Summoning the Orc (The Kingverse Orcs #2)

Chapter Twenty

Rok

My lip curled at Rudgar as he stopped me from following my Becca out the door. I turned to glare at him, but he was grinning back at me.

“Don’t worry about her. She’s just going to work,” he assured me, as if that was supposed to make me feel better.

Work .

My female shouldn’t have to work. I had enough gold to take care of us. If the amount that I’d brought with me wasn’t enough, I just needed to find a way to go back to my cave. I had troves more where that came from.

I’d present more to her. The coins I’d given to her hadn’t been enough. Even within a clan, each family was allowed to keep a part of their earnings and those earnings were presented to the female since she was the one who cared for the home.

“How many coins would be enough for Becca to stop working?” I asked Rudgar, not familiar with the expenses of this world.

I peered around at the opulence of our surroundings. It wasn’t the most secure home, but it was luxurious. I wasn’t going to expect my female to take care of me. My pride as a male wouldn’t allow it.

“She likes what she does,” Rudgar said with a shrug. “I doubt any amount of coin would stop her.”

I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest as I eyed him.

“Are you joking? My female enjoys working? What work does she do?”

“She’s a librarian,” he said, gesturing toward me. “She summoned you from one of the books there.”

My eyes went wide. My mate was a caretaker of knowledge. A smile spread across my face, as I realized that if she hadn’t been caring for those books, I would have never met her.

“She can keep working, then,” I purred with a grin.

Rudgar rolled his eyes, turning to move into the kitchen area, opening the cold box. “Yeah, I don’t think that you have any say in that, Rok, but we’ll let you keep thinking that.”

I frowned as he surveyed what was inside before tapping on one of those tiny boxes that I saw everyone walking around with. Although this one was much larger. Sturdier than the one Becca carried.

“What’s that?” I asked, moving closer to poke the box in his hand.

“It’s a phone,” he said, clutching it closer to his chest as if protecting it. “A means of communication and entertainment.”

“Entertainment?” I asked, peering down at it. The language he was using on the box was unfamiliar, but I was intrigued. “Can it sing? Dance?”

Rudgar gave me a wide grin. “It can sing. It even uses different voices.”

Awed, I prodded the box. “Sing for me,” I demanded.

Rudgar snorted out a laugh and then fiddled with the box until it started singing a lullaby in Orcish that I hadn’t heard since my mother was alive.

“You sing so well,” I told it, trying not to break down in tears in front of this male and the box. “Do you know any others?”

Rudgar did something else with it and it started another song in Orcish. This one a bawdy celebration song that I’d heard at a wedding. The shift from one extreme to the other made me laugh.

“I want one,” I told Rudgar. “How do I capture one?”

“I’ll get one for you,” he told me, slapping my shoulder as the box went silent. “I’ll have it delivered today and then tomorrow we can work on how you use it. It’ll help, because you’re going to start working with me.”

I tilted my head at him, “When?”

It would help to be able to earn more coins to start my hoard again. Even if I couldn’t go back to my cave, I wanted to be able to provide for my female and any young we had together. This was the perfect opportunity.

“I can introduce you to everyone today. I’m working on getting some paperwork done for you,” he told me, leaning over the shiny stone slab in the center of the room and poking at the fruit before typing again on the little box in his hands. “I’ll get everything set up by the end of the week for sure. And I can have more food delivered today as well.”

“How much coin do I need to earn for all of that?” I asked him, brow furrowed.

His eyebrows swung up and he shook his head. “Your coin is your own, Rok. Dristan is working on converting it to dollars for you.”

“Dollars?” I asked, having heard him say something similar before but not knowing what it meant.

“It’s the currency here,” he said, pulling something from his pants. He opened the leather holder and pulled a slip of paper from it, holding it out to me. I looked at him, then the flimsy paper before taking it. I held it between my fingers with caution, worried that I would tear it.

“Is this dollars?” I asked, holding it up.

“It’s one hundred dollars, to be specific,” he replied with a snort. “And you’ll have more than enough once Dristan gets you set up. You don’t have to work ever again either, if you don’t want to. I just figured you were like me. I can’t stay at home without a purpose,” he said that with a shrug.

“Why wouldn’t there be a purpose?” I asked. “I’d want to stay at home when my young are born and when my mate needs me, but why would I be at home other than that?”

“Exactly,” Rudgar laughed. “If I had to twiddle my thumbs, I’d lose my mind.”

I glanced down at his thumbs before narrowing my eyes on him. “You are… very strange.”

Rudgar boomed out a laugh. “I suppose,” he agreed, slapping me across my back. “So let me take you to my place to set you up with some clothes first.”

He made his way across the room toward the door, and I followed him. He gave me a demonstration on opening the door with the key he was giving me. Once again, it didn’t look like any kind of key I knew, but the strange magic of this realm had its purposes.

“My company installed all the locks and cameras in this building,” he said, “and this is where you’ll be based. I want you close to home in case anyone comes snooping around. With Dristan having a mate and then Becca moving in,” he said with a sigh and shake of his head, “we can’t take any chances. We need it to be safe here. So I’m leaving that to you.”

I nodded in agreement. I wouldn’t entrust the safety of my mate to anyone else and I was moved to hear that Dristan was entrusting me with Penelope’s as well.

“Thank you for this,” I told Rudgar in a gruff voice. “I’ll never let anything harm them.”

Rudgar nodded with a smile, making his way to the cursed transportation device in the wall. I skidded to a halt, shaking my head, pointing at it. “Not that ,” I accused, sneering at it. The foul beast was a metal monstrosity that I didn’t trust for one second.

“It’s an elevator,” Rudgar said with a grin.

“It’s a death trap,” I corrected, tipping my chin up. “And I hate it.”

Rudgar’s grin grew. “How about I show you how it works on the way to your office? It’s going to be a big day of learning. I hope you’re up to it.”

“Of course I am,” I huffed out a breath, taking a cautious step towards the elevator .

I rolled my head on my shoulders as I rode in the death-trap that was called an elevator. I was a fast learner, and I picked things up with ease, but I knew that some of the things that Rudgar had shown me today would take some getting used to.

There was another magic box that showed the views of different areas of the building that Rudgar called a computer, and he’d assigned a team to me. I was going to meet them later, but first, I wanted to go meet my Becca. I’d spotted her entering the building and I wanted to be the first person she saw when she got home.

The doors opened to the floor—because there were almost fifty floors in this building , which was why I was being assigned a team of four orcs for now. I was nowhere near an expert on this plane, so he agreed that starting training with a smaller team, where they already knew the layout and could show me the ropes, before I started as their leader, would be best.

After that, we’d grow the team one at a time until we could sufficiently provide protection to the clan. That was Dristan’s dream. He wanted to make this building the homebase for orcs in the city that were clan-less.

That thought had hit me in the chest. I’d love to be a part of that. Of gathering all the rudderless orcs who felt just as lonely as I had only a day ago. Now, I had a small clan and a mate.

I was beaming with joy as I made my way to the door of the apartment I shared with my mate. Fiddling with the key for a few minutes, I opened the door and watched as she hurried toward me.

“Rok,” she gasped, her arms coming around me.

I can get used to this.

I wrapped her in a hug, tucking her tiny form against me and letting her softness and warmth spread through me.

She’s happy to see me.

It had been years since I’d had anyone to greet me when I returned home. Contentment filled me as I tipped her chin up to press my lips to hers. She started saying something, but I sealed my lips against hers, savoring the feel of her in my arms.

This is what I was missing. She’s filled every part of me that was empty.

I spun her in my arms and my female gave a little giggle before she relaxed, twining her fingers into my hair.