25. Kaila

Iwas hugging him, kissing him, and my heart was overflowing.

“I love you. I want to be with you always,” I said.

“My precious mate. My beloved mate.” He peppered my face with kisses. “I adore you. I love you, and I will until my dying day and beyond.”

“I’d be wrong to say I’m not nervous about this, but no matter what, my feelings for you matter most.”

“I promise, you won’t regret this. Never.”

“Does this mean we’re going to live with the Ember Clan?” Brunnen dropped our bags on the ground nearby.

Turren grinned at me. “What do you say, mate? Are we going to the mountains where my clan has recently settled for the summer?”

Tension coiled tight inside me, and an ongoing battle was being waged, but being with Turren was winning the fight.

“We are.” I said it with enough conviction, Turren laughed.

He spun me around and kissed me again. I speared my fingers into his hair, clinging to this male I adored very much. Everything felt right when I was in his arms. Life was perfect, the way it was supposed to be.

“Are we going to stand here all day while you two kiss?” Brunnen’s words broke through the passion spiraling between us.

I burst away from Turren, laughing. “Don’t you like kisses, brother?”

He sighed. “I’m thirteen, not twenty. Frankly, I can’t see why anyone wants to put their mouth on someone else’s.” He lifted the bags. “More walking, I assume.”

“Not so.” Turren gently released me, and I slid down his body. His pendant blazed.

Claiming was in our future, both for him and for me, and I couldn’t wait.

“Let’s go tell Mavileen that you’re both coming with me and . . .” He took my hand and kissed it, sending tingles flashing through my body. “And I’ll show you a much faster way to reach my mountain home.”

He held my hand as we approached the fortress, and this time, they opened the gate before we got there. We went inside and Mavileen greeted us with her women warriors flanking her, holding various weapons. I’d never seen anything like it. They wore simple clothing and not much of it. No long skirts to hamper movement or full blouses that got in the way. Each wore bands of leather around their breasts, with their tautly muscled bellies showing, and loincloths like what Turren wore, only scooped underneath and wrapped around their hips in addition to flaps on the front and back for modesty.

What would it be like to wear such an outfit? My body heated because I knew what Turren would think if he saw me dressed in such a way.

“Welcome,” Mavileen said with a smile, her gaze shooting to our clasped hands. “Can I assume you’re no longer seeking sanctuary in our village, Kaila?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. Your offer is generous.” My eyes stung with tears. These women had welcomed me easily when my own fellow villagers had made me feel eager to run. “I love Turren, and I’m going to live with him and the Ember Clan.” My new people. What would they think of their caedos mating with a human?

I would soon find out.

“I well understand,” she said.

Turren’s pendant flared, and she shielded her eyes. “Not fully mated yet, I see?”

Heat climbed into my face. “We’ve been . . .”

Turren’s fingers tightened around mine. “Finding our way to each other.”

He sounded relaxed about this. We were talking about having sex! But when an orc came up behind Mavileen and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck, I understood. His pendant didn’t flare, and it was only now that I noticed she was carrying a child—his, I assumed.

If Turren and I had sex, which I suspected we would soon do, would I one day carry our child? A fierce longing filled me, and I knew that yes, so much yes, I wanted that.

“I see,” Mavileen said. “Will you be staying for long? Know you’re welcome here for as long as you wish to remain.”

“I’d like to buy some provisions,” Turren said. “But I’ll call my vox, and he’ll take us to the mountain home of my clan.”

“It’s almost time for the voxes to return to the hills for breeding, isn’t it?” she asked, leaning into the orc’s embrace. Catching my eye, she smiled and nodded as if to say, see, orcs are amazing, aren’t they? “This is my mate, Pulost.”

“Welcome,” he murmured, easing around Mavileen to stand beside her with his arm around her shoulders.

“As for buying provisions, it would be an honor to help you with this. We’ll give you a bargain,” Mavileen said with a low laugh. She turned. “Call your vox, and we can walk through the market together.”

“Will I ride on the vox as well?” Brunnen asked.

“Three is too much for Airest, but we’ll find another way to get you there,” Turren said.

“If you’d like, I can ask the Matis Clan if one of the shaydes could take him to the edge of the desert,” Pulost said. “They’ve helped in this way before.”

Brunnen sucked in a breath. “You mean I’d ride on a shayde?”

“We met them in the forest,” I said. “They’re . . .” Alright, I was going to look at all this differently. If I didn’t, I’d cling to fear forever, something I didn’t want to do. “They’re amazing.”

Turren shot me a smile and squeezed my hand. “They truly are.”

“Yes, you’d ride on a shayde,” Pulost said with a grin sent my brother’s way.

“Wow,” Brunnen breathed. “I can’t wait.”

We strolled through the market, Turren buying dried fruit and nut cakes and a few more flasks to carry water.

“How long will it take to get to our home?” I asked. It was daring of me to call it that, but if my place was with Turren, it was my home too.

“We’ll fly at night and rest during the day when the shaydes aren’t hunting. Once we reach my clan, I’ll send someone to collect Brunnen on the edge of the desert.”

We’d be alone during that time. My heart flipped over at the thought. I felt as if I knew him very well. My heart knew him completely. Yet we’d only been together a few days. I wanted to be alone with him, to speak with him about anything and everything, to touch him.

