Page 41 of The Orc's Rage

Even though their food was hot, Kargorr found himself very much distracted by the sight of Cedar’s chest rising and falling under the furs. He never stopped hungering for her, like a cat that hadn’t eaten for months. Every time it felt as if he’d been starved, and still afterward, he wasn’t sated. No matter how many times he took her, he craved more.

Kargorr lay down next to her, and at last she peeked out from her hiding place under the blankets.

“Are you an orcling afraid of the snow giant?” he asked, surprised to find his own tone rather playful.

“Snow giant?”

“A big, frightening monster that we use to threaten orclings into behaving.”

Cedar snickered, then groaned. “I’ll take the ice giant.”

He plucked the end of the fur and peeled it away so his hands could slip under it, around Cedar’s small body. How such a little woman could carry his offspring was a mystery and a marvel. Usually, she fell into his arms easily, and then he would breathe in the sweet smell of her arousal. But instead, she stiffened, and her breath came out as a moan—not the sort he would like to hear from his concubine in bed.

“I feel awful,” she muttered, curling tighter around herself and away from him. “I think I’m going to be sick again.”

And then she leapt out of the furs and ran to the door of the tent, groaning as she emptied her stomach.

When she righted herself once more, Cedar looked pale and shaky. She waved away food and returned to the bed, much to Kargorr’s dissatisfaction. But just as you couldn’t lead a horse to water, apparently you couldn’t lead a woman full of orc spawn to food.

That night, he pressed his body to her back, his cock eagerly nudging at her ass, but she just groaned in displeasure again.

He very much disliked this turn of events.

The next day, Lord Kargorr asked hisshosekfor a remedy, and she begrudgingly offered one. When he brought it to Cedar, she confessed it tasted terrible, but it helped ease the unruliness of her stomach.

In the meantime, he had begun to worry about something else, too. His delegation to the neighboringparog. Orgha had not returned yet, and without him, Rathka grew more irritated by the day. Kargorr didn’t like that she brought her poor spirits into the tent with Cedar, so he had a firm talk with her outside the door.

“He is gone onyourerrand,” Rathka had said, doing her best not to look herkazekin the eye, even while speaking impertinently. “What if myagsannever returns?”

“He will,” Kargorr said. “Orgha would never fail at this.”

And then, when the snow had stopped falling and a good foot of powder lay on the ground, the mammoths appeared on the horizon.

Cedar

It was, apparently, a major event that the party Kargorr sent away to meet with another clan had returned safely. There were whoops and cheers as they arrived outside the camp.

Cedar followed Kargorr out to greet them, Kiya at her side. Rathka rushed ahead, toward Orgha’s great cat, and rose up onto her toes to kiss her returned husband... or whatever he was. As much as Cedar disliked Rathka, the sight of their reunion stirred her heart. How would it feel to get old alongside someone you loved, and still love them when your hair was all gray?

The wagons they brought back were mostly empty of everything they had left with, and Cedar gathered from Kargorr’s reaction that this was a good thing. The other clan had accepted his gifts, and a tentative peace was brokered.

Kargorr and Orgha embraced, which took Cedar by surprise. They patted one another on the backs as the rest of the party reunited with their families after so much time away.

While the camp came out in force to greet the new arrivals, Kargorr brought Cedar in against his side. He looked simply delighted with this development.

“They will be willing to work with us now,” he said, and she wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to himself. “Theirparogis interested in what I have to offer.”

“Which is what?” She was interested in this door that he was letting her peek inside.

Kargorr’s lips peeled back over his tusks in a cruel smile. “Power.”

The camp had a celebration that night, and when the dancing began, Rathka dragged Orgha into the fray. For being much older, Rathka could still move her body with an almost mesmerizing ease. It was clear that Orgha still lusted for her by the way they twisted around each other, their hands every which way.

Cedar almost wanted to dance herself, but as she sat on Kargorr’s lap at the head of the gathering, she didn’t know if he would ever let himself be seen doing something as common as dancing.

“Do you know, little deer,” Kargorr began, a thoughtful look on his face, “why this is all so important to me?”

Cedar startled. He never gave herreasonsfor things. He simply did them and provided no insight into his decisions. He did not ask her opinions, certainly, though sometimes she desperately wanted to offer them.

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