Page 59 of First Comes Orc, Second Comes Baby
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Look. The female’s circle is hazing me, right?”
“That’s an unfortunate choice of—”
“They want me to eat poisoned cupcakes as a test of courage—wait, no, in this odd scenario poison cupcakes are good? They want me to eat the not-poison cupcakes. I guess courage is the word we’re using instead of ‘premeditated murder’ these days. The odds are like. . .oh my god, it’s boy math. There are nine cupcakes, six are not-poison. Enemies. You calculate the odds.”
He visibly relaxed. “Cupcakes?” Then he began laughing. “They’ll never get you to eat cupcakes.”
She scowled. “I love cupcakes.”
“Charlotte. You wanted me to fund a social media campaign to ban them from all the local supermarkets. Even though you’ve started posting pictures from the local bakeries.”
“I’m thinking about making a thirst trap account, but for baked goods. Anyway, I was thinking about the children, not my desperation to end my pregnancy induced sugar addiction.”
“They should have hidden it in a bowl of pho. You would have slurped it down like you were sucking—” he stopped.
“True. But they believe what they see on my Insta. Anyway, if I do this, I earn your mother’s approval.”
Brahnt went silent for a long moment.
“Oh my god! You’re thinking about it.”
“I’m weighing our options.”
“Except I’m the one who has to eat the poison carbs!”
He was rubbing his chin. “That is a conundrum. Is there a time limit on this approval?”
“I can't believe you're willing to risk this.”
Brahnt sighed. “No, no, of course I'm not. It's completely not worth the risk. Not at all.”
He fell silent as Charlotte glanced up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Regine stopped in front of her, crossing her arms over her chest.
“If the girl leaves the trial before it is properly concluded, she will be shunned from our clan,” Regine said.
“Can we make an alternate arrangement? Someone mentioned something about carving names into one’s back.” Not that Charlotte was particularly thrilled at that idea, but she’d gotten a tattoo when she was younger so it couldn't be that much worse. Certainly couldn't be worse than death.
“You're going too far, mother,” Brahnt snapped, “even for you. I know you've decided for some inexplicable reason that Charlotte isn't the wife you would've chosen for me, but that doesn't give you a right to murder her.”
“If I wanted to murder her, I would reach out and snap her neck,” was the pleasant reply. “No, son, this is a test. And it's female’s circle business. We allowed her to call you for your counsel to indulge her Human weakness, but time is up.”
“Mother, if you force her to do this, we will be at war. I'll go to the male’s circle, and they'll back me.”
Charlotte blinked. The slightly helpless, almost whiny son of an overbearing mother tone was completely gone from his voice. Now he sounded cold, deadly almost.
She pressed her thighs together. No one noticed. Well, Milgrida gave her a sidelong look and sniffed the air, but no one else noticed.
Regine snatched the phone from Charlotte and turned it so she could look at her son. “You would break the clan for this Human girl?”
“I'll break the clan, I'll burn down the city.” His voice deepened. “Then I'll come for your throat. I love you, and you are my mother and worthy of my respect, but she is mother of my child. I will defend her above all others.”
“If you come against me, I'll treat you like an enemy,” Regine snarled.
It clicked for Charlotte that no one thought the two, mother and son, were joking. She glanced around at all the faces and met several battlefield stares.
Brahnt adored his mother, he talked about her all the time—he thought hiding it behind his attitude fooled people. Charlotte also understood the importance of family and community to Orcs, especially the importance to males to honor and respect the females in what was still a strongly matriarchal culture.
Her shoulders slumped. “I'll do it.”
