Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 117(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 117(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
“Are you settling in all right?” Kol asks, and it sounds like he actually gives a shit. He’s good at that.
Ella sighs. “Honestly? It’s weird. But the room’s great, and Aric’s actually a lot less intimidating than I expected. The baby’s adorable. And you have the best library I’ve ever seen.”
Kol lets out a rumbling chuckle. There’s a moment where their laughter blends, and it’s… I don’t know, normal. Easy in a way that doesn’t exist in my world.
I want to break it up, but I also want to punch a hole in the nearest wall. Not knowing how to handle these strange feelings, I do something stupid. I stride back over, boots clacking sharply on the cobbles, and plant myself right between them.
Kol raises an eyebrow. “Need something, Oren?” he says, voice all velvet and knives.
“I—” I don’t have an answer. Meeting the gorgeous human has fried my goddamn brain circuits.
Ella watches us, her eyes flicking back and forth, reading the current but not the undertow.
Kol gives me a look. Not judgment, just… knowing. “Cat got your tongue?” Then he leans toward Ella, stage-whispering loud enough for the arch to echo it, “He’s not really that grumpy, you know. He just likes people to think he is.”
I grit my teeth, spitting out a warning, “Kolson.” Fucking hell. My goddamn mouth isn’t even connected to my brain. The one thing I do know is the thought of any other male touching this human makes me want to rip things to shreds. Starting with my dumbass brother.
He must sense the rage flowing through my veins because he raises his hands in mock surrender and steps back from her. “Just helping the new-hire acclimate.”
Ella stands there, caught between us, amusement and confusion wrestling for dominance on her face. She looks at Kol, then at me. “Do you guys do this a lot?”
“What?” Kol asks, deadpan.
“Bicker,” she says. “It’s like watching a ping-pong match, but one side keeps breaking the paddles.”
Kol barks a laugh, genuine. “That’s the Arch family in a nutshell. Welcome aboard.”
Ainsley gurgles again, and Ella bends to check her, hands expert and gentle. There’s something about the motion—the way she moves, unafraid and totally herself—that makes my own posturing feel even more idiotic.
Ainsley cranks up the volume, launching a wail straight from the pits of hell. Ella scoops the baby out of the stroller like she’s snatching a grenade with the pin half-pulled. She gives Kol a quick smile. “Sorry, meltdown incoming. I need to get her settled before she blows.” Then she tucks her hair behind her ear, turns that heart-shaped face toward me, and pushes the stroller away with a little sway in her hips that I can’t fucking unsee.
Kol waits until she’s almost out of earshot, then turns to me, voice low and smug. “You’re in deep shit, brother.” As if I don’t already know it. I glare at him, but he just grins wider. “You’ve got the look of a male who just met his match.” I barely resist the urge to pound my fist into his smiling face. I should’ve torn his ass to shreds a few minutes ago. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with his smart ass.
“Fuck off.” It’s the best my flummoxed mind can come up with.
Kol doesn’t let me escape with my weak-ass comeback. He sobers, all the bullshit and wisecracks ending. “You need to go easy with her, Oren. She’s had a hard fucking life.” The words hit me sideways, like he’s just chucked a brick at my head.
What the hell? “How do you know that?” I snap, but my brother just shakes his head, looking at me like I’m an idiot.
“Because I read her goddamn file before I approved her employment with Aric and Ainsley, unlike your dumb ass.” Kol folds his arms, muscles flexing under his polo. He’s not joking around anymore.
I open my mouth, ready to argue, but nothing comes out. The silence stretches. I kind of hate how much it bothers me. “She will be safe here on the Arch Orc Settlement.” I growl each word fucking clear as day before turning on my heel and getting the fuck out of there like my ass is on fire.
The universe hates me.
There is no other explanation. I have survived sieges, sabotage, a three-day interrogation by the Old World’s most decorated torturer, and yet here I am, brought low by a human female who smells like lemon shampoo and chaos. The more I try to avoid her to give myself time to adjust to these new intense feelings, the more I run into her.
Ella Blume is fucking everywhere. No matter where I go, I find her. The universe is having a goddamn field day fucking with me. I try to sneak down to the library to deliver a report to Brielle and find Ella bent over a stack of books at the front desk, hair glinting like polished amber in the crystal light.