Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LILY

" P ut your boots on. It's not safe here," Ryko says after several minutes of kissing.

He's tense. Constantly looking over his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I've placed both of us at risk," he explains as we move at a brisk pace up a trail I don't recognize.

"Are we running away?" I ask, trying not to let my voice falter. We haven't discussed the idea of leaving our people. Ryko always speaks so highly of his people, even his king. I never imagined he'd want to leave them, whereas I don't have any true connections in New Earth. I'd miss my cousins, even though I don't get to see them often. I think my uncle's keeping them away from me. He never really saw any worth in me, other than what I could do for him.

"Whatever it is, Ryko. I trust you," I add instead of pushing for answers.

He slams to a halt. "Perhaps you should not."

I'm so stunned, that my mouth drops open .

"Is that an invitation?" he quips as he traces my lips with a finger. "Or your way of saying you forgive me for what happened between us? I do not want you to do what you're not ready for. Though mating would be useful."

Useful? I'm not sure what he's saying.

"If you're talking about what we did last time we were in these woods, I loved…" I lower my voice. "sucking on you." Heat rises in my cheeks. The words sound dirtier than the act itself. I take a deep breath. "Please, tell me why you're so nervous."

"Tense. Stressed. Not nervous."

"I saw you speaking with your grak, at the edge of my sector."

The backs of his fingers gloss over my cheek. "He refused my request to be with you. And he… vekk him, he wants you for himself, Lily."

"What?" I say stunned. Then anger sweeps over me. The asshole is going to do anything he can to keep us apart. "He can't have me."

"He's grak. He gets what he wants," Ryko says with such finality that my stomach lurches.

"Please tell me this is his way of punishing you and it's nothing more than a scare tactic."

He holds my face in his hands. "My grak is quite direct. If he wanted to punish me, it would be through other means. If he says he wants you, it means you appeal to him and he doesn't give a vekk about anyone else. He intends to have you."

My eyes flare. "I don't care what he wants. He can't have me. And there's no way my people would let him touch me."

Ryko punches the tree behind me as he swears in Orcan. Slowly, I ease his bloody hand away from the tree and the sizeable indent. Fortunately, nothing appears broken, merely scraped from the rough bark. "I'm causing so much trouble for you, aren't I?" I whisper as I rip a strip of fabric from my skirt's hem.

"You talk as if you are a burden."

"I guess that's more my uncle talking than me. I can get insecure at times. Mostly when I feel… trapped." I brush the shards of bark off his knuckles and wipe away the blood. "Look what you've done to your poor hand. Because of me." I shake my head.

Ryko grips my hand, stopping me from tending to his wound. "Do not blame yourself for this situation."

"I'm not, but…" I exhale, desperately wracking my brain for a solution. "Maybe I should approach my people. Tell them I want to be with you. Ask if we could live in New Earth."

"No," he says, the word so clipped the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

"Why not? It's possible they'll help. I mean, you said they're working on a treaty between our peoples. Maybe our being together can be added to the talks."

"You will speak of us to no one."

"This isn't for you to solve alone. Let me help."

"Treaty or no treaty, my grak will take you if he wants you. I saw his expression, Lily. He wants you."

My body starts to shake.

"I won't let him touch you, my Lily. Even if I must challenge him."

Relieved, my shoulders sag, but Ryko's posture remains stiff. "What aren't you telling me?" I ask.

"To challenge a grak is to invite death."

My stomach turns. I won't risk him. "There has to be another way."

"There is," he says, but doesn't elaborate.

"Tell me. I'll do whatever it is."

"If I formally mate you, then, by our laws, he cannot touch you."

I release a breath slowly, overwhelmed by what he's proposing. Every part of me yearns to be with Ryko. From the moment I wake each day until I fall asleep, he's all I think about. Even when I thought he had used me .

When I don't say anything, disappointment shadows his features.

This is Ryko . My sweet orc who always thinks of me first. I cannot envision a future without him. I'm just scared of the unknowns like how we will resolve the discourse between our peoples.

