Page 93 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

“Like that one.” The soul stealer gnashes its sharp, red-beak teeth together in a vicious snap as he points at my friend.

“No!” I try to push upright. Not Hannah!

My shout spurns Wranth forward, and his sword strikes straight through the chest of the sluagh, again with no real effect.

A sob shudders from me. Where’s Shadow? What’s he going to do with the net? Wranth’s an amazing warrior, but if his sword strikes don’t work, we have to do something to help!

Percussive beats echo between the buildings in the familiar rhythm of a galloping horse—or unicorn.

Zephyr thunders down the street, Shadow riding her in his elfin form.

There are several shrieks, and a woman yells, “He’s naked!”

Shadow flashes them all a sultry smile. Then he faces forward, his arms lifting to fling a black ball into the air. The fishing net unfurls, still dangling an assortment of paper spiders, and falls around the soul stealer.

It breaks apart into its flock form, but Aldronn dives and grabs the base of the net, keeping it from lifting off.

Wranth steps forward, his sword striking with such precision that he skewers bird after bird without slicing the net.

The last birds flow together to make the evil fae’s true form, but it doesn’t look like it did before. It’s now shrunken and pale, and its eyes have lost all color, going ghostly white. When it opens its mouth to scream, all of its red shark teeth are gone.

Wranth fists a handful of net, yanking the soul stealer closer. “This is the truth of you, without any victims to swell your false pride. You’ll never have another,” he growls. “Now, you will give my bride back what you stole. You should never have touched her.”

His sword finds the middle of its chest, spearing right through the heart. The sluagh shudders and breaks into dust.

A burst of energy shoots through me, and the world brightens a little, like when you turn on an extra reading lamp in an already lit room. I gasp.

Wranth wheels around and drops to his knees beside me, his sword already sheathed in a quick and fluid movement. He pulls me up to sitting, his huge hands cupping my shoulders with such gentle strength it brings tears to my eyes. His gaze and hands roam over me, searching. “Tell me what’s wrong. Tell me why you cannot stand. Is it your leg?”

“I’m okay.” I touch his cheek, pulling his eyes back to mine. “I was really,reallytired after opening that last door. But as soon as you killed the sluagh, I felt better.”

“Ending it returned the piece of your soul it had eaten. You are whole again, my bride.”

I’m better than whole—my heart is whole, too. Because I love Wranth. I love him so dearly. No matter what it takes, we’ll work something out. I’ll figure out how to be with him.

And hey, I’m a teleporter. If I can’t do the ultimate commute, who can?

I pull him down for a kiss, loving the wild ferocity with which he takes my mouth.

“Uh, Naomi,” Hannah says. “Can we talk?”

My friend hovers a few yards away, and the crowd behind her has gotten braver, too. They shuffle closer, phones held high and filming. Jules leads the pack, crouching to get a better angle on me with Wranth.

“Oh, shit,” I mutter. How the hell do we explain this? What would the heroine in one of my favorite books do? If it was one with a super-hacker friend, they’d have them scour the internet, deleting every copy of every video. One with a billionaire friend would have them buy off all the witnesses and make them sign NDA agreements. I’ve got none of those things.

But what I do have is a great imagination. All that reading still pays off, just in a different way.

“Okay, everybody!” I yell and clap my hands together in a loud slap. “That’s a wrap.”

Then I stand and touch my ear like I’m trying to press an earpiece into place, nodding like I’m listening to someone. “The DP says the drones got perfect footage! We don’t have to shoot again!”

Wranth grunts and scowls at me.

The crowd starts talking among themselves, but they’re still watching all of us. Several of the women pay special attention to Shadow, still naked and preening from Zephyr’s back. I chuckle. He’s as gorgeous as a movie star, and he’s got the attitude to go with it. If anyone can convince everyone that this is a movie shoot, it’s him.

Longing fills me as I glance over at the bookshop. The sign on the door says open, so Mom and Dad must be in there. They’re probably so caught up in whatever they’re reading they didn’t even notice all the noise from our fight.

“What’s going on?” Hannah sidles over to me. “You can’t tell me that was a movie shoot. I know when you’re lying, and none of that stuff you said about a movie was true.”

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