Page 12 of Claimed By The Orc

“Have you eaten? Humans’ blood sugar can drop and cause the faintness you’re feeling now if you do not consume nutrients regularly,” I told him matter-of-factly and squeezed his hand. Mainly because I liked the way it felt in mine.

For some reason, this made Tanner laugh. A lot. “Fuck, Mahk. The things you do to me. I should be terrified, but all I want to do is give you a big hug.” That sounded good to me.

“I don’t want you to be scared of me. I would never hurt you.”

Tanner’s expression softened. He lifted his free hand and very hesitantly brought it up to my face. The lightest of touches followed as his fingertips brushed against my cheek. I shivered and leaned in.

“For some reason, I believe you. I’m not scared, Mahk. A little overwhelmed, but not scared.”

I grinned at him, relieved. “Okay. I have so many more questions, but maybe you should take care of this first?” He gestured to the body.

“Sure. It doesn’t bother you that I killed him?”

“Not really. Which I don’t know what the fuck that says about me, but I believe you and everything you said he did. I understand why you killed him. I just— Let’s be done with this part and get out of the fucking woods. We can figure out the rest later.”

That was okay. More than okay, truthfully. I still needed to explain the mates situation, but that could wait. Tanner wasn’t running away. He wasn’t scared, and he seemed to at least want to believe me, even if there was still doubt. My Tanner was so understanding.

Reluctantly, I let go of his hand so I could finally bring Koth to his final resting place. I took one last glance at Tanner as I dragged the body to the edge of the pit. He had his back to me, but he hadn’t run away. He was waiting for me to finish my job. Whistling, I rolled Koth over and over until he finally landed in the pit. I scrambled back so I didn’t become a victim as well and watched as he slowly began sinking under the surface.

“Good riddance, Koth,” I whispered in my native language. I waited till I could no longer see him above the surface before walking back to Tanner. He was facing me now, his back against a tree. He looked a little shaky, but he flashed me a tentative smile as I approached. I gave him my own back. The hard parts were over. Now it was time to convince Tanner he belonged with me. Should be easy, right?

CHAPTER 7

TANNER

Iwas fine. This was fine. Everything was fine.

I was only holding hands with a disguised, giant green being I’d been certain was fiction only an hour ago, after watching him dispose of another of his race.

Just another Thursday.

What the fuck was life?

Mahk—I couldn’t believe I’d been saying his name wrong for weeks—seemed very at ease for someone who’d just admitted to being a career murderer, not to mention a fucking orc, something I didn’t think I could rectify until I saw it with my own eyes. Only problem was, I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Or any of this. I should’ve known ignoring my little stalker’s red flags would’ve ended this way. Of course the first person who showed any interest in me in years was a fucking mythical being hitman.

I probably should’ve been more bothered by the hitman portion of that sentence, but I . . . wasn’t. Yes, murder was wrong, but I’d always believed in the grayscale, and sometimes you had to do what you had to do. Besides, from the little I understood about Mahk’s home world, it was kind of old school, medieval sounding, so it made sense that assassins existed inthe mainstream. He’d sworn he hadn’t killed a human and only ended those who deserved it, and I believed him. Not once during that whole encounter had I been scared for my life. Somewhere deep down, I knew I was safe with Mahk.

We walked away from the sink pit and onto the main road with Mahk swinging my arm and humming a tune I didn’t recognize. It was so fucking adorable and tracked with the man I’d gotten to know over the last few weeks. We froze, a little awkward, unsure where to go now. I briefly thought of bringing him back to my house, but no. I was not prepared to answer questions if any of my siblings saw him, and they’d have questions—nosy little shits. Besides, sharing a bedroom with my teenage brother was a bit of a boner killer. But, on the other hand, this also wasn’t a conversation we should be having outside in the middle of the night.

Mahk waited patiently, like he had been doing all night. He seemed to understand my brain was being a little slow on the uptake and was willing to allow me the time to process.

“Do you have some place we can go? Where have you been staying anyway?” I really hoped it wasn’t in the middle of the woods somewhere. Even though I’d grown up with Forest Glen as my backyard practically, I wasn’t the biggest fan of nature. The thought of having to hike through the woods this late at night, having no idea what wild creature was around the corner waiting to make me their next meal? Yeah, no thanks.

“Oh yes. I am staying at a house! We can go there.”

He was? Where? There were some rentals for tourists who chose to stay for the whole summer, but most people who did had RVs and stayed in Forest Glen. We didn’t have a lot of open properties here that he could have rented or bought. And if he did, I was sure I’d have heard about it by now. Destiny was small as shit. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone was in each other’s business.

I allowed him to lead me down the street and away from my home. After about three blocks, my first question popped in my head. Had he dragged that body all this way? Finally, he turned down a dirt path and toward a bungalow that was nestled back in the trees. I stopped moving.

“This is the Cunninghams’ home.”

“Oh, yes, I know,” Mahk responded brightly. “Mrs. Menendez told me all about them. They seem very nice.” He paused, frowning at the expression on my face. “Don’t worry. I haven’t messed up their home, and I plan to make sure everything is cleaned and exactly where they left it. I’m only borrowing it.”

He was saying words, and they were in English, thanks to the magical bracelet that he’d also told me about, but they weren’t making any sense. He’d borrowed the Cunninghams’ house? And what the fuck did Mrs. Menedez have to do with any of it?

“Do they know you’re living here?” I finally landed on.

“The Cunninghams? I don’t think so. I don’t know how they would. Mrs. Menendez informed me they are visiting their children out of state. She is dog-sitting Wonton. It seems like an odd name for a dog that big. Actually, I had never seen a dog in this realm that big before. I asked Mrs. Menedez about it, but all she said was that Wonton was a Great Dane.” Mahk shrugged like everything he’d said was perfectly normal.

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