Page 56 of Guarded By the Orc

Then he stood, sauntering out of Tabitha’s bedroom and flexing his arms and ass with poses as he went. I snorted out a laugh at his silliness, my love for him expanding inside of me like it had no limits.

And that’s what I’m scared of.

What if I fell so deeply in love with this male that I couldn’t see where I started and where he ended? And then I lost him? Or he lost me?

I couldn’t possibly be worth it. I hadn’t brought anything buttrouble to my mother’s life and while I had to protect my coven, did I need to involve Rudgar? Emotion clogged my throat, but as if he realized what was going on in my head, he turned before he exited the bedroom, looking at me with a small smile.

“You’re everything perfect in this universe to me. Everything I’ve ever dreamed of in a mate and more. We’ll get out on the other side of this, Gul-ar, and then I’ll be able to show you that I’m worth the risk, I promise,” he whispered.

Those words hit me like an arrow to the heart.

Damn him, for real. How dare he get mushy with me when I want to protect him?

Ihadto give us the chance he was asking for. My mom always called me her brave girl. She would want me to live my life to the fullest and that was what I was going to do. In her honor and memory, I was going to take my chance with my male.

I’m going to be the best mate that he could ever hope for.

I flipped my hair over my shoulder, shimmying my shoulders as I remember his groans of pleasure when he was fucking me. I was already killing it as a mate in the sex department. Now I just needed to fill the rest of the requirements and I would be golden.

Next step, crushing date night.

I took a deep breath as I grasped at the hands of the two females at my sides—Tasia and Tabitha. We’d gathered in the living room of the main apartment after finishing all the research we could.

The protection spell, fortification spells and runes were laid out on the make-shift altar inside the circle. It was a coffee table, and I was almost certain that Rudgar wouldn’t appreciate the chalk marks and accidental scratches on the finish of the wood with crystals that had been made, but it was all for the cause.

Once we get this over with and he can be buried balls-deep inside me everyday, he’ll realize it’s worth it.

Grinning at the thought, I lifted our hands, taking a deep breath before I started a hum that was echoed around the circle. It was the warm up for our chants—something that my mother had taught me would be a good way to get the magick flowing through us as one before we began.

My heart ached at the realization that I would be fully leading a circle in a spell without my mother there. It was something that she’d mentioned wanting to see over and over again.

I pushed the melancholy to the back of my mind as the hum rose in pitch. Gabbi was out scribbling with the chalks on a corner of the floor and walls furthest away from us—justin case my magick went awry and sent shockwaves anywhere that it wasn’t being aimed.

One voice rose a little higher—beginning the chant. It was Hanna’s. Her voice was the most potent, and I’d always wondered if she had a hint of siren blood in her history.

She’d never let me get my grubby hands on a sample of her blood to have it tested and that might have been for the best. For all of their beauty, beings were wary of sirens because of their history with the old warring factions.

As her voice rose, sending chills down my spine and across my skin, though, I knew that there might be some fact to it. The power in her voice was clear, channeling us as we aimed our hands in unison toward the wood, laid out in the very center of the table. Right above the central rune.

I feel it.

The magick was pouring out of us—something that I hadn’t been able to achieve before. Wonder filled me as I realized that the wood wasalreadyworking to focus my skills. I glanced up at Tabitha who was grinning at me.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I sent a prayer of gratitude tothe Goddess Mother before continuing. A purple glow started around the wood, increasing in intensity as the chanting and ritual reached its pinnacle. With a whisper of the spell in magick, the glow continued to grow as our voices did.

When the final words of the spell left us, the glow slowed and then disappeared altogether, but the potency remained. The wood carried an energy now that it hadn’t before. I released the hands I was probably squeezing too tight and reached out.

The moment my fingers touched the wood, I felt it. The energy of the protection spell was pure and potent, running through my body and down my spine.

“Oh wow, it definitely worked,” I squealed, spinning around in the circle so they could all touch the wood. Oohs and aahs sounded from all of them.

Beaming like a lunatic I did a tiny jig on the spot before saying, “Okay, I’ll get this across to Savla and then it’s date night with my male.”

“Ah the early stages,” Tasia said, shoving her elbow into my side. “Where it’s all sex, sex and more sex.”

“I’ll have you know,” I said primly, sticking my nose up into the air. “That it’s exactly like that.”

They all rolled their eyes but waved me off, settling themselves on the sofas with puffs of air. “Sorry for making you use all your energy on this,” I apologized, nibbling on my lower lip.

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