Monthly story - Orctober offering - male orc x male reader (nsfw) (Patreon)

“I think…” he began, choking quietly and swallowing to get past it. “I think I’ve… I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Greetings! Apologies for this being a little later in the month than I wanted it to be. I have been occupied with reopening my Etsy shop (Patreon discount PATREON5 by the way!), and this orc lad had so many iterations before a random prompt on Tumblr gave me this Reddit-worthy angst fest with a very happy ending. Do check the warnings just in case, but there's nothing in huge detail.

I will not be charging Patrons for next month (November 2024) because things are going to get a bit more bonkers, with my mum moving across the country and I'm gonna have to be there a lot for her, so there'll be no story next month. I'll keep updating the not-yautja story (ShipMates) as and when though :).

The idea/prompt that sparked this final version was this:

The fun thing about living in a city is getting to see snippets of other peoples' lives - people you may never meet, or never meet again. Sometimes you'll get to go on a walk and spot an empty bottle on the ground, and be left wondering who left it there? When? How? What kind of a person will empty a bottle of genuine French champaigne at a bus stop with no bench, 3 km from the town center and 3 metres from a daycare? In the middle of cold, wet October?

How did it come to this? What kind of life choices have you made that led you here? How? Why??

_

Story content: Set in the Starfall Springs universe, in the university town of Old Trollbridge. The male reader (nerdy academic type) spots a big and very wealthy male orc having a very bad day (see warnings below, light story spoilers) and checks in on him. A deep friendship is kindled, which develops over time into a nice mutual crush, which is eventually resolved... :)

Warnings/nsfw content: orc is cheated on by long term boyfriend with his brother in law, falsely accused of attempted SA, and is not believed by his own family and is instead ostracised and denied contact for a while. Reader supports him through that and helps him move on and get back to his life. NSFW content: big male orc prefers to bottom and is on the receiving end of anal fingering and penetrative sex.

Wordcount: 9655

The spattering of liquid falling from a fairly decent height, and the fizzing hiss of a billion tiny bubbles bursting on the pavement, was not the sort of thing you’d expected to hear upon coming out of the Medieval Research Library.

Confused, you looked across the street in the general direction of the bus stop and a multi-species daycare and, of all things, spotted a huge orc upending an extremely large — at least large by human reckoning — bottle of Silkfoot Valley sparkling wine into the gutter beside the bus stop. At four in the afternoon. Those bottles were not. cheap.

The bus stop had no bench for waiting, and the actual town centre of Old Trollbridge was a fair walk from your department’s new library building, so what on earth was he doing wearing an expensive suit and wasting expensive wine here of all places?

You needed to catch a bus home though, so you hoped he wasn’t going to cause you any trouble. He didn’t look drunk — he was pouring it all down the drain after all — and as you drew in a deep breath and crossed the road, he didn’t look up at you. He just stayed with his body leaning against the edge of the shelter and this dead, empty look in his dark brown eyes while the bottle dangled upside down from his fingertips.

He looked… defeated.

Seven or so feet tall, and as broad at the shoulder as the bus for which you were waiting, he looked pretty traditional for an orc: black hair plaited back off his face in two braids and left long and loose down his back; thick, tapered ears pierced all the way up and adorned with little silver and gold rings. From his earlobes hung — again traditional — bone or ivory amulets, and around both of his huge tusks he had a cuff of worked silver. He had on a gorgeous, forget-me-not blue, button-up shirt and deliciously-fitted, slate grey suit trousers. His shiny black shoes might even have been vintage dragon hide. He didn’t look like the kind of person who would normally be waiting there for a bus. He looked like the kind of person who owned a company and should be picked up in a limo.

Still, you joined him and he didn’t look at you. He seemed totally lost. Finally he set down the wine bottle, careful lest it topple off the kerb and shatter, and he tipped his head up to the sky. When he did that, the long black hair spilling down his back brushed his buttocks.

Not that you were looking at his buttocks.

Because you weren’t.

Ok, you were.

Damn though.

When he let out a long, heavy sigh though, you felt your heart squeeze, and you realised with a jolt that the big orc was crying.

“Hey,” you murmured softly, approaching and coming to a halt a few feet from him, in case he reacted badly to the interruption. “You… You alright?”

When his head turned slowly to regard you, you saw that his beautiful, doleful brown eyes were red from crying, and he took one look at you and his expression crumpled. He turned away, cuffing at his face with the sleeve of his shirt, and just hissed, “No.”

“You want someone to talk to?”

“No.”

“Ok,” you said, stepping back. “I’m here if you change your mind before the bus comes.”

He went still, and as you walked to the other end of the shelter to give him at least a pretence of privacy, you heard him let out another shuddering sigh, followed by a cavernous inhale, and a grunt that sounded like he was trying to pull himself together.

You risked another glance at him, and found he was looking at you. You offered him a gentle smile, your heart breaking for this poor man, whatever had just happened.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was rude of me.”

“I think I can probably cut you some slack,” you smiled. “You look like you’re having a tough time of things.”

He nodded. “You could say that.”

You kept eye contact with him, but didn’t push. His lip wobbled and tears rimmed his lovely eyes again, and he swallowed thickly, throat working as he wrangled himself back into a semblance of control.

“I, uh, I just found out that my boyfriend of six years has been screwing my brother in law.”

“Oh shit…”

“Then… I came to walk my niece home from daycare just now, to find that my sister seems to think I had something to do with my boyfriend cheating with her husband, and she’s denied me access to my niece. She’s picked her up already.”

“Shit,” you exhaled again. “That’s awful.” Family was, for the most part, everything to an orc. To have your own blood turn on you like that… No wonder he was devastated twice over.  

“He just texted me to say he’s gonna clear out the apartment. I don’t want to go home. It’s not home. He’s…” Emotion welled up inside him and he choked softly.

