Page 1 of Marked By the Wild Orc

Chapter 1

Krissy

Ineed a job immediately.

No lie, right now. My checking account is nearly empty. I’m so broke, payday loan places are starting to sound like a godsend, except I don’t even have a check on the way as collateral.

My stomach growls as I walk over to the small kitchen in my studio apartment. The only things that are edible in my cabinets are the loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter I recently purchased from a nearby dollar store.

Tears well up as I grab the bread, peanut butter, and a knife to spread this with—because I instantly think of my grandmother. These utensils belonged to her. The blue Fiestaware plate I set two slices of bread on are part of grandma’s prized dishes.

I sniff, rub the back of my hand against my eyes and carry on with the sandwich making.

Most of my life was spent with my beloved grandmother who passed away thirty days ago after losing a two-year battle against stage four breast cancer that had spread to other parts of her body. The cards were stacked against her and we saw this coming from far away, but this doesn’t make the shock ofher passing any less severe. I lost my best friend, as well as the person I was closest to in life.

Grandma battled hard against the disease that would finally take her life, and I was proud to become her full-time caretaker. I don’t regret a single moment of our time together. After all, my paternal grandmother had lovingly stepped in when I was only five years old and raised me when my parents’ addictions got the worst of them, causing them to both die from a drug overdose. Giving Debbie Thompkins back that love and caring she’d originally shown for me when I was small, by being there for her during her last moments, keeping her comfortable and making sure she knew how much she was loved, was a blessing.

But when Grandma passed away last month, I’d thought I didn’t have to worry about where to live because she was leaving her small condo to me. The home we’d lived in together since I was in kindergarten. My plan was to get a new job and then restart coursework at the community college towards an eventual certificate in bookkeeping. I’m reasonably certain Grandma also thought she was leaving her condo to me too, and at the very least I could sell it and have a good-sized inheritance left over. But I believe she was too ashamed of the extent of her mountains of medical debt to keep track. And I wasn’t aware either because she’d been hiding it from the both of us. Eventually, after a lot of detective work in her mail and accounts, I learned the truth of situation. Grandma not only had a huge amount of recent debt but also had an old lien on her condo from back in the day when her own son had ruined her credit. The condo was sold off to pay the creditors.

Therefore, I’m twenty-four, alone, broke and homeless, needing to start all over again.

The good news is that my older, orc half-brother, Kavin, is a generous soul who wants to help. Kavin Irontree recently movedto the outskirts of Spokane, Washington because he got a job there as that city’s first orc firefighter.

How is my half-brother an orc when I’m fully human?

People are always amazed when I tell them. They think we must be the product of a remarriage and he’s my stepbrother, or there was an adoption. Nope, we’re biological half siblings who share the same mother.

I guess our mother got around? She hooked up with Kavin’s father, gave birth to an orc son and then left them both behind without a backward glance. Kavin was raised on a commune, so I didn’t know about him until he was an adult who’d moved out to live amongst humans. He got in touch with his human family, and we’ve been close ever since.

My brother was there for my grandmother’s funeral, and he wants me to come live with him until I can get back on my feet. This is a kind offer, which normally I’d be taking advantage of, but no way am I moving in with him and his crazy girlfriend. I’m happy to live in the same town as them, but not in the same apartment.

Mia is nuts and in fact dangerous. If I look at her the wrong way, she’ll cut me. This is literally what she threatened to do the last time I saw her at Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house. She narrowed her eyes and waved a knife at me when we were alone in the kitchen, snarled and threatened to slice me to bits, then laughed afterwards, “Just joking, don’t take it so seriously.”

Uh huh.

I assume she doesn’t show this side of herself to my brother.

Thankfully I’d saved a little bit of money for a rainy day. And Grandma had a tight-knit group of coworkers and close friends who were kind enough to start a GoFundMe for her funeral expenses. There was some money left over for me to keep Grandma’s ancient car that still works great, with insurance and registration paid for the whole year. I was even able to hide someof her furniture and prized items before they were sold at the estate sale.

On that last day, as I left my childhood home forever, this wonderful group of ladies stood on the driveway, tearing up, waving at me as I pulled away with a U-Haul, towing my tiny car behind. I will never forget their kindness to me in my darkest hours.

That was a scary six-hour drive to do alone, but I made it all the way from Portland, Oregon to my new home in Spokane, Washington. I’d found a studio apartment in a part of town that isn’t the nicest but also not the worst. It took all the money I had left for the deposit and the first three months of rent I had to promise because I had no job or rental history. Luckily my cell phone bill isn’t due again for another month.

Kavin was there and helped me move in and tried to offer me money for living expenses, but I declined. “Krissy, let me help you get started. If you want, we can call it a loan.”

“No. Thank you but I’m really okay.” Kavin and Mia share a bank account and I don’t want her after me for that too.

But, twenty-four hours later, I’m already getting desperate.

I’m now completely out of money. Four dollars and twenty-seven cents are all that’s left in my account. This small amount of food, along with a big box of ramen, is all I have, which will hopefully last me long enough to find a new job and receive my first paycheck. There’s not even enough money to fill up my half-full gas tank.

I need a job, now, and one that doesn’t require driving. After I get enough money from that first job, I can get a second job and work my way up from there. I just need that first job, someplace walkable or accessible with the bus system, to get me going. And across the street is a small strip mall with a few different businesses and a gas station with a mini mart.

I’m on my phone, seeing if any of these places are hiring, when my brother calls.

“Hey Krissy.”

“Hey Kavin,” I grin. My brother’s girlfriend might be crazy as hell but he’s truly a nice guy. He means well. We’ve become close friends and I really do view him as my brother, which is lovely because my whole life I was an only child, with no family other than my grandmother.

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