Page 7 of Guarded By the Orc

And a freezing shower.

“Would you be able to take me and my friends to my house? I’m sure they’ll want to settle in,” I told him.

He narrowed his eyes but shrugged. “As far as I know, they’ve been given apartments in this building. Rok’s asked for them to join our clan,” he said in that low, sexy voice of his.

“Oh,” I murmured with a frown.

Would I be losing my friends already? If they chose to stay here, I’m sure I could visit, but it would be just like the coven when I’d been growing up. My powers were always so faulty that I’d always been on the outside.

Added to that, I wasthat man’schild. The one who’d kidnapped my mom and impregnated her in order to create a power greater than any known before. My mom had been the living vessel of power of her time. A part of a line of witches that had been prophesied to bear the most powerful magick-user ever to be born.

That fucking prophecy will be the death of me.

“Well, that’s okay. I’ll still ask them if they want to come with me so they know they have the option,” I explained, turning away to face the front door. The magnetic pull got stronger and Iknewhe was right behind me.

“You also have another option,” he whispered, his breath fluttering the hair near my ear.

I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed hard, unable to speak past the lump in my throat.

“You can stay here,” he told me, running one big finger down my arm. Heat sizzled up on every inch of skin he touched. “With me.”

“I—I—” I stuttered, but the knock on the door made my eyes snap open. I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them to savor his touch. Jolting forward, I yanked the door open.

Savla stood there, a frown on his face, but it became a small smile when he spotted me.

“You’re safe,” he said with a nod before narrowing his eyes at the male behind me. “Good. Rok has gotten us permission to stay here. He’s shown me our new quarters and there’s enough room for you. We can protect you there,” he finished with a scowl.

My smile was huge on my face as I reached out to curl my armsaround this male who’d only ever protected me and kept me safe. “Thanks, Sav,” I told him before pulling away. I ignored the low growl from behind me, because I didn’t want to think about what that sound of possessiveness meant for my future. “I was actually going to come meet you guys. Remember I was telling you about my home here? I wanted to make sure you knew you had the option of coming to stay there,” I explained.

His eyes went wide and he nodded, stroking a finger across his chin in thought. “If you’re going to stay there,” he said in a thoughtful voice, “then at least one of us should stay with you.”

My eyes went huge in my face. “No, no. I’ll be fine. I just wanted to offer—” I started, but he cut me off with a sweep of his hand.

“No, you won’t be safe there on your own,” he explained. “If that asshole finds a way to get to you, then they can take you back and we won’t have a way to follow you.”

I gasped, my hand clutched to my chest as my heart began pounding in fear. “You think—”

His features softened, and he reached out to pat my shoulder while another feral growl sounded behind me that we both ignored. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of Veron. He’ll be after you the same way he was last time. Maybe even more because you defied him,” he explained, sympathy swimming in his eyes.

“Yeah,” I groaned, scrubbing a palm over my face. “You’re right. And I don’t even know if my mom’s protection spell is up and running anymore. I’ll have to check.”

“Or you can stay with us,” Savla offered, but a big palm reached forward from behind us, cupping my shoulder in a gentle hold.

“She’ll be staying with me. I can protect her.” The words were a low, furious growl, and I tipped my head back until I was looking at the male behind me—the top of my head pressed against the heat of his chest.

“I don’t know your name,” I told him and that seemed to take all the anger out of him. He gave me a lopsided grin as he cupped my cheek, sweeping his thumb over my skin.

“I’m Rudgar,” he told me and the name curled with a curious familiarity inside my chest.

“Rudgar,” I breathed and I watched his eyes go dark again.

Savla cleared his throat in front of us and my head snapped forward, guilt filling my chest. I was letting myself be distracted by Rudgar when I should be focusing on finding a solution to all the problems that were piling up in my life.

“It’d be better if we all stayed together,” Savla said to Rudgar with a sneer. “So she has as much protection as possible.”

I nodded, holding my finger up in front of him. “With the coven at our house. It’ll have all of the books that I was supposed to be studying from,” I gasped. “I can recreate the protection spell and—”

“Can’t we go get those books and then do the protection spell here?” Rudgar asked, his eyebrow quirked. “So that it’ll be closer to the clan?”

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