“What’s with the fancy wine?” you asked, more to distract him from what was waiting for him.

He snorted a hollow laugh. “It’s our anniversary today. I was gonna take him to the park for lunch and surprise him with… a proposal. I never got that far. Instead I found… him — them — fucking each other senseless in his office. I couldn’t bear the thought of drinking it, so I…”

“Poured it down the drain,” you whispered.

“Like the last six years.”

“I’m so sorry. Is he gonna be there when you get back?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“At least getting the bus buys you a bit more time. They’re always late these days.”

He mustered a tiny smile at that.

You told him your name, so that it didn’t seem quite so awkward.

“Druvukh,” he replied. “I’m sorry about all this. You probably just wanted to get home and not have some stranger blurting out all their drama at you.”

“It’s ok. I asked after all…”

His expression softened. “You did. Thank you… for that. I— I wasn’t expecting…”

You took a few steps back over to him and took a chance, putting your hand on his forearm and gently squeezing the solid muscle beneath the exquisitely expensive material of his shirt. “It’s ok.”

The whine of the bus down the street distracted you, and you withdrew your touch, and as it pulled up, Druvukh let you get on first with a courteous wave of his big hand. He’d stopped crying, but the whites of his chocolate brown eyes were still red and he was blinking a lot.

He took one of the single seats near the front, and you slotted into your usual spot a few rows back. Usually you listened to music on the bus, but today you couldn’t face the idea of shutting him out. The bus pulled away and rumbled off down the street, and you watched his body swaying with the movement while his face remained blank, as if he’d gone somewhere else inside.

After fifteen minutes, he pushed the stop button for his halt, and stood, offering you one final, heartbreakingly sad smile before getting off.

As the doors closed and the driver started to accelerate, you made the most snap decision you’d ever made, and leapt to your feet. “Stop!” you yelled at him before the bus had gone even a few feet down the road. “Stop, please, I’m sorry!”

The tiefling driving the bus shot you a dirty look, but did open the doors for you, and you scuttled off the bus with your satchel bashing against your hip and a cry of thanks over your shoulder.

Drawn by the slight commotion, Druvukh turned and frowned when he saw you. “You ok?” he asked, half turning to regard you better.

“Yeah,” you panted. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I just… I just wondered if you… if you didn’t want to do this alone? You know…” You fiddled with the strap of your satchel and added, “Facing him.”

Those tears washed across his eyes again and he choked softly on a little sob that he tried to restrain and failed. “Why would you —?”

You shrugged. “You look like you could use a friend. But if you’re not comfortable inviting a total stranger into your —”

“— it’s not home anymore.”

“Ok, but…”

“I’d like that. If… If you’re sure?” he said, scrubbing at his face again with his sleeve. “Sorry. I’m not normally like this.”

“It’s ok. You’ve had one hell of a day, and it’s probably not over yet. Not if I know breakups, which I do… Let’s go make sure he’s not stealing all your stuff.”

“He wouldn’t,” Druvukh frowned, but suddenly he didn’t look so sure of himself, and sighed. He jutted his head up the street and you followed by his side into a very fancy looking apartment block with a concierge and everything.

He didn’t look at the goblin manning the desk, and instead went directly over to the elevator and pushed the button that said PH. It had a thumbprint scanner on it.

“Holy shit,” you exhaled without meaning to, and he shot you a slightly embarrassed look. “Sorry.”

His smile was sweet and shy, and he ushered you in first. The lift bounced ever so slightly as he joined you, and you wondered idly how many orcs a lift could take. Probably no more than two at a time. You also wondered if his ex was an orc like him; if he was, you didn’t stand much chance of standing up for Druvukh against another wall of muscle, but at least you could offer moral support.

The journey up passed in silence, and Druvukh seemed to be stealing himself for what was to come. Part of you expected the sound of smashing antiques and crashing glass to reverberate down the hallway, but all was quiet when the lift doors opened into a short corridor that contained only one set of doors at the far end.

The hall was panelled in pale cream and gold, and the carpet was the colour of tidal sand, and at the far end were two solid, dark wood doors that were too modern for the faux-rococo decor of the rest of the place. In the tiny sliver of light underneath them, a shadow passed, and Druvukh tensed.

“Let’s get it over with,” you murmured, touching him lightly at the base of his spine. His hair brushed your knuckles and he looked down at you and nodded. His body was warm and solid beneath his shirt, and it made you wonder idly what he looked like beneath it. Probably like some kind of ancient war deity, if that little sneak preview was anything to go by, or a blacksmithing god. Now really wasn’t the time to be dwelling on that though, so you pushed it aside and let him go ahead into his flat.

Druvukh led the way to his front door and unlocked it, sliding the keys back into his suit trouser pocket and pressing his huge hand flat to the door for a moment, head bowed. Then he pushed it inwards and stepped inside into what was a huge, open plan living space, with white couches that floated like icebergs on a sea of wood block flooring and faced a picture window that stretched the entire length of the building. You could have fitted your entire flat into his penthouse about three times.

Moving in quietly behind him, you saw a satyr with a mass of white blond curls tumbling down his back and furry legs the colour of milky coffee stalking around the place and throwing clothing into a huge duffel bag. Druvukh came to a grinding halt in the space between the doors and the back of one white couch, and just stared at the guy as though he couldn’t believe it was really happening.

The satyr was stocky and muscular, with his arms on show in a tight, dark green tank top, and as his eyes flashed up to meet Druvukh’s, you saw they were the most astonishing ice blue. Like many of his kind, he had a horizontal pupil, and no visible, white sclera. That was, until his eyes went wide at the sight of Druvukh, and he dropped the shirt he’d been holding.

“Druvi, honey,” he simpered. “I’m sorry, I —”

“Spare me,” he growled back, hands clenched into fists at his sides, his chest heaving with the effort of keeping his temper. “Just pack your shit and get out.”

