Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

Giza

"Are you sure?"

They were the first words I'd said to her since we'd turned the lights off and pulled the quilt up over us. This was one of my favorite positions; curled around Harper, my hand cupping the mound of our child, feeling the kit move.

I felt her exhale a little breath of laughter. "I was wondering when you were going to follow up on that."

Today had been…well, remarkable didn't fit it well enough.

Reuniting with Tanis after so many years and meeting his beautiful Mate—I'd actually seen her perform once, several years ago, and enjoyed hearing about her tour. The fact they were expecting two kitlings was joyful news and buoyed me.

Or perhaps that was because, for the first time, so many of us were together again, giving thanks—to the gods, to the universe, whatever we wanted to believe—that we were happy and healthy and blessed.

Having my younger brothers and their Mates around me had been the perfect Kap'paral .

But today was special for more than that.

Seeing Harper's parents happiness, feeling their welcome, after she'd cautioned me about their hesitation around Meli's Mate…it had been an appreciated surprise. I enjoyed chatting with her father—a brilliant male, to be certain!—but more than that, I was grateful Harper was so happy with their acceptance.

And then…

And then.

To have my Mate stand in front of my family and her family, and declare she loved me, and would be with me? Declare herself officially Mated, in the eyes of our clan?

Well, was it any wonder I spent the rest of the evening floating on a cloud of joy?

Now I nuzzled my nose against the back of her head, inhaling her unique scent, and the scent of our child.

Our daughter .

Not for the first time, I felt tears pricking at my eyelids. I was going to be a father. I would have a daughter. My line—my clan—would continue.

Our future was secure, and wasn't that the reason my brothers and I crossed through the veil ten years ago?

"Giza?" she murmured, then began the ungainly flopping motion that meant she wanted to roll over.

I loosened my hold and did what I could to help her. It was a full moon—although the wee hours of the morning since the bonfire took ages to die down—so I could see her worried expression well enough.

"I love you, Harper," I murmured, dropping a kiss on her nose .

I saw her teeth gleam as she smiled. "And I love you. And yes , I'm sure I love you."

"That wasn't…" I trailed off. Actually, that was what I'd been asking.

"I love you, Giza." She shifted in my hold, pressing against my shoulder as if she wanted me to roll. "And I am grateful to be your Mate."

I obliged by flopping over onto my back, so she could loom over me. I stared up at her. "Hearing you say that tonight…it completed me, dkaar . I've been waiting. Praying." I guess a part of me still believed in the goddess's blessings.

When she blew out a breath, I felt it across my naked skin, the same way I could feel her . Her heartbeat, mixed with mine and our daughter's.

She cupped my cheek, but only for a moment. Her touch moved lower, through my beard, until her palm rested on my chest, above my heart. "Thank you, Mate."

Would I ever tire of hearing her say that? My pulse leapt. "For what?"

"For being patient with me. For trusting me to figure it out."

I covered her hand with mine. "What did you need to figure out?"

In the dim light, I saw her lips curl into a small smile. " Everything ," she said ruefully, then huffed out a laugh and made herself more comfortable, sprawled over me. "I was afraid. I was afraid that loving someone—especially someone as incredibly strong, smart, and competent as you—meant I'd be compromising my…"

Ah, I understood now. "Compromising your own strength, intelligence, and competence?"

A moment, then she made a small movement like a shrug. "I never thought in those terms, but yes. I've spent my whole life being…well, perfect. Strong, smart, competent, because I was the oldest daughter, and I had to be. Then you came along, and you're even more perfect, and I realized I liked being able to rely on you and lean on you, but…I was afraid."

My hand rose to stroke her bare back. "I think I can understand that. You are proud of what you've accomplished with your life, and the thought of coming to rely on me to solve your problems must have been scary."

"Don't get me wrong, I like when you can see problems that need to be fixed and fix them. Like when you see me struggling with the damn pickle jar lid, or when I'm warm, so you open the window."

My fingertips dragged up her spine. "But you're perfectly capable of opening your own window."

"Maybe not the pickle jar," she admitted with a huff. Her fingers were tracing small circles on my chest, and I was trying my hardest not to become distracted. "The point is, I like it when you see problems to solve, and you help me. But I can also solve problems, and I was afraid that if I relied on you, I'd lose that part of me."

The strong, smart, extremely competent part. I cupped the back of her neck. "You have to know, dkaar , that I would never ask you to compromise that part of you."

" You wouldn't—I was afraid of myself. Afraid I might like it."

I used my hold on her to pull her closer, to kiss those beautiful lips of hers, and then whisper, "Just because you like being told what to do in bed, Harper, doesn't mean—"

She interrupted me with laughter, then smacked my chest and pushed herself upright.

"You want to know what it was? It was the green bean casserole. Tonight I realized that when it came to the menu for the Kap'paral , you didn't hesitate to ask my opinion, and to do what I suggested . That's… huge , Giza. You listened, and actually heard , and took my advice."

My lips tugged into a confused frown. "Of course I did. You were right."

"See?" She smacked me again. "That was the right thing to say there too."

I squeezed the back of her neck. "Then why are you hitting me?"

"Because you're so perfect it's sometimes annoying!"

I began to chuckle, and to my relief, she soon joined in. In fact, she fell against me once more, tucked up near my chin, and blew out a breath.

"We're both perfectly imperfect, Harper, but together we can be more. I think the way you need me to open pickle jars, and I need your strength and resilience and beauty and intelligence in my life is perfect. I would never try to make decisions for you."

"But when I thought about it, I realized you've been doing it for me all along." I had a moment of panic before she clucked her tongue and clarified, "I mean, the whole letting me make decisions thing. You've never made me feel wrong for deciding what to do with my baby, even though I know it ate you up not to be in control of that."

She was right. I wrapped my arms around her. "I trust you, dkaar . I didn't know you then, but I never had the right to make demands of you."

When she hummed, her breasts rubbed along my chest. "You offered me anything I wanted, do you remember? You said you'd give me anything in the world, if I had your son and left him with you."

Not my brightest moment. "I thought…" My arms tightened around her. "That was when I thought I could live without you, Harper. I thought, as long as I had my kit, we could survive together, but I shouldn't have asked you to give up your baby."

"And I shouldn't have waited so long to tell you about the baby. Or to make decisions on my own, just because I was used to it." Her mouth was tantalizingly close to my throat. "It took both of us to get into this mess, and our baby is going to need both of us as she grows."

She . I exhaled, sinking into the mattress and feeling Harper smile against my skin. "I can't believe we're having a daughter."

She snorted. "You're just disappointed your sense of smell has failed you," she teased. "Imagine, not being able to tell the difference between a fetus with a penis and one without."

I raised my brow in the darkness. "What a strange way to say that."

She wriggled against me. "There's only one orc penis I want inside—"

"That's it," I growled, planting both my hands on her ass cheeks, dragging her up my body as she dissolved into giggles.

But when I kissed her, I caught her moan on my tongue.

Her arousal flared, just as I knew it would, and I smiled.

This lovemaking—for surely that's what it was—was slow, sensual. My Mate gave as good as she took, and despite my Kteer urging me to take command, I laid on my back and allowed Harper to do whatever she wanted to me—which, not going to lie, worked out rather well for me.

Her tongue was amazing .

"Gods below, dkaar ," I groaned as she cupped my balls with one hand and drew them into her mouth. "You're going to kill me. "

She hummed—sending vibrations through my body—and I knew I'd die happy.

When she licked her way up my shaft, I fisted my hands in the sheets on either side of me to keep from grabbing her. Her little mouth could cover the head of my cock, but not much more, but I adored the way she used her tongue to gather my pre-cum, and her hands to spread her saliva along my cock.

"Harper," I warned her. "I don't want—oh gods, right there."

She laughed as well as she could with a cock in her mouth.

But I didn't want to spill in her mouth. As remarkable as it was to watch her swallow down my seed, which she declared delicious, I'd much rather be buried inside her, feeling her own climax milking my cock.

" Harper ."

Her mouth popped free with a cheerful little sound, and she moved quickly, straddling my thighs and reaching for my hands. I was surprised when she tugged.

"Sit up," she urged. "Please."

Well, far be it for me to object. I pushed myself into a sitting position, so she was more or less in my lap, straddling me, my cock jutting up between us. Since, let's be honest, I'm not as young as I once was, I scooted backward so the pillows supported my back.

"Happy?" I asked.

"Mmmm, very." She shifted forward until the mound of her stomach bumped up against me. "I wanted to try this before I got too big to hold you like this."

Hold me ? I understood what she meant when she settled closer, and we both sucked in a breath as her wetness bracketed my cock. Her pussy slid along the underside of my shaft as her arms went around my middle and she tucked her head under my chin.

And then she froze.

Gods of the ancestors, she felt so damned good…but I needed her to move. Please .

" Dkaar ?" I knew my voice was strained, but I felt as if I was teetering on a precipice. "Harper, love, I need…"

Her hips rocked forward, wrenching a groan from me as her wet lips slid along my cock, and she giggled at my response.

She was teasing me!

With a growl, I reached for her hips and lifted her straight up. "You think that's funny?"

With her squirming against my hold, I could smell her arousal, thick and delicious. "I mean, yeah, kinda."

"I think you need to be punished."

She stilled, her pulse speeding. "How?" she breathed.

"By being impaled by a thick cock."

As she moaned in assent, I lowered her, spreading her pussy lips with the tip of my hardness. She was the one to sink lower, to do the actual impaling.

And as soon as she was fully seated, her climax struck.

I didn't give her time to recover, but began rocking beneath her, a slow sort of punishment. And soon enough, my Mate was joining in. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and when I realized my cock was hitting that rough spot behind her clitoris that she liked so much, I could suddenly see the benefits to this position.

Soon our movements sped up, and she wrapped her arms around my neck, allowing me greater movement. I rolled, pulling myself to my knees, and she held on, impaled on my cock. From here, I could thrust into her, balancing her body as she clung to me like a vine. I could feel the weight of our child between us …

And then I could feel nothing else as my pleasure burst over me. I pressed my mouth against the top of her head to stifle my groan of release, my hips bucking gently into her until I felt her orgasm ignite, squeezing me, spasming around me.

This was where I belonged.

Here, with Harper.

My Mate.

Exhausted now, we both collapsed into the bed once more. She was sprawled across my chest, both of us lit by moonlight, and I marveled that I'd been gifted this miracle.

As the air slowly cooled and our bodies grew sticky, I yawned.

Maybe this was what perfection was; this simple moment, the certainty of knowing where we were meant to be.

"I love you, Giza," she murmured sleepily. "My Mate."

I gathered her closer, knowing I needed to get up and fetch a cloth to clean us both. Soon.

"I love you too, Mate." Another yawn. "Thank you for being mine."

I thought I heard her hum in response, and I closed my eyes, vowing that I just needed a minute before I went to get that washcloth. Soon .

I fell asleep holding my perfect Mate.