Page 10 of Claimed By the Mountain Man Orc
She sits up, pulling the fur around her shoulders, and fixes me with a determined look. "You think I'd let anyone hurt you?"
"Isn’t it your job to tell everyone what you’ve seen?"
"Not anymore. I'll tell them I fell in the river and got lucky," she says firmly, her voice leaving no room for argument. "That I found an abandoned cabin and waited out the cold. That's all."
Her tone brooks no disagreement. She's decided.
I study her face, looking for any sign of doubt or hesitation, but find only conviction. This strange, stubborn human who chased legends into the mountains has already chosen her side. Has chosen me.
When she finally gathers her things—dried clothes pulled on with reluctance, her camera checked and rechecked—I walk with her to the edge of the ridge. The air is sharp and clean, the forest below heavy with snow that glitters in the morning sun.
Mazie looks back at me, her hand finding mine. "You could come down with me, you know. See the world. We could figure out a way to make it work. A disguise, maybe? Or—"
"No," I say, though the offer touches something in me I didn't know was there. "My place is here. This is where I belong."
She studies me, eyes searching, and I wonder what she sees. A monster? A man? Something in between? "Then I'll come back."
I should tell her not to. Should tell her this bond doesn't belong to her world, that the life I can offer her is too hard, too isolated, too different from everything she knows. But the words won't come. Instead, they lodge in my throat like stones.
I reach into my coat and pull out a small carving—a mountain orchid, its petals curling protectively around a smooth stone at the center. I worked on it while she slept, unable to rest, needing to create something that would keep her safe when I couldn't be there.
I press it into her palm, closing her fingers around it. "Keep this. It's your token. My mark.”
Her throat works as she looks down at it, turning it in the light. The wood is smooth from hours of careful work, each petal distinct. "You're giving me a piece of the mountain."
"A piece of me," I correct softly. "That's what tokens are. Pieces of ourselves we give to those we love."
The word hangs between us.Love. I've never said it before, not to anyone. But with her, it feels natural, inevitable.
She closes her fingers around the carving, holding it against her chest. "Then I'll guard it with my life."
We hear voices then—distant, human, calling her name through the trees. The search party, finally reaching this high. She turns toward them, hesitating, her hand squeezing mine once more.
"I'll tell them I found nothing," she says quietly, looking up at me with fierce determination. "No monsters. No myths. Just empty woods and cold water."
I huff a low laugh. "You'll be lying."
"Yeah," she says, smiling up at me even as her eyes shine with unshed tears. "But it's a good lie. The best kind."
The wind picks up, scattering loose snow between us, and I know this is the moment. The moment she steps back into her world and I retreat into mine. The moment the bond stretches thin across the distance.
But it doesn't break. I can still feel it, humming beneath my ribs, connecting us even as she turns and walks away.
I watch her go until the trees hide her completely, until even her scent fades on the wind. The bond still hums, faint but sure, stretching between us like a thread of gold that nothing can sever.
She'll come back.
I know it as surely as I know my own heartbeat, as surely as I know the mountain will still be here when she does.
Chapter 7
Mazie
BythetimeIreach the base of the mountain, the search team's voices are fading behind me, swallowed by the trees and distance.
They never saw him.
They never will.