“It was a mistake, I —”

“I said…” Druvukh spat through clenched teeth, “Pack. Your shit. And get. Out.”

At that, his ex’s eyes slid to you, and he cocked his hips to one side, tail rising in coquettish defiance. “And who’s this? You’re acting all high and mighty, but you found someone to replace me already?”

“It’s you that’s been unfaithful,” Druvukh snarled. “Who he is is of no relevance to you. You and I are done.”

You lingered behind Druvukh, not wanting to intrude but still wanting to offer support, while the satyr continued to select pieces of their former life together and jam them into his bag. When it was full to bursting, he turned to Druvukh with a sneer and said, “You can send anything else to your sister’s place.”

“What the fuck did you say to her? And so quickly?” he asked. “I found you and her husband fucking on your office desk and an hour later when I went to pick up Mara, I’m denied access and threatened with the police if I don’t leave immediately! I called her and she told me I was never going to see any of them again.”

Something complicated flickered across the satyr’s pretty face at that, and he did have the grace to look at least a little chagrined. “I didn’t think she’d shut you out completely,” he muttered.

“What. Did. You. Say?” he rumbled, taking half a step towards the shorter figure. He suddenly seemed to loom in the space like a giant, and had you been on the receiving end of a look like that, you might have coughed up the truth immediately.

As it was, the satyr just shrugged, clearly aware that the guy was all bark with little bite. “Not my fault she didn’t believe her own brother over me.”

“You tell me!” he finally shouted, though he stayed where he was. “You tell me what I’m supposed to have done to make my own family disown me!”

“I told them how cold our bed has been,” he replied archly, slinging the bag onto his shoulder and staggering in a way that ruined his cool composure. “I told them how you spend all your hours at the office, running your company, and never have time for me. I told them how you choose work over me every time.”

That couldn’t be it, you thought, and you narrowed your eyes, looking up at Druvukh to find the same confusion etched into the hard lines of his face too.

The satyr flounced towards the door, knocking you out of the way with the bag so rudely and so unexpectedly that you actually staggered and tripped over your heels to land hard on your backside in the stretch of empty space along the back wall of the penthouse.

With his hand on the door and a wicked grin on his face, the satyr added, “And I told them how you tried to force yourself on your brother in law over lunch today and I caught you at it.”

Druvukh’s face drained of colour, leaving him looking ashen. “What the fuck?”

“He’ll never tell them what really happened because he looks like the victim this way. He’s not pressing charges, by the way, but they don’t want a predator near their family.”

Druvukh’s legs looked like they were going to go out from under him, and he staggered back, leaning his weight on the back of the low sofa. “You could have just broken up with me if you weren’t happy. You could have talked to me,” he whispered. “You chose to do this instead? You hate me that much?”

The guy shrugged. “Guess I just got tired of waiting for you to come home and decided to have some fun.”

And with that, he was gone.

You pushed yourself back to your feet, leaving your heavy satchel on the floor where you’d fallen, and went over to him. With him seated on the back of the sofa, it put his shoulder almost at the same height as yours, and you laid your hand on it gently. “Oh Druvukh,” you breathed. “I’m so sorry.”

He blinked and puffed out a breath. He looked like he might be sick.

“Will she really believe her husband over her brother about this?”

He shrugged. “I… I don’t know. I want to believe she wouldn’t, but…” he turned his eyes up to meet yours, and the pain in their depths moved you on a soul-deep level. You folded your arms around this stranger and held him against your chest while he cried into your soft hoodie and held you back.

After a long time, you petted his gorgeous hair and said, “Come on. Let’s pack up the remainder of his things and get them out of here. You’ll feel better without seeing them. You want to go to the police about what he said?”

He shook his head. He looked like he’d just given up.

It took you two hours to pack up all of his ex’s bits and bobs and put it into a load of plastic bin bags that Druvukh had under his sink. They lined the hallway outside, but finally it was done. There were gaps on the bookshelves and in the wardrobes, like shrapnel holes in the corners of their life together, but finally it was done, and Druvukh looked exhausted.

“You should shower and have something to eat,” you suggested.

“What about you?” he asked, staring at you across the decimated living room. “You’ve given up your whole evening to help me, and you don't even know me.”

You picked up the novel that had been sitting on the coffee table, with a bookmark sticking out of it about halfway through the story. Given that it had remained after the clearing of his ex’s stuff, you assumed it belonged to Druvukh. “You have amazing taste in literature,” you said. “I’ve just finished the latest one in the series.”

“This is my second read-through,” he said, showing a tiny smile despite everything. “Aaron’s my favourite character.”

“I’m rather fond of Baptiste by this point.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty cool too,” Druvukh admitted, then looked at you anew and added, “Most guys I’ve spoken to are rather taken with Phoebe…”

“Yeah, she’s cool and all, and the shape-shifting is pretty badass, but I’ve got more in common with the first two… if you know what I mean.”

The ‘first two’ were husbands and deeply, passionately in love, and had been for decades.

Druvukh took your meaning and nodded slowly.

“Listen, go shower. I’ll finish tidying up a bit in here, and maybe we can get at takeaway or something. Any preferences?”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I can go if you’d rather?” you asked, not wanting to overstay your welcome.

“No,” he said quickly. “You don’t have to leave. I’d… I’d like it if you stayed a bit. I want to thank you properly. Use my card to pay for takeaway if you order something, otherwise we can decide when I’m done in the bathroom.”

“I’ll wait then,” you said, not wanting to delve into a stranger’s wallet despite the trust he’d just showed in you. It felt way too… intimate.

He nodded and left you alone in his incredible apartment.

Dusk had fallen while you’d been working to clear it of all traces of his ex, and after clearing the last of the mess in the open plan living and kitchen area, and wiping down the surfaces on the countertop where the satyr had obviously made himself something to eat before you’d arrived, you took a minute to go over to the picture window in the living room and stare out at the old city below.

