Page 29 of Bound to the Orc Renegade

Mist asks, “Why is that?”

“I’m not sure.” Taylor touches her chest. “I can feel my power all the time, but it’s like it’s trapped in a locked box I can’t open. When I feel Krivoth and how his power flows freely through him,it… it kinda releases mine or something?” She scrunches up her nose. “Or shows it how to be free?” My moon bound shakes her head. “I don’t know how to explain. And I sure as hell don’t know how to do it on my own yet.”

“You will.” I grab her shoulder and squeeze. “I know you will.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” She grins up at me. “Never met a game I couldn’t win. Not gonna start now.”

I wake to the sweetest of aches in my cock. For I hold my moon bound bride.

She moved in the night, or I moved, or both. It matters little. All that matters is Taylor in my arms and pressed to my side.

Dawn light filters through the thin leather of the tent, low and dim. But it’s enough for my keen sight to make out her sweet face, lips parted on soft breaths.

She stirs, her cheek rubbing back and forth against my upper arm in an unconscious movement that speaks of closeness and intimacy such as I’ve never known. No bed partner has ever wanted to stay—not that I cared enough for any of them to wish for it.

Not until Taylor.

Her beautiful brown eyes open, finding mine, and she licks her lips, drawing my gaze to their red promise.

I lean over slowly, giving her time to pull away. Instead, her breath hitches, her fingers curling into the fabric of my shirt.

Whisper light, I brush my lips over hers, groaning at their softness. They part, inviting me in, and I can wait no longer. I kiss her as slowly as I can, using all of my discipline to hold back, wanting to savor every touch, every moment. The minty flavorof tooth-cleaning berries dissolves into something uniquely her, and I’m lost in her taste.

Her small tongue teases out, ghosting over mine, and groan again as I nip her lips with my tusks, asking her to open fully. When she does, my erection surges against the confines of my leather pants, straining toward her. I pull her to me until her thigh presses against my cock.

She breaks away with a gasp. “Oh, god. This is all happening kinda soon.”

“It isn’t too soon,” I say. With Storm awake, I’ll be able to complete my quest and become a king’s guard. Also, Taylor wants me. Clearly I’ve wooed her. It’s time to tell her everything. “You’re my moon bound bride.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Taylor

“Your what?” Shock zips through my body, chasing away the warm, sexy glow of our kiss. Did he saybride?

“The goddess matched and married us. You’re mine, as I am yours.”

I bolt upright. “Married? When did that happen? I don’t remember a wedding!”

“We can have a handfasting whenever you want, but a ceremony is immaterial. The Moon Goddess already bound us for life. She summoned me to come to you a week ago, and she brought you all the way from another world to be mine.” He says it like you say “the sky is blue,” as if the goddess marrying us is a fact of life everyone knows and accepts as true.

When instead it’s the most un-effing normal thing I’ve ever heard!

Married! My stomach twists. Marriage is divorce and Dad leaving and Mom crying every night for three months.

“Married?” I shake my head in shock at the impossibility of it all. “We only just met. I can’t be married to you!”

His face shutters, his eyes suddenly so expressionless it’s chilling. “I see.” Krivoth surges from the tent like a storm whipped into sudden motion, sucking out all the air as he goes.

I stare blankly at the quivering tent flaps and scrub my hands over my face. But it doesn’t do anything—I don’t wake up. This isn’t some wild dream. This isn’t a game.

This is my life now.

“What the effing hell?”

To call breakfast awkward is like saying a world war is a little slap fight. Shit is brutally tense.

Storm grinds mouthfuls of grass, the sound loud in the relative silence. Mist’s gaze ping pongs from me to Krivoth and back again, even as her body remains perfectly still except for the twitching tip of her tail.

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