Page 23 of The Orc Outcast's Conquest

“I’ll be back, I swear.” He heard her rapid footfalls dying in the distance as she ran from him.

Panic roared through him. She’d just called every predator in the near vicinity and now she was tromping through the woods like the easiest of targets. Had she no sense at all?

If he’d thought the wait before was an eternity, this one was eons. It left him quaking in miserable madness. And even worse, he was getting his feeling back, but could barely twitch a finger.

He would be able to hear Miranda screaming in agony as she was torn apart, scent her blood in the air, but wouldn’t be able to fucking move.

This fucking worthless imprint. Gifting him the ability to scent her on the wind. Hear her call him at great distances. The instinctual drive to cleave to her would thrum and burn while he listened to her be eaten alive.

“Okay!”

He hadn’t even heard her run up, he’d been so caught in his panic.

“I got more.” This time, when she dumped it on him, he felt a slight tingling. “I think... I think it’s working.”

It is. Stay the fuck here.

“I’ll get more.”

No!

She was gone, and Govek would be as insane as she was by the end of this.

He strained all his senses against the goblin poison, trying to feel her in the dark void of his mind. His blackened vision was prickling with dappled color as he tried to open his eyes.

Finally, she was back, drenching him again. He wished she’d dump it on his head. Heal his burned nose so he could more easily scent for any predators around them.

She touched his side, and he felt the pressure.

“It worked. I can’t believe that worked. That shouldn’t have worked. It’s flipping water.” There was a shuffling sound, then ripping. “Bandages. Okay, I’ve got this. I’ve got first aid training. I know what I’m doing. If I can get Kenny Frits’s bloody chin patched up, I can handle this, right? Right. I mean, he’s not even wiggly like Kenny was. God, I wish you would wiggle. Please move.”

More pressure against his side. He didn’t need bandages. With the amount of spring water she’d dumped on him, he would likely be healed enough to get up soon.

“Why are you so freaking heavy,” she grunted. He could feel her moving him this time, but only the pressure of it. There was no warmth or texture yet.

“There, there. More water.”

Fades, please tell her he did not need more water.

They did not aid in this. As usual. She drenched him again. “Should I go get more?”

Frustration made his hands clench slightly. If his claws extended, she didn’t notice.

“Please wake up. The black vein thing is gone now. Why won’t you wake up?”

Warmth pressed into his torso. The tickle of hair.

She was resting her head on his bare chest?

Govek focused on that sensation. He had never in his life had someone rest on him this way. He wished he could feel it properly.

“Your heart sounds okay.” Her hushed tone raked over him. “Dang, you smell good. What do you bathe in? Pine trees?”

He was uncertain how to process such a compliment.

“Okay. He’ll wake up soon. It’s okay.”

He would. He could almost get his eyelids to twitch.

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