“You shouldn’t have to be over it. It shouldn’t have happened.”
She looks at me, something softening in her expression. “You sound angry on my behalf.”
“I am angry on your behalf.” I pause, then add quietly, “I know what it’s like. To feel unwanted.”
Her eyes search my face. “What do you mean?”
“My mother left soon after I was born. Just... left. And my father died from a disease not long after that.” I don’t talk about this. Ever. But with her hand in mine and her eyes on me, the words come anyway. “I was raised by my uncle Dane and the extended family. They took me in, treated me like one of their own. But I always knew I was the orphan, an orc whose mother didn’t want to stay.”
“Jonus...” Her voice is soft.
“I’m not telling you this for pity,” I say. “I’m telling you because I understand. Parents who should have loved us, who should have stayed, and didn’t. It leaves a mark.”
She squeezes my hand. “But you turned out okay. More than okay.”
“So did you.”
She laughs, a little watery. “Did I? Some days I’m not so sure.”
“You did,” I say firmly. “You became a hunter. A truth-teller. You flew to Colombia alone to expose a powerful man’s crimes. That takes the kind of strength that gets forged when you learn early that you can only count on yourself.”
Her eyes are glassy again. “I learned pretty early that I was on my own.”
“You’re not on your own anymore.” The words come out before I can think about them. But I mean them. Every single one.
She turns to look at me, those blue eyes searching my face. “You keep saying things like that.”
“Because they’re true.”
The moment stretches between us. I’m very aware of her hand in mine. The warmth of her body beside me and her scent, warm and sweet, stronger now that she’s clean and healing.
My cock stirs.
I try to focus on the conversation.
“What about you?” she asks. “What was it like growing up as an Irontree?”
I let out a breath. “Complicated. I’m the youngest of the cousins. Garlen was always the scholar—brilliant, respected, destined for academia. Keric was the warrior—strong, decisive, a natural leader. And I was...”
“The charming one?”
I look at her, surprised. “Why do you say that?”
“During one of our late-night calls you said that you were the one who was best at talking to humans. You said it as if it wasn’t a great skill. Like it was a bad thing. To me, it just means you’re charming. How can that be bad?”
“It’s not that charm is bad,” I explain. “It’s that it felt like all I had. Garlen had his intellect. Keric had his strength. I had... what? A nice smile? An ability to talk my way out of trouble with humans? It didn’t feel like enough.”
She shifts on the couch, turning to face me more fully, and her scent wafts toward me. Gods, she smells good. Is that…? “Jonus, you flew to Colombia when you got that call. You organized the extraction team. You found me in that jungle when the compound was on fire and everything had gone sideways.”
“That was?—”
“That was you, Jonus. Not Garlen. Not Keric. You.” She squeezes my hand again. “That all happened so quickly becauseof your ability to communicate. All the contacts you’ve made and worked. Only you could’ve done that,” she continues. “You got me out. You’re here, taking care of everything. You’re…you’re amazing.”
No one has ever said anything like that to me before. I stare at her, this female who sees me in a way I’ve never been seen.
She must be my mate.
The scent of her arousal wafts in the air between us. I’ve scented arousal from many humans in the past and always entirely ignored this because all I felt towards those females was passive friendship. But this time I’m proud. Happy. Pleased to know this amazing female wants to, at the very least, pleasure mate with me. I do not know if she’d want what I want—to have her as mine for life and have her carry my orcs sons.
