Page 16 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

Wranth pulls me close, so strong he’s able to lift me from the saddle with only one arm so that I don’t slam down when the unicorn’s hooves hit the ground.

My thighs clench. Having him move me around like I weigh nothing is doing things to me. I love my big body. I know my curves are beautiful. But I’ve never been with a man strong enough to make me feel likethis.

“The doors did more than allow travel back and forth,” he growls, his voice so deep it sets my nerves singing. “They also let magic flow freely between the realms. It’s why we could understand each other in your world—the translation magic worked again.”

“It’s why I could shift to elfin form,” Shadow says. “Though I didn’t get a chance to try for my dual form.”

“Dual?” I ask.

“It’s halfway between feline and elf and has the best of both. My glorious furandhands.”

“Humph,” Zephyr grunts. “You can keep all your other forms. I’m perfect exactly as I am.”

The pines fall away as we enter a stand of birch trees, but these aren’t like the birch trees of home. They might have the silvery bark that peels like curls of ribbon, but the leaves! Oh, the leaves are the most glorious blue of a summer sky. I no longer question their existence, accepting them as another piece of the magic of Faerie. I laugh and fling up a hand to let them tickle over my fingers.

I wanted to leave home, to have an adventure. Even if all of this is a bit more out of my control than I’d like, I can’t help but be fascinated by this place.

Wranth’s large body shifts behind me, letting me move as I like while keeping me secure.

Yeah, there’s one other thing that’s pretty damn fascinating about this place—the orc who holds me close, as if I’m already the most precious thing in his world.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Wranth

All our talk of magic and doors cannot distract me for long from the thought that continues to plague me.

Sturrm told me how he made a mistake in not telling his bride what she was to him when they met, so I made sure to not repeat his error. Yet I too have failed, even if in a different way. I forgot the other thing the human women mentioned—that their culture doesn’t do magically matched marriages that they have no say in or don’t even know is happening.

My moon bound bride does not wish to be married to me.

I’m still unwanted, still unmoored. I may finally have someone who belongs to me, but I do not belong to her.

It seems all my dreams of finally being important to someone are just that, dreams. Disappointment eats at me. I’d grown usedto my lot in life. To finally have hope, only to have it wrenched away…

Yet even if all I am to Naomi is all I’ve ever been to anyone—a strong sword arm ready to protect—then that is what I will be. I will stand between her and the soul stealers and any other being who dares threaten my bride. Unto my dying breath, I will protect her with all that I am.

If my dream of being more to her remains just that, a dream, I will still have her laughter and beauty in my life.

She laughs now, a rich, throaty chuckle that makes my cock twitch.

By the goddess, all my fine thoughts are lies. Being near Naomi will never be enough, unable to touch, to taste, to make her laugh with the joy of a well-satisfied woman.

A growl rumbles through my chest as the wind tickles Naomi’s glorious curls across my cheeks, filling my nose with her sweet scent. Holding her luscious curves this close is maddening, the press of her buttocks enough to test the very limits of my warrior control.

A wildness pulses inside me, and for once, it’s not rage-fueled.

“Tell me about those places we went,” my moon bound says, her voice husky, “where my magic first took us.”

So I do. I tell her of King Aldronn and the campsite she and I visited, how they were halfway between two of the orc villages.

“Wait. You’re one of the king’s guards?” She twists to look over her shoulder at me, her brown eyes inquisitive. “What were you doing away from him and your duty?”

“The Moon Goddess summoned me to find you.” My arm tightens around her. “There can be no higher purpose than that. Even the king would not gainsay my quest.” On the contrary, he was thrilled, saying that my summons meant perhaps the goddess wasn’t quite as fixed on Moon Blade Village as wethought. I didn’t point out that I had just spent a couple of weeks living in the village beforehand, too eager to leave quickly to claim my bride.

“Huh.” She faces forward, but not before I notice her lips purse in thought. “But I could have been anyone, and I’m certainly not more important than a king.”

“You are to me,” I say.

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