Yuletide Orc (Holiday Orc #1)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

T hey weren’t coming for me. Maybe my party were injured. Or dead. Maybe I was the only one left alive. I pushed aside the mounting dread and fear, compartmentalizing it all as survival became the only priority.

I was still alive. If I lived, I could help them. But I had to save myself first. Had to get moving again. Had to defeat the remaining enemies.

I pressed a hand against my bleeding side and whispered a small spell for healing. Something powerful enough to bind the skin and close the wound. To maybe stop the bleeding before I had no more blood left to lose. A soft, blue glow the same shade as my cobalt hair hummed across my pale fingers. Magic, my magic, began to stitch shut my wound.

Heavy footsteps crunched in the morning snow. Large flakes fell around me, obscuring what small view I had of the forest from the ground. Sunrise had only just begun peeking through the trees, the sky still latching on to dark blue. This clash had lasted all of two minutes, and from the looks of it, my party of mercenaries had lost against the orcs despite having surprise and the last remains of nightfall on our side.

Fear bubbled up my throat again as my magic warmed my healing skin, but laborious breathing now accompanied the approaching footfalls. I groaned and forced my hands beneath me, leaving my wound to the open air again. It was more important to stand now. To get away or at least face the end head-on.

Agony scorched across my side as I pushed off the ground and onto my knees as he advanced. The orc emerged through the thick, falling snow like a moving boulder, all broad shoulders and rippling muscles beneath his green skin. Blood streaked through his tied-back, light-brown hair and across some of his tribal tattoos. He glared down at me with pale-green eyes as he gripped his massive battle axe before him. His enormous hands wrapped easily around the weapon’s hilt—the same blade that’d cut open my side. One of his tusks was longer than the other, and he sported piercings along both ears.

It was the rage in his eyes that intimidated me the most.

I pressed my hand to my side again and willed my magic to finish healing me as we stared at each other. I was scared to move—not because I didn’t think I could take him, but because I didn’t have a plan. The only “plan” my party had had when we’d taken a job to “clear out some orcs” along Caiburn’s town border had been ruined by snow and the presence of this orc. This fucking chieftain in particular.

“Thief mage,” Bikkar the Bonecrusher said with so much disdain that he might as well have cut me with his blade again.

“Bonecrusher.” A dry laugh escaped my lips. Nothing about this was funny. Maybe it’d distract him. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

I needed to heal myself so I could fight. So I could find my friends and check on them. This entire job had gone utterly sideways, and while we’ve fought with orcs before, Bikkar and his tribe were the strongest around. The most powerful, and the only one with political influence. We’d fought with them before and had been ordered by the Crown to stay out of their way after numerous causalities on both sides. But my party’s benefactor hadn’t included this information when we’d been hired. By the time we had realized whom we’d been trying to “clear out,” it had been too late.

I swallowed hard and allowed a single moment of fear to really sink in. I’d seen time and again before what those hands—those strong, tense hands—could do with that battle axe. I’d get one shot at escape, and if I didn’t succeed, that would be the end of me.

Bikkar sauntered closer without loosening the grip on his axe. That made me smile, however inappropriate a smile might have been at this moment. He still thought I could escape or attack. Or something . There was a reason he wasn’t letting down his guard.

Good . I’d take all the help bluffing that I could get. I always did.

“If you don’t want to keep meeting like this, thief,” Bikkar began, and his rumbling, deep voice reverberated through me straight to my core, “then perhaps you should stop killing my people.” His lips curled in a snarl. The leather along the battle axe’s shaft creaked as he wrung his hands around it.

That was when I did something I never thought I’d do in his presence: I caved.

I felt my expression fall before I could stop it from becoming something short of pleading. “We didn’t know. The person who hired us?—”

Bikkar stomped forward and reeled back his axe. The action kicked up snow, but I didn’t dare move to wipe it away. The last thing I needed was to give him any indication I was going to attack. Something in my gut told me he wasn’t going to kill me, not just yet. Still, my heart froze in my throat as seconds passed into safety.

Finally, Bikkar broke the silence. “I should kill you.”

“Why don’t you, then?” I shouldn’t have tempted him, but the question still hung in the air. The rest of my party of mercenaries and thieves might have already been dead, and if they weren’t, they were most certainly injured and unmoving. “Everyone else is already dead.”

“They’re running,” Bikkar corrected.

“They wouldn’t.”

Bikkar didn’t swing his axe. Nor did he lower it. The truth of his words sent dread spiraling through me anew. He just stood there, towering over me menacingly. He was a terrifying hulk of an orc. But he was handsome, too. The lines of his strong jaw. His tea-green eyes that seemed to shift through emotions as we stood here. Anger. A lot of rage. Deliberation. And… something softer.

