Chapter 15

Telise

H e's not happy to see me, I can tell that much. I might have saved his life, but to Raz'jin that's no exchange for what I did to him.

Of course, I didn't understand the link between us back then. He had known something truer and deeper existed there when I didn't. But even if I had fully grasped the implication of what he was saying, I wouldn't have been willing to admit the truth to myself anyway—that I couldn't live without him.

And, to be fair, he went about it all wrong.

But seeing him here and alive, no less, I finally get what that book about trollkin was trying to tell me.

"Some, but not all trollkin, mate for life," it had said. "The mating process is beyond simply electing to marry and unite households. It is a deep bonding between individuals—an imprinting of one mate on the other—that cannot be broken by time or space. It becomes a condition, and the well-being of one mate depends on the other."

I run my hand up and down Raz'jin's tusk, wishing more than anything that I could reach out and touch him. I swallow hard.

"But you..." I begin. "You are my mate." I say the word that I now understand means everything. All of this joy and bewilderment and heartache between us, because of this one word. "I'm sorry."

Now that I grasp the truth, the worst thing in the world would be if he turned me down. I've survived without him long enough to know that it's taken years off my life. Being near him now is the first time I've felt like myself since that night in Eyra Cove, and I don't want to keep doing this without him.

Raz'jin's eyes are unreadable and hard. I can see the same shadows of battle and death and fire reflected in them that I've seen. I realize now that he's only here because of me.

If he turns me away, I might as well walk into that trollkin camp with him and let the orcs finish the job they started. Now that I've found him and felt how it feels to be near him again, I have no reason to continue on alone.

"I'm sorry," I say, crumpling forward, the weight of everything finally pushing me to the ground. "But I know it now."

There's a full silence, and off in the distance, I can hear shouting, swords and shields clashing, people dying. It all feels so far away, like a whole different world from ours.

A heavy hand lands on my shoulder. Only Raz'jin runs that hot.

"Telise." His voice is thick and even more guttural than I'm used to. I raise my head and find him staring down at me with a sharpness, an intensity in his eyes I've never seen before. "You said, ‘No.' Why?"

"I was scared. "

He looks hurt by this. "Scared? Of me?"

"No. Of me." I didn't understand what was happening between us, what I was feeling or why. I press my hand to my chest. "It was new. Frightening. I wanted to be free and did not think you would let me."

Raz'jin's hard features, now decorated with even more scars than the last time I saw him, soften as he regards me. His hand travels up from my shoulder to my cheek, where he lets it rest. I lean against him, and relief washes over me just from feeling his skin against mine again.

"I understand now," he says, running his fingers up and into my hair, where he immediately starts to work out a tangle. "I'm sorry, too."

I take his other hand in both of mine and squeeze it as hard as I can. What I feel for this creature in front of me is so beyond love that it would feel idiotic to say it. I don't know how to in Trollkin—or if it's a word they even have. I wish I could say, "We both handled it badly," but that's beyond me. I turn his hand over to the twin scars now running down the inside and run my finger along them.

Raz'jin's other hand stops, then cups the back of my head and pulls me towards him. Soon we're chest to chest, our mouths less than an inch apart.

"You're mine," he says.

"You're mine, too," I answer. Then my lips meet his and everything feels like maybe it could be right again. Raz'jin grunts a little as his injured leg shifts under him, but then he kisses me even harder, his hands running down my neck, my arms, my hips, as if he might forget. They return to my chest, where he drags his fingers over my breasts through my armor. He stops at the side where my chest plate is strapped around me and unbuckles it without even looking.

He breaks away from the kiss and his eyes are ablaze, the streak of red down the middle glowing like a flame. He pulls the chest plate up and over my head, and I know what he's going to do.

"But your leg," I say, and he silences me with another kiss, this one fiercer than the last one. He yanks my jerkin up and over my head, revealing my bare breasts to the entire forest. His lips find their way to one nipple, where he runs it between his teeth. It feels like diamonds having his mouth on me again. He sucks, hard, while his hands find their way to the buckles holding his pants up.

He can't be serious.

But Raz'jin is very serious. When he breaks away from me, he pulls his pants down, grunting with pain when they end up around his knees. Underneath, his cock is already big and ready for me, a trickle of liquid dribbling down the front.

I know what he wants, and I'm already wet for it.

I unbuckle my pants, and once they're off, I press my knees into the rocky forest floor to either side of him, getting pine needles and pebbles lodged in my skin. Raz'jin takes my jaw roughly in his hand and lifts my head, so I'm looking right into his eyes as he reaches beneath me and, with the utmost care, guides himself inside me.

Raz'jin

My Telise. My mate. I don't care how injured I am, she's mine and I'm going to claim her now.

But I'm hers, too. I understand now why she fought what I knew was true, and why it frightened her. She has a fire inside her and has won her own hard-fought battles. She belongs to me as much as I belong to her .