A surge of hope and excitement fills me as I make my decision.

I take a deep breath, watching him scrutinize me as I slowly release it and announce, "I'll mate you."

"No, you will not," he says quite succinctly. When his hand curves around the back of my neck, his voice softens, the anger of moments ago replaced by promise. "You are mine to protect. From outside threats and—" He taps my chest. "—inside ones. When you are ready, you will know. We both will. Then we mate."

"Ryko—"

"Say it. You are mine to protect."

"I'm yours to protect," I say with fervor. "But we're stuck between two colonies that can't get along and now your grak says he wants me." I hold up my hand, silencing him when he opens his mouth to object to what I'm about to say. "I adore you for wanting to protect me, but we're in this together. Mating is the answer, my sweet orc. Ready or not, I will be fine, because we will be together."

"I swore to protect you, from all dangers. Mating…" He shakes his head. "If you are not ready, Lily, then the gods may not accept the mating at risha. And you might regret it… regret me."

"I could never regret being with you."

"Do you truly want this?"

My face must betray my hesitancy because he quickly adds, "You do not."

The more I think about marrying with everything and everyone against us, including Ryko in this moment, the more I doubt myself. "I don't know what you want, Ryko. One second you say we should mate and then you say we shouldn't. Do you…" I want to ask him if he loves me, something he's never said even though I'm crazy in love with him.

"Stop trying to give me what I want, Lily," He says, raising his voice. "Demand what you want. As any female orc would."

"I'm not orc." A part of our relationship he blissfully ignores.

His fingers fly over my forehead, my nose, and finally my tuskless lower lip. "Your body is human, but you have the heart of an orc, my Lily. Strong and determined. And I will always protect you, even against yourself."

I fling myself against his chest. "I just want to keep you from getting hurt!"

"Hurt?" he laughs. "No one can hurt me."

"Not even your grak?"

"My grak can kill me. But he cannot hurt me. Not as long as you are mine."

I melt at his words, then tear up. He face falls.

"I can't lose you, Ryko. I want to be with you. That's all I know, deep in my heart. Maybe we should run away where no one can find us."

"Running away will mean a life of solitude." He shakes his head. "No. You will have better."

"I'll have you . That's all I need."

"And when I'm gone for days or weeks at a time, hunting? No, my Lily," he says so softly his voice lulls me. "I will not condemn you to that lonely life." With a caress along my face, he adds, "My grak is negotiating with your leaders because my people need females. This is why he thinks he will have you."

What Ryko's saying, everything Jessie said, finally sinks in. New Earth's council is going to give women, especially the unruly ones, to the orcs. And they won't give any of us a choice.

N o one is safe. Not me, not Jessie… none of us. The orc king could take me, if that's what Council agrees to .

"If we formally mate, that would prevent your grak and any other orc from taking me?"

"Yes."

"We should mate," I say, hating how very practical it sounds, like a business transaction, or worse, like I'm trying to avoid being given to another orc. I am, in part, but most importantly, I want to be with Ryko.

"Are you sure?" His eyes narrow as he scrutinizes my expression.

"I want you, Ryko. We mate, protect ourselves, and then the rest we'll figure out in time," I say with certainty because ready or not, he's my future.

With a nod, he slides his hands under my butt and lifts me as if I weigh nothing. I wrap my legs around his waist. He's so massive that my ankles can't reach all the way around, but they don't need to. Our eyes lock together and Ryko carries me up the path without saying a word.

We're really going to do this. I'm nervous and excited. We're doing the right thing, but there's a tension between us, one I don't understand.

"Back there, when I suggested I tell my people about us, you sounded mad, as if you're looking for a fight."

"I am orc." His grin does something to me. Maybe it's that self-assured confidence of his. Either way, I've fallen for him. I'm helplessly head over heels in love with him.

"Is fighting all you warriors think about?" I joke as he carries me deeper into the woods.

"I enjoy fighting. Though there is one thing I enjoy more." With one thrust, he presses his cock against my skirt-covered core.

He's ready for more. And so am I…