Page 7 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

I was wrong.

He leers at me and runs a black slug of a tongue over his lips.

My heart lurches in my chest and starts racing like I’ve developed tachycardia. I keep having that visceral reaction to him, one of pure revulsion that shakes me to my core.

I rabbit to the side, and he catches me, his hands clamping around me in a vise.

My mouth opens on a wordless cry as my whole body screams NO!

But I’m not the one yelling.

Agreenman on a galloping blackunicornraces from the trees, sword raised overhead. He barks out a challenge and leaps to the ground before the unicorn even comes to a full stop, landing with the perfect balance of an athlete.

Monster man lets go of me and whips around, pawing the axe from his back. They surge toward one another and meet in a clang of metal.

The unicorn lunges for the hell horse, and they start to fight as well.

Hemmed in on both sides, I backpedal until my shoulders hit the hard surface of the stone.

The green man is seven-feet tall and more heavily muscled than any human, but the monster’s even larger. Yet they seem evenly matched because the green man’s movements are fluid and precise, every strike a thing of beauty.

That’s such a weird thing to think, because this is violence, and I’m supposed to hate anything that can cause bodily harm. But I don’t. I might not want him to hurt the gray monster, but if that’s what it takes to get the leering thing to leave me alone…

The unicorn lets out an angry whinny, rearing up to thump hooves into the hell horse, which screams and wheels around to run into the pines.

The green man counters a vicious strike and spins, driving his sword into the monster’s shoulder. Black blood wells from the wound. That explains his skin color, but what in the world would make it black? If he doesn’t usehemoglobin, which turns red when it carries oxygen, what does he use?

The monster flails backward, and I have to leap aside to not get squished.

Focus, Selena! Now’s not the time for a comparative biochemistry lesson.

Another scream comes from just within the trees, and the monster man yells and goes racing over to meet the hell horse, swinging up onto its back and galloping away.

The green man turns to face me, his dark eyes raking over my turquoise scrubs with a frown. His voice is deep and resonant now that he’s not yelling. “Drevistie.”

He wears well-tailored clothes clearly cut to fit, the pants and boots brown leather, the shirt woven fabric in a dark rust red.

At his temples, silver strands lighten inky black hair that’s even longer than mine. His handsome face has a perfectly shaped nose, scowl lines bracketing an otherwise attractive mouth. He’s older than me, but it’s the seriously hot kind of older that some men grow into, where they’re even better looking than when they were young.

Now,himI wish I could study in detail. He looks like he’d be the perfect anatomy lesson.

My crystal warms on my chest as a zip of electricity shoots through me.

His shirt and pants disappear, leaving him standing in nothing but boots and sword belt, like some kind of naughty pirate fantasy come to life.

Medical curiosity—because of course that’s all it is—pulls my eyes down his muscular chest and rippled abs to…

“Dios mio!” My eyes widen.

He’s green. He’s huge. And he’spierced.

CHAPTER FOUR

Sturrm

It doesn’t matter if the Moon Goddess made a mistake. I still need to get to the human witch she’s bringing to Alarria so that I can protect her. We can sort out which orc the goddess has bound her to later, once she’s safe.

Which is why I find myself riding a unicorn who’s got so much pooka in him that he’s mischievous instead of grumpy, like my old mount. Grumpy, I like. Grumpy, I’m used to.

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