“They did. My people died. Yours ran.” He spat on the ground. “Cowards. And now you cower before me instead of standing to attack. To meet your end with an ounce of courage.”

Ah, pity . Pity was that softer emotion.

I was still on my knees before him. I wouldn’t beg for my life. There was nothing within me that would make me beg Bikkar for anything . But kneeling before him now, I understood where Bikkar was coming from.

So, with a deep cringe as pain bloomed across my still-healing wound, I forced myself to stand before Bikkar as tall as I could. I lifted my chin and kept working my magic. There was no point in hiding me healing myself anymore. Especially not when one swing of that sword would end me.

My window to escape was closing. But I’d always worked better against a ticking clock. “There. Happy now?”

The corner of Bikkar’s mouth twitched, but then he shook his head as if his next words weren’t what he’d wanted to say.

“There is nothing to be happy about.” He took another bounding step toward me. The only solace to be found in being inches away from Bikkar the Bonecrusher was that he had very limited space now in which to swing his battle axe. “So many have died. Too many. And despite the agreement between my tribe and the Crown, you and yours still came here to spill more blood.”

I wanted it to be hard not to look at Bikkar’s axe. Or to not look him in his raging eyes. But the truth was I’d never been this close to him before without being in a fight with him. Talking was nearly as disorienting as my gaze, which wandered too much for a moment like this. Over his rippling muscles and tattoos, stopping briefly on the scar along his one eye. I’d given him that scar a year ago during one of our first encounters.

Bikkar was, to my sudden realization and rampant disgust, actually very handsome and breathtakingly powerful. And he was about to end my life. I was by no means the leader of my party, but my death would still send them a message.

“They’re running.” Bikkar’s words slammed into my mind, taking my breath with them.

My party didn’t need to be taught a lesson. They were already fleeing in fear.

“What are you going to do with me?” I hated how small my voice sounded. The betrayal of my party stung. Pain swept through my side, although it was less intense now. I still held one hand against my side, willing the skin to stitch and heal.

Time was running out. And my magic was running dry. I didn’t have much more left in me.

Bikkar hesitated. He covered it up by shifting his hulking form and grunting loudly, but the hesitation was there.

“Why waver now?” I prodded. “You finally have me caught. Well done, Bonecrusher.”

Bikkar growled so deep, the sound rumbled through me. I felt it slip down my spine with a straight shot to my core. That I found that growl even the slightest bit enticing shocked me so much, my mind cleared in an instant. “I should make an example of you.”

I could see it now, my path out of this. The window was closing, but Bikkar was distracted by his own thoughts or the weather or who the fuck knew what. “Yes, you really should. You let the others get away. Might as well kill the one frail human in your grasp.”

Bikkar’s nostrils flared. He roared and reached forward with one hand—definitely aiming to grab my throat—but I pushed it aside, already anticipating the attack. I grabbed beneath his arm and turned quick, using his momentum against him. But Bikkar was a huge beast of an orc and my side seared with pain. I bit through it and, while not exactly throwing him to the ground, sent Bikkar teetering off-balance long enough to run.

I sprinted through the snow, taking care with every footstep not to slip, and made for the trees. It wouldn’t take Bikkar long to recover, and if he captured me a second time, I knew there’d be none of the mercy and hesitation he’d just shown me. Another roar bellowed through the forest, followed by heavy footfalls.

Fear stoked anew in my heart as it thumped against my chest. My lungs screamed, trying to keep up with the pace I wanted to maintain. All the while, my wounded side burned. I hadn’t healed it enough during the precious few moments in which Bikkar and I had exchanged words. I wouldn’t bleed out, but if I didn’t run fast enough and disappear, bleeding would be the least of my worries. There were other things in the woods just as dangerous as Bikkar the Bonecrusher.

Wolf song sounded in the distance as if to emphasize my point.

Bikkar’s heavy footfalls raged closer. I could almost hear his breath running ragged as he ran.

I jumped and grabbed a branch overhead, using it to swing myself through the air to another tree. It had better branches for climbing and a much taller trunk. And while I was more than sure Bikkar’s strength would make quick work of the tree, maybe I could buy myself a few moments to catch my breath. To think through my options. I couldn’t keep up this dashing pace forever. Caiburn, where my party’s benefactor had hired us, was still two miles away. There was nothing but Bikkar and I and trees between here and there.

I landed harshly on the second tree. Pain torched a hot path up my side so bright, I saw stars. I ground my teeth against it all and went to climb up, but just as my hand reached a higher handhold, Bikkar roared. His footfalls stopped, which was because Bikkar had leapt. His large, green hand wrapped around one of my ankles and pulled down hard . A yelp escaped my lips as he dragged me out of the tree. His free arm wrapped around me—dwarfing my body against his—and held me in place. Adrenaline sped through my veins. I struggled against him, but with my side screaming and Bikkar’s powerful hold on me, I wasn’t going anywhere.

