Page 9 of The Orc's Rage

After I claim you, he had said, and Cedar shivered as he took her wrist in his hand and led her away from the fire.

There was no more time left.

5

Cedar

Her breathing quickened as the orc lord led her through the camp, toward his tent.

“Please,” she said, trying to pull her wrist out of his grasp. “Please don’t do this.”

He ignored her, and his grip was much too strong for her to get away. Before they reached the tent, he caught sight of the orc who had chased her—Orgha, she thought his name was—and waved him over.

“Prepare a bath,” he said in her tongue, as if this was for her benefit. “I must wash off before I take her to my bed.”

Cedar’s whole body shivered. She thought of the orcs dancing around the fire, the thick cock sliding in and out, and nothing she felt made sense. It was as much terror as thrill, and the damn alcohol was muddying her mind, blurring everything into a single new sensation that made her thighs clench and her heart race.

When they reached his tent, Cedar knew putting up a fight would get her nowhere. Lord Kargorr was three times her size and built like a bear, and nothing she did would change how this all ended. So she came along inside as he pushed open the flap, hardening herself, shoring up all the sturdiness she’d built in the years she’d starved and worked under Lissa.

Inside the tent the fire was already burning. Kargorr tugged her to the bed where she’d slept earlier and pushed her down onto it, and she wanted to retreat inside the furs and hide, even though this was going to be her torture chamber, too. Then he left her there, walking to a rack on his wall.

She waited on the bed as first, he took off his necklace, a leather strap covered in teeth, and then lifted off a cloak made of bones and hung it up. Next came his thick leather jerkin with fur around the edges, and he took his time removing each hook. Two orcs entered with a heavy copper tub, and a third brought a bucket of hot water. More buckets came, filling the tub as Kargorr removed everything that kept his body hidden.

Underneath there were scars, yes—but one stood out against the rest, thick and white, crossing from his shoulder all the way to his hip. Even his muscles had changed in those places, where some blade had torn him asunder. Kargorr turned around, and one tusk rose up when he found her staring.

But he didn’t gloat. He didn’t need to. She was admiring him in the way she might admire something beautiful because it was flawed, a tree because of the lightning that had struck it in half. He had experienced deep pain when this happened, and she wondered what that was like.

“I obtained this at the same time,” he said, gesturing at the scar across his face, “as this.” He was staring back at her now as his hands dropped to the laces of his hip guards, then his breeches. Finally Cedar had the sense to look away, pretending she was observing the orcs who came and went with even more hot water. Soon the tub was full, warm steam rising from the top, and she couldn’t avoid looking at him any longer.

It was as big as she had feared, if not more. Between corded, green thighs hung a creature Cedar almost didn’t recognize. His cock was darker than the rest of him, the skin wrinkled as it lay dormant. Even then, she thought, it was too much. Too big. Too everything. At the base, Cedar noticed the thick bulges, two undulations that made it even more deeply unfamiliar to her.

When Lord Kargorr saw her staring, it twitched. But he didn’t seem to care one way or another as he climbed into the bathtub. It was only when she remained there on the bed, frozen, that he spoke to her.

“Get in.” It wasn’t a command, but merely two words ground out in his strange accent. He didn’t need to issue commands to get what he wanted. In fact, he hadn’t raised his voice to her once—not yet, anyway.

Cedar stood in front of the tub, working through her mind what this required of her. She would have to get in there, naked, with him, unless she wanted to soak through all of her clothes. He watched as she turned around and pulled up her shirt, along with the stays that kept her breasts in place. The cold night air struck her bare skin, even this near to the fire, and made her shiver all over.

“Hurry up and perhaps you can get warm,” Kargorr called to her, tapping the tub. Cedar tossed her shirt to the side and hooked a thumb into the band of her skirt, which she pulled down next. After that, nothing was left.

She turned around, covering herself, and headed toward the tub.

“Hiding is pointless,” Kargorr said, his eyes not leaving her face. “I will see it all, many times over.”

Many times over.A shuddering breath whooshed out of her lungs. He was right. There was no point. But still Cedar kept her arms crossed across her chest, simply on principle, as she climbed into the tub. She found his legs parted in such a way that she could sit between them, and she fit there as if she was meant to. The water was warm, so warm, and Cedar couldn’t help a gasp of pleasure as it rose higher with her added presence, all the way to her chest. She saw how filthy she was now as the dirt came off her skin. He was even filthier, with arms darker than the rest of him, still caked with blood from the raid. His cock, thankfully, was hidden down below where she could avoid looking at it.

For now.

From the floor, Kargorr picked up a basket and set it on the edge of the tub. It held rags and soap, and when she gave it a curious look, he held out his arms.

“Wash me, little deer.”

Was that all? Cedar could wash him. If this delayed the inevitable, she would wash him well and thoroughly, all night long.

She snatched up the rag and soap and set to getting him wet, then beginning with his hands, soaped him. His fingers were thick and wide, with black nails that became sharp at the tips. She washed underneath them first, then up his palms and wrists, one hand at a time. Everything about him was strange, eerie, foreign. The water ran brown with dried blood as she reached his forearm, forcing her to lean further and further forward.

Cedar worked hard never to look at his face, never to acknowledge that she was in the water with him, completely naked with nothing to hide her. She treated it like a job, doing her best to scrub and scrub his green skin until his arms were shining and clean and the water no longer was.

“There’s more,” Kargorr said, and at last, she glanced up at him. His eyes were sharp, heated, and his huge lower jaw was clenched tight. He ran his hands down his chest and back up to his throat again, showing her exactly where he wanted her.

---