Page 20 of The Orc's Captive Bride
The question was deliberately casual in a way that told him she’d been working up to it.
Careful,he reminded himself.She learns too quickly and understands too much.
“Kalar Vosh,” he said. High King.
“Kalar Vosh.” She was quiet for a moment. “Why does the Kalar Vosh want me?”
“Tharak koreth nash.” I don’t know.
It wasn’t entirely a lie. Lasseran had given him orders—retrieve the female from the stone circle and bring her to Kel’Vara unharmed—but not explanations. Lasseran didn’t explain himself to anyone, and especially not to his Beast Warriors, but he suspected that she was a tool Lasseran intended to use to increase his power.
But he couldn’t tell her that. He wouldn’t tell her that even if she had the vocabulary to understand.
She was quiet after that, but he could feel her thinking, analyzing everything with the relentless curiosity that seemed to define her.
She’s dangerous,he realized. Not dangerous in the way of warriors or mages, but dangerous nonetheless. She had the kind of mind that took things apart to understand them, that wouldn’t stop asking questions until she’d uncovered every secret—the kind of mind that could get her killed in Lasseran’s court.
The thought sent a chill through him that had nothing to do with the wind.
That night, she helped set up camp.
He hadn’t asked her to, but as he unpacked supplies and hobbled the horses, she set to work—gathering kindling, clearing stones from the sleeping area, filling the water skins at the nearby stream—tasks she had picked up simply from observing.
“Durash,” she said, handing him the filled water skins. Water.
“Grathos.” Thank you.
Her smile widened. “Gra… grathos?”
“Grathos,” he corrected.
“Grathos,” she repeated, getting it right this time. Then she smiled again and pointed at him. “You grathos. For…” She gestured vaguely, searching for words she didn’t have yet, but he could guess.
Thanking him for protecting her, for teaching her—and for not being the monster she should be afraid of.
This is a problem, he thought, watching her eat with a single-minded focus that spoke of genuine hunger.She is becoming a problem.
Not because she was difficult, not because she slowed them down or caused trouble, but because he cared whether she was comfortable and whether she had enough to eat and whether she was warm enough at night.
It was far more than just his Beast’s protective urges.
And that was dangerous for both of them.
The pattern repeatedover the following days.
Hard riding from dawn until the horses couldn’t continue. Brief rest stops where she would disappear to wash in whatever water source they found—though now he made sure to stand guard, his presence a clear warning to the other two males.
When they camped for the evening, she would help set up and then they would have lessons by the fire as they ate. She soaked up vocabulary and grammar with frightening speed, stringing together complex sentences and asking about word order and verb conjugation with the enthusiasm of a scholar.
Because that’s what she was, he realized. The way she spoke, the questions she asked, the casual intelligence in everything she did—she was someone educated. Was that why Lasseran wanted her?
Another question he couldn’t answer. Another mystery surrounding the small human who had already become far too important to him.
And every night, she slept beside him. She would arrange herself on her own bedroll, maintaining a careful distance between them, but sometime in the dark hours before dawn, she would migrate towards him. Unconsciously seeking warmth and safety, her sleeping mind turning to him like a lodestone finding north.
He would wake to find her pressed against his side. Sometimes her hand would be fisted in his tunic or her face tucked against his shoulder. But she was always sleeping against him with a trust that shouldn’t have been possible, a trust that made something in his chest ache with an emotion he didn’t have a name for.
He told himself she was just a mission. He told himself to push her away and maintain a proper distance between them.