The centre of Old Trollbridge, the oldest part, lay off to the east, already doused in the creeping night as it advanced over the town, and the sinking red sun turned the clouds to bloody gashes in the pink of the sky. It looked like a werewolf had torn the canvas of the heavens in a fit of rage and you turned your gaze away from it, over the spires and domes of the university for which Old Trollbridge was so famous. Only then did you notice the wraparound balcony that projected beyond the windows. For some reason you’d not seen it before, but you looked for a door to get out there and found it in the kitchen area.

Turning the key, you pushed the handle and stepped out into the freezing, late autumn night and let the wind whisk across your face. It seemed to scour away the strangeness of the way your day had gone, and it left you feeling only grief for Druvukh, and anger that his ex could have done something so petty and so utterly awful to him. He could have been arrested for what his ex had claimed to his sister that he’d done. Your hands tightened on the metal rail of the mostly-glass balcony, and you shook your head, teeth grinding.

Your name sounded from behind you and you turned to find Druvukh standing in the doorway. His hair was wet and it fell loose around his face and down over his chest, and instead of the smart suit he’d worn earlier, he now wore a baggy black hoodie that would have doubled as a tent if you’d worn it, and grey sweatpants. Luckily, the baggy hoodie fell to his hips, otherwise you'd have been tempted to look at what the grey sweatpants showed…

“Did you order anything yet?” he asked.

You shook your head. “I got distracted by the view. This place is incredible, Druvukh.”

“Mn,” he hummed, stepping out to join you. He was barefoot, you noticed. He sighed and stared out at it with you. “I was so proud the day I bought this place. I’d just finished my first year as CEO after my mum retired. The company was hers. She build it from the ground up — from a tiny startup with three people and a business plan on the back of an envelope.”

“What is it you do?”

“It’s a tech company.”

You nodded and let him talk. In his rich, sweet baritone, he told you how proud he had been of his team to bring the company on in that first year, taking it even further from where his mother had left it, and how he’d met his ex only a few weeks after buying the apartment. They’d decorated it together.

“You should redecorate it now then,” you scowled.

He nodded, and you shivered. “Come on, it’s freezing out here.”

“Let’s order food from somewhere that your ex would have hated,” you suggested, and he smiled at you.

That first night, you shared a takeaway from a traditional orcish place round the corner that he’d wanted to try for years but never had because his ex had loathed orcish food. You weren’t familiar with it much, but you were willing to try, and except for the things which were marked ‘for orcs only - dangerous to humans and small humanoids’, you loved it. He clearly enjoyed having someone to share his culture with at last, and you also started to watch a series on the TV that his ex had had no interest in.

You stayed til late, and he came down to the foyer with you to make sure you got into your taxi home ok, which he paid for, and you exchanged phone numbers and promised to check in on each other.

It turned out that you spoke every day.

You hung out at weekends, you helped him redecorate, you introduced him to your nerdy friends in the department and they loved him too. You went to the cinema, you took him to the theatre, he took you out for dinner in places you never would have been able to afford without him paying, and you went to his apartment to hang out after you’d finished at the university for the day, or after a rough day. Like the day when you found out your funding had been cut from your project and you were going to have to abandon months of research. Three weeks later, your Head of Department told you the project had funding again, and you could continue.

Staggered by the wild ride that had been the last few weeks, you made your way to Druvukh’s that evening and felt like you were floating. You barely registered the friendly concierge’s greeting as you practically danced towards the elevators, and when Druvukh opened the door to his penthouse you grinned from ear to ear, and he laughed at your obvious joy before you'd even told him what it was for.

“I’m happy for you,” he rumbled when you finally got it out, talking over a celebratory drink and curled up on the sofa while it lashed with rain outside. “It’s an interesting subject, and you deserve to be able to see the project through.”

It wasn’t until a month later that you found out Druvukh’s company had sponsored it, and you phoned him the moment you were alone. “Dru, why didn’t you tell me?”

He knew instinctively what you were talking about, and cleared his throat awkwardly. “I… I didn’t want you to think…”

“Think what?”

You practically heard him shrug. “That I was trying to buy your friendship or… I don’t know. I didn’t want it to make things weird. But I believed in the project, and the Board agreed too. We sponsor a lot of research projects like yours, so they were happy enough to consider it. It was as much their decision as mine.”

“Thank you,” you hissed, tears swimming. “I… It means a lot to me.”

“You’ve been there for me since we met. It’s the least I could do.”

“You didn’t do it because you felt like you owed me though, right?”

“Of course not. It’s just something I was able to do for you. For a… for a good friend.”

“Can I come over tonight?”

He paused and cleared his throat.

“Oh, do you have someone coming round?” you blurted, trying to fight back a wave of deep and unexpected jealousy and hoping you kept it out of your voice.

“No,” he snorted, “I mean, yes, but not like… that. My sister’s coming round.”

You gasped. “She finally unblocked you?”

“Yeah. She texted me and said she’d been made aware of one or two things that changed her mind on what happened, and she wanted to talk to me.”

“At long fucking last. You think her scumbag husband finally told her what really happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ok, well, you know where I am if you need someone to talk to afterwards. I’ll see you soon?”

“Mn. I’d like that. I’ll… I’ll text you later?”

“Please do.”

You stewed all evening, worrying about how he was getting on, and when he didn’t text, you couldn’t sleep. You lay awake for a long time after you’d shot him a quick ‘thinking of you and hoping it’s all going ok! xxx’ message, and it was just before midnight when your phone pinged at you.

Druvukh: Are you still awake?

You messaged back that you were, and a second later, his picture filled the screen and you accepted the call. “You ok?”

“Yeah,” he rasped. “Yeah, she… We talked. She… She knows the truth. We… We’re gonna make up. Fix things.”

