Page 174 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

I could not answer as she brushed her thumb carefully over the raised skin of the brand. Fire magic gleamed faint and red and warm beneath the soft pad of her finger as she seemed to examine the brand’s magical signature.

But all I could focus on was how she touched that vile mark as if she were not as disgusted as she should be.

“So is there any other way to remove it or would we have to pay the cost of the indenture? I would much rather stick an iron down the throat of whoever did this to you than give them any money. But if it’s the only way to get this off you…” She trailed off with a grimace.

“The price will be astronomical now from the interest accumulating all these years. And with so many far more important things going on right now, this isn’t a priority!” I attempted to remind her.

“Of course, it is a priority!” she objected.

“Because it is offensive to you,” I assumed.

“No! Because it clearly causes you pain!” she insisted, and this time, her thumb trailed over my scarred skin.

I could not seem to process how she could touch the most shameful part of me so easily, without an ounce of hesitation, and I wasn’t sure why but it made me feel…

Frantic with confusion.

“Why are you not offended?” I demanded, voice rising in spite of my best attempts not to let my temper get the better of me again. “This should disgust you!”

“Iamdisgusted by it!” she reassured, her own voice rising in her confusion with my defensiveness. “I just do not understand how anyone could hurt you like this—”

“No, I mean how can you bear to touch it?”

She looked startled and then glanced down at my arm as if she did not see what was so disgusting about it.

“Do you not want me to touch you?” she guessed as she removed her hand from both my arms completely.

And the absence of her touch, withdrawn in an attempt to make me feel more comfortable, only made me even more frantic and confused. I had to resist the childish urge to grab her again and replace her hands on me. And the uncertainty of not knowing whether I wanted her to touch me or not to touch me wasoverwhelming.

“No, it’s not… I never… No one…Fuck,” I snarled, unable to get out more than a couple of words from one train of thought before my mind would scatter.

“Orion.” She spoke my name with an authority that was grounding. “This doesnotmakeyoudisgusting.”

“But of course, it does! Do you not realize what these marksmeanabout who andwhatI am?”

“I know what the brand means about yourpast, and I know what the scars mean about how you must feel about all of it. But I fail to see how this somehow is the only thing that gets to define who you are!”

I glowered at her, but those amber eyes stared right back at me in equal defiance. And then she did something that made my brain empty of all logical thought again…

Amira lifted my arm and placed a deliberate kiss on that vile brand. And then she scattered several more kisses on the rough skin around it that was marred by scars from all my self-mutilation. My anguish and self-hatred…

I could not breathe as I watched her press those warm, soft lips against the ugliest part of me without hesitation. Proving her point that she did not perceive the brand or my scars to be shameful or vile.

That…Iwas not reprehensible or offensive to her.

She straightened next to me, and I could tell she was about to say something, but I was moving before I’d even realized what I was about to do. Before I could think.

My fingers slid into her hair above her messy braid and knotted there to hold her in place as I leaned down so my lips crashed against hers.

I froze again almost immediately and braced for her to scream or push me away. To call me a filthy whore and demand to know why I thought I could touch her.

But she didn’t do any of that...

She sucked in a gasp against my mouth that was filled with the shock of something feeling unexpectedly good. And she didnot move back when I stopped. I even felt her lift her face so our mouths brushed together again.

I had not kissed a woman in centuries, and it had never been something I everwantedto do, but I did remember how their anticipation felt. And even if her body language had not given her away, her scent certainty did.

Shewantedme to kiss her.

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