N’ila was a ghost town. Empty and abandoned like the ruins of my mother’s home. Sleep eluded me all night as my thoughts drifted to Yuli, one of my orc warriors from my days on the battlefield. Yuli was five years older than when we lost our parents on the battlefield. I remember when the last of our parents fell in that battle, leaving thirty or so orphans with no one to guide them. I wasn’t the oldest or the wisest in the group, but I saw a bunch of hopeless eyes staring at me as the human slavers were closing in on us. Acting on the desire to survive, I rallied those orphans into battle with the hope we would remain free if we stuck together. We won against those humans because we battled them from the hills we grew up on. It was the saddest day of my life between the loss of my mother and seven of the orphans in that battle. A bond formed between us orphans that forged us into the mightiest orc warriors in the Orc Freedom Wars.

Yuli had seen many battles by the time the wars ended. My battalion of orc warriors were war criminals and were considered slaves as part of the war reparations to the human slavers in the Kingdom of Solis. Our people from the Black Rock Hills couldn’t protect us from the Kingdom of Solis. I took my battalion to Desfyra for protection. Queen Amory, Silas’ sister, took pity on us, and we gained her protection in exchange for our service in her lands. Her protection freed us from the slavery that Solis tried to force on us. Yuli had come to N’ila as an adventurer under the employment of the court to slay beasts that strayed too far from the mountains. Silas and I visited her last year on an expedition of his to find some rare herb that grew near the town. She was so happy here. The elves weren’t as arrogant as those in Desfyra, and they seemed to welcome her presence in the town. She even started a garden like she had dreamed of while we were at war. Now, Yuli was missing, possibly dead, and I felt like I had failed her.

The sun had come to greet us again before long, and I cursed the night for ending before I could sleep. My companions began to wrestle themselves awake from their pallets on the ground. I watched as Emera yawned sweetly looking up at the sun with a dazed expression. She was so cute. She started dazed from sleep then a burst of energy erupted through her as she tumbled out of bed. Her tail bounced with the excitement of a new day, which plastered a giant smile to my face. She quickly cleaned up her bedding before leaping up into the single tree near our campsite. She swung from branch to branch with her tail flicking happily behind her. Watching her energy burst out of her as she flipped and sailed up and down the tree made my body feel renewed with energy.

“See something you like, brute?” Emera called to me from the tree top.

She had a bright smile on her face that made my dark thoughts from the night fade. “Who wouldn’t be astounded by your boundless energy first thing in the morning?”

Her tail flicked about as she grinned. “It’s been a month, brute! My morning exercise should be normal to you by now.”

Normal? No, I could never find her to be just normal. “You are anything but normal to me, Emera.”

Her tail stilled behind as she quickly hid her face from me. Was it possible that I made her blush? No, my words didn’t hold that power over her. Sure, we have had sweet fleeting moments that made me wonder if we could be something. However, I know better. Emera and I have grown close because of our situation. Silas and Rosewyn’s refusal to interact has forced us to be a bridge between them. Although I enjoy how close Emera and I have become because of it, I know we can’t continue this way forever. Not if Silas was going to help Rosewyn with her form shifting like he said he wanted to, or if we were going to get his sister to grant Rosewyn and Emera protection from the Gleaca Council. Honestly, I wasn’t sure Queen Amory would go against the council at all, but this was our only shot at the moment. The only other option would be for her to leave Gleaca entirely.

“Braxton. Are you done flirting yet?” Silas deadpanned. He had already packed his stuff away and began a fire to cook breakfast. His face was still upset from our visit to the ghost town last night. He hasn’t told the girls about his title or why he had such responsibility to the people of N’ila. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone called him by his title, but I wanted him to divulge his story when he was ready.

“Hello? Brax, are you in there?” Silas waved his hand in front of my face, and I smacked it away.

“What, Si?” I asked, annoyed.

He grunted standing up from his crouched position in front of me. “We have other pressing matters to attend to than your infatuation with Emera.” His tone was colder than I had expected it to be.

Without saying a word, I cleaned up my bedding and packed my things. Silas was always the one to pull me out of my head. He grounded me after my years as a general and allowed me to have a semi-normal life that consisted of having friends and the freedom to be something beyond a battlefield. Yet, there were times when duty called for us to be what our titles called for us to be. Today, Silas needed to be a prince who protected his people, and I needed to be his right-hand man and protector like I vowed to do. Silas needed me now.

I finished cooking the meat that Silas had started as he went back to making notes in his journal. He was always scribbling his thoughts away in a journal and trying to solve the mysteries of lost magic. I wondered if Silas had become stalled in his research since he refused to engage with Rosewyn on anything. He told me he wanted to help her, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate that he was helping her at all.

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Emera appeared next to me with Ro beside her, looking like they were starved animals. Although I suppose they were both animals as much as they were people. Beast folk have always been the odd race out. Never just an animal or a person, which made many people weary of them. Most of that prejudice has faded, but between the forbidden mating of beast folk with other races and the horror stories of hybrid brutality, there was always a stigma surrounding them. Emera was a beast person, and I have real feelings for her, which are considered illegal. Silas and I have signed up to protect Rosewyn although she is the very beast everyone fears. Our whole situation was messed up on so many levels.