“Oh Druvukh, I’m so glad. What happened about her husband?”

“She’s filed for divorce.”

“Oh shit… What happened there?”

He sucked in a breath, then let it out as a bitter chuckle. “She caught him with… with my ex.  In their bed.”

“Fuck…”

“Yeah. Apparently they’ve been carrying on in secret all this time.”

“Shit, six months?”

“Yup.”

“You doing ok?”

He swallowed audibly. He sounded tearful. “Yeah. I am. She wants to meet you, by the way.”

“Me?” Your heartbeat surged. “Why? I didn’t have anything to do with what happened…”

“You were there for me when she wasn’t, and she wants to thank you for taking care of her baby brother.”

“Baby?” you laughed, rolling over in bed and switching ears.

“You know what I mean,” he grumbled. “I… I don’t know if I could have managed any of this without you. You…” he sounded suddenly choked as he tried to forge on, “You saved me, that day. At the bus stop. When I was… Well, he kind of broke me, with what happened. You helped put the pieces back together again.”

Your chest hurt at his words, and you sighed, feeling tears prickle your own eyes. “You’ve been pretty amazing too, you know?” you said. “My friends love you, and my life has been so much richer since you’ve been in it.”

“You’re just saying that because I take you to fancy restaurants.”

“No!” you gasped, sitting bolt upright. “Gods no! Fuck, that’s not at all what I meant by ‘richer’ and you know it!”

“Relax, I know,” he laughed. “I’m sorry. It’s late, and I’m tired. That was a poor joke. Can I see you tomorrow night after work?”

“I’ll come by your office on my way back from teaching,” you said. “I finish at five. Does that work?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Get some sleep, Dru. I’m happy for you that things are working out with your family. I can’t believe she didn’t trust you over him.”

“I’m just glad we’re talking again and that my name’s cleared in all this. You want to go somewhere for dinner tomorrow?”

“Sure. How about that orcish place we got takeaway from on that first night?”

“Sounds perfect,” he smiled in a low rumble.

You approached the reception desk of his building the following day, and the human receptionist looked up and fixed you with a polite, if uncertain, smile. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, I’m meeting Druvukh when he’s done for the day.”

She blinked, eyeing your slightly shabby, academic clothes. “… Do… you have an appointment with the CEO?”

“Uh, no? We’re friends. He said to meet me here at five. Could you, maybe, phone him please?” You supposed you could text him if she refused.

She grimaced, but nodded and tapped the number for the direct line to his secretary with a beautifully manicured fingernail. “I’ve got —” with a fixed smile she stared pointedly at you for your name, which you gave her, and she carried on, “— down here. Says he’s expected at five?”

There was a brief pause, during which the receptionist continued to look at you with the kind of glare that told you a scruffy-looking academic wasn’t going to get very far beyond the glossy foyer of this fancy, global tech company. A moment later however, that expression shattered very satisfyingly, and her eyes went very wide, when a deep voice sounded on the other end of the line, carrying well enough that you could tell exactly who it was. You bit back a grin.

“Yes, sir. Of course. Right away. I’ll send him up right away.” Putting down the phone, she blinked at you again, and said, “Follow me, please.”

Still fighting off that smile, you followed her into the elevator and let her guide you up to the top floor, where Dru was waiting with his office door open and staring down the corridor towards the elevator with that intense, dark brown gaze.

He was standing, leaning his backside against the front edge of his desk and facing the door, with his arms folded across his chest and wearing that forget-me-not blue shirt. His incredible hair was plaited in an extremely complicated pattern, and it hung down in a single, glossy rope over his left shoulder. Even with all the convoluted twists that would have taken some of the length out of it, it still finished just below his ribs.

The sudden but now-not-unfamiliar urge to wrap it around your fist and tug on it surged through you and you tried to act normally as you walked along with the receptionist and Dru turned his big, dark eyes on you to watch you approach. It really didn’t help that the shirt was stretched almost to straining over his huge pecs, and the line of his biceps was very obvious too. And those dark grey suit pants were struggling to hide a certain… uh… outline. At least with his hips at that angle and his buttocks resting on the edge of his desk, anyway.

Fuck.

You had it real bad for him.

“Thank you, Marta,” Dru said in his deep rumble, and the receptionist nodded and left you with a strange look on her face.

“I feel so out of place here,” you hissed awkwardly as you joined him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sighing and unfolding his arms. “I have one more phone call that I’d really appreciate being able to make tonight before we go. Would you mind waiting? It won’t take more than fifteen minutes.”

“Of course,” you smiled, patting your leather satchel and eyeing the comfy-looking leather couch that rested against the inner wall of his office. The wall behind him — behind his desk — was all glass, and looked out over the city. “I’ve always got a thousand books with me to read anyway.”

“I swear, I need to buy you a dire ram to help you carry all that stuff around. They do make electronic books now, you know?”

“Hush, Mr. Technology,” you snickered. “Sometimes you can’t beat covering something in post-it notes and pencil marks, and you can’t flick through an e-book as quickly as you can a real one. And you can keep your orcish beasts of burden to yourself too. If you’re gonna buy me a dire-anything, you can buy me a dire wolf puppy,” you added with a grin. God, those things were so cute, but they weren’t exactly practical.

“They’re a nightmare on carpets and curtains,” he chuckled. “You’d have to move out of your apartment too. It’s too small for a war beast like that.”

“I’d just move in with you if you bought me one! It would be your fault I had one after all,” you laughed, turning away to go and park yourself on the sofa without thinking too deeply about your hypothetical joke. You unlatched the buckles of your satchel, cracked open the book you’d found for your project, and started to read where you left off, but after a long moment, you realised Dru hadn’t moved from the desk.

You looked up and he was staring at you with a strange look in his dark eyes. You frowned. “You ok?”

