Astraeya's head shot up at that, violet eyes wide and flaring with shock and interest. "What?" She stood before I could answer, thunder in her expression as she rounded her desk. "She gave you a full score, Khell, so you'd better not tell me that you hurt that girl."

If I did, I was sure to have my next ten years of life sucked out of my body in under a minute, based on Astraeya's sharpened features and the high set of her shoulders.

"I mated."

Astraeya's mouth was open—ready to eat me alive, no doubt—but her jaw dropped another inch at that announcement, hackles falling with her shoulders. She stepped back once and rolled her eyes, sighing.

"Oh, thank god," she breathed out, shaking the tension out of her body with a little shimmy. As quickly as anger had appeared, a bright giddy smile replaced her temper. "Congratulations!"

I stared back at Astraeya as her grin remained fixed but her eyes narrowed to slits.

"You don't look like a mated orc."

"I didn't tell her. It breaks MSA contract—" I said, the words dull on my own tongue.

"Khell!"

"Not to mention her trust in me as her partner," I added.

"Fucking roller coaster," Astraeya muttered, searching the room and coming up empty. She waved her hand at me, and I thought I was being dismissed as she turned away, until she spoke again. "Fine, fine. Sit down, you great, green log of an idiot orc."

As insults went, it was well-suited. Green was untried, young. A log was useless, lifeless. Astraeya had been catching on to the way we orcs spoke to one another. She waved at the chair in front of her desk, barely large enough for me, and I moved forward slowly, my mind disconnected from my own body.

Sunny was driving away, and I was growing awkward in my skin, missing the most important part of myself.

"What did it take, all of a day?" Astraeya asked, sitting down and glaring across her desk at me.

"Four."

"Stubborn."

I blinked at her, scrunching myself into a smaller ball in the seat, my knees high in front of me.

Astraeya sighed again. "Okay. Your dismissal from MSA is immediate, obviously. I'll push it through HR and get you paid."

"Not for this one," I said quickly.

Astraeya scoffed. "What are we going to do, just keep it? Give it back to her?"

I shrugged. That didn't sound so bad.

"I'll get you her number, address," Astraeya said, ignoring me.

"No!"

"No?" she snapped, leaning forward. "What are you going to do, Khell? She reeked of you as she left, sure, but even for an orc, hunting her down the highway into the city is a stretch!"