CHAPTER FOURTEEN（Untitled）Wranth

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Wranth

My moon bound bride stares at me with the most beautiful brown eyes, the softest look on her pretty face.

My arms tighten around her.

Only us.

I like the sound of them.

Her scent surrounds me, heady and sweet. And mixed with mine. She slept in my furs. She wears my shirt. A feral possessiveness fills me.

Mine .

“I felt nothing but the loss of weight from my back.” Zephyr trots over. “I wasn’t moved a single inch.”

“I wonder if it’s because you’re so much larger than Naomi,” Shadow asks. “Would someone more her size be pulled along?”

I set down my bride and stare at the cat. “You mean you?”

“Who else is there to test with?” He grins back at me.

“Do you think you can carry me?” Naomi walks over to him. “I’m pretty sure I weigh more than you.”

“I’m Wild Fae,” he says. “I’m strong.”

“You don’t need to carry her,” I growl. “Try it touching her. That might be enough.”

They set off across the meadow, Shadow walking so close that Naomi keeps one hand buried in the ruff surrounding the back of his neck.

Between one blink and the next, my bride’s soft weight hits my chest, and I wrap my arms around her.

“It’s just me again.” She grins up at me.

“You’re more than enough,” I say, pulling her even closer. Goddess, I could hold her all day!

“We need to try the other way, with you riding me,” Shadow says. “If we want to be sure. Then we should try with something small, like a mouse.”

“A mouse?” I cock an eyebrow at him. “And where do you propose we procure one of those?”

“It’s a field, orc.” He flashes his cat sith smile. “Ever heard of ‘field mice’?”

I bare my tusks even as Naomi chuckles and Zephyr gives a snort of amusement.

“Don’t you start, too,” I tell my friend.

My bride pushes at my shoulders, and I set her down.

She walks away with the feline fae, and once they’re about fifteen feet away, they pause, and she climbs onto his back, lying flat to keep her legs off the ground.

Again, Naomi’s thrown into my arms, which catch her on pure instinct. She’s a little breathless and giggles. “This is actually kind of fun, like a carnival ride or something.”

Far be it for me to disagree. “I can catch you all day.”

“The mouse!” Shadow calls out from where he sits, his front paws trapping something against the ground. “I have one.”

“Wait,” I say as I set my bride down. I retrieve an empty pouch from a saddlebag and hand it to her. “So it can’t bite you.”

When she reaches Shadow, he drops the squirming bit of fluff into the bag she holds open. Then she walks, the bag held out to her side.

Warmth fills me when I realize she’s doing it so the mouse won’t be squashed between us. My bride has a kind heart.

One more step, and she flies into my arms. The bag drops to the ground, back where she was, and the mouse runs out the top.

“Well, that seems pretty definite. The tether affects only me,” Naomi says, her husky voice stroking over my nerves like a caress. “Only us.”

Only us.

Her words reverberate through my soul. I am connected to this woman. I belong to someone.

I am no longer alone.

I pack up the tent and campsite with sure, practiced motions, having done it so many times over the years it takes no thought.

“You could have tied the bag closed,” Shadow complains, not for the first time.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted the mouse,” Naomi says. “If you hunted for us for breakfast, didn’t you eat, too?”

“I did.” He dips his head. “But hunger isn’t the point. It’s that I caught it—that mouse was mine.”

Naomi shoots me a glance, asking for help.

“Wild Fae are exactly that,” I say. “Wild. Even if fully sentient and able to speak, they are not human.”

“I should hope not.” The skin all down Zephyr’s back twitches. “I still have nightmares about being a biped.”

“While cat sith may hunt in part for sport, hunting’s primary purpose is still food, survival. It’s a deep-rooted instinct not easily overcome.”

“Well said, orc.” The cat dips his head. Then his tone goes sly. “Almost as if you have a few primal instincts of your own.”

Naomi turns wide eyes on me, and I can’t help the way my cock stirs at the thought of a different kind of hunt, of her as prey, running in front of me, glancing over her shoulder to see me coming and giving an excited gasp. I could be on her in two steps, but I shorten my strides, drawing out the chase, scenting the musk of her arousal perfuming the air.

The feline fae laughs, the ratcheting sound pulling me back to the here and now where my bride stands before me instead of leading me on a merry chase.

Yet I soon have the joy of holding my moon bound in my arms as we ride out of the meadow and the forest closes around us again.

“How long do you think it’s going to be before I get my magic back?” she asks.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s just… my family has no idea where I am or what’s happening, and I can only imagine what Hannah must have told them. She saw me disappear into thin air!” Naomi throws up her hands. “That kind of shit does not happen on Earth.”

“It doesn’t happen in Alarria either.” I tighten my grip on her. “Not until you. Orcs all have magic, but none have your kind of magic. It’s powerful. More than that, it’s unprecedented.”

She casts a coy smile over her shoulder. “Why, Wranth, are you saying I’m special?”

A growl rumbles through me as I lean close to murmur in her ear. “Yes, very special.”

My bride shivers, a sweet tremble I feel everywhere we touch.

Goddess, I want her trembling around my cock!

Then she shakes her head and sits up straighter, pulling away from me a little. “I need to go home, even if I get snapped back here like before.”

“No.” Her words spark a primal possessiveness inside me, yet that’s not why I protest—or not the only reason. “If you open the door to your world and teleport there, you’ll burn out your magic and we’ll be stuck in this exact same situation again.”

“You’re right.” She throws out a hand palm up. “But what choice do I have?”

“Dragons,” Zephyr and Shadow say at exactly the same time.

“Actually, there’s something you should do before dragons.” I pull her a little closer as Zephyr leaps a downed log, my bride’s curls flying up to brush my chin. “You should return to Moon Blade Village, and we’ll get you one of the red crystals that will protect you from magical burnout.”

“The place with the tree cottages?” She twists to shoot me a dazzled look.

Naomi really likes the idea of the heart tree cottages, and I must admit I enjoyed my stay in one. For all of Elmswood Keep’s solid splendor, the castle isn’t cozy like a village cottage.

“Yes,” I growl. “That was Moon Blade Village.”

“That’s a great idea, only… I’m not sure how I got there the first time.” She shrugs. “I was trying to go home.”

“So you went to his home,” Shadow says. “Simple.”

“Simple?” I cock an eyebrow at him.

“You’re moon bound and tethered. The goddess has connected you tightly to one another.” The feline fae grins. “So when Naomi thought of home…”

“You went to Wranth’s home instead!” Zephyr finishes.

“But the village isn’t my home,” I say. “And we went to King Aldronn first.”

“You consider being with him your home,” Zephyr says. “Face it—we travel much of the year. We’re always on the move. The only constant is the king.”

“That’s what it means to be in the king’s guard,” I say. “That’s the point of the position—to be the strong sword arm by his side, protecting him.”

My old friend turns her head to spear me with one sharp blue eye. “Yet after spending only a couple of weeks in Moon Blade Village, you went there next. I find that telling.”

I rock backward as if she struck a physical blow, my knees tightening to keep my seat. Things I never dared hope for fill me with bittersweet longing. I could be like Sturrm—assigned to the village permanently.

I could have a cottage, a home.

And a family of my own to share it with.

If only my bride will stay.