Page 5 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

Thetrillsoundofthe warning system alerting that someone had entered from the human world sounded through the air, catching my attention from the route I was marking out for my scouts to check. I still couldn’t believe there’d been dissent amongst my camp to begin with, but at least a dozen orcs had broken off and made out on their own.

Their leader, Koth, had tried to start a silent insurrection—his anger at my lack of drive and ambition and my desire to keep peace in most places we roamed apparently incensed him. Enough that he’d tried to fight me for my place as the leader of our people.

Enough that when I beat him and left him bloody on the ground, he took his group and left. I should have killed him then—I knew that—but I’d thought, perhaps, he would learn his lesson from the cuts and bruises and realize his place.

Instead, we were having more and more issues with him now—he’d disappeared into the trees months ago, and the few skirmishes between my men androgue orcswere starting to become a problem. I’d told Axum, but…

One time could be groups crossing paths.

Four times felt… targeted. I’d known Koth was bitter, but this…

A part of me was furious that I’d let him leave to begin with, taking a dozen others with him, but it hadn’t seemed important at the time. There was more than enough land in Belzod for him to roam.

But he chose to stay near.

It wasn’t an innocent thing… but thankfully, another part of me could feel the singing in my blood—the call for violence and fight. The knowledge that I’d get to put him in his place when I eventually hunted him down.

There was a reason me and mine roamed the outskirts of the city and patrolled the places where portals joined our world to others—I didn’t crave violence, but I needed excitement. City life was too stagnant, too restricting.

That and I was exhausted with Axum rolling his eyes every time I mentioned the wordmatein his presence. The adamant denial he had that such a thing existed for him was almost sad, if I truly thought about it. I sometimes worried he would end up alone, but I knew—just as much as I knew I would find my mate—that someday Axum would be taken by surprise when they wandered across his path.

I would be waiting to tell him I was right when that day happened.

Someone entering my tent cut my musing short, and I stood.

“Nash, do you want us to take a group to check out the—”

I cut my second in command off with a wave of my hand. “I can handle it, Vex. I need to stretch my legs.”

He arched a brow at me, his blue eyes narrowing in curiosity. I understood why; it had been some time since I’d gone out on a solo patrol, and it was just an alarm for the portal. More than likely, some stray human had wandered through, and now they were roaming the dense trees with no idea what was going on.

Humans were… strange. Interesting, but strange. I understood why they were usually escorted to the city if they found themselves trapped on this side of the barrier. They needed protection until they could be made to understand how our world worked—no one who crossed through the portal could return to the human world without a claiming mark. Only those who had fated mates on this side could interact with the magical threshold to begin with, and until they fulfilled whatever spell it was that let them pass into Belzod, there was no return for them. I’d seen it happen a handful of times; a human would make their way through one of the portals and find their mate. It was always strange to me, though I didn’t question fate.

It was just. Well… I’d never met a human I actuallyliked. They all seemed so frail, so overwhelmed and swallowed up in our world.

I snagged one of the communicator cuffs from the table in my tent and slapped it on my upper arm, murmuring a word to make the leather fit against my bicep—our magic had long since worked out any language barrier between us and visitors from another world. As long as I wore the cuff, I could understand and speak to whoever had sounded the alarm. I wasn’t sure if I intended to show myself to them, but better to be prepared than incapable.

“Are you sure you want to go alone?” Vex’s voice rang out as I exited my tent, and I lifted a hand over my shoulder without looking back.

“I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t protest again as I skirted around the edge of our camp. Even though a dozen had left, we were still thirty strong, men and women… and I knew if I showed my face, I’d have a dozen of them asking me the same questions as Vex.

I wasn’t sure why I wanted to go out alone so much. I just knew that I did… and I was never one to ignore my instincts.

As soon as I stepped into the lush tree line, I felt something in me relax—this was what I enjoyed, where I belonged. I still couldn’t understand how my brother was happy, contained behind gates and walls, restricted to rule in place… but I never really questioned him, because our people needed a strong leader and I couldn’t imagine anyone better suited for it than Axum, even though I knew he questioned himself.

Still…

It would have driven me to the brink of insanity.

Axum had never faulted me for leaving the court, and he’d made sure my position was safe… and in turn, he knew I would lay my life down to protect him if the need arose.

We’d made camp close to the portal, and I pulled my blade from my back, prepared in case this was some strange attempt at luring me and mine out for an ambush.

I frowned—I still wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the issue with Koth, more than to warn Axum and monitor the situation. I had hoped he’d leave the kingdom, that he’d become the problem of another neighboring country… but he was spiteful.

And I was the one who’d caught his ire.

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