She was a doctor of some sort. She was young. She was friends with Margot. She was one of Burden’s priestesses, but hadn’t taken the final vow.
He knew that the Burden’s servants were a secretive bunch much revered around the world, and that their services were widely sought by those who suffered. He knew that they took a series of vows after a lifetime of training, and that the final one pledged a life of servitude with a tattooed collar around the throat.
But everything else was blank. For the second time that night, Kaz cursed himself for not even glancing at her file.
You’re going to wish you read it,Delilah had warned him.
Gods, he really fucking hated it when his sister was right.
ChapterTen
“Welcome to the…Oh. How can I help you?”
Kaz glowered at the old orc behind the motel’s reception counter, hoping to convey exactly how little patience he had for questions. A wave of pinpricks washed over his skin the second he closed the car door, and they’d only gotten more annoying as he stepped into the tiny lobby. It was as if his body rejected even the flimsiest barriers between himself and the witch.
Or maybe I’m just paranoid she’ll find a way to run again.
It was probably a bit of both.
“I need a room,” he grunted, leaning one grimy forearm against the edge of the desk.
The old orc, a man with deep gray skin and white-streaked hair pulled back in a neat braid, eyed him warily. “Looks like you’ve had a rough night, boy.”
A tic threatened to form in the clenched muscles of his jaw, but Kaz somehow managed a halfway civil tone when he said, “Yes. Which is why I need a room.”
He watched the old man lean slightly to one side. His white brows rose at the sight of the beat up old car idling outside, as well as the muddy, pissed off woman locked within it.
His eyes, hazel made paler with great age, slid back to Kaz. “Look, boy, I don’t know what you’ve got goin’ on, but we’ve got families staying here. I won’t have you bringing any trouble.”
The orc was old, but he was still strong enough to intimidate the average person. When he eyed Kaz, his arms, still corded with pronounced muscle, flexed menacingly. He flashed his fangs, too — the two sharp lower incisors that orcs could claim.
Kaz wasn’t intimidated. He wasannoyed.
In any other situation, he would have saidfuck itand left. He didn’t give a shit about having a bed for a night. He’d sleep on the ground without a problem, or in the back of his car if he wanted to be all cozy.
But his mate needed a bed. And a bath. And to be warm. And to have blankets and pillows for a nest—
Absolutelyfuck offwith that,he snapped at his unruly instincts.
“Listen,” he growled, leaning over the desk a bit more, “I need a room for tonight. You have a vacancy. We won’t be a problem for you or anyone else. Just give us the room.”
“Us?” The orc’s gaze flicked over his shoulder again. Kaz’s hackles raised the same way they had on the plane. It didn’t matter that the orc was approximately three centuries too old for Atria. With his instincts in a rage, witnessing another manlookat her made him want to flex his claws.
“Your companion doesn’t look too happy. Maybe I should go out and talk to her to see what she thinks.”
Kaz moved to block the man’s view of the glass doors. Planting his palms on the desk, he warned, “That’s not a good idea.”
“Yeah? Why?” The old orc was halfway out of his seat, and Kaz could see one hand reaching for a slim cell phone tucked beside the check-in desk’s monitor. The hand was old, slightly gnarled, with swollen knuckles and prominent veins. It was also blackened with pigment. In fact, the man’s arms, left bare by a sleeveless shirt, were almost entirely pigmented.
Thinking quickly, Kaz tried to soften his expression into something less furious and more… playfully exasperated when he explained, “Because she isn’t sold on being mated to me yet.”
The orc’s bushy eyebrows rose. His gaze dropped to Kaz’s hands, which were still covered by his gloves. The progress of the orc’s fingers paused when he said, “Oh?”
Kaz nodded emphatically. Stomach bunching, he held his breath as he quickly stripped off one glove. The buttery leather felt like sandpaper against his sensitized skin.
And there it was, plain as day for the both of them to see: The once jewel green skin of his hand was now a deep, iridescent black.
Kaz stared at his own hand blankly for a moment, his mind stalling out as he tried to process what he’d known would be there and yet hadn’t fully allowed himself to think about.