“Hey, green giant! Are you just going to torture us with the sight of food or do you plan on letting us eat it?” Rosewyn stared at the sizzling goat meat.

“Sorry. Yeah, eat up.” I said, handing her a chunk of meat.

Everyone ate quickly with today’s mission looming over us. Emera and Rosewyn waited patiently for Silas and me to gather our thoughts over our meals. It was decided that we would scour the town again in broad daylight. Emera managed to enact her plan once our camp was completely tidied away. She grabbed my hand and raced us toward the town, bidding Silas and Rosewyn to work together. The look on their faces as she hurried me away told me we weren’t getting away with this stunt unscathed.

The ghost town sat quietly ahead of us, waiting to be explored. Emera revealed her aversion to the scent of rotting fish just beyond the west gate of the town. If we explored that far, I agreed to be the one to investigate the rotten fish. Her sensitive monkey nose couldn’t stand the smell. I probably need to do something about the rotting fish anyway. It could set the whole environment around the town in bad health.

“Where should we start, brute?” Emera questioned me as we entered the east gate.

I pointed toward the northern part of town, and she nodded, walking beside me. “Are you always going to call me a brute?”

She flashed me a smile. “Well, in case you haven’t noticed Braxton, you are almost three feet taller than me, and you’re all muscled with big shoulders. With a swift kick, you make a thick tree fall below your knees. I think brute fits you perfectly.”

She called me a freaking giant, strong person in such a cute way that it almost didn’t bother me. “I am more than a strong giant, Emera.”

“I know, Brute.” She hummed. “But, you are and always will be a brute to me. A brute obsessed with cute, fluffy things.”

“I wouldn’t say obsessed-”

“Look!” She acted all excited. “A fluffy little rabbit.”

Turning to where she pointed, I scanned the wall of the town for a little bunny. I ran toward the area to get a closer look. “Where’s the cute, little bunny?”

Emera burst out laughing behind me while saying she had just proven that I was indeed obsessed with fluffy creatures. Does she think I am obsessed? Well, why don’t I just show her what an obsession looks like?

Getting up from the rock wall, I sauntered over to her. She kept laughing as backed away from me and slid herself up a stack of crates until she could go any higher. She sat there almost at eye level with me. I put one hand against the wall of a house behind her, pinning her beneath me. “Obsessed, am I?” Her laughter faded as she kept her eyes locked on mine nodding. A sudden heat sprung between us that I hadn’t expected. My free hand gently reaches for her cheek. Her eyes widen, watching as I graze her cheek into the soft amber fur of her head.

Her breath hitched for a moment feeling my fingers run through her fur. She leaned into my large, rough hand, liking the warmth my touch brought to her. Her beautiful eyes looked back at me, trying to understand what was happening here. I wasn’t sure myself. All of my actions were running purely on instinct as I moved closer to her face.

She didn’t move away as I whispered to her. “You haven’t seen what obsession looks like, Emera. You are the only fluffy creature I would consider becoming obsessed over.”

Her cheek grew hot against mine. She was blushing this time. Being this close to her was intoxicating from the heat between us. I was crossing the line that I had drawn for myself at that moment. She was too compelling not to pursue. I felt her hand tighten on my shirt, pulling me closer. Moving to look at her, I saw two things in that moment in her eyes. She was caught in the heat of the moment just as I was, and she liked it. My forehead rested on hers for a moment to enjoy this heat.

“Maybe, you should consider it.” She whispered back looking at me before closing the gap between our lips.

Her lips against mine made the heat explode between us. I thought it might have only been a peck, but she deepened the kiss. She tasted sweet like the mango she had consumed with her goat meat breakfast. Every movement I made, she matched. My hand slid down to her neck allowing me to control the angle of the kiss. My tongue ran across her bottom lip, requesting entrance to her mouth. She granted it. We had gone from joking around to a full-blown make-out session in a ghost town.

I am not sure how long we stayed like that, but when we parted she giggled. My huffing and puffing was making her chuckle as I tried to recover from that kiss. Our foreheads leaned against each other for support.

“You are good at that,” I smiled at her.

“You’re not so bad yourself, brute.” Her eyes looked like they were sparkling and her tail bounced happily. “So, are you going to become obsessed with me?”

“If I get to kiss you like that again, you can count on it,” I tried to be smooth with my words.

Her small grazed over my stubble. “Are we saying that we're doing this again?”

I pulled back a little to look at her. I wanted her to hear me when I spoke. “I want to. I think we have something between us.”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “It’s definitely something. Something I want to explore with you, but Ro and Silas need to be our priority. I am all she has, Braxton, and this can’t get in the way of protecting her.”

“Agreed. Let’s just keep this between us then.”

“Okay.” She gave me a small peck. “Cause this is really something.”

“Definitely something,” I agreed.