“I didn’t consider you a coward like the others,” Bikkar snapped. “You’ve always faced me head-on. It’s not like I’m a hell-wolf or something.”

“Fuck you!”

I pushed my hands against the one arm he had wrapped around my middle. His long, strong fingers were splayed against my good side. They were warm, especially considering snow still fell around us, and I’d be lying if I said I hated it. In the heat of battle, I’d forgotten how cold it was outside. Bikkar’s whole body was as warm as a bonfire and, despite the danger involved in doing so, I found myself wanting to curl up against him.

Bikkar firmed up his grip around me. His fingers dug into my side as he leaned in against my ear. “Stop struggling. You’re not getting away from me again.” His breath was warm, his voice in my ear disarming. His touch around my body sent excited shivers down my spine.

Why was I finding this very moment the perfect time to suddenly find Bikkar attractive? My stomach churned. This was insane.

But I knew. It’d been so very long since someone had held me like this—intent and context notwithstanding—and bodies were traitors like that.

“Do you want me to fight or give in?” I spat. “Make up your damn mind.”

Bikkar growled. I took the opening to kick up, slamming my feet flat against the tree trunk in front of us, and whispered as large a spell for strength as I could muster in my tired state. Which was to say, it wasn’t powerful at all. But it gave me just enough leverage to push us both backward.

Bikkar landed hard, me on top of him, but the plan hadn’t worked exactly as I’d wanted. Instead of opening a window for a potentially loosened grip around my middle, Bikkar held on tighter. I was now as pressed against him as I could be thanks to gravity.

He grunted and turned us over so my cheeks pressed against snow and the weight of him held me in place. I had no hope of escape, but there was a part of me that I couldn’t ignore that liked being captured like his.

My friends had betrayed me first. Now my body and mind.

For fuck’s sake .

“Enough.” Bikkar lifted up enough to bind my wrists together with thick rope. It bit against my skin as he tightened it. “You will face the consequences for your party’s actions here. This feud is over.”

The weight of him still on me, the feel of the ropes—too many feelings were warring for priority. I settled on anger. “Blame the town. They sent us here.”

Bikkar stood and hauled me up with him. He spun me around to face him. “Is that what you really want? For me to raze Caiburn with what remains of my tribe because the five of you couldn’t leave well enough alone?”

“Yes,” I said matter-of-factly. But of course, I hadn’t meant it. The townspeople were innocent and just wanted to live their lives without fear of an orc attack. But I didn’t need to say that to Bikkar. He already knew.

Bikkar scoffed and reached with a free hand for a piece of fabric hanging off his belt. “Despicable, all of you. I will bring you back to Caiburn and explain that the fear of a few doesn’t outweigh the agreement I had with the mayor. With whom my entire tribe had an agreement, not that you investigated it enough to learn this.”

He raised the hand holding the fabric, and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me again as he had in the battle and many times before. Instead, as his hand approached my jaw, he hesitated. Again. He extended one finger and ran it along the line of my jaw.

I wanted to ask him what his problem was. Why he was caressing my chin. But I was also terrified to talk with his fist so close, and more than a little confused as to why we’d been hired by a citizen minority. The truth was, we hadn’t researched much. Our party’s leader had taken the job because we’d needed cash, and because we’d time and again fought orcs and other creatures to keep them away from human and elf populations.

Bikkar’s expression softened—just for a moment. “I don’t understand…”

“Understand what?” I asked, deciding to risk the words.

“How someone so fragile can cause so much damage.” The words bit, but his tone didn’t match. It sent my mind whirring. But then he seemed to come back to himself and moved fast, placing the fabric in my mouth as a gag. I fought it as best I could—which wasn’t much—but the moment, whatever that moment had been between us, was over.

“I should kill you,” Bikkar spat as he took in the sight of me. “Not turn you in.”

I glared at him, the message clear. So do it. Stop talking and fucking do it already .

He reached for his battle axe a few paces away. “If you insist.” But he paused, his line of sight rising toward the treetops now lit with the beginnings of sunrise.

Bikkar paused. For too long, really. So long that I thought maybe a mage had dropped by and frozen him in place.

I was not that lucky.

With a heavy sigh and an expression full of resistance, Bikkar turned back to me. “The fates have different plans for us this day. Lucky for you.”

I lifted an eyebrow. What did a sunrise have to do with fate?

“Yule,” Bikkar answered reluctantly. “Fucking Yule.” He grabbed the rope between my wrists and hauled me so close to him, I felt his warm breath on my face. “I am an honorable man. I know you don’t believe that. I know you see a monster. But until sunrise tomorrow, orc law demands you see that honor.” He leaned in, his eyes burning. Hate. Disgust. Rage. I felt all three roil over me with a single glare from him. “Enjoy this extension of your life.”