
"Really?" I ask, frowning.
"Yes, really," she replies, her eyes shining as she leans over and whispers. "I had no idea the spell would even work. I thought I would make the egg go poof and blow up all of Kraukug along with my husbands." She covers her mouth to stifle a laugh, as it shouldn't be funny, but it kind of is.
"I mean, I'm not an elder, and there might be holes in my spell, but we're still here, and you're here, and my husbands' brothers are here. I'm just a girl from New York with a shoe addiction that was way too easy to kick, mind you. What do I know about spells?"
"Okay, wait. So if I'm not going to die, then I can leave immediately, right?"
"Well, not right now," Cailyn says. "We have an issue with a couple of dumb billionaires drilling too close to our portal," she adds, her cheeks flushed with anger as if she wants to strangle the billionaires in question with her bare hands. Okay then.
"Oh yes, right," Jasmine says. "They're constructing something, and they could inadvertently find us. It'll just create unnecessary chaos that Kraukug doesn't need right now, you know?"
Of all the species I could get saddled with, I get the most doomed to continue to exist from all sides.
"But we're fine. My husbands are fortifying the area by building another layer with boulders from the Hugolm mountains."
I don't know what that means, but okay.
"Well, good. I'm glad you have everything under control," I say, meaning it. "So when can I leave?"
I have to leave. I can't stay here any longer than I have to. My body is doing strange things to me. I can't stop thinking about them touching me.
Already, I feel wetness clinging to my folds even as I sit here. What the hell? Men have never interested me at all. In fact, from my many friends' experiences, they're just unnecessary drama and heartache. I don't need that. I just want to be me; that's all I want.
"I've monitored their work schedule," Cailyn says. "Tomorrow at sunrise will be your only opportunity. The orcs are swift enough to move undetected, but they can't leave now without being vaporized."
"The egg spell protected them before, but only for one journey through the portal," Jasmine offers. "You might be spotted if you leave any sooner."
This is good news. This is excellent news. I can be on my merry way back to civilization by tomorrow and chalk this up to a funny dream.
"What will happen to Damien, Fenric, and Caleb if I leave?"
"Those are the names you've given them? I love them," Jasmine says, clutching her chest while she oohs and ahhs before getting serious again. "They'll remain as they are, but without their tusks."
And without their tusks, they're vulnerable. I can't imagine those giant green mountains being seen as vulnerable ever, but whatever.
My thoughts are interrupted by a loud commotion outside. Jasmine and Cailyn spring to their feet and rush out the door. I follow, my heart racing.
In the distance, six orcs are rounding up a herd of very angry, strange-looking animals, whose snorts are so loud it sounds like thunder. It's crazy how it's the middle of the night, but the moon is so bright that I can see everything as clear as day.
They're like cowboys, except they're on foot, tackling the violent, mammoth-sized beasts into submission with their bare hands.
I realize they're speaking English for our benefit—definitely for Jasmine and Cailyn's.
No matter how hard I try to take my gaze off Damien, Fenric, and Caleb, I can't. They're like human machines, laden with muscle, and yet, despite being as big as mountains, they have the grace and litheness of apex predators.
"Meat for days, months," Jasmine squeals, clapping her hands. "Cailyn, life is returning to Kraukug," she adds, jumping up and down. "They can smell the greenery now. Isn't it wonderful?"
Cailyn has tears in her eyes, which she wipes away angrily, then nods stiffly. I think I already love these two girls.
It's clear Jasmine's husbands are trying to impress her with their skill.
Well, I can say the same for my orcs. They're doing insane air flips right onto the creatures' backs, wrestling the animals, who weigh ten times more than they do, to the ground before clamping their mouths shut with rope, but not before I see the size of their teeth.
They look at me, silently asking if I'm impressed. I roll my eyes. I'm not. And no, I am not soaking the tights I'm wearing. Shit. I'll have to find a place to wash them before anyone notices.
"Aren't they amazing?" Jasmine squeals.
"I've seen better," I say haughtily, folding my arms to press my goddamn nipples flat. Why do they make me so angry? Not my nipples. Them.
Caleb looks at me as if he wants to eat me. He makes my blood hotter and my pussy spasm, and I barely know him. He's an orc, for crying out loud.
Fenric's features are so strong and bold and utterly beautiful, but it's just a mask of stoicism.
Yet when he looks at me, I feel as if he can see my flakiness, my weaknesses, how I would rather run away from my family than tell them I'm leaving because I want nothing to do with them anymore.
Fenric makes me want to kiss him, so I distract him from looking inside me too deeply. Again, Francesca, orc.
Damien has a darkness in him I keep gravitating toward. He's utterly dangerous, and I feel it when he holds or kisses me, yet so crazily protective; I want to crawl into him and be swept between pain and pleasure.
"Okay, nut job," I mutter under my breath. I am losing my mind.
With the animals rounded up, Cailyn and Jasmine go to open an enclosure.
Jasmine gets lost in the arms of her orcs as they kiss her senseless, I'm sure.
But Tristian, Alexander, and Marquis also ruffle Cailyn's hair.
No wonder it's always in such a state. But she likes it and accepts their praise with pride for the binding she apparently made to clamp the beasts' mouths shut.
But my gaze shifts back to Damien, Fenric, and Caleb as they remove their boots and, still with their pants on, wade into a lake cast in white light.
They dunk their heads in what I know is icy cold water. Are they insane? Of course they are.
My body heats up as they come toward me.
"All right," I say, not really sure I was going to say anything at all, let alone this.
"Let's get this over with. But just know, my first impression of you was as three overgrown drunk toddler trolls, and that's not going to change.
You don't have to try to impress me. Just in and out, basic biology. Grow your tusks, and then I'm—"