Page 35 of Bound to the Orc Warlord

Magic surges through me in an electric tingle, her voice humming in my ear, her power echoing in my blood.

Pointing the front of the broomstick forward, I focus my intent, honing it to one simple command.

Fly!

I zip through the air, wind slapping my face with the speed of it, stealing the breath from my lungs, whooshing in my ears.

A whinny from Midnight rises over Dravarr’s deep bellow, both fading into the distance behind me.

Trees race by below, smearing into a blur of blue-green shot through with flashes of silver from sunlight reflecting off the surface of streams.

A laugh tears from me, wild and high and whipped away by the wind, spreading my joy across the world. Excitement thunders my heart.

This is freaking A. Maz. Ing!

CHAPTER TWENTY

Dravarr

I already hated this plan, hated anything that makes it impossible for me to protect her as I should. The feeling changes to loathing the second my bride disappears from the sky overhead.

“Ashley!” Her name rips through my chest, tearing out of my throat in a howl. “My moon bound!”

Midnight repeats my cry, “Ashley!”

“Follow her!” My knees squeeze, and my friend leaps forward, racing along at a fast gallop, her hooves thudding on the packed mud of the stream’s bank.

The waterway curves, shifting left, and a thick stand of evergreens waits ahead.

“Dravarr?”

“Go straight.” That’s the direction Ashley headed in. I hunch forward, squinting to protect my eyes as we push through battering tree limbs and the sting of pine needles slapping skin. My braid catches again and again in tugs that rip pain from my scalp. I growl and use my good hand to tuck it down the back of my shirt, hurriedly re-gripping Midnight’s mane as she springs into a jump.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why did I let Ashley go?

Hot anger and cold fear battle through my body, each making my heart race.

I want to think I let her go to make her happy.

But it’s a lie, and her disappearance strips the pretty falsity away to show me the ugly truth.

I let Ashley go because I wanted her to practice, to make her power “useful.” I bare my tusks in a snarl. Fool. Her power will be of no use to me or anyone if she dies.

If the sluagh get her, eat her soul…

No! I will save her. I don’t know how, but I will.

I must.

I thought my bride an unworthy match, yet it is I who prove truly unworthy. The Moon Goddess offered me a sky gift, and I found it wanting instead of seeing Ashley for the treasure she is. She’s more than her power.

She’s sweet and light, willing to make friends with others and see the best in them. Willing to find joy and share it. My bride deserves better.

So I willbebetter.

I hid from her that the goddess matched and married us because I wanted to deny it. Now I will wait to tell Ashley she’s my bride only once I’ve proven myself to her. Her sweet nature would make her accept me whether she truly wanted to or not.

Instead, I will earn that acceptance. I will woo her like humans do until I am perfect at it. I will win her heart. Only then, will I tell her.

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