Chapter 6
Hoss ambled to the small vehicle, watched Ember climb into the open tray at the back and sit against the side. She wrapped her hand over the edge. While she did all of this, he most definitely admired the shift of her anatomy. Her scent and roundness had him almost...almost drooling. He swallowed the majority of it.
She’d not joined Baz in the cabin. This was good.
Nevertheless, a problem had reared up, and he craved whacking off that problem’s head.
She wanted to sweep away all they’d done, as if it had never happened.
He understood. It was bad for her career, for the respect others might give her. Humans with orcs, let alone humans mating with orc half-breeds, was a territory few crossed into. She’d be reviled by her own kind. Strangely, he’d go up a notch. Snaring a human for the nest was rare. Though such unions were infertile, his tribe, if he’d still had one, would pin medals on his chest.
This wasn’t why he wished to pursue her.
Neither was his rut.
Okay, the rut was a part of what hooked him but it was more, simply, her.
Any orc worth the fire his ancestors were burned in, would not give up because she insisted he should.
Take was orc motto, not...not crawl away in shame.
Take!
He sat beside her in the vehicle’s tray, thinking, bouncing as the wheels found holes in the track, and watching the approach of a small forest. Tree shadows flickered over his knees. Opposite, the forest darkened. They emerged into open fields again as the light from the sun waned. No moons showed yet. The sun set slowly on this planet, as if time had been told to wait.
The cybermonks had chosen a placid planet. He’d not seen a single predatory bird or beast.
With his orc eyes the minimal light was enough and the darkness concealed where his attention lay. He could look at her legs and thighs, at her boots where they ended in practical square heels – he loved how practical she was. If a warrior, she’d be sticking heads on spears and blasting aside her enemies without mercy. It made his blood exult.
He stretched and moved to the opposite side of the tray so he could look up her skirt.
The lenses of her data spectacles sheened pink. Could she be staring at him?
He pulled his knees up and wrapped his hands over them. “Those wouldn’t happen to have any night vision capabilities?”
“They would. Stop looking, Hoss. You must not.”
No please in those words. He eyed her. Not sullen. Not resentful, just...caught in the middle of his needs.
Take, remember? Sometimes being a gentle half-breed was a hindrance. He wasn’t keen on taking unless they gave. Maybe it’d grow on him.
“Nice city.” He jerked his head toward the glow the truck approached.
Too short to see over the cabin of the truck, Ember leaned back to look past the side of the truck and even that, the stretch of fabric over her breasts, the tautness in her legs as she balanced, it drew him.
“The city of Verd,” Ember said softly.
As the truck rumbled into the first street, stone surrounded them. Two or three stories of perfectly squared-away sandstone, decorated with the drape and flourish of greenery. Leaves were crushed under their wheels and the soft moist air of the forest seemed to have followed them in here. The people were few, and at least half were dressed in the blue or gray robes of disciples of the cybermonks.
They passed a wall that ran barely a meter from his ear, and red writing sprang into being, flowing as he read.
“To achieve greatness one must do and one must sometimes take.”
What the... His thought dribbled away into nothing.
How?
How had the wall known?
He twisted and saw the writing fade then vanish.