Chapter 1- Brunk
There's a stinging on my arm and I look down to see a deep cut that's oozing blood. I glare up at Calla from my place in the dirt to find her smirking down at me, her lilac eyes glowing with amusement as she twirls her sword lazily.
"Careful," she teases. "I could have taken your other tusk just then."
My eyes dip to the necklace she always wears. It's nothing fancy, just a leather cord tied around her neck, but the tip of my left tusk dangles from it. She had broken it durning a spar a few years ago and claimed it as a prize.
My father had been furious that I'd been bested so quickly and lost a tusk. He'd punished Calla for visibly shaming his family and injuring his heir, despite my protests that it was my fault.
My eyes go to the brand that stands out on her forearm in stark contrast to her pale skin.
I hated that my father had branded her. It was cruel and barbaric, and made it so that she could never leave our settlement without everyone who sees our brand trying to drag her back.
Not that she'd leave while her mother was still alive.
I prayed to the Horned One every day that Calla would find happiness here and want to stay. But with each passing day, the opposite seemed to be true.
Even now, in the middle of our match, her eyes wonder to the horizon in longing, her body bouncing slightly as if at any moment she'll lose her will and go sprinting off into the Wilds.
I would never stop her from leaving. Gods, I'd probably even go with her if she asked.
I grab my axe from the dirt next to me and throw it at her quickly, determined to make her forget her restlessness at least for now.
She bends backwards as it sails over her head, giving me a sparse second to climb to my feet and get to her. She sees me coming somehow and as I reach out to grab her, she sidesteps out of my grasp, her leg sweeping mine out from under me and I land back on the ground in a heap.
She looks down at me, "you're getting slower."
"Not all of us are elves," I grumble.
She scowls, "half elf. I'm bastard born, unlike you, m'lord."
I grimace at the word.
It's true that my father is the lord of these lands, and I am one of his heirs, but I'd always hated being called Lord.
Especially by Calla.
Climbing to my feet, I give her a grin and change the subject, "did you hear there's a fair in the village tonight?"
She nods as she cleans my blood from her sword, "I did."
"Are we going?" I ask with a grin, already knowing the answer.
Her eyes meet mine as she asks, "are you asking me if I'll sneak out of the compound with you tonight to go to a human fair where we could potentially get kidnapped or murdered?" She doesn't wait for me to answer before grinning, "absolutely we are. I need to find a Pix to fuck."
I chuckle at her enthusiasm.
Calla was always ready to break the rules with me, even if it meant we'd get into serious trouble. And while I was technically untouchable by the other nobles of the land, Calla wasn't, and her skin showed just how many rules she'd been caught breaking.
But no matter how many times she was punished, she was always ready to cause more mayhem, even before the blood on her back had dried.
"What makes you think a Pix would want to fuck you?" I joke as we walk towards the main house. Unlike most orcs who live in large mountains they call hives, my clan lived in individual homes spread across the swamplands that surrounded a human village. My family lived in the largest of these houses, and since Calla and her mother was sponsored and vouched for by my family, they lived in our home, her mother practically ran the house alongside my own. "You don't have any gold to pay them."
"Maybe they'd fuck me for free once they sampled my prowess," she jokes back.
It was no secret that Calla liked to fuck anyone with a pulse that she found remotely attractive. And while she hadn't tried to seduce me or any other orc, several human males and females in the village had fallen victim to her charms over the years, along with anyone who dared to stop at the inn for more than one night. I wasn't sure if I should be grateful or offended that she hadn't tried to sleep with me, although if she did, I wasn't sure what my response would be.
There was no doubt that she was beautiful with her pale skin, violet eyes and dark hair that was streaked with silver. She could almost pass as human if you didn't look close enough, but if you did take the time to study her, you'd notice her pointed canine teeth and ears, the high cheekbones and the way her feet never truly seemed to touch the ground as she walked.
Both orcs and elves have a high sex drive, and while we both have true mates, elves can procreate with anyone they want, while orcs can only procreate with their true mate. And while there was no chance of a pregnancy with someone who wasn't our mate, some of the older orcs try and remain celibate until they find their one true mate while the younger generations bed females left and right in the hopes of finding their mate quicker.
For the ones who do choose to remain celibate, it's a hard thing to do since there's no knowing when one will find their true mate, if you ever will. Especially during the mating season where the urge to fight, fuck and breed a female consumes your mind and body for three weeks out of the year.
Once the mating season is over, loneliness creeps back in and becomes too much to handle so some choose to take a heart mate. No children can come from a heart mate union, but from the heart mates I've seen, they are as happy as true mates. Some even find orphans to adopt.
And on the rare occasion someone in a heart mate union finds their true mate, the couple usually becomes a threesome or a foursome if both are in a heart mate union.
I glance at Calla, wondering if she'd ever take a heart mate and settle down. Something flickered in my chest at the thought, but I already knew the answer-
Calla was like the wind, wild and fierce and there was no taming her. Not that a woman like her should or even could be tamed.
We approach the house and I scoff, "or perhaps word has spread to all travelers to avoid our inn, least they should be accosted and fucked into oblivion."
She laughs, the sound like chimes on the wind as we walk into the house, "is that jealousy I hear? Don't worry, we shall find you a willing female tonight and then word will spread of your prowess and then you won't have to pay for a fuck either."
"I don't have to pay now," I retort.
As the orc lords son, I didn't have to pay for much in the town, but I especially didn't have to pay for whores. On the rare occasion that I did go to the brothel, they took me to bed willingly, some fighting over who would get to bed me that night. Of course I always left a heavy purse of gold on the bed for them when I left so maybe they were just fighting over my gold and not my cock.
"No need to brag," she says bitterly. Unlike me, she did have to pay the whores. And she did so often that it was a miracle she had any coin left.
We get to the steps that lead down to her room and stop, "see you tonight then?"
She nods, "meet you in the stables at the eleventh hour. Don't be late." She flits down the stairs, disappearing from sight and I head up to my rooms, wondering just how much coin tonight was going to cost me.