My human is staring at me with all of the ferocity in her small body as she lowers herself onto me. I watch in awe as her tiny, pink cunt swallows me up, one inch at a time. She's tight—so damn tight—and I grip her ass in my hands as she slowly rises back up again. My leg is burning, and the wound she fixed up has probably already opened, but I couldn't care any less. My cock has been aching for her for so long, and now that I have her, I'm going to do what I've been dying to do since the night I left Eyra Cove.

I reach down and rub her tiny clit, because I want to make sure she has the ride of her life even when I couldn't spend an hour preparing her for me. She cries out and then drops low onto me, letting me fill her up as full as her body will allow. I can already feel her growing tighter and tighter, sucking me inside and refusing to let me out.

"Yes," I whisper to her as she lifts herself up again, and again, and her little moans start to build. "I want all of it." She's moving faster, fucking me harder than she ever has before, hot breaths falling from her mouth with every lift of her hips.

And then she gives it to me. She sinks down as far as she can, and my cock vanishes inside her. She's moaning my name, tangling her hands in my hair, squeezing every last inch of me as she desperately keeps pumping. As she drips down me, I can't take anymore. I pull her down hard and drive myself into her as all the seed I've saved up comes rushing out. She moans and clenches and falls forward onto me, unable to hold herself up for even a moment longer. All I want is to pick her up and fuck her again, in every conceivable position, but this will have to do—for now.

I need to fix up this leg first.

When she's finally recovered enough to move properly, Telise climbs off of me and our shared come drips down her legs. I pull her down to the forest floor next to me, holding up her head with one arm. I know her skin is softer, more sensitive than mine—which wasn't particularly bothered by the pebbles and sticks burrowing into my back muscle—but I just need her close to me, if only for now.

After a while of stroking her soft red hair, I pause and say something I've been afraid to say.

"Neither of us can die," I say, taking her hand in mine.

She gives me a confused look. "It's war." She knows there's a very real chance that one or both of us may not escape this alive.

"If one of us dies, the other will go soon after." Her eyes fall to where our hands are clasped.

"Why?"

"Mates."

Telise

Well, that's a downside I hadn't expected. But I should have.

After the pain I felt when we were apart, I can't imagine losing Raz'jin now. What would I do without the other half of my soul tethered to me?

"We should move," I say. "Away. Go away from here." It's the best I can manage in Trollkin.

"Where?"

I shake my head. I have no idea. But we can't stay here.

"I'll be killed," he says, along with a word I don't understand. But I know what he means: Desertion, if you get caught, is death.

It will be difficult with his one injured leg, but I believe we can do it.

I tug my clothes back on fast and help him get his own pants back up. The wound on his leg looks worse now, but the sounds of people are coming closer.

"Shit," I say in Freysian. I have to hide him. The human forces are still out here looking for survivors. "Behind tree," I say, pointing to it. It's bushy and close up against another tree. It should hide even him.

He crouches down and tucks inside the low tree, until he's invisible. "Shh," I say. "Quiet."

Just then, a few soldiers push through the nearby brush. It's three of Deleran's squadron, including him.

"You're alive, Tea!" He runs to me and pulls me into a hug. The other two soldiers with him raise their eyebrows. "What are you doing way out here?"

"One of them was injured. I chased him as far as I could, but he got away."

"Damn. An injured trollkin got one over on you? I'm surprised."

I shrug. "Lost my bow in the fray back there."

The other two roll their eyes and leave, looking for the next body to scavenge.

"C'mon," Deleran says, heading off after them. "Let's go."

"I'm not going."

He pauses at the tone of my voice and turns to me.

"What do you mean?" He lets out an uncomfortable little chuckle. "There's nothing out here, like you said."

"That's not, um, entirely true." I realize now that I can't get Raz'jin out of this alone. He's too big, and I'm not strong enough to help carry him out of the range of battle. "I found him. Out here."

"You found wh—" Before he can finish, I lean down near the tree.

"Raz'jin. Come out."

There's some muffled objection, but I gently tug on his arm. When he emerges from the tree, Deleran gasps.

"Human," says Raz'jin in Trollkin, leaning against the tree on one leg. He reaches for his hatchet.

"No, this one is okay," I assure him. "Good. He's good."

"I didn't know you spoke their language," Deleran says, eyes narrowed. "This is him, isn't it?"

I nod. "Yeah. This is him."

Raz'jin wraps his arm around me as Deleran takes in his injury.

"Ah, shit." My friend rubs the back of his head. "You want me to help, don't you?" I don't even have to speak for him to know. Deleran lets out a bone-deep sigh. "I could get killed for this."

"I know. I'm sorry." I'm putting my best friend in danger by asking him to risk his life for Raz'jin. But I don't have any other options. "Please."

Raz'jin growls as Deleran approaches, and he stops mid-step. "It's fine," I say to my troll. "He helps us."

"Help?" Raz'jin looks him over. "A human?"

"Good human." I nod again at Deleran, and in Freysian I say, "Can you hold up his other arm?"

"I can't believe I'm doing this," he mutters, but approaches Raz'jin anyