Page 29 of Resisting the Wicked Orc

Relief cascaded across his features, the tension draining from his body as he let out a breath. Something in my chest loosened at his reaction—he wanted this as much as I did.

“And here I thought you were already tired of me,” he said, but the vulnerability lingering in his eyes told me the joke wasn’t entirely a joke.

“You wish,” I replied, deliberately flicking my tail against his leg in a playful gesture. “Then you could go back to your simple life of carving and fighting without three overprotective brothers analyzing your technique.”

I pictured him back in Silvermist, manning the Sombra woodworking booth. Or in the Grimstone village I still hadn’t seen, surrounded by his friends I still didn’t know. No Zane breathing down his neck or Malak testing his reflexes with ‘accidentally’ thrown objects.

Just… Zral. Happy, easygoing. Talented with his hands for commercial and personal purposes.

My lips quirked.

“So what are you suggesting?” Zral’s thumb traced circles on my palm, sending tiny sparks of awareness up my arm. “Don’t you want to be a merc princess? Finally get your spot on the team?”

The question landed like a stone in still water. I guided him to sit on the edge of my bed, joining him with our thighs pressed together. The mattress creaked under our combined weight in another reminder of how thin the walls were in this place.

“Kaz offered to put me on the team officially,” I admitted, the words tasting strange on my tongue. After years of fighting for recognition, the victory felt hollow. “Said I’d earned it. That I could start training with them as soon as things calm down.”

“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” His dark eyes searched mine, seeing too much. “To prove yourself?”

I nodded, but the certainty I’d expected to feel wasn’t there. For so long, I’d defined myself by what I wasn’t allowed to do—wasn’t allowed to fight, wasn’t allowed to choose my own path. Now that those barriers were gone, I found myself wondering if I’d been chasing the wrong goal all along.

“I want that,” I said slowly, sorting through the tangle of emotions. “But I also want space to be me outside of being a Kadhan.” I looked up at him through my lashes, suddenly afraid he wouldn’t understand. “And I really like waterfalls.”

Understanding dawned in his eyes. “Silvermist?”

“I could teleport back for missions,” I said, the words tumbling out faster as I watched his expression. “The commute would be negligible. And we’d have our own place. No pretending we didn’t hear Kaz discussing contingency plans if you ‘proved unsuitable.’“

“I’ll give you Kadhans points for creatively ending me. Through your daily heart attacks or his inventive uses of household objects…” Zral snorted, lips twitching into a half-smile. He turned serious and utterly engaged with the thumb hestroked in circles on my wrist. “I won’t hide that I’d like out of this compound. But I worry I’d be taking too much. Your family, your ambitions?—”

“My choices,” I cut him off. “I want this. I want to uncover all your secret dreams and annoying habits and a lifetime of tonights.” I lifted his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm. “I want to be your mate.”

Zral’s eyes flared with heat, and he leaned forward until our foreheads touched. The mate bond hummed between us, no longer a frightening tether but a connection I was beginning to treasure.

“A lifetime of tonights,” he repeated, his voice rough with emotion. “I like the sound of that.”

“So that’s a yes?” I couldn’t keep the hope from my voice. For someone who had spent her life being told where to go and who to be, asking for what I wanted still felt like an act of rebellion.

“Yes.” Zral’s lips curved into that roguish smile that made my insides melt. “I’m yours, Rava. For as many tonights as you’ll have me.”

I crashed my lips against his, swallowing his laugh as I pushed him back onto the bed. My tail draped his thigh as I straddled his hips. The kiss turned hungry, desperate with the release of days of tension.

His hands slid beneath my shirt, calloused fingers tracing fire down my spine. I arched into his touch, gasping as he found the sensitive spot where my tail met my back.

“Cheater,” I muttered against his mouth.

He grinned, nipping at my lower lip. “Tactical advantage.”

I ground my hips against the hardness straining beneath his pants, delighting in his sharp intake of breath. Two could play at this game. My fingers danced along the waistband of his jeans, teasing without delivering.

“Rava,” he groaned, his voice a delicious rumble that vibrated through my chest.

“Yes?” I asked innocently, pulling back just enough to see his face. His pupils were blown wide, desire darkening his eyes to midnight.

A knock at the door froze us both.

“Rava?” Kaz’s voice came through the wood, and I barely suppressed a groan. “We need to discuss the meeting with the king.”

I dropped my forehead against Zral’s chest, muttering curses under my breath. Zral’s chest shook with silent laughter beneath me.

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