He blinked, coming back to himself with a shiver and shook his head, then licked his lips. “Yeah,” he croaked. “Yeah, I’m fine. I won’t be long,” he added, marching away from you around his desk. He plonked himself down in his chair and snatched up his phone to start his final call of the day, but the expression on his face had been stuck somewhere between ‘shaken’ and ‘contemplative’.

So far, in the six or so months you’d known him, you’d only known off-duty Dru.

Witnessing Druvukh in his work environment was an entirely new experience, and instead of reading the chapter you’d earmarked, you just watched him.

You could well believe these beings had been the predominant warlords of the continent centuries ago. He gave no quarter in the proposal he was apparently more than halfway to finalising, and his voice was unyielding iron. He was unfailingly polite, but he gave no ground, and by the end of it, you found all the blood in your body was pooling in your groin.

Thank fuck for a strategically-placed book in your lap and a few years of mediation breathing techniques. It might have been your first time witnessing Dru in work-mode, but it wasn’t the first time you’d found yourself getting aroused by him. Not by a long shot.

The scent of his hair oil in the intimate dark of the cinema; the close press of his legs beneath a too-small table in some out of the way restaurant; the light in his eyes when he truly laughed; the way he’d beamed at your friend over drinks when they’d told him of their successes in their own field; the way he went all gooey over dogs in the park if they came over to him; the way he held the door for you; the way his hands looked around a huge glass of wine over dinner; the way his tusks glinted in the candlelight; the way he’d looked that very afternoon as he’d watched you approaching from the elevator…

Oh yeah, you’d fallen for him a long time ago, but you didn’t know how to broach the subject. After all, you’d met him when he’d been at his most vulnerable, and he’d given no sign that he was in any way looking to start a new relationship after the disastrous end of his previous one.

You, however, ached for him.

When he was done with the call, he looked over at you and you raised your eyebrows, impressed.  

“What?” he asked, looking uncertain.  

“You’re scary.”

His expression turned openly unsettled at that and he exhaled, “What?”

“Not scary scary, but… I can see why your company is so successful. Remind me not to cross you.”

He smiled, but it didn’t touch his lovely eyes.

“Hey,” you murmured, rising and leaving your book behind you on the sofa. You walked around his desk and looked into his face, concerned now. “What’s wrong? I was only joking. You don’t scare me. Never have. Not even when I thought you might be a drunk at a bus station.”

“I know,” he whispered, looking up at you with his eyes now glassy. “You’re amazing, you know that?” he went on, his voice still barely audible.

Unlike a lot of orcs, he had filed and polished his tusks to gentle, rounded tips instead of leaving them naturally sharp, and it softened his fierce, rough-hewn features just a little. His lips were full and oh-so-kissable, and his dark brows framed his big, kind eyes in a way that always made you want to touch. His green skin was smooth now, but it had remained a little pock-marked across his cheeks from an obvious bout of teenage acne a long time ago, and he had a short-cropped, dark beard that made his jawline look even sharper and stronger. In short, you were deeply attracted to him in every way.

You smiled at him and reached for his shoulder, squeezing the solid muscle. “Ready to go?” you asked, your own voice now sounding a little winded.

He nodded. “You want to take a car or walk from here?”

“Up to you, but this bag is not light…” you grimaced.

“I’ll carry it if you want to walk?”

You checked the weather app on your phone and saw that showers were forecast, so you opted to let his driver — his driver!! That was something you’d never got used to — take the both of you.

Dru remained quiet for the short drive from his office to the restaurant, and as he held the door to the orcish restaurant open for you to head in first, as ever, you paused and pressed your hand to his slight paunch, looking up into his face. “You ok?” you asked.

He nodded and smiled softly, jutting his chin to get you to keep going inside, out of the rain. Little diamond droplets sparkled on his lashes and on the crown of his head in the golden streetlight, making him look fairy-blessed, and your heart ached again.

You’d eaten or ordered takeaway from there many times in the past six months, and the staff had come to know you both pretty well, to the point that the server grinned when she saw you and said, “Usual to drink for both of you?”

You nodded, and Druvukh chuckled. “Yes please.”

“I’ll bring the menus over, but I think I can guess what you’re gonna have,” she laughed at Dru. He always had the same thing, after all.

You, on the other hand, tried something new on almost every visit, but this time you opted for your favourite dish from that first takeaway. When you’d ordered, you found Dru looking at you oddly and scowled at him. “What? Did I pronounce it wrong?”

“No,” he said quietly. “You said it fine.”

“Then what?”

“You liked that a lot when we had it… that night… The night you stayed to help me and we got takeaway and binge-watched the whole first season of—”

“I know. It felt right to get it tonight. Given that you’re mending things with your sister and putting it all behind you.”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice rough. “Listen, before the food gets here, I wanted to —” he bit his lower lip and your eyes instinctively tracked the movement, “—to say that… I’m so grateful to you. You were so kind to me that day, and you… you didn’t know me… but you came back to my home — which was kind of a risky thing to do, you know? With a stranger…” he swallowed thickly and you let him keep rambling.

It wasn’t like him to ramble, after all. He was direct and chose his words carefully.

“ — and you stayed with me while he flung all that in my face and walked out, and you helped me clean up and looked after me… You didn’t have to do any of that, but… I’m so glad you did. And I’m so grateful for you.”

You reached across the table and squeezed his massive hands. “I’m so glad I did too. You mean a lot to me, Dru. A lot.”

“I think…” he began, choking quietly and swallowing to get past it. “I think I’ve… I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Your heart leapt and exploded like a firework, and you beamed at him, squeezing his huge hands where they were trembling slightly in your grasp. “I fell in love with you months ago, Dru,” you admitted.

“You did?”

“Yeah. I’ve had it bad for a long time.”

He laughed then, low and happy and relaxed. His tapered ears pulled back closer to his head, and as he moved, the bone amulets dangling from his lobes shivered and danced. “Why didn’t you say something?”

