Page 65 of Bound to the Orc Renegade

“You’re right!” The pride in his voice warms me and sets my heart racing with excitement. I grip his shoulders to slide upward and kiss him, this man who always sees the best in me.

This man I’m falling for.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Krivoth

I don’t know which is more delightful—Taylor’s kiss or the fact that she has even more power than I originally thought. Fortunately, I don’t have to choose. My moon bound bride comes with both.

Her soft lips press to mine, and I nip at them until she opens for me. I devour her kiss, reveling in the lush heat of her mouth and the zing of magic still humming through her.

I am the luckiest of men. With her by my side, our lives will be full of nothing but glory. They’ll write ballads of our exploits! Sturrm will sing my name in the village pub for all to hear.

Even my father.

Branches move across my arms, the long narrow purple leaves of the rowan shivering above me. They slide away to showblue sky, soon obscured by the outline of Storm’s head. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” It’s not a complete lie. Yes, my injured leg burns like someone jabbed a red-hot poker into the wound, but saving Taylor is well worth any pain.

“Then why are you still on the ground?” He taps my shoulder with his horn.

I share a look with my bride, and she bites at her lower lip, her shoulders shaking with mirth. How to describe kissing to a unicorn?

“Ah.” He snorts. “You’re mating again.”

“What?” Taylor squeaks, rolling off my side. “We weren’t mating!”

“What else do you call the weird mouth thing you were doing?” He turns an assessing blue eye on me. “Although, I do not see how it does any good in making foals. Your mouth doesn’t make seed like a cock, does it?”

My bride stands there, face red and eyes wide, mouth opening and closing a few times before she lets out a gurgled, “He’s your friend.Yousay something.”

“The ‘mouth thing’ is a prelude to mating.” I roll up to sitting, hiding a wince as my injury throbs in protest. “It prepares her to take my cock.”

“Okay, I’m out! You two do… guy talk!” Taylor flutters a hand at us and hurries over to where the sprites flit around an elderberry bush, my shirt swirling around her legs. It will smell like her.

A possessive growl vibrates in my chest.

“Explain the mouth thing,” Storm says.

“It’s called kissing. It excites the woman and wets her sex.” Goddess, the smell and taste of Taylor comes back to me, teasing me even though she’s no longer near.

The unicorn jabs my shoulder with his horn. “You keep looking off into the distance instead of talking to me.”

I grunt and bat his horn away. “We’re newly mated. A little preoccupation is to be expected.”

“I would not know.”

“What?” A jolt of shock goes through me. “But you’re one of the best warriors of your herd.” I might not have had a unicorn partner before him, but I know enough of their nature to have seen as much when I met him. The other warriors must respect him to have allowed him to speak for the herd.

“It is true I am strong and fight well.” His head comes up, his horn flashing in the sun. “But I am young. No filly has yet accepted me as hers.”

I shove to my feet and lean against his side to take the weight off my injury. Patting his neck, I say, “This quest will change all of that, my friend.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am.” For how can I fail, with Taylor’s magical powers to aid me?

Mist puts my “useful” fingers to work plucking feathers, and we have a supper of quail and unadulterated elderberries. The sprites magicked one whole bush, but Taylor got them to point out which one, so we could eat from the others. The same can’t be said for the little imps, who stuff themselves on Faerie Fruit until they flit about in intoxicated revelry, only to fall into tiny snoring heaps, winged bodies draped across clumps of unplucked berries.

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