Page 11 of Fake Dating an Orc Cowboy

“Only if you’d like me to keep singing,” I said gruffly.

“Any distraction is good, right?” He tilted his head to his left, where a toddler sat beside her mother. “She was fussy when she boarded, but your song worked a miracle.” He tutted. “Flying can be hard on little ones. The pressure hurts their ears. Some are scared. But you made take-off a breeze for her. Thank you.” He held up the bottle. “Are you sure I can’t talk you two into more?”

“Not for me,” Rosey said, and I murmured the same. While singing was enjoyable, I suspected those around me wouldnotenjoy me doing so for the entire flight.

Singing had worked a miracle on me as well.

The plane continued onward, and I leaned over Rosey to peer out the window, my belly dropping away to nothing when I sawhow far above the ground we were. But I was equally fascinated by the view.

“Orcs live beneath the ground, and it has its own beauty,” I told Rosey. “Iridescent insects cover the roofs of our caverns, and they generate light when they rub their back legs together. This helps us see our way. Like with your sun, they give us day and night. They rub their legs to attract a mate but only do so the equivalent of your twelve hours before resting and granting us darkness.”

“It sounds amazing.”

“A few random insects have not received the notification that they mustn’t rub all the time, and they’re our stars in the night.”

“Do they create white light?”

“Some. Others create every shade imaginable. I’ve seen images of your northern lights, and I suppose you could say they create ours.”

“Tell me about your family? You said you have brothers.”

“Ten brothers and six sisters.”

“Wow. That’s a big family.”

“It’s common with orcs. Our males have . . .” How could I delicately say this? While the youngling girl had fallen asleep in the seat opposite mine, others might take offense if they overheard. I leaned close to her ear and whispered, “We generate lots of cum.”

Huffing out a laugh, she looked up at me. “All guys say that.”

“It’s been studied. We generate at least three times that of a human male.”

“Because you’re bigger.”

“Not three times bigger,” I pointed out.

“Why so much?”

“To ensure fertility, I suppose.”

“Your spermies swim slowly?” she asked with a grin I found incredibly sweet.

“Perhaps. Twins are common with orcs as well. There are two sets in my family. Two of my sisters and two of my brothers are identical.”

“Your spermies split the egg, then.”

I didn’t know what that meant. I could only surmise whatspermiesmeant. “You probably understand the science of this better than me. I’ve lived a simple life on my family’s sorhox ranch, and while I was educated as well as the next orc, our biology wasn’t something that interested me.”

“A ranch? Then you have experience.”

“My family has owned the same ranch since my parents mated. This is why some of my brothers chose to come to the surface and start a new business venture. I’m one of the youngest in our family and while we younglings could continue to work on our family ranch all of our lives, my older siblings have mated and they’re producing many younglings themselves. The ranch is enormous, a common thing when you consider how vast and lush our caverns are, but our family compound is getting crowded.”

“If you return to the orc kingdom, what will you do if there’s no room for you to work at the ranch?”

I shrugged, because I was not returning to the orc kingdom. My place was by my mate’s side.

There was no way I could leave her. My heart would be shattered forever.

I watched as we soared above the ocean, marveling about that as well, and pointed. “We have lakes and seas as large as this one, though our water is darker, richer, like the soil here on the surface. Our waterways harbor small creatures that give off light as well, which makes the water sparkle.” Large creatures as well. Dangerous ones, which I was sure I’d find here on the surface.

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