“A shayde?” Brunnen kept saying, his eyes wide with wonder. “Will someone ride with me or . . .”

“We tell them what we need, though I doubt you’ll ride alone,” Pulost said in an indulgent tone. “Someone will go with you. The shaydes can hold two.” He rubbed Brunnen’s shoulder and took him over to a smithy shop where a woman stood behind a table with wares for sale. “See anything you like? A male of the Ember Clan needs a good blade.”

Brunnen gulped.

I walked over quickly, trying not to cringe. “They’re all amazing, and I agree with you, Pulost, but . . . we can’t afford anything like that.” Maybe once I’d settled with the Ember Clan, I could start a garden and grow vegetables to sell. Then I could take my brother to a market where he could select a blade.

“This would be a gift from our village to Brunnen, if that is acceptable to you.” I could tell by the soft look in Pulost’s eyes he knew exactly what I was speaking of.

This made me even more embarrassed, though I shouldn’t be. I’d worked hard to get us to this point in our lives, and I was proud of what I’d been able to provide my brother, not ashamed of what I couldn’t.

“Varalar owes me, don’t you?” Pulost said with humor.

The woman, Varalar, huffed. “I owe him a lot.” Her intent gaze met mine. “You don’t know how it is at some villages. Women . . .”

“I suspect I do. We’re considered . . . lesser.”

“Exactly.” She shook her head. “My father was going to give me to a man. Give me! Not marry me to him, oh, no, but outright hand me to him just because he wanted to impress the man. After all those years working beside him at his smithy, he still couldn’t see my value as a person. That night, I took my things and ran into the woods. If members of the Matis Clan hadn’t found me and brought me here,” a shudder tracked through her body, “well, I know what would’ve happened.” Her gaze shot in the direction of the forest. “And It would’ve been a better ending than the one my father planned for me. That man . . . I not only didn’t love him, but he was also cruel.”

“We fled our village as well,” Brunnen said. “For a similar reason, though not guided by our parents.” He took my other hand and squeezed it. “I’m going to be a better man than Jabon, a better man than Varalar’s father.”

“I know you are.” My brother was soft where he needed to be and strong where it fit best. I’d done a good job raising him, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it.

“Then you do understand,” Varalar said. “I arrived here with nothing but some clothing. No tools, no food, no coins. And you know what the people here did? They gave me a home. They helped me build a smithy. And Pulost traveled to the orc city where he bought tools and brought them here, gifting them to me. It was incredible and I’ll never find a way to fully repay him.”

“You needed them,” he said, his face darkening. “It was nothing.”

Leaning forward, she nudged his arm. “It was everything, and you well know it.” Her smile rose when she looked back at me. “So, when I say that a friend of Pulost is a friend of mine and that your brother can choose whatever weapon he wants for free, I mean it. It would be an honor to arm such a young man.”

I was going to cry. No, I was crying.

“Mate,” Turren said, his frantic gaze scanning the area as if he thought there was a threat. “What is it? Tell me.” He turned me and cupped my face, tilting it to examine me. “Are you injured? Please. Tell me what I can do to see the light of happiness come back into your eyes.”

“I’m happy.” I grinned through my tears. “Very happy. Women sometimes cry when we’re feeling joy, not only when we’re sad.”

“That’s the truth,” Varalar said. “You should’ve seen me when Pulost presented me with a cart load of tools. I dropped to my knees and sobbed.”

Pulost nodded solemnly. “I thought I’d somehow wounded her when I’d only been trying to help.”

“My mate is incredible.” Even Mavileen had tears in her eyes now. “To think I rejected him at first.”

“You fell in love with me immediately,” he said sternly, though with a sparkle in his dark eyes. “I only had to convince you of that fact.” He looked our way. “The fates of my clan chose her, but even if my pendant hadn’t flamed, I would’ve known right away that she was the only woman I’d ever love.”

“You.” She stroked his jawline, and he kissed her palm, kissing her lips after. “I did take a bit of persuading, but I’m grateful I gave us a chance.” She looked my way. “Please. I know what it’s like to feel uncomfortable accepting gifts. Many of us here started with nothing. We’ve all worked hard to get to where we are today, which is thriving. Happy. But know that what we give you today is a gift from our hearts. I do hope you’ll take it.”

“Very well,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes.

Brunnen jerked out a nod, clearly nervous about all this. He, like me, wasn’t comfortable with someone giving us things. In the past, nothing had ever been given without the expectation of a return favor—often something we’d never otherwise offer them.

“Whichever appeals,” Pulost said. He went on to describe the blades for sale, pointing to those he felt had the best grip and those he believed would not only suit my brother now but work well for him when he was fully grown.

Finally, Brunnen settled on one. He tilted it this way and that, the sunlight winking off the sharp edge, and I couldn’t stop smiling. “It’s amazing,” he gushed to both Pulost and Varalar. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“You’ll need a sheath, or you’ll risk wounding yourself,” she said in a practical manner, handing a leather belt with a sheath to him as well.

He reverently laid the blade on the table and quickly donned the belt, noting that the waistband had room to expand as he grew bigger and taller. Then he slid the blade into the sheath and stepped back, his gaze sweeping across all of us. “What do you think? Does it look alright?’

“It looks good on you,” I said, my eyes stinging once more.

Truly, this had been an incredible, wonderful day.