Page 32 of Claimed By Stone
I knew why they did it, but the need to make someone pay for hurting her- hurting what's mine- put a raging fire in the pit of my stomach.
I was still a mess of emotions, waiting for her to turn to stone, wanting to decimate the orcs who hurt her.
But as I watched the glow of the fire dance across her soft features, the raging fire turned to embers. She was here. She was safe. And she was mine.
Mine. That word kept replaying in my mind. Nothing had ever felt as true as that. There was a small part of me that was beginning to wonder if she was my mate. Orcs should know. Perhaps it was the magic of the stone claiming her, or that I had never expected to ever find a mate, that had hidden the bond. Or maybe I was just out of my head in love with a stone goddess. Yet, there was a small glimmer of hope that she might one day be mine.
As her breathing slowed and she drifted off to sleep, my own eyelids began to feel heavy.
A sharp cry sliced through the darkness. My eyes snapped open, hand already reaching for a weapon I hadn’t brought intothe bedroom. But there was no enemy, just Seraphina, thrashing beneath the blankets, her breath coming in quick, shallow gasps.
I was at her side in an instant, crouching next to the bed.
“Seraphina,” I said, voice low but firm. “You’re safe. It’s me. Just a nightmare.”
She jolted upright, eyes wide and glassy. For a moment, I wasn’t sure she saw me at all.
Her lips moved, barely a whisper. “Thavros?”
“I’m here.”
Tears welled, spilling down her cheeks as she reached for me with trembling hands. “Don’t go.”
Something in my chest cracked. “I won’t. Never, if you don’t want me to.”
She shifted aside beneath the blanket, leaving space. “Please. I need you.”
Every part of me wanted to ask if she was sure. If this was what she truly wanted or just a fear of speaking. But the words wouldn’t come. She was looking at me like I was her anchor in a storm, and that storm had already done its damage.
I shed my outer tunic and crawled into the bed behind her. She immediately curled into my chest, her back pressed to my front, her hair brushing under my chin. I wrapped my arm around her, careful not to touch any lingering bruises.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured.
She gave a soft, hiccupped sigh and, slowly, her body began to relax.
But I didn’t sleep.
Not for a long time.
I held her, feeling the curve of her hip against my palm, the gentle rhythm of her breath. She was so soft, so warm. So utterly real.
And I couldn’t shake the fear that when I woke up again, she’d be stone.
Chapter 16
Seraphina
With a stretch, I woke. It took me a moment to realize where I was. The warmth of the bed beneath me, the softness of the blankets, the echo of Thavros’s deep voice murmuring comfort… all of it might have been a dream.
Except that I wasn’t stone.
I sat up slowly, brushing trembling fingers along the lines of my arm, my face, the sheets. Still warm. Still soft. Still me. The magic hadn’t taken me again.
And then it hit me.
The memories. Not all at once—more like a fractured mirror catching the light from different angles. A name:Seraphina. My name. A truth:Godling blood runs in my veins. And something worse—some shadowed certainty that I had been sent here for a reason. A weapon, made to wait.
I pulled the blanket tighter around myself, as if it could shield me from what was surfacing.
