CHAPTER EIGHT

Dash thunders on, the landscape swirling past. Hours pass, and he shows no signs of flagging, even as the light around us dims, heralding evening.

Selena slumps back against me, her head lolling on my shoulder, fast asleep. She’s exhausted, and if she’s anything like the other humans, she’s not used to riding. The need to take care of her fills me, and my arms tighten around her.

“We must stop for the night,” I say.

“I can keep going,” Dash says. “I feel better than ever.”

“You needed frequent stops when we traveled before.” Even though he ran hard to get to the standing stone, he never galloped for this long in one go.

“Of course I did.” He snorts, half disdain, half amusement. “I didn’t have Selena constantly healing me.”

Shock ripples through me. “You don’t have a unicorn’s self-healing power?” Unicorns have incredible endurance and can carry heavy loads because their magic continuously heals them as they run. But if Dash doesn’t have that, then he also lacks a unicorn’s other special magic—the ability to heal an injured person who hovers on the brink of death. That magic always offers a comfort. Goddess knows, Bruna’s fate would have been far different that day if a unicorn had been with us. I hadn’t realized I’d been without it these past few days.

“Of course I don’t.” He tosses his head.

“But you have a horn.” Although uncommon, fae have always married among the various compatible types. The younglings tend to take after one parent or the other in terms of their magic. Typically, if the child of a pooka-unicorn union has a horn, then they’re a unicorn with a unicorn’s magic.

“Yes, well, I’m special.” Dash whinnies a laugh. “Or haven’t you noticed that I’m using pooka travel magic?”

“I noticed,” I mutter. It just hadn’t registered that he lacked the other magic, though it should have. “So you have a horn, which means you should be a unicorn, but your magic is that of a pooka. ”

“Precisely. As I said, I’m special,” he says, his tone amused. Then his voice becomes wistful. “It also means I don’t fit in with the unicorns.”

“Which is why you’re out here in the forest alone like a pooka.”

“Yes, well, the horn means I don’t fit with them either.”

The sadness in his voice tears a truth from me, one I’ve never admitted, even to Wranth. “I’m the same. Returning to my village should feel like coming home. And it does, in part. Everyone’s gone out of their way to be welcoming.” I pause for a moment. “But how can it truly be home if it’s the place of my life’s greatest tragedy?”

He turns his head enough to glance at me with one golden eye. “What happened?”

“My childhood sweetheart died,” I bite out the words, my tusks seeming to chop them into short, harsh sounds.

“I’m sorry.” He runs for a few silent strides. Then his voice brightens. “But Selena will fix everything. She’s your moon bound bride, so you’ll have love again. And with her as my rider, I can be just like the unicorns. Better even! I can self heal and use my travel magic. I’ll be the ultimate mount. No one will be faster.”

“No,” I growl.

“Yes, I will. You can already see how fast I am.” As if to prove his point, he gallops even faster, the darkening landscape flowing past more quickly than ever.

“I do not doubt your abilities.” No, the problem is the other half of his pronouncement. Pain fills my chest, sharper than the old ache of Bruna’s loss. “Selena isn’t mine. The goddess simply used me to retrieve her because I was closest to the healing stone.”

Dash snorts again. “Whatever you need to tell yourself, orc.”

Selena stirs in my arms, a soft sigh of discontent escaping, as if she can’t quite get comfortable.

“Stop,” I growl, unable to bear the thought of her discomfort. “Even if you can run all night, she can’t ride for so long.”

“When you put it that way…” Dash’s stride slows to a trot, and the blurred forest snaps back into sharp relief.

We move through a stand of pines, the trees growing so close together the ends of their branches brush over my bare arms and shoulders in a tickle of needles.

As much as I try to shield her, they touch Selena’s arms as well, and she stirs, murmuring a sleepy protest.

