Page 17 of Enchanted with the Orc
“Even from your brothers?” she asked with a small smile playing on her lips. “You guys seem pretty close.”
“We are,” I told her. “We’re as close as any blood brothers can probably be. It’s a little different from clan brothers. Closer.” I struggled to explain the dynamics. “We don’t owe loyalty to blood brothers, but when we make them part of our clan, it’s something stronger. Ichosethose two as well as being directly related to them. We were all each other had for the longestwhile. The only family and the only support. Then we met Rok and as soon as we came to this plane, we met our new clan.”
I scrubbed at the back of my neck, wondering if I needed to go further in depth. I knew she probably wouldn’t trust me until I told her all the details of my life. But a lot of it consisted of things that I was ashamed of, and I wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear any of it.
It wasn’t easy to admit to my mate that in the past my clan and I had been so close to starving that we’d had to steal in order to eat. It was something that I would be humiliated to admit to this perfect, beautiful female. Especially since she was my mate.
How would that prove that I would be able to provide for her and our youngling? Would she ever trust me after that to be there for them if she knew?
The one thing I was sure of was that I wasn’t gonna lie to her. If she asked me whether I’d ever had to steal in the past and if I’d done anything that was against our honor code, I would have to admit it to her. I was just hoping she wouldn’t ask.
One day when we were fully mated and completely enveloped in each other’s lives, then I could tell her all my sins. I could bare my soul to her at that point. But for now, it felt like she was ready to run at the slightest provocation. I couldn’t take that risk.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start with an interview for a babysitter,” she said with a smile. “Should I be asking you for your references?”
“I don’t have any,” I admitted with a laugh. “I’ve never sat on a baby before in my life and that sounds a little bit dangerous actually. Why are people sitting on babies? If I wanted Gruk-ir to stop running I would hold her instead of sitting on her.”
It was her turn to laugh. “There’s definitely no sitting on the babies involved. They just call it that when you care for a child when their parents are away.” Her smile was slow and beautiful as she continued. “I might notbe against sitting on Gabbi, though. She’s a handful. More than a handful. But I guess you’ve seen some of it already.”
“She’s enthusiastic,” I argued. “And I love being her favorite.”
“I don’t know about favorite,” she giggled, and I adored hearing the sound. It lit me up inside in a way that I’d never known anything could do before. Her joy was contagious and I could feel it growing in my chest. “She also seems to have a bit of a crush on Rudgar,” she confided and I scowled.
“Rudgar’s taken, so she can have me,” I told her with a wink.
She lowered her gaze and looked anywhere but at me as she asked, “And you’re not taken?”
That hopeful part deep inside me cheered at the question. “No,” I cleared my throat to say, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the side of her face where she was avoiding looking at me. “I’m not taken at all. I’m very available for taking,” I hurried to say.
It was her turn to clear her throat as she struggled to avoid the conversation. But I needed her to know where my stance was when it came to us. I was hers and she was mine. And there was nothing else that mattered.
“I see,” she said, trying out the words. “I didn’t know that.”
“That’s the good part about asking all these questions and doing this interview. You can learn everything that you want to learn about me. There’re no questions that are off limits,” I told her, my voice pitched low and deep.
If only I knew what this gorgeous female was thinking while she had that look on her face that told me nothing. She had so many secrets, and I wanted to know each and every one. But for now, my secrets would have to do.
Instead of waiting for her to ask any more questions, I decided that I would just tell her everything I knew about children and our youngling.The book had been a treasure trove of information, but I knew that books were different from practice. And our Gruk-ir was something I was gonna have to learn about on the run.
“Since I joined the clan, I’ve been reading up on younglings,” I told her. “Especially human ones.” I tried to find the right words without giving her too much of a reason to run away. If she knew that I was reading up about younglings because of her and Gabbi, then she might be too scared to stay here.
She might seek out someone else to protect her, and deep down I knew that I wouldn’t be able to let them go. Now that they were mine and they were here with me, I would fight to keep them. It was something I was going to have to talk to Darak about. If he needed to subdue me so my mate and youngling could leave—so they could be safe without me—I wanted him to know my weak points so he could do it properly.
“I know all about naps and sleep cycles and I learned about milestone goals for her age,” I said. “But I haven’t been able to put any of it into practice. I promise, if you need any time to yourself, you can trust me with her. I’ll come and get you if anything goes wrong.”
Her eyes widened at that.
“What do you think can go wrong?” she asked, horror filling her voice.
“In case she cries,” I explained. “I wouldn’t be able to bear it if she cried. I would have to bring her to you.”
Her expression of horror slowly transformed into a small secret smile, and she looked away once again. It was as though my mate could never look at me, and I wanted that more than anything. I wanted us to be able to tell each other every secret that we had. Our time would come and I knew it deep down. I just had to have the patience to wait. for this perfect female to open up to me.
Chapter Eleven
Tasia
Deep, sweet tenderness was filling my heart at the thought of this male running away from the tears of my daughter. I knew that most males were uncomfortable with tears, but just the thought of this big, strong male afraid of a little girl crying was enough to make me double over with laughter.
