Page 65 of Guarded By the Orc

I grinned down at her. “Ready to kick some ass?” I asked her, and she nodded, baring her teeth in an adorable growl.

CHAPTER 32

Zara

The power that filled me was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I used to have to take a moment before my magick came to me, but now, it was spilling from my fingers, ready for an accident to happen.

Gritting my teeth as I sat up, I pressed a kiss to Rudgar’s lips. He’d held me, ensured that I was safe and every bit of love that I’d had for him doubled in my chest.

If I’d known when I was growing up, that this male that I’d dreamed of was so close to me, I’d have searched for him every moment of the day.

“Zara, how’re you feeling?” I heard from behind me, and it was only then that I realized that my coven was surrounding us.

Way to go, miss observant. Now the entire coven knows that you’re orc-whipped.

Not that they would have been able to miss it before, but a witch had to havesomesecrets, after all.

“I’m good,” I told Tabitha, flexing my hands as purple sparksjumped from my fingers. “But you know my control hasn’t been the best…” I trailed off, looking up at her, letting her see the worry etched across my face.

She smiled, shaking her head as she reached out for the wand, holding it out to me with both hands. “This will take care of that. Keep it on you at all times. No more accidents,” she explained.

My eyes went huge in my face. “No more accidents?” I repeated, searching her expression for the truth.

Her slow smile and nod was all I needed before I reached out for the wand. As soon as I touched it, I immediately felt more centered, more in control. A breath I didn’t know I was holding left me in a gust.

“It works,” I whispered, and she nodded, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

“Of course it does. Now he won’t be able to touch you,” she huffed.

My smile was slow to come to my face, but I knew that it was filled with wicked glee when all the other witches laughed.

A loud shrieking cackle sounded from the corner of the room and we all looked up to see Gabbi standing outside of the bedroom door she’d just been inside, her hands clasped as she wiggled from side to side, still laughing.

“Oh no,” Tasia gasped, watching as her little fingers glowed with purple sparks. “How did she get out of her crib?”

“Crap,” Tabitha hissed, reaching out to grab the spellbook from next to the altar, flipping through the pages until she stopped on the page she wanted, reading and nodding as she went.

That was when I noticed that Gabbi had stopped to look at Rudgar, sheer glee on her face.

“Oh fuck,” was all he was able to get out before she ran at him, her little feet clumsy as she bypassed every outstretched arm trying to stop her. She launched herself at him and he caught her, just in time for her little baby teeth to bite down into hisshoulder.

I winced and he grunted. I was sure he wasn’t feeling the pain, but the tender way he was holding her, balancing her diapered butt on his outstretched palm, made a shot of longing shoot through me.

Rudgar holding a baby? Be still my poor eggs.

He looked over at Tasia, his eyes wide as he shook his head.

“I think she likes you,” she said with a guilty smile, her eyes going from where her baby was latched onto his skin like a tiny cannibal and then back to him. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged as the little one tried to gnaw her way through his skin. “I have to get practice in until I have my own, I guess,” he said with a shrug, as Tasia tried to tickle the little girl until she released him. She let go with a laugh, that tiny, full-bodied laugh shocking for how small she was.

“I swear, I told her that biting’s a no-no. She stopped biting everyone, except…” Tasia trailed off, her lips pursed in a rueful line.

“Me?” Rudgar guess, and I giggled, reaching out to tug Gabbi from her mother’s arms until I was hugging her.

Once glance over at Rudgar told me that he was in the same baby-fever I was.

CHAPTER 33

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