Page 98 of The Orc Outcast's Mate

He couldn’t. He would lose control and ruin this.

“Govek?” Miranda pressed, and he opened his eyes, met the confusion in her face full on.

“Let’s go.” She didn’t argue, just linked her arm with his and followed him in unusual silence.

The trip to the overlook where Govek had built them a camp was quick, and Miranda let him go so she could take in the view of the falls. Her reverence at the crisp blue water plummeting down the cliffside into a massive pool below them even after three days here still took his breath. Her red lips parted, her hazelnut eyes widened, and her hair glistened from the damp.

“Not too close,” he censured, earning a dark look from her. She liked to sit on the large log right near the cliff and it drove him crazy.

“If you’re so nervous, then why don’t you come join me? Hold me steady.”

Fades he wanted to, but there were chores to be done. “I need to make you a fire,” Govek said, and blessedly, Miranda followed him over and helped carry kindling from the edges of the clearing. The little camp they’d made was covered with damp leaves, but the sky was clear. Once the sun dappled light through the trees, they would dry out.

He pulled a saber cat fur out of his pack and arranged it on top of the leaves Miranda had gathered into a pile right near the fire. Her little makeshift chair.

She only sat there when she wasn’t sitting in his lap.

He lit the fire easily using two striking stones. In reaction, Miranda came over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. Pleasure tingled through him. The tiny bit of extra effort it took to light the fire without magic was worth the praise Miranda gave him for it.

“If it makes you upset to use magic, Govek, then maybe you should try not to. Not that I’m afraid of your temper, because I certainly am not. I just don’t like the idea of you hurting to make my life easier.”

Fuck, she made him feel good.

Miranda was settling down next to the crackling blaze, and he leaned in to nuzzle the side of her neck with his nose and tusks. Her sweet honey scent poured into him, flooding him with contentment.

She laughed, chiding him. “Govek that tickles,” but she placed a lingering kiss on his cheek. “I could live up here.”

Govek exhaled softly, glad his woman shared his love of the forest.

“There’s something about this place, right? Or these woods, in general? That happy tingling from the goblin mines is gone now, but it still feels good here. Or maybe I’m just crazy.”

“You are not crazy. Most orcs feel at peace within the Rove Woods because of its connection to the Fades.”

“But it’s weird for a human to feel that, isn’t it?” she asked, gazing out toward the falls again. The sorrow in her expression cut him deep. “I don’t belong here.”

“That isn’t true.” His chest tightened as she turned to search his face. “You are just as natural as all the other creations, Miranda.”

She quirked a smile that did not meet her eyes. “That’s a nice thought.”

“It is a true thought. The Fades created humans just as they did the rest of Faeda.”

She hummed. “I think... there’s more to it than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know... do you think the seer might?” she asked hesitantly and every muscle in his body tensed at the cursed memory of her touching the seer’s hand and falling in a boneless heap. He’d barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

She had been gone. The feel of her limp body in his arms, the sight of her closed eyes, and the clammy cool of her skin, it thundered in his veins and pooled dread into the pit of his stomach.

The seer had done that. And Miranda wanted to do it again.

“Govek?”

Fuck, it was getting too hard to hide his feelings on this topic. And he knew where she stood with it. She’d made her position clear. There was no use arguing with her. She would do this on her own if he didn’t aid her.

She would leave him.

He could not risk that. No matter how his instincts screamed, he could not bring himself to start an argument that may result in her rejecting him the way he had been so many times before.

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