Page 22 of The Orc's Innocent Plaything

“When my mother died, my sister and I had no home. We had to beg our uncle to let us stay with him. I remember shielding her behind me, so afraid he would deny us.”

Vartok’s hold softened and his hands moved over my shoulders toward my back, stroking me gently. Comforting me?

“He took ye in?”

“He was a bitter, broken, hurting man. He saw that I had some skill with healing and thought I would be useful.” Avaleen, with her love of animals, had kept the arsehole’s farm going in his final years. “When I realized the end was near for him, I was terrified of where we would go next.”

His hands stilled. “Ye cared for him and he’d made nae provision for ye after his death?”

I exhaled, feeling myself relaxing into his warmth. ‘Twas easier than looking up at him. “Humans are different. We did not have a chief to look out for our best interests. Avie and I would have been homeless again had Mkaalad not chosen her as his Mate.”

Vartok stiffened. “Mates are no’chosen, Myra. They are…fated. My cousin took one look at yer sister and justkenned.”

I felt my lips twitch wryly. “Aye, I understand that now. Then? I was just relieved she had a place, and was grateful when she—when you all—offeredmea place. I have tried to be useful.”

“Is that what?—”

He tugged me away so he could frown down at me, and I could read the confusion on his face.

“Myra, ye dinnae have to beusefulto be a member of our clan. Ye’re one of us now. This is yer home.”

Was it?

I had no place to call my own, no security the way the other human women did. ‘Twas why it had been so nerve-wracking to consider approaching Vartok to learn about pleasure.

I couldn’t afford to slip up. I couldn’t affordnotto be considered useful.

Vartok’s hands ran down my back then up my arms.

“What else are ye afraid of, sweet Myra?” he murmured, his gaze flicking across my face. “Surely, no’ ofus. No’ of us forcing ye to leave the way yer bastard of an uncle did.”

Sometimes I was afraid, aye. So I swallowed, confessing more.

“I am a midwife who is afraid of birth,” I whispered. “Each time, I know what can go wrong.”

“That is normal,” he announced promptly.

And that surprised me so that my gaze smacked into his, my lips twitching.

“How wouldyouknow?”

He shrugged, even as he pulled me closer again. “Because each time I pick up an ingot to turn it into a blade, I am afraid of what will go wrong. But I am good at my job, and so are ye. We have no’ lost any mothers since ye came to live with us, and neither have our allies.”

Aye, that was the truth. But I’d lost other mothers, other bairns, when I lived in the human’s world. Where womenwere often beaten and starving and exhausted. Here was different, I told myself.

It didn’t stop the fear.

“Avaleen…” I whispered.

And he sighed, tucking me against him, then dropped his chin to the top of my head.

“Aye, lass. With each Mating there is a fear, and yer sister’s the size of a horse, truth be told. My cousin is no’ a small man.”

I poked Vartok in the side. “You are not helping.”

“Mayhap ‘tis twins?” he announced cheerfully. “Twins are common.”

I shook my head. “I can only hear one heart beating beneath hers and can only feel one spine and head. I think the bairn is just large.”

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