You shrugged. “I didn’t want to push you. You’d been through hell, and you didn’t seem like you were looking to start anything so soon.”

“I wasn’t,” he sighed, lowering his gaze to where your hands met. He turned his hands palm-up and regarded your own, sitting so much smaller across his. “I wasn’t,” he repeated in a barely-there murmur before lifting his eyes to regard you. “But I don’t want to let this slip away. If… If you’ll have me, that is.”

“Yeah, I’ll have you, Dru.” Literally and metaphorically.

He smiled and then cleared his throat, adjusting his hips a little in his seat.

“You good?” you smirked.

Dru shot you a knowing look and rolled his eyes. “I’ve never wanted to rush an orcish meal before, but you make it… hard.”

You raised an eyebrow at his innuendo. Leaning forward, you whispered, “So do you.”

“Fuck. You want to see if we can get it to go?”

You nodded and he looked around for the server and luckily, met her eye. In the end it wasn’t any bother for them to stick it in a takeaway box for you instead, and Dru gave them a huge tip before you took his hand and led him out of the restaurant while he held the brown paper bag with your dinner.

Unfortunately, it got abandoned on the kitchen counter when you reached his penthouse.

It had begun in the elevator ride, when he’d looked down at you with his pupils blown wide and an obvious erection tenting his suit pants. “Fuck, Dru, look at you,” you laughed, and unashamedly palmed his crotch through his trousers.

He groaned and tipped his head back, his whole upper body rocking back like a felled tree to thud against the side of the lift. “You have no idea how difficult it’s been not to keep —” he broke off, looking pointedly down at his groin and then adding, “— when you're this close to me.”

“No, I really do know,” you smirked, stepping close and leaning your body against his so that he could feel how hard you were.

“Ffffffuck…” he rumbled. “Not here. Not in the fucking lift. Let me get you home at least.”

You weren’t sure when his apartment had become ‘home’ again for him, but he’d started referring to it as such around the time when you’d begun redecorating it with him.

Now, as soon as he’d set the bag down on one end of the kitchen island, he picked you up by the hips and deposited you on the countertop too, crowding in close and leaning down. “That’s better,” he sighed, cupping your face with one hand and bringing his lips down to yours. “Easier to kiss you when you’re up here with me.”

With your hands gripping his braid hard enough to make him groan, you kissed him, feeling the nudging tips of his rounded tusks pressing into your cheeks while he kissed you back. One huge hand slid down to the small of your spine while the other held the back of your head, before he grabbed your hip and tugged you right to the edge of the counter. He ground his cock against yours, and even with the layers of fabric between you, you could feel he was absolutely rock hard.

Reaching one hand down, you palmed him again and he broke the kiss with a gasp and tipped his chin upwards with a curse in his native language. You undid the fly of his trousers and he started to pant, chest heaving, but he took hold of your wrist and stopped you. “Not here,” he murmured. “I’ll come.”

“That’s kind of the point…”

“Not this quick it isn’t,” he growled back and you laughed.

“Bedroom then?” you asked and he nodded.

He bit his lower lip and looked down at you, his pupils wide and dark. “Can I… carry you?”

You grinned and nodded, then latched your legs around his middle and he picked you up with his hands spread under your ass, caressing you there while he walked you through his apartment to his bedroom. You’d only been in there to help him redecorate, but you weren’t paying any attention to your surroundings now as he pitched you backwards onto the enormous mattress and you found yourself enveloped in a deep, fluffy duvet.

You backed yourself up the bed towards the pillows and he tugged the duvet down so it wouldn’t get messy, and began to undo his shirt.

“Let me,” you whispered. “Please?”

Dru’s hands fell obediently away from the buttons and he walked around to the right hand side of the bed. You knelt upright and reached up, undoing them slowly, sensuously, taking your time and pressing languorous kisses to each inch of skin that was revealed. He had swirling patterns of geometric tattoos in dark green ink all down his left side from collarbone to hip and all across his ribs, and you ran your fingertips over the design as it was revealed. The hair on his chest was thick and slightly grizzled, and his nipples were both pierced.

“Fuck, Dru, you’re incredible. Look at you…” you breathed against his dark green skin. You tugged carefully on one piercing and he sucked in a breath and went rigid, spine arching a little.

“Yours.”

He let you undress him, stepping out of his suit trousers and underwear and letting you guide him down to sit on the bed next to you. His straining cock was massive, and he was dripping already. You stood up and lost no time in wrenching your own top and jumper off over your head but when you went to start on the fly of your jeans, he stopped you by placing his massive hands on your hips and pressing his thumbs gently but insistently into your lower belly.

“My turn,” he murmured.

Fighting off a frisson of self-consciousness at being so seen, so noticed, you swallowed and let him touch you. He caressed your sides, kissed your tightening nipples, mouthed insistent kisses to your neck, and then he undid your jeans and slid them down your legs only to return his hand to you and cup your balls and stroke your hard cock with open awe in his warm eyes.

You shuddered and he jutted his chin at the bed beside him, moving back to allow you space to lie down.

His hands continued to rove all over you, worshipping every inch of you with torturous enjoyment.

“Dru, please,” you gasped eventually when he skimmed past your leaking cock again and showed no sign of putting you out of your misery.

“Please what?”

“I… I want you.”

“How do you want me?”

You blinked. “I… I kind of assumed…” You flushed, embarrassed at having made assumptions. “Sorry. We should have talked…”

At least you both knew the other was clear of infections etc. — Dru had mentioned he’d been tested immediately after the breakup, and you’d had to postpone one of your lunch dates with Dru when your own routine appointment had been moved. Neither of you had been with anyone else in the intervening months. Yours had become the kind of friendship where you mentioned these things casually to each other and it didn't make anything awkward.

“I’m a switch,” he said, “But I usually prefer to bottom. What do you want?”

