Page 6 of Claimed By The Orc

I hoped he couldn’t see how that made me blush. “I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. Fuck, why did this man affect me so much? “C’mon. Let’s see if the food is still warm. I’m starving and gotta take my mom to an appointment in the city today, so I won’t have time to eat dinner till late.”

That was why I'd been distracted and hadn’t seen whatever had happened in the parking lot. My mom’s sister, my Aunt Judy, was supposed to take her so I could actually make Jake’s baseball game and then get my sisters to bed at a decent hour. But like usual, she’d bailed. I shouldn’t be surprised. She always made grand plans, like how she’d move in to help Mom when I’d gone to college, but they always fell through. So now I had to leave work early, which my boss fucking hated, drive the hour and half to the appointment with Mom, and miss Jake’s first home game of the season. He’d once again have no one there to watch, and I hated how badly I was disappointing him. Maybe I could get the girls’ babysitter to bring them there? It wouldn’t be the same, but still. I knew what it was like to have no one in the stands rooting for you, and it fucking gutted me I was doing the same to Jake. Fucking Aunt Judy.

Mark was frowning at me. “Tanner?” he asked, his voice laced with concern.

I shrugged. It wasn’t his problem. “I’m good. C’mon, let’s eat.”

I could tell Mark didn’t want to drop it, but luckily for him, he did. Because I would have no problem throwing every single half-truth he’d given me—starting with the slushie incident—in his face.

It didn’t come to that. We settled behind the counter and ate while I texted with my boss and then with the part-timecashier, begging him to cover for me today. Thankfully, the guy was always looking for money and agreed. And my boss, while grumbling the whole time about responsibilities, relented too. I’d known he would. He needed me. No one else was willing to work as many hours as I would for the crap pay. I’d have to do a lot more than leave early one day to get him to fire me.

Even though the tacos were soggy and a little cold, they were still fucking fire. And the guac and queso? Amazing as fucking always. I loved that little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. For a little while, I forgot about everything else. The long drive, Jake’s disappointed look when I didn’t show, how flaky Aunt Judy was. All I thought about was Mark’s orgasm expression as he ate and how he tried to discreetly fill my plate with more food when I wasn’t looking, but I always noticed. He seemed to have a thing about feeding me vegetables, and I grinned when I had an extra serving of Mexican corn cake on my greasy paper plate.

My heart fluttered as I smiled at him. How could a man be a walking red flag but so sweet at the same time? And why the fuck was I falling for him?

Mark left shortly after we finished our lunch, said he had a work thing. I wondered if it had anything to do with the guy who’d thrown a slushie at him. I didn’t ask. Just like I never asked for details about his job. My little fantasy where all this was normal worked better not knowing stuff, as much as I wanted them. He asked me if I was okay 3,254 times, but eventually Mark walked away, and I deflated, all but collapsing onto the counter. Mike, the part-timer, would be here any minute. I had to make sure everything was ready for him. I needed to suck it up and text Jake and tell him I was missing his game . . . again.

Suddenly, it all felt like too much. All I wanted to do was call Mark back and sit in our little bubble in the store and act like the world wasn’t falling apart around me, that I wasn’t fuckingsuffocating in this place. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. I had responsibilities. A family. Bills to pay. It was time to focus on that.

CHAPTER 4

MAHK

“Hello, Koth. Fancy meeting you here,” I told the man currently tied to the chair in the bungalow I was “borrowing.” Koth had been easy to track down. He had barely gotten into the cover of the trees in Forest Glen when the pain from the poison had become too much, and he’d been barely conscious when I’d found him. I’d brought him to my borrowed home and secured him, but then left him to check on Tanner. He was weighed down by something, and I’d wanted to ensure he was okay.

I’d followed him as he’d left the store and gone back to his home. I’d watched in the shadows as he’d wheeled his mom out to the modified van they had for her. I’d been fascinated by that when I’d first seen it and had done much research on it. It was amazing the things humans came up with to compensate for their weak bodies and lack of magic. I’d wanted to follow him, but I knew from experience that when someone drove his mother in that van, they went into the closest city, and I hadn’t wanted to leave Koth alone for all that time. That slimy waste of space had a way of getting out of situations, and I would not risk it. So, I left and came back here.

Koth tried to sneer, but the pain had to be brutal by this point, and it came out more of a grimace. “Oh look, it’s the bastard love child, coming to clean up his big brother’s messes.”

I rolled my eyes, sighing and leaning against the cream-colored wall in the second bedroom. The people who owned this place were away for a few months visiting their children, so I’d lucked out on having a place to stay while I worked. I did not mind sleeping in the forest, but this was much cozier, and I’d discovered fascinating movies and TV. Humans had so many forms of entertainment. It was never-ending.

I spun my favorite dagger between my fingers casually, like I didn’t have a care in the world. Despite Koth’s best efforts, his eyes didn’t leave the blade.

“So original, coward. No one has ever called me that before, and it hurts me to my core.” Just to emphasize, I pressed my hand against my chest. “Truly.” Koth wasn’t the smartest orc out there, so hopefully he understood the sarcasm.

Yes, I was the illegitimate son of the late emperor and hadn’t been raised with my brothers. I hadn’t even known they existed for the first years of my life. Yes, there were still some, especially among the nobility, who did not agree with my family’s easy acceptance of me, but I didn’t care. I especially did not care about the opinion of this poor excuse of an orc currently cowering by my feet.

“You’ve been quite the nuisance,” I replied conversationally, ignoring the barbs. “More than that, honestly. But you crossed the line when you threw my brother’s mate off a cliff. That was the reason they sent me to make sure you die.”

Koth’s eyes widened slightly. He was still in his human form, but it kept flickering, like his body was too weak to manage the magic that allowed the change.

“Then what are you waiting for? End this charade and kill me already.”

I laughed coldly. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? You don’t deserve a quick and painless end.”

Koth scoffed. “Painless? That fucking blade of yours was certainly not painless.”

I shrugged. “No, maybe not. But it is still less than you deserve.”

I weighed my options. Torturing him would be fun, and it couldn’t happen to a better person. But, I couldn’t get the heaviness of Tanner’s expression out of my mind. The invisible weight on his shoulders as he left the store earlier. I wanted to be there in case he needed me and would not waste more time than necessary on Koth. As much as I wanted to have fun, my Tanner was more important.

I stalked toward Koth, enjoying how he flinched. He could scoff and look down on me due to my parentage, but he could not hide the fear lingering in his eyes.

“Unfortunately, I have more important matters to attend to than you. So we’ll have to make it quick.”

I walked behind Koth to where the silver ring sat on his finger. It had been pushed partially down the knuckle, like he’d tried to remove it while tied so he could turn back to his orc form. It was cute that he thought he’d have been able to escape if he’d succeeded. I would never be so careless.

I crouched down to take off the ring. His fingers had swollen some from him being restrained and his struggling, so the thing was not coming off easily. I sighed, annoyed he was making it so difficult.

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