Page 66 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

Tears prickle my eyes. He’s already writing me into his life! This thing we have must be real. I can trust him.

“Branikk, I want—”

“Grace!” Astrid squeals from the opening to our den.

Agnar finishes her sentence. “You’re awake.”

A mass of puppies descend upon us, Branikk barely covering me with a fur before little wiggling bodies are everywhere.

Then Astrid’s nose is wet on my cheek, and she sniffs. “Why do you smell funny?”

An embarrassed laugh bursts from me as I realize she’s smelling the orc seed on my skin. What the hell am I supposed to say to that?

“It’s nothing younglings need worry about,” Branikk says with perfect ease. Damn.Nothingfazes the man. “Off with you! The faster you leave us to get ready for the day, the faster Grace will be outside to play with you.”

“Okay!” Agnar yells, leading all the pups out into the tunnel that connects our den to others dug into the hill.

Thank god, I’d had my mouth too full of Branikk’s cock to yell when I came earlier.

Branikk rolls us onto our sides, his fingers dragging through the thickening cream on my chest to rub it in.

“I thought we were getting cleaned up,” I say.

“Iamcleaning you.” He smirks, too handsome and wicked by far. “Orc seed is very clean.”

“No, it’s definitelydirty,” I say with an answering smile, remembering how hot it always gets me. “But only in the very best of ways.”

Branikk brings me nuts and berries for breakfast and even a small piece of honeycomb to smear over my hardtack.

When I try to offer it to him, he doesn’t take any of the sweet treat for himself, gently pushing my hand back. “I got it for you, my moon bound.”

His words make happiness wash over me, and the honey tastes all the sweeter.

The puppies wait, watching me like the audience at a tennis match, heads moving to track my hand every time it brings a bite to my mouth.

I finish off the last of the berries and wash everything down with the mint tea Branikk made for me, my fingers playing with my bracelet. I’ve been doing that a lot, touching it throughout the day, remembering our Ferris wheel ride and how patient he was with me.

A tiny whine breaks through my thoughts.

I toss back the last of my tea and say, “Who wants to play?”

They all yell, “Me!”

“What do you want to play?”

“The cat!” “Bubble cat!” “The best cat!”

“What is this I hear about cats?” A woman’s amused voice says. A flash of white as a fanged smile appears between two trees, followed by the hazy outline of a cat as big as a German Shepherd. “Surely, you spoke of me.”

Rune leaps to his feet with a growl.

“Mist!” Branikk says. “How did you get here? How did you find us?”

“I walked the shadow roads.” She saunters into the clearing, her long fur swirling around her in a million different shades of gray that make her hard to see. “The cat sith ability to quickly traverse Alarria is why your orc king was so happy to make us allies.”

“Shadow roads?” I whisper out the side of my mouth to Branikk.

“Hidden paths that connect all of Faerie, or now that the realms are isolated, all of Alarria. Only the feline fae can walk them.”

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