CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The blinding joy of battle fills my chest, pounds through my blood like the strongest of drums. I fight, using a move my mother taught me as a child, when I begged her for lessons. She'd grin and lead me outside our heart tree cottage, where we cracked practice sticks together.

I miss her every day, and today I battle for both her and my bride. But unlike my mother, I do not fight alone.

Even outnumbered, there would be no issue or doubt who would win… if not for the kelpies.

An ogre swings his battleaxe at my head in a deadly chop.

I raise my sword in a sharp uppercut that knocks the weapon aside. Then I spin, sweeping my eyes over the terrifying sight of a kelpie stalking toward Taylor. She's never looked tinier than now, confronted by the huge beast, her human size no match for the vile water horses.

"No!" The word tears my throat, ripping straight from my heart.

The cat sith appears and fights valiantly for my bride, and I'm sorry I ever doubted Mist's declarations of friendship. She's as true a battle mate as one could wish for.

As is Storm.

The unicorn stomps another ogre into the ground, his hooves striking with all the force of his thousand-pound weight. Even an eight-foot ogre becomes a paltry thing in the face of such might.

Then I face my opponents again. Lucky me, to have two. I bare my tusks at them and whip my warrior braid back out of my way. "Come at me, ogre filth! I'll gut you like I did your friend."

A mace whistles toward my left side just as the other ogre's axe chops at my right.

I dance back out of the way.

By the goddess, why did they have to coordinate for the very first time? Usually, they fight with no discipline and even less concern for their fellow ogres. But these two have fixed on me from the start—the one because of how I injured him at the standing stone, the other… Well, her eyes continually flash back toward the first ogre I defeated, so it's personal. That's fine.

This damned battle is personal for me as well.

"It must be true that ogres are stupid," I say to the one bearing my scar. "Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

"Your pretty human seems to have lost her magic," he sneers. "It'll be nothing to capture her today."

"You think you'll get your grubby paws on my moon bound?" I taunt, snapping my tusks at the male who's come back for her a second time. "You will not touch a hair on her head."

His eyes flick over my shoulder even as I block the other ogre's attack. Then he laughs, and the cruelty in the sound wraps my heart in the icy grip of fear. Taylor!

I spin right in time to see three kelpies surround her.