Page 95 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

It’s enough that it no longer feels impossible to imagine living here.

Because anything’s worth being with my bride.

The man pulls over, and we climb out of the mechanical carriage. Once it disappears down the road, the distant roar of rushing water becomes audible.

Naomi leads us along a narrow trail that skirts the edge of a wide pond, a waterfall splashing into the surface.

“Ferndale Falls. It gives the town its name—or half of it, at least—the ferns being the other part.” She gestures to the plants that cover the ground on each side of the path, their fronds waving in the slight breeze. Then she gives me a sultry grin. “Told you I like waterfalls.”

My erection stirs, remembering what it was like to chase her around the waterfall in Alarria. I long to do that now, to leave the others here and go cavorting after her through the trees, to catch her and claim her, to feel her shatter with completion around my cock.

“Ha, orc!” Shadow says. “If you could see your face.”

“What?” Zephyr says from behind us. “I can’t see anything from back here.”

“He’s getting amorous.” The feline fae’s green eyes sparkle with mischief.

“Oh, is that all?” She snorts. “It’s not as if that’s anything new now that Naomi is around.”

I groan. Goddess, this is all that I need—the two of them ganging up against me. “When did you two get so friendly?”

They both laugh.

“Oh, how the tables have turned.” Aldronn shoots me an amused glance. My cousin always has little trouble filling his furs with willing partners, as to be expected as the only royal heir. All of the guard members have a certain popularity by association, but I tended to avail myself less frequently thanmany, knowing the women were more interested in my position than me.

“Not you as well.” I scowl at him.

“Come on.” Naomi leaves the path and heads between two ash trees. “We’re almost there.”

We come out in a small clearing, the trees kept from growing here by a ten-foot tall rock formation. It’s too irregular to be anything but natural, even though it stands isolated. A cluster of clear quartz crystals decorates the top, sending several pointed, hexagons jutting upward at various angles.

“Shadow, will you dig a hole?” Naomi points to the base of the rock.

Once the cat sith’s done so, I drop the paired crystal inside and cover it over.

“I’ll go first,” Aldronn says. “I need to see if Brokk and Garint are safe.”

After I hand the trapped sluagh to him, he steps forward and disappears, the flock sucked through immediately after. Zephyr and Shadow follow.

Naomi pauses, looking back over her shoulder in the direction of town.

Goddess, is she ready to leave me so soon? Can she? My fingers rub my chest. I still feel her, but I can’t tell if it’s the tether or our mate bond.

“Wait here for a moment.” I take off running into the trees. I run and run, my breath becoming shorter the farther I go. Not due to exertion, but because of the growing tightness in my chest. I’ve gone well past twenty feet and I’m still moving away from her.

The tether broke when she opened all the doors of Faerie, just as we suspected it would.

My bride can leave me. I skid to a halt, unable to breathe. The realization crushes me under a mountain of rock, squeezing my heart until it feels as if it will shatter into a million pieces.

I need to let her go, let her live the life she wants.

Fuck, I don’t want to. I long to snatch her away and keep her for myself. It’s the hurt child in me, the lonely one who wants and wants and wants and can never get enough.

My shoulders square, and I suck in a shuddering breath. I’m no longer a child. I can be a man for her, one who thinks of her first. No matter how much it pains me, I will see her happy.

I don’t know exactly what expression I wear when I return to Naomi, but her eyes go wide and she jolts forward to meet me. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I lie. “It’s the tether. It’s—”

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