I pull her more tightly to me, curving my shoulders around her, and she settles again as we move into a more open forest. “Are there any places you can graze nearby?” Even if Selena’s healing magic allows him to run without breaks, he still needs to eat.

“There should be one just ahead.”

We round a wide clump of rhododendrons, their waxy leaves offset by beautiful lavender flowers, and move into a small mountain meadow. The setting sun hits the pillowy clouds overhead, making them glow orange and pink. Bluebells dot the tall grass, and a pair of magpies lift from the ground, the white bars on their black wings flashing in the air. Golden larks sing from the trees surrounding the open space, filling the air with sweet song .

I lift Selena fully into my arms and slide to the ground.

The movement wakes her, and she glances around, startled. But when her eyes meet mine, she calms.

The trusting look she gives me punches me right in the solar plexus, stealing my breath. I’ll do anything to keep her looking at me like that.

As I set her feet on the ground, Dash starts cropping at the grass, ripping up large mouthfuls and chewing quickly. It seems that even if Selena’s magic heals him, he still needs to eat a great deal to maintain the extended run times.

Selena deserves a real meal as well.

“I’m going to hunt. Watch her for me?”

“Yesh,” Dash lisps around a mouthful of grass, his lower jaw moving from side to side.

I mime for Selena to stay, and at her nod, I hurry into the woods, hunting knife in hand. On my way back with two rabbits, I gather some wild carrots to add a bit of variety to our meal.

When I return, the last bit of daylight brightens the open sky over the meadow, and the colors of everything have softened with gray.

Selena looks as beautiful as ever, her plump lips curving into a smile as she spots me. She continues to watch me avidly as I clear a patch of ground and lay a fire, sparking it to life with a fire stone.

I pick up the rabbits, ready to head away from our camp to prepare them, when she stops me with a hand on my arm. Fluid sounds pour from her in her lovely soprano voice for several moments, and when she falls silent, she looks at me expectantly .

I shake my head.

With an amused huff, she cups her crotch with both hands and bounces in place.

“Ah.” I set down the rabbits and pull out the waterskin and a cleaning cloth. After wetting the cloth, I pick up one of her hands and wash the dust from it. I show her the begrimed cloth and pour a small bit of water onto it. A tingle of magic ripples through the air, and the cloth gleams white again in the low light.

She makes a delighted noise and snatches the cloth and waterskin from me before turning and hurrying into the trees.

I add more wood to the fire, stoking it hotter, and wait.

And wait some more.

By the goddess, how long can it take her to relieve herself? Has she been hurt? Then another thought strikes, and I bolt to standing.

Could the ogre have found her?

Surely, Dash outpaced the kelpie, even if the aquatic fae had a head start. But what if…?

Fear slides slimy claws into my heart as I picture the ogre standing over Bruna, sending logic fleeing.

Moving as quickly and silently as possible, I bolt into the trees. Yelling for Selena will only let the enemy know I’m coming. My ears strain for any hint of sound, dismissing the soft sigh of wind through branches and the scuttle of small creatures stirring the ferns.

There! A rustle of cloth.

I circle a wide rhododendron and slide to a shocked halt .

Selena stands before me, half turned away, wearing nothing but tiny scraps of turquoise lace. Fuck. A thin band wraps around her waist, another narrow strip sliding between her bare buttocks in a tease that’s even more alluring than full nudity. She bends over, the round globes of her ass rising into the air as she runs the cleaning cloth down one thigh in a sinuous glide.

Orc night sight is good—too good—making it clear how soft and supple her young skin is. I can’t tear my eyes from the plump, sweet swell of her hips. A primal compulsion wells within me, filling my chest and setting my heart racing. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. My cock springs to life, heavy with a promise that goes beyond mere pleasure. I thought all such hopes died years ago, and I never imagined a future with the possibility. That it happens now shocks me to my core.

Because the wide flare of her hips calls to me. My hands tingle, aching to clasp them, to bury myself in her depths and fill her with my seed. To mark her as mine.