CHAPTER FIFTY
I soar through an endless moment of delight, carried high by Krivoth's love for me.
And the glorious feel of him filling me completely.
Having him on top of me with all his delicious weight and strength is every bit as heady as I thought it would be. All I can see is him. All I can smell is him. All I can feel is him.
I'm overwhelmed by his size and his presence, and it's exactly how I want to be.
Sex has never been like this before, this bonding of bodies and hearts. I've never felt this close to someone. It's so beautiful I want to cry. The way he looks at me takes my breath away. There's so much love in his eyes.
When I can finally speak again, I cup his dear face. "Yes, Krivoth. Please, love me."
He starts moving, his thrusts deep and slow. His seed continues to flow, slicking us as its effects tingle through my body once more.
I rock with him, tipping my hips to take him fully, my legs pulling him tight. I feel like I can't get close enough to him, like I want more, but I can't imagine how anything can top this.
Over and over, he moves in and out of me, his handsome face lost in pleasure. I love making him look like that, love that he finds me so desirable. I've never felt more beautiful, and it's more than physical, this feeling. I believe him when he says he finds beauty in my heart.
I know I find it in his.
He's fought for me from the moment we met, crossed a continent to save me. There's never been a truer man.
"I love you, Krivoth."
He groans, his hips snapping forward to bury himself deeply. Wet heat fills me as his stud vibrates over my sensitive nub, and I clench in the first flutter of orgasm.
Warmth heats my chest, my heart pounds, and I suck in a sharp breath, full of the sweet scent of his cream and sex. Then something new happens. A fullness, past even that of his large size, grows and grows.
I moan as the delicious pressure tips me over the edge into an orgasm that goes on and on like waves in an endless ocean, washing through me with tingling pleasure until I collapse, completely spent.
Krivoth's hips still, and one large hand slides underneath me to splay across my bottom. He rolls us until I'm on top, and even though he's careful to keep me pressed to him, something tugs on my entrance.
"What's that?" My muscles give a squeeze, and another flood of pleasure washes through me.
Krivoth moans and says, "That's my knot."
I push up onto my elbows to see him better and squeeze again.
He grunts, his hips moving.
"Are you getting aftershocks?" I ask. "'Cause I'm getting aftershocks."
"Yes." He gives me a wicked smile. "We'll have them the whole time we're knotted. Which is hours, by the way."
"Mmm, hours." I run a hand over his chest, then stop. "Krivoth! You got a tattoo! Why didn't I see it before?" It's a dark crescent moon with a pattern inside, almost like Celtic knot work, but not quite.
"It's a moon bound mate mark. You should have one too."
I lift up a little farther, and his fingers find it. Mine's smaller than his, but that makes sense—I'm smaller as well. "What does it mean?"
"It means the Moon Goddess blesses our mating."
"Didn't she already marry us?"
"Think of this as confirmation."
I squeeze, making him moan again, and he shifts his hips, sending pleasure shooting through me.
"It's gonna be a long few hours," I say.
His expression sobers, and he brushes hair away from my cheek. "Any regrets?"
I turn to press a kiss into his palm, tasting the sweetness of his cream. "Not a one."
"Good. Because I wasn't going to let you go, no matter what you said." His arms lock around me. "I can't, and I don't mean the knot."
"You better not." I lay back down, resting my head right over the strong beat of his heart. Fatigue tugs at me, weighing my eyelids as I yawn. I slide a hand over my mouth. "Oh, sorry."
"Rest, my love." He brings my hand to his lips for a kiss. "I have you."
Safe in his arms, I do exactly what he says.
Dawn lightens the window, and I give a sleepy yawn, sprawled across Krivoth's chest. We're locked together again, his knot filling me exactly as his love fills my heart.
He runs a hand down my back, the sword calluses on his fingers adding an extra texture to his caress. "Tired?"
"So tired." Every muscle in my body aches from being thoroughly loved all night. I glance up at him. "But it's the good kind of tired."
"Only good?" His lips curl.
I squeeze him inside me, making us both gasp in an aftershock of pleasure. "You know you were amazing." We'd done it all—slow and emotional, then fast and dirty, with him growling good girl until I saw stars.
His rich chuckle rolls through me.
God, how I love that sound.
"I know we talked about kids. We just had a lot of sex, and your knot seems to be…" How to say it?
Krivoth has no trouble. "My knot locks my seed inside you. Orcs are among the heartiest of the fae, yet even we do not procreate as easily as humans."
"What if I want a little bit of time to learn my powers and have a few adventures before becoming a mother?"
"Then that is what the goddess will give you. We're moon bound mates." He touches the tattoo on his chest. "She personally blesses our union and will ensure our happiness."
"And you'll be okay with waiting?" I search his eyes. Children are clearly precious to orcs.
"I'd also like time. I want to shake off more of my father's influence before becoming one." A small line pinches his brow, and he stares into the distance.
The soft vulnerability on his face makes my heart ache for him. I hate that he still doubts himself, even if I understand that healing takes time.
"Hey." I cup his cheek and bring his eyes back to me. "You're gonna be a wonderful father and not a single thing like him."
Krivoth takes my hand and presses a kiss to my palm. "Thank you."
His knot releases, sending a flood of orc seed splashing out of me to bathe my inner thighs and his pelvis. He scoops up a handful of it and rubs it into one of my butt cheeks, then repeats the process with the other.
"What are you doing?"
"Making you smell like me."
He keeps going, his large hand massaging the sore muscles of my back, my thighs. The orc seed soaks in, leaving my skin wonderfully soft and smelling of vanilla ice cream warming under the summer sun.
By the time he's done, I'm the most pampered I've ever been, my entire body melting into the bed. He pulls the furs up over us and holds me close.
I fall asleep to the familiar rumble of his deep voice. "My beautiful, amazing bride."
Two days later, King Aldronn gallops into the clearing around the cleaning stone with all of his guards, the unicorns they ride included.
This standing stone is the reason the orcs located Moon Blade Village where they did. Each of their villages stands near one of the "always on" magical stones. This one is like an industrial washing machine and toothpaste factory all rolled into one. It'll clean clothes, it'll make berries that clean teeth, and it makes the cleaning cloths, too.
The clearing's also the largest open space in the whole forest, which is good, because a green dragon swoops down from the sky, huge wings snapping closed on a downdraft that gusts across the clearing. A tingle of magic pulses through the air, and it lands with a thump that's not nearly large enough for its size, since it's even bigger than the one we met before. A much smaller dragon the exact same shade of green lands in front. This must be Drake, Ashley's friend, which means the big dragon is his mother.
The orc king dismounts, and only he comes forward, the rest of his party remaining at the edge of the clearing. He's older than Krivoth, but still very fit, and he carries a sword with the ease of a fighter. If this were a video game, he'd have a big crown and lots of fancy clothes, but instead, he looks like any other orc, the only hint of royalty his dark-purple shirt. He tips his head to the dragon. "Sheevora the Magnificent, it's a pleasure."
"King Aldronn," she says, her voice booming. "Other orcs, human witches, unicorns."
"And me." Mist saunters up to sit beside me. "The cat sith have joined this alliance as well."
"Save us all." Storm snorts. He stands with the other unicorns instead of with us, here to represent his herd.
"You have a problem with that?" Sheevora asks.
"No," Storm says.
Mist's eyes gleam with amusement.
"What of the rest of you?" the dragon asks.
Ashley, Olivia, and I represent the human witches, so I say, "We're fine with it."
Dravarr, Rovann, Gerna, and Branikk are here as the orcs from Moon Blade Village, but it's the king who says, "What do the cat sith offer?"
"I've already helped you obtain the violet trifolia you need for the deathsleep cure," Mist says, her tail twitching. "But if that's not enough, the cat sith also offer their services as messengers. Once we've been to a place, we can travel there via the shadow roads faster than a unicorn can run."
"I bet you're not faster than a dragon!" Drake raises up on his hind legs and beats his wings.
"Maybe not. Maybe so," Mist says, laughter in her voice. "We should race, youngling, and find out."
"You're on! Dragons are superior beings. I'll beat y—"
"Enough," Sheevora booms. "This is not what we're here for."
"Indeed." King Aldronn's dark eyes sweep over us, landing on Krivoth. "Report."
My husband steps forward and does so, giving his account of his whole trip—how he met each of us, all of the ogre and sluagh attacks, and how we found the violet trifolia and had to immediately put the antidote to the test.
He ends by waving toward his sister. "Gerna's already got the violet trifolia rooted and growing."
"Even the plant I harvested berries from is doing well. I can make one dose each to take back to your peoples for now," she says. "With more to come as I cultivate more plants."
"The dragons do not need any of the antidote," Sheevora says.
"I'll happily take one," Mist says.
Storm adds, "As will I."
"I'll take one dose with me for now." King Aldronn looks thoughtful as he turns to me. "I want to know more of your powers."
"I can push things with my mind without touching them." I make a pushing gesture, palms out. "Oh, and I can also pull things to me, too, but I need to figure out how to use that without getting hit by the object."
"She's being modest. My bride's formidable," Krivoth says, pride filling his voice. "Taylor's strong enough to toss ogres and kelpies around, and she even killed an entire sluagh flock in only a few seconds."
Drake makes a whistling noise and bobs his head.
I grin. Looks like I impressed a dragon! Or at least a little one.
"Remarkable," the king says.
Okay, maybe King Aldronn's a little wowed, too.
"Times are clearly changing," he says. "The Moon Goddess is bringing these human witches to Alarria and binding them to my people. Our goddess clearly has plans for the orcs."
"What type of plans?" Sheevora asks.
The king spreads his hands wide, palms up. "I know no more than you. Our goddess is, as always, a capricious goddess."
"No, that's not right," Ashley says. "I felt a sadness in her. I don't think she's doing any of this on a whim."
I nod. "When my power connects to Alarria, it feels eager to do what I need, like it wants to help me."
"All the more reason for us to learn more about our world," Krivoth says. "King Aldronn, my bride and I have a proposal."
He tips his head. "I'm listening."
"We need to explore more of Alarria. Who knows how many more wonders like the violet trifolia await us? We want to lead a team, to go past where the rangers go, to do more than map and mark."
"We want to be like… super rangers," I say. "It would be an equal partnership. If the dragons can provide the information, we have a team with one member from each other species ready to go."
"Who is this team?" Sheevora asks.
"It's the four of us." Storm trots over to stand beside the three of us. We'd talked to him and Mist about our idea yesterday, and they're on board.
The king looks at Krivoth. "If you do this, you won't be a member of my guard."
"No, I would not. I want to keep Moon Blade Village as our home."
"I agree to this," Dravarr says, as clan warlord.
"I already have ideas for what you might seek next," Sheevora says.
"Then, yes." King Aldronn nods. "We'll do it."
Branikk steps forward. "I'd like to be considered for one of these ‘super ranger' teams, too."
Krivoth smiles and claps his friend on the shoulder as both the king and Dravarr agree.
Excitement zips through me, and I stop myself from bouncing on my toes, but it's a close thing. The rest of the meeting drags on, turning to smaller matters, and all I want to do is drag my husband away and celebrate.
Ashley notices my antsiness and makes a shooing motion. When I shoot her a questioning look, she nods and points back towards the village, whispering, "Go, have some more honeymoon."
I grab Krivoth's hand and give a tug, and we ease away… as much as we can with a leopard-sized cat and a unicorn following us, that is.
Once we're inside the trees on the path that leads back to the village, Storm stops and points his horn to where a group of unicorns stand. "I'll check in tomorrow."
As he trots away, Mist says, "That's my cue. See you soon." Then she fades from view, leaving one last flash of her Cheshire-Cat grin hanging in the air before it's gone, too.
Krivoth leads me down the path until everyone's out of view. Then he stops and wraps his arms around me. "Are we finally alone?"
"As alone as we can be on a path used multiple times per day," I tease.
He pulls me into the pine trees until we're several yards off the path. "How about now?"
There's a huge patch of soft moss right behind me, so I reach out with my magic and pull him to me.
His large body hits, and he wraps his arms around me and twists in midair to land on his back with me sprawled on top.
I smile down at him. "Thought I'd get a head start on practicing my pulling."
"You can knock me off my feet as many times as you want." He grins. "As long as you land in my arms."
"Always."
"We did it," he says. "We got the future we want."
"A lifetime of adventure."
Krivoth buries his hand in my hair, pulling my mouth to his in a kiss, reminding me that loving him is already the greatest adventure of all.
Thank you for reading Bound to the Orc Renegade. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Want more Taylor and Krivoth? Read on for a special bonus story!
Want to see what happens when Branikk meets his moon bound bride? Eager to discover who the Moon Goddess picks? Dive into Bound to the Orc Hunter, book three of Brides of the Moon Blade Clan!
Or read on for a sneak peek at Bound to the Orc Hunter:
A man wearing green body paint runs out of the trees and scoops one of the birds out of the air with a of bag. The rest of the black birds go quiet, hovering overhead with their red beaks and eyes still looking hella creepy.
He's seriously good looking, with high cheekbones and a strong jaw. But what really gets me are his eyes. They're gorgeous and a deep brown that's warm and full of life. He's also wearing fake vampire teeth, but kind of big and turned upside down, so they point up. His hair flows around his shoulders in a long, black wave. If that's a wig, it's one of the really, really nice ones.
Tall and built like a bodybuilder, he has lots of heavy muscle through his chest and shoulders. But this guy doesn't skip leg day. Those are some seriously buff thighs.
His clothes are like something out of Witcher—a deep-blue long-sleeved tunic shirt and brown leather pants and boots. He's got a sword strapped to his hip and a huge-assed bow on his back. This guy's gorgeous like a movie star, one of those guys with his own chef and three personal trainers.
"Are you filming a fantasy movie or TV show?" I squint into the surrounding trees. "Where are the cameras?"
Then another thought hits me. Has all of this been some elaborate prank? Am I on reality TV?
No one leaps out, yelling "surprise!" Guess they're going to keep the joke going for longer.
Instead, he points to the bright yellow bouncy castle, and a stream of foreign language pours from him. God, what is that? German, Gaelic, something Scandinavian? It could be any of them or none of them. I'm horrible at languages.
Still, I can guess what he's saying—"Why the hell did you put a huge lump of obnoxiously colored plastic right in the middle of my perfect movie set?"
"Hey, now. Your props people made that thing… appear, not me." I flap a hand at the bouncy castle. It popping into existence like that had to be some kind of special effect, right? "And that twenty-foot fall was no joke. I don't have any stunt training. I could have gotten hurt!"
He turns to face me with some serious bedroom-eyes action, hitting me with a double whammy when he adds a charming smile. "Drevistie."
My tummy flutters. Bad tummy! Stop fluttering for him!
The movies star stalks toward me. Oh, god. Is this the next part of the prank? Have the gorgeous guy pretend to find the plain-looking woman attractive and capture all of it on film?
Fuck that noise.
"I wish I had something to throw at him," I whisper.
A pillow pops into my hands.
Oh, god. If that's a special effect, I don't see how they're doing it. But it has to be right? Because if it's not, then… I'm doing it.
And why a pillow? A quick laugh bursts from my lips, bordering on hysterical. What an utterly useless thing! I guess they don't want their leading man getting his pretty face hurt.
"Here goes nothing." I lob it at him, and of course, he bats it out of the way.
Over and over again, pillows pop into existence in my hands, the crystal on my chest burning with warmth.
And over and over again, he knocks them aside, taking slow steps toward me. With those long legs, he could be on me in a flash. So he must be toying with me, drawing things out for the camera.
This becomes even more apparent when he grins and starts catching the pillows in order to drop them on the ground, one right beside the other.
I squint, trying to figure out what he's doing. Then he adds another pillow, and it suddenly becomes clear.
This asshole is making a bed!
"As if, buddy." I throw another three pillows in rapid succession.
He adds them to the others, filling in the last holes in the "bed."
Then he's on me in two strides, and it suddenly becomes clear that he's not just tall, he tops me by a good foot, which is really saying something since I'm almost six-feet. I feel smaller than a man for the first time in years, the kind of smaller that imagines his big body on top of mine…
No. Bad brain.
Up close, his green body paint is so immaculate I keep expecting a makeup artist to run out of the trees waving a sponge and demanding he hold still for yet another touch up.
His hands capture mine. He transfers both of my wrists to one of his huge hands, holding them easily. His other digs in his pocket, pulling out a crystal that looks a lot like the one on my necklace.
I guess I should be glad it's not a knife or cuffs or something. Not that monster-hands here even needs cuffs with fingers so long and strong.
Nope. Not thinking about how long his fingers are! Not even noticing. Not at all.
He taps the crystal to my collarbone, dragging it across my skin like a caress.
I shiver, my body reacting to his nearness, whether I want to or not. No! Bad body!
"There," he says, his deep voice making my stomach do flips. "You should be able to understand me now."
"What? How?"
"Magic, like you used to make the pillows."
Magic? No. That means all of this is real. He must be pulling my leg, trying to get me to agree that I have magic on camera so they can make extra fun of me.
His eyes flick to the "bed" and then back to me. He grins, slow and wicked. "I like the gesture, but if you wanted me to take you to bed, my bride, you had only to ask."
"Gesture! Gesture? There was no gesture. I was trying to keep you away."
His lips press into a flat line but still tremble. Is he laughing at me? Oh, hell no.
I tug against his grip, and he holds on just long enough to make it clear that he's strong enough to not need to let me go. But he does.
I make a production of rubbing at my wrists as if he hurt me, and the smile falls from his face for the first time since we met.
"I'm sorry. Orcs are stronger than humans. I'll be more careful touching you in the future."
Orcs? So that's what his costume is. Then my brain processes the rest of his words.
"Hey now." I raise my hands palms out and back away. "There's not going to be any touching."
"Of course there will be. There'll be a great deal of touching." His deep voice makes the word sound like a caress, and he flashes me that wicked, wicked smile again.
So many flutters—my tummy's throwing a whole damned party for him.
"You're my moon bound bride."
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BOUND TO THE ORC HUNTER
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