Page 73 of Guarded By the Orc

Almost dying in a battle while protecting my female had one single perk that I was going to take advantage of until my dying breath. It meant that she was all over me every single time she thought about it.

“I don’t know what I would have done,” she gasped, running her palms down my still-healing chest. “If anything had happened to you.”

After a few moments of realizing that I wasn’t going to pass out again, she’d taken the time to send the bodies of the males on the field through the portal and back to their realm. Then she’d sealed that portal so that none of the warlocks or their kin could open it from their end.

The last thing she’d done before everyone trudged to the cars to go home. Dristan had eyed me as if he’d wanted to lift me the way he used to when we were children.

I wasfartoo dignified for that. Instead, I’d stood on my own—or with a little help from my brother, if I was going to befullyhonest—and limped my way forward.

And now I was splayed on the sofa while my female fawned over me.

This is the life.

Everyone was milling around, making sure that I was okay, but it was long moments before Tasia moved close to us, asking Zara,

“Is it possible to open a portal so Gabbi can come home?”

I looked at my female, trying to gauge how exhausted she was—because I could see it in the stoop of her shoulders and the drooping of her eyes.

“Of course,” she murmured, but I gathered her into my arms, shaking my head.

“Can she have a moment to recover?” I asked Tasia and she nodded, even as I could see the worry swirling in her eyes. “She’s safe there with Papa Bois,” I explained. “And Pen and Becca are with her.”

Dristan and Rok shifted on their feet, glancing at each other behind me, but I pretended to ignore them. I wasn’t going to allow my mate to lose consciousness. They were safe, and that was what mattered.

Zara had used so much of her magick that she needed a little break before she used it again.

“That’s nothing,” she denied, shaking her head, but I felt the weakness as she tried to pull away, and I shook my head.

“Just five minutes,” I insisted, and they all nodded. I looked up at my brother, and that was all her needed from me before moving to the kitchen. The scent of hot cocoa filled the air not long after that.

“We’ll get out of your way and let you rest,” Krusk said. Savla agreed, but Enka’s gaze was locked on Tasia in a way that had something niggling at the back of my head.

I didn’t have time for that, though. I waved at them as they leftour apartment, and allowed Zara to slump against me. I ignored the pain in my chest where I was certain a rib had been cracked, if not broken.

It was healed now, but a tender ache was still there.

The coven all settled into seats around us, slumping with their own exhaustion as my brother handed out steaming mugs. Both he and Rok looked keyed up and energetic.

We’d barely been able to get into the meat of the battle before everything had been over. I was certain they were feeling the same way. I’d left the rest to them, but with the protection barrier stopping the enemies’ spells from working on us while they were barely able to wield swords, it had almost been too easy.

I was glad, though. If it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t have seen when Zara had been hurt. The memory of her falling to her knees was a nightmare I would relive for the rest of my life.

“I’m okay now,” she told me, stroking her fingers across my chest after a few minutes of silence. “I can open the portal.”

She pulled away, and I released a grunt of displeasure when I felt how weak she was. I was going to force her to stay in bed with me for a month. I was going to bully my best friend Darak into taking over for me for a while, and we were going to take a real vacation.

We were going to a beach and we were going to sip on frilly drinks and relax until we were fed up of being in paradise. I narrowed my eyes at her as she stumbled a moment before lifting her wand. The purple shimmer of a portal formed, slower than before, but still there, widening until we were able to see the other side.

Dristan and Rok were through it before it was fully open. Tasia didn’t have a moment to move forward. A giggling missile launched itself at her, racing forward as if portals were an everyday occurrence.

And maybe to a baby witch, it should be.

“Bonjour, vieux Papa,” Zara murmured, dipping her head in a bow. The deep chuckle on the other side from the hooved old man was mischievous.

“I see you did what you needed to do,” he told her, nodding his head once. “Good.”

“Finally,” Zara said, her voice lower than usual. “Thank you for protecting them,” she told him, earnest gratitude seeping from her voice. “We owe you so much.”

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