“Ooh, good idea,” Hisa says. “We normally don’t get to play this way because we get irritated if our males don’t answer correctly.”
“Which will still happen,” Tok reminds her, elbowing Bakog on his other side. “And we might end up sleeping outside tonight.” He scowls.
Shalia giggles. “Hey, we’re newly mated! I promise. You can answer wrong and we won’t shun you.”
“Promise?” Bakog whispers throatily, kissing her neck. She blushes and I smile at Varguk. It’s sweet to see new love. I can’t wait until he andI are at that point. Mayhap once my father returns from Mont Grove, where I’m sure Grandmother Aga will prepare him, the way she does each time I have one of my milestones.
“Now, males against females. Males will write their answers down, then the females will answer one by one. If the one you’re paired with matches your answer, five points for your couple. Anyone can win. Okay, first question. If your parents couldn’t stand the person you wanted to make your mate, would it give you pause to consider that person? Males start writing.” When they are done, she gives us the nod for our answer.
She waits until we all fold over our paper.
“Now, females get to answer. Shally, go first.”
“Nay,” Shalia says. “My mother is enamored with Bakog.”
Bakog tosses his note into the center of the table and Hisa pulls it, then adds it into the money pile.
“Now your turn,” Shalia says to Hisa.
“Nay,” Hisa says. “My mother told me to look at the size of Tok’s head and reconsider my choices. I still chose to not heed her advice.”
“Aww. Really? With all the brats your mother turned out, I’d have thought for sure…” He rips up his note. “Still, you chose the size of my cock over the size of my future brats’ heads.”
The males all snicker and one tosses a grape at Tok, who’s grinning ear to ear. “I still win,” he snickers. “In bed tonight, if not in points.”
Bakog groans and slams his head to the table when Hisa waggles her eyebrows, making the tiny hoop pierced there jump.
“Negan’s turn. Let’s hear from a full orc female who doesn’t have human influence,” Hisa says.
“Not sure if I’m going to be much different, considering your mothers all gave me the talk from the time I could walk. But nay. If I loved someone my father didn’t approve of, I’d still mate him. My father taught me to grab love where I could.”
Varguk is eyeing me with a calculating look on his face. He doesn’t toss his note into the middle of the table, nor does he rip it up. Mayhap he’ll wait until the end of the game to tally his winnings.
Ooh, I like that. Cunning male, leaving everyone to wonder how close we are to winning.
“Question for the males,” Hisa says. “If your clan was desperate for birthings, and your chosen mate didn’t want any brats, would you… one, consider another mate, or two, accept punishment for going against clan ordinance? Varguk, you go first.”
“In my clan, a female is forced to carry if she doesn’t want to. So, I would probably try to talk my mate into having at least one brat to avoid that, or take the punishment for her if that’s offered.”
“What would the punishment be?” Bakog asks, brows knotting as he leans forward. Aye, ‘tis truly interesting to find how things are run in the Southpeak clan.
He shrugs. “Depends upon each family’s king. We have several branches throughout our territory. In my father’s line, he’d ask to have the male maimed in some way. A finger. An ear. An eye. Nothing that would affect the clan overall, but something small.”
Hisa stares at him, aghast. “Something small? You’d lose an eye for your mate?”
Varguk looks confused as to why they find that baffling. I’m sure their males would too.
“Yes. It’s a political maneuver, guaranteeing that there’s one less male who would overthrow his crown. But like I said, our punishment would be greater for her, so I’d rather talk her into having one so she doesn’t get bred with an undesirable orc who doesn’t have a mate just to bear his line of brats.”
So females are forced to breed and anything goes? If they don’t choose, the bottom of the barrel is given to them?
“What would you offer her?” I ask softly.
“Whatever she wants. Some females don’t want to rear one so I would take the responsibility.”
Considering they haven’t much choice as to bearing one, I can imagine some draw the line at rearing. Who knows how much responsibility they are forced to endure for the brats they never wanted in the first place.
“My mother didn’t want brats. It was okay. I had more than enough moms at the West Mountain clan. ‘Twas my father I felt bad for. Sometimes he seemed so sad when he looked at me and later someone mentioned how much like my mother I look. I realized he had a daily reminder of that my entire life. Of the mate who left him.”
