Page 36 of The Orc's Rage

He stayed encased in her, rolling onto his side and bringing her in close. He didn’t let her go, even as he slept, in case she blew away with the wind.

Cedar

She forgave him much too easily.

Kargorr had firmly put her in her place, and so she had become committed to that place, to keeping him at arm’s length. She couldn’t let him gain even more of a foothold, couldn’t give herself over to a fantasy where somehow, things were different between them.

She could be helpless here to his unpredictable push and pull, or she could take control instead. There were two possible outcomes: she found the right moment when she was out with Rathka and succeeded in putting the camp behind her.

Or he caught her and punished her, to never let her out of his sight again. Either option was better than slowly dying on the inside and bearing the brunt of each of his capricious whims.

But then, as if an east wind had taken over a southern one, Lord Kargorr let her in. A hidden trap door opened as he looked into her eyes, as he pumped his cock ever-so-slowly in and out of her, and Cedar wondered just how far she would fall if she stepped through it. Would that dark void inside him swallow her up whole? Would it be warm and soft like the furs, or frigid and harsh like the ice plains from where he’d come?

Uncertain, Cedar let herself put in one foot. Perhaps she could give him a little of herself and watch what he did with it. She would keep her heart hard but her mind open to him, to the idea that perhaps there was something here for her amidst the orcs.

The more she explored the camp with Kiya and Rathka, the more often she saw other humans, men and women alike, toiling like their orc counterparts. They were quiet and meek, and none of them had tried to speak to Cedar so far, but their existence here suggested that she, too, could have a future among the orc horde, if she wanted one. She would need to learn more of the language and the culture to fully ingratiate, but Cedar could do it.

What would that future be like?

19

Kargorr

Theparogwas settling in to their new home rather nicely. He had sent off eight scouts, one in every direction, to map out the closest human settlements. They would go farther if they could, marking on leather with charcoal where they had gone and the landmarks they’d found along the way.

Just as important, though, was his selection for the small delegation he would send to the closestparogto start the process of diplomacy.He didn’t want to go away himself for so long and leave his own people without a leader at such a pivotal moment, so he thought carefully about who he would send in his stead.

Eventually he settled on Orgha, who would represent him well, along with one of his esteemed warriors, a half-orc who could match—and even surpass—a full orc with his skill in battle. If their envoy was challenged, Samrak would be a fair fight for anyone put forward.

A week after the raid, Kargorr gathered together a wagon full of goods, and even some gifts of iron and steel on top, with the promise of more in the future. It would be a long journey back into the snowy tundra for Orgha and Samrak, right into the mouth of anotherparog’s territory. He hoped Cedar wouldn’t bear the brunt of Rathka’s strained bond while Orgha was away. It was difficult, Kargorr had heard, to be separated. But Orgha was his best choice for the effort, and Rathka would not be allowed to go with him while she had duties here to attend.

As expected, Orgha took the news well, saying he was honored to be chosen and carefully hiding any displeasure he might have felt at being given such a task. He would be gone a long time, but he only tapped his chest and agreed to do whatever Kargorr asked.

When the sledge was prepared and Orgha mounted his cat, he stopped to lean down and kiss Rathka. He ran his hand over the tooth necklace that hung from her neck before he nudged his cat into a walk. The mammoths were yoked to the sledge, and they set off, back into the north.

There would not be another raid until Orgha returned, in case something went wrong. The weather was cooling, the earth preparing for winter, but Kargorr had begun to look forward to it. The snow would be welcome and familiar to hisparog, and then he could spend plenty of time in the furs getting warm again with his concubine.

The last of the leaves on the trees fell, creating a carpet on the ground. Cedar’s kitten was growing stronger every day and had already become rather tame. She even taught it tricks, something agrrosekhad never thought to do. She would cut up tiny pieces of meat and then encourage Kiya to follow her, feeding them to him as he did what he was told. He could sit, and jump into the air, and even walk around in a circle.

Cedar poured all her love into the little creature, and Lord Kargorr was surprised by how much she had to give.

“How did you come to be a slave?” he asked her one night as they lay in the furs, covered in each other’s sweat. “I have always wondered.”

Cedar tilted her head up curiously, like she didn’t understand the question. Rarely had he asked her about her life, because before, it hadn’t really mattered to him. But the more times the sun set and rose, the more often Kargorr thought about what had made her who she was, how she had come to be at the farm in the village, running off into the woods.

“My parents sold me,” Cedar finally said. “We were starving. Lissa brought a cow to our village to sell for meat, and all my parents could talk about was how long a cow would last. When they took me to her, I assumed it was to help bring the cow back.”

She paused a long time, but Kargorr didn’t speak to fill the silence. Then she said, “I went with her, and my family kept the cow. I thought it was my responsibility to make sure they could eat, even if it meant I never saw them again.”

This was how Kargorr learned the way humans treated their offspring. Her parents had been hard on her as a child, making her work to earn her keep even as little more than a girl. This was not how thegrrosekdid things. Orclings were orclings and must be given room to go wild and play, to not have to worry about where their next meal came from. That was how a strong warrior was grown, not by cheating them of care and affection and forcing them into labor.

It surprised Kargorr even more, then, that Cedar had so much of her own tenderness and warmth to dole out to Kiya, lavishing him with it, when she’d had none as a child.

She would make a fine mother.

That thought, after so many weeks of enjoying her body and conforming her to his shape, triggered him to ask theshosekfor the leaves. He had nearly forgotten with how deeply he had fallen into the crevasse of Cedar.

Theshosekwas in her dim, smoky tent, burning some kind of incense, when he arrived. Only a weaver of medicine could get away with ignoring him as she did, dragging the incense through the air in a serpentine shape with her eyes closed even as he sat across from her. When her meditation was completed, she paused for a moment to breathe deeply before acknowledging him.

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