Page 31 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

She walks away with the feline fae, and once they’re about fifteen feet away, they pause, and she climbs onto his back, lying flat to keep her legs off the ground.

Again, Naomi’s thrown into my arms, which catch her on pure instinct. She’s a little breathless and giggles. “This is actually kind of fun, like a carnival ride or something.”

Far be it for me to disagree. “I can catch you all day.”

“The mouse!” Shadow calls out from where he sits, his front paws trapping something against the ground. “I have one.”

“Wait,” I say as I set my bride down. I retrieve an empty pouch from a saddlebag and hand it to her. “So it can’t bite you.”

When she reaches Shadow, he drops the squirming bit of fluff into the bag she holds open. Then she walks, the bag held out to her side.

Warmth fills me when I realize she’s doing it so the mouse won’t be squashed between us. My bride has a kind heart.

One more step, and she flies into my arms. The bag drops to the ground, back where she was, and the mouse runs out the top.

“Well, that seems pretty definite. The tether affects only me,” Naomi says, her husky voice stroking over my nerves like a caress. “Only us.”

Only us.

Her words reverberate through my soul. I am connected to this woman. I belong to someone.

I am no longer alone.

I pack up the tent and campsite with sure, practiced motions, having done it so many times over the years it takes no thought.

“You could have tied the bag closed,” Shadow complains, not for the first time.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted the mouse,” Naomi says. “If you hunted for us for breakfast, didn’t you eat, too?”

“I did.” He dips his head. “But hunger isn’t the point. It’s that I caught it—that mouse was mine.”

Naomi shoots me a glance, asking for help.

“Wild Fae are exactly that,” I say. “Wild. Even if fully sentient and able to speak, they are not human.”

“I should hope not.” The skin all down Zephyr’s back twitches. “I still have nightmares about being a biped.”

“While cat sith may hunt in part for sport, hunting’s primary purpose is still food, survival. It’s a deep-rooted instinct not easily overcome.”

“Well said, orc.” The cat dips his head. Then his tone goes sly. “Almost as if you have a few primal instincts of your own.”

Naomi turns wide eyes on me, and I can’t help the way my cock stirs at the thought of a different kind of hunt, of her as prey, running in front of me, glancing over her shoulder to see me coming and giving an excited gasp. I could be on her in two steps, but I shorten my strides, drawing out the chase, scenting the musk of her arousal perfuming the air.

The feline fae laughs, the ratcheting sound pulling me back to the here and now where my bride stands before me instead of leading me on a merry chase.

Yet I soon have the joy of holding my moon bound in my arms as we ride out of the meadow and the forest closes around us again.

“How long do you think it’s going to be before I get my magic back?” she asks.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s just… my family has no idea where I am or what’s happening, and I can only imagine what Hannah must have told them. She saw me disappear into thin air!” Naomi throws up her hands. “That kind of shit doesnothappen on Earth.”

“It doesn’t happen in Alarria either.” I tighten my grip on her. “Not until you. Orcs all have magic, but none have your kind of magic. It’s powerful. More than that, it’s unprecedented.”

She casts a coy smile over her shoulder. “Why, Wranth, are you saying I’m special?”

A growl rumbles through me as I lean close to murmur in her ear. “Yes, very special.”

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