“Fine,” she said, turning her attention to the road ahead. “Then tell me about your horde. If you want me to sell the story that we’re falling for each other, I need to know about them.”
He was silent for a long moment, and she thought he might ignore her completely. Then he spoke, his voice still edged with irritation.
“Until recently, I forbade my orcs from taking human brides. I hoped we’d be able to return to our world. But now they’re restless, so I decided to give them what they want. I need to set an example to convince them that I’m serious.”
“An example,” she repeated, glancing at him.
“Yes. As soon as they see that my new bride and I are mated and happy together, they’ll feel safe to take brides of their own. They’ll know that I won’t suddenly change my mind.”
Audrey considered this, turning the information over in her mind. It made sense. If Morgath had forbidden human brides for so many years, his orcs would be cautious about believing he had truly changed his stance. They would need proof that he meant it, and what better proof than seeing their captain take a bride himself?
“They must fear you if it took them so long to say a word against you and your rules,” she said.
“They do fear me. I’m not only their captain, but also their mage. One of the most powerful mages in our world and this one.”
He muttered something under his breath that sounded like, “I hope this will change soon.”
Audrey filed that piece of information away for later.
“Well then,” she said, shifting slightly to try to find a more comfortable position, though there wasn’t one. “If you’re both a captain and a mage, when you ignore me, it won’t look suspicious. You have so much on your plate.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Now shut up. You talk too much.”
He pressed the gas pedal, and the car lurched forward. The engine whined in protest, and the whole vehicle rattled like it might fall apart.
Audrey rolled her eyes and turned away from him to stare at the landscape. The forest stretched on endlessly, broken only by the occasional clearing or rocky outcrop. The sky was overcast, and the air smelled like rain.
She couldn’t help but notice how close they were, pressed against each other in the tight space. His thigh was warm against hers, and she could feel every shift of his body as he steered the car around curves and over bumps. The heat radiating offhim was intense. His muscles flexed and tightened with every movement, his body feeling immovable and unyielding.
She thought to herself that it was a good thing Morgath wasn’t interested in mounting her. She’d end up crushed under his weight. The man was enormous, easily three times her size – and she wasn’t a small thing herself. She doubted a human woman could survive being intimate with an orc that large without serious injury.
Not that it mattered. He’d made it clear he had no interest in her. She had no interest in him either.
Chapter Six
They arrived just as the sun began to dip behind the mountains, casting long shadows across the valley. Morgath drove down the main street, and Audrey’s stomach dropped when she realized the entire horde had gathered to welcome them.
Orcs lined both sides of the street – massive, green-skinned figures standing shoulder to shoulder, all of them staring at her with open curiosity. There had to be a hundred of them. The weight of their collective gaze made her skin prickle. She swore under her breath and leaned closer to Morgath, though she hated herself for it.
“Am I the only human here?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
“Naturally,” he said without looking at her.
She scanned the crowd again. They were watching her like she was some kind of exotic animal brought in for display.
She turned back to the captain and studied the skull mask that covered his entire head, the empty eye sockets revealing nothing of what he might be thinking.
“You must really hate humans,” she said.
“I find them weak, uninteresting, and a nuisance,” he replied.
“Too bad you can’t kill us anymore, right?”
He turned his head toward her. Even through the mask, she could feel the weight of his glare.
He said nothing, just faced forward again and slowed the car even more, allowing his orcs a better view of her.
Audrey forced herself to look at the horde, because somewhere in this crowd was the orc who’d killed her family. She threw furtive glances from face to face, trying not to stare too obviously. There were more males than females, she noticed. She counted only five females among the crowd, their framesslightly smaller but no less imposing. The orcs were all huge, their green skin ranging from deep forest tones to lighter shades like moss, and their expressions from curiosity to suspicion as they watched the car pass.