“Fuck,” you hissed. You were the other way around. “Can I be inside you?”

He nodded, eyelids fluttering. “Fuck yes… Lube’s in the top drawer.”

Five minutes later, you had four fingers buried knuckle-deep inside him and he was arching and moaning and bucking on his back, looking up at you when his eyes weren’t rolled back in his head, with the most adoring expression on his face.

“You’re so beautiful like this, Dru,” you whispered as you fucked in and out of him just one more time before withdrawing and taking his hips in both hands. “You ready?”

“Yes, more than ready,” he smiled. “Please… Please, fuck me…”

“Gods, you ask so nicely,” you smiled, and slid your cock into the ready heat of his body. He was tight, but not tense, and the noise he made as you seated yourself all the way inside him was nothing short of sinful.

A long, broken moan escaped him and his eyes rolled back in his head again, his breath coming in short, fast gasps. His hands scrabbled at the sheet below him and clenched into fists as you rocked your pelvis against him, feeling your balls nudging against his willing, open body. You let him adjust to the intrusion, though in truth he really had been ready for you, and then reached down to run your fist up his impressive cock.

He hadn’t touched himself in all the time you’d been toying with his hole, but his massive cock had leaked all over his paunch, drooling silken precome over the trail of dark hair that ran down the centre of his belly, and also into his belly button. Now as you worked his length a few times, your hand glistened with it, and he shuddered and writhed a little beneath you.

“So good,” he whimpered, shoulders lifting off the mattress. “Oh gods, that’s so good. So good, fuck, ohhhh fuuuuck—” He choked into silence as your cock hit his prostate and you nudged back and forth without withdrawing each time.

You wanted to lean down and grab his complex braid in your hand, but you figured you’d save that for another day. Perhaps one where he was on all fours on the bed and you could pull his braid down the length of his spine to make him arch his back a bit more for you. The idea sent tension coiling through your gut and you knew you weren’t going to last all that long.

After that, you took up a steady rhythm, sliding in and out of his tight, slick heat, while he made the most spectacular noises for you, shivering and twitching and groaning while you alternated between toying with his balls and stripping his cock in your fist in time with your thrusts against his prostate.

He lifted his legs up, giving you complete access to him, and he bent his knees as he curled inwards on himself and allowed you to nail his prostate on every stroke.

His grunts turned to punched-out moans and a string of senseless praise left his lips, switching to his mother tongue halfway through.

“Love it when you speak Orcish,” you rasped, notching the pace up until you started to see sparks at the edge of your vision. “Gonna come,” you grunted. “Fuck, I’m gonna come.”

“Don’t stop,” he begged. “Please, don’t stop. So close…. So —” and with a bellow, he came.

His body clenched so tight around your cock and you gasped at the gorgeous pressure. Dru’s body milked your orgasm from you in a series of wild spasms as he emptied himself in long, thick spurts all over his stomach and chest, his legs still in the air and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Your mind and your vision went blank with ecstasy as you came inside him a few stuttering thrusts later, filling him, before he sighed and went lax beneath you, thighs apart and his arms now spread wide while he breathed heavily and lay there covered in come. You could see his pulse thudding in his throat and he looked totally, utterly spent.

Your cock gave another few twitches inside him and you leaned over him, propped up on one shaking arm while your own orgasm faded into bliss. For another thirty seconds, you enjoyed the lingering aftershocks in his muscles around your cock before finally withdrawing and crawling over his huge thigh to lie on your side next to him, head tucked on his shoulder.

You got to play with his plait a bit while he lay there, comatose and smiling, with his softening cock draped over the junction between his hip and thigh, until he let his head loll to one side to regard you.

“You alright?” he asked, his voice wrecked and extra deep.

“Yeah,” you smiled up at him. “You?”

He nodded. “Best sex I’ve ever had,” he laughed. “I love coming like that.”

“Like what?”

“Full,” he smirked, and you inferred from that comment that he hadn’t been able to bottom very often in his previous relationship.

“Dru, I will happily fuck you whenever you ask me to,” you smiled, kissing his huge shoulder. “I promise.”

Dru just smiled soppily and closed his beautiful eyes with a look of complete bliss on his face.

Six months later, around the anniversary of the time you’d first approached him at the bus stop, Dru messaged you to say he had a surprise for you, and would you come over to his apartment that evening.

Curious, since he didn’t really ‘do’ surprises anymore, given how disastrously his last attempt had gone with his ex, you knocked on the door of his apartment at six o’clock that night, and you were met with a strange whining noise on the other side before Dru’s voice hushed the sound and he opened the front door.

There in his arms was the fluffiest direwolf puppy you’d ever seen, and around its neck was a leather collar with a key dangling off it.

“Dru?” you asked, regarding the squirming, wagging, grey and white creature.

He took a breath and smiled sheepishly. “You said if I gave you a dire wolf puppy, you’d have move in with me. Now, I’m not trying to coerce you, but I would like you to have a key to my place at least. It just happens to be currently attached to a direwolf puppy.”

You stared from him to the puppy that was trying desperately to lick his ear and back again. “Dru…” you breathed, absolutely awestruck at what he was offering you.

He licked his lips and his eyes slowly widened, a wild kind of anxiety creeping into their corners. The hand cupped under the puppy’s fluffy chest started to shake noticeably. “Don’t feel like you have to give me an answer now if you don’t —”

“Of course I’ll move in with you!” you blurted, careering over the threshold and colliding with the side of his body that wasn’t occupied with a seventy pound wolf pup. You hugged him tightly and then yelped and squirmed when a cold, wet nose barged into your ear instead of Dru’s, presumably because it was nearer.

Dru laughed and stepped back. “Well then, this little girl needs a name. Will you help me pick one?”

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Hope you liked it!! Link to my masterlist of stories is pinned on Patreon and linked here.