The orc prince the queen.., p.1
The Orc Prince (The Queen And The Orc Prince Book 1), page 1
The Orc Prince
Book One of the Queen And The Orc Prince Duology
Qua Hudson
Copyright © 2023 by Qua Hudson
All rights reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Editor: Morgan Waddle
Cover Design By: Yasmin Oliveira
For my mother, Catherine. I know you probably will never read this book, but you are everything to me. My love for you goes beyond what I can say.
Contents
Author's Note
1. Queen Of No Land
2. See
3. Dead Weight
4. The Waterfall Calls My Name
5. Pet
6. Something Significant
7. Pest
8. Wild Mushrooms
9. Good Little Human
10. Say My Name
11. Did You See The White Light?
12. Free Me, Orc
13. Drunk
14. I Belong
15. Dove
16. She Is Weak
17. Maddening
18. Walk Den
19. Love At The Hill
20. Hanser
21. Severed Ties And New Beginnings
22. The Modo Tribe
23. Needy
24. Mine To Protect
25. The Best Plan
26. Rescue Mission
27. The Forever Night
28. Welcoming Party
29. Hello, Aria
30. A Good Husband
31. Reunion
32. I Will Save You
33. White Roses
34. Despair
35. The Mouse
36. The Woman
37. The Cottage
38. Like A Queen
39. Shamus
40. A Vision Of Terror
41. IGOR
Books in the Series
Acknowledgments
Find Me
Author's Note
This is a work of fiction. As the author, I do not condone some of the situations that take place between the characters. This is simply for entertainment. Some of the content will be triggering for some people. If you have any of the triggers listed, please do not proceed. The book is not to be consumed by anyone under the age of 18. The list of Trigger Warnings is below. Note they may hold spoilers.
Triggers:
Emotional Abuse, Assault (off page), Torture, Decapitation, Homophobia, Murder, Physical Abuse, Poisoning, Pregnancy, Profanity, Sexually Explicit Scenes, Violence, Threats to Harm a Fetus.
Chapter one
Queen Of No Land
Aria
I wake up and it already feels like it’s going to be one of the worst days of my life. It’s raining outside; the perfect weather for my husband to be disappointed in me.
Again.
Today the Seer will announce once more what I already know to be true. I rub my empty belly.
The gods must really want nothing more than my suffering. Otherwise, why would they resign me to such a fate?
What a mighty fall from grace.
I was the envy of every maiden and the object of every mother’s jealousy when King Shepherd chose me to be his bride.
But I quickly learned that I had to be more than just the pretty face he picked.
They demanded an heir; it has been 5 years and he hasn’t given me one.
Though chances of that would be higher if he’d bed me more often.
I have come up with many theories over the years. The most prevalent being, maybe I am not getting pregnant because I never enjoyed it. He just gets on top of me and takes and takes.
I never expected a soul shattering experience, but I expected…something.
But the mothers will come today and accuse me of not being the one to fall pregnant again in the past 6 months.
They will blame me for not being alluring enough for him when I tell them of our private affairs: that he won’t touch me. Last time I thought that would work as an excuse, but I was told if he didn’t find me repulsive, he would bed me more often. That it is my duty to be alluring to him, and that it was my failure that I wasn't.
I had swallowed that stone.
They don’t know why my husband doesn’t want me. They don’t know he prefers the comforts of his General instead.
Shamus. The bane to my existence and my own personal symbol of my failure as a woman.
Though I can never even speak of it, the shame would again fall to me. She was so repulsive; he chose a man over her.
So, what do I do?
I let him have his way with me whenever he can muster it, and the other nights I listen to Shamus take everything that is mine.
Not that I think it’s that difficult. I’m sure the King gives it to him willingly and very happily.
It’s a closely guarded secret.
When the King started the affair 4 years ago, he dismissed all our immediate servants in the night.
Nobody guards our chamber doors.
They all stand at the extremities of the hallway and anyone who sees or hears anything knows they can never speak of it. For both, my husband and his General, are men more cruel than the Kingdom has seen in centuries.
So, I am alone. Like I have always been.
Other people look at me, see my face and think I have everything. But I have even less than the pauper in the street.
At least the pauper has his freedoms. He can walk where he wants, choose which merchant to beg from, and which river to drink from.
I have no such luxuries.
I am doused in opulence, and I have a name; but none of those things are mine.
That name doesn’t belong to me and whatever excess I enjoy is always dangling at the mercy of those who own my life.
I sigh.
Shame will come today. The Seer will shake her head in front of the council and announce I am still not with child.
My father and stepmother will give me choice words about the shame I am bringing them. My mother-in-law will refer me to another herbalist who is going to make me ‘desirable’ and beddable to a husband who doesn’t even want me.
And his accusation will be the loudest, blaming me for it all.
“Queen Aria…” Hannah, my servant girl calls from the other side of my chambers.
I have wondered to myself who’s sin she is paying for that she be sentenced to such a job. Maybe her father was a thief, and his family was sentenced to serve the palace for all eternity.
Though who may know with my husband. The punishments never equal the crime. But even if they all hate him, they will never stand against him. He is too fearsome in battle, and he has no mercy.
They all fear him.
“You are free, Hannah.” I call back to her knowing it’s a little colder out there than it is in my chambers.
The door opens lightly.
She slips in, and with steps as delicate as a cat, she moves to place a tray of tea on my bedside table. Then proceeds to my clothes cupboard, fishing out a warm robe for me.
I often wonder to myself if my hell is better than that of the servants.
We are both prisoners to my husband. Where I am in a golden cage, theirs are rusted and prickly. They are bruised often, with no one to tend to them or even care when they bruise. My bruises are tended by the best doctors, and if nothing else, my husband does care about the state of my health. A healthy Queen represents a competent and strong King.
But it’s all a cage and none of us have any hope of escape.
Hannah waits with my robe.
I get out of the bed. Even though my body feels a little stiff, I ensure to employ all the grace I was taught, standing up straight, chin up as I step into the shoes already placed for me. After turning, I put my hands in the arms as she places it over my shoulders.
When I was a child, I used to think this would be everything. Not royalty, I could have never dreamed of being Queen, but marriage, having a husband. I thought I would marry a man who would wake me with tender kisses.
I thought I would finally know what the older women used to talk about when they spoke of the joys of waking up next to a man who desires you. I thought I would have to dissuade my husband from constantly getting me pregnant, but here I am. Unloved and unattended.
I follow Hannah as she leads me to the washroom adjoining my chambers and plant myself on the chair I always sit in.
She turns on the water and drops a few herbs and oils in, then applies my face oil. She undoes my night braid, combing my coily hair out.
I step in the basin when she finishes covering the rest of my body with body butter that is supposed to make my skin supple and smooth.
Not that any of it matters. Shepherd never looks a second time, even when I look like an angel.
I shake my head internally thinking back to when I thought I could win him over. I wore the best fragrances and would sneak into his chambers. I was kicked out like a thief each time and I would eat my tears until I forgot, then try again.
It finally clicked four moons ago: he can never love me.
&
“Queen…” Hannah’s small voice pulls me out of my pitiful thoughts.
“Yes?”
“We are finished. The water is getting cold. You will catch a cold.” She smiles timidly and I smile back at her kindness, even though I know she has no choice, it’s her duty.
I have always wondered if any of them even see me.
The person me. Aria.
Not the unloved, sad, and ‘devastatingly beautiful’ Queen of the Gango Kingdom.
But just me, the girl who wants to take walks barefoot on a sunny day, who wants to stop every time she sees a white flower. The girl who wants a friend to share all her secrets with. The one who wants to laugh until her stomach hurts.
I let Hannah pull me out and she is ready once more with a towel and a robe.
She pats my skin dry and proceeds to lather my body with all the best oils for my skin and hair. Then helps me into my dress for the day.
A purple dress, today, with a corset so tight I have to time myself every time I have to exhale so this fabric of death won’t kill me, and I can’t sit for long.
But it is what my husband and my mother-in-law expect. It is what they all expect of me.
The pretty face. The girl with the ‘face of an angel.’
A title I hate with all my being.
I love myself, but most times I wish others didn’t see it too. Because once they see it, they see nothing else. It’s all I remain.
Just a face.
I have no brain. I have no feelings. I have no opinions.
I am just beautiful, and I should be happy with that.
I follow Hannah out as usual to the dining hall.
It is prepared for three. I would groan loudly if it was lady like.
Shamus is joining us this morning. Though I should have expected it after the night they had.
They drank half their weight yesterday after the execution of the bandits they had been searching for, for years.
Both of them are two sides of the same coin. They like the same things, they see the world the same, and they agree on everything.
The opposite is true for me and my husband. We can hardly agree on the amount of food appropriate for a lady to eat or the appropriate number of books a lady should read and the subject matters of aforementioned books.
When he was courting me, he once found me reading a book on the various creatures found in our world and he burned it on the spot…
A future queen has no use of such knowledge. Why don’t you spend more time out of the sun, you will get sunburned and then you won’t be so pretty, Lady Aria.
That was the first day I saw him for who he was, but the excitement of being Queen covered everything. And with my stepmother in my ear, I saw nothing but birds singing our forever song for the rest of our lives.
Breathing out, I prepare my body before I sit. Dutiful, as always, Hannah helps me get situated.
I should have protested the dress. It will probably give me a headache by the end of the day.
I wish someone would spill liquid on me so I can change. Maybe if fortune is with me, I can even skip breakfast altogether.
I hear the boisterous laughter of the bane of my existence.
“My King, if ifs and buts grew grapes, then we would all have vineyards.” Shamus says and the King laughs loudly. Though they are the only ones.
The atmosphere changes instantly.
All the servants stand a little straighter and their faces become a little less…alive.
“Come on, Shamus. Do it for your King.” My husband says in a lower register.
I would mistake it to denote a layer of desire if I thought he was capable.
Shamus’s face falls when he sees me, like he didn’t expect to find me here. He stops in his tracks and forces a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Queen Aria.” He gives me the customary bow.
“Shamus.”
My husband looks between the both of us. I see the clear annoyance in his face. It’s like he also didn’t expect to find me here, or he wishes I would disappear.
They share a secret look.
“Alright, General Shamus, I expect that report in my hand by the afternoon,” Shepherd says.
“Yes, my King.” Shamus looks my way.
“Good tidings with the Seer, Queen. The Kingdom could use the good news.” His face twists in a cruel grin.
I look down at my empty plate as I clutch the heavy fabric of my dress; needing an outlet for the rage I feel and trying my best not to cry.
He is gloating. Right in front of my eyes. Right in front of my husband. Right in front of the servants.
I am a joke. To all of them.
My husband joins me a moment later and the servants start serving us.
Cutlery, plates, and feet shuffling are the only sounds in the room.
Shepherd won’t even spare me a glance.
We eat in mostly silence.
He finally speaks while we are having our after-breakfast tea.
“Did you see that herbalist mother told you about last month?”
I turn to give him my full face. “Um, yes, husband.”
“Are you ready for today?”
My lips part and this time I can’t stop the tears.
Out of all the people, how could he ask me that?
Last time he took me was 5 moons ago and he didn’t even finish. He jumped out of bed and said he couldn’t do this anymore. I had thought he meant just that night, but he hasn’t touched me since.
I open my mouth to answer him, but nothing comes out.
His face morphs from annoyance to anger in an instant. Like I am an offence in his presence.
“Why are you crying?” His hard voice fills the room, and I can feel all the pity the servants have for me.
It chokes me and makes the tears fall harder.
He speaks to me like a child. If it was not clear before, it is abundant now: this man hates me.
“I’m so—sorry.” I choke out.
“I asked you a question, Aria. Are you ready?”
“Ye—yes, my King.” I know he will not accept any other answer.
I see him shake his head in my peripheral and feel his hateful glare on the side of my face.
“You are pathetic. I should have listened when they told me you were too weak to be by my side. Get her out of my sight.”
Hannah and another servant move to me and help me up.
He doesn’t even look my way as I am escorted like a pauper from his presence.
They escort me back to my chambers where I will stay until noon. The time of the ceremony.
Chapter two
See
Aria
My mother-in-law enters my chambers a few minutes before I am supposed to leave for the court.
“Aria, my son told me to check on you. He said you were a bit emotional. Is this true, child?”
She finds me seated at my desk and doesn’t care that she is disturbing me as I write the letters to the widows of this land. She really doesn’t care about what I do, but I know I should attend to her because her matters are always ‘important’.
She still fancies herself the current Queen of this land and I am just a lower-grade seat filler.
Though she may be right. My husband would listen to her any day before even thinking about hearing me.
I rise to meet her. “It must be the new moon, mamah.”
We meet in a brief customary embrace.
She smiles and holds my face in her hands, squishing me a little like a child.
“Your lips look a little plumper.” She smiles. “I think you might be pregnant this time.”
I clear my throat and she removes her hands with a small frown.
“I don’t think so, mamah.” I let my shame shine through.
“Aria, did you use the herbs?”
“Every day, like it was instructed, mamah. But nothing has helped.”
“Do you sneak into his bed like I told you to?”
“I tried, but—”
“No buts you stupid girl,” she lowers her voice. “I told you to use your womanly prowess on him. Surely, even you can manage that.”
“He doesn’t want me!”
I clasp my mouth shut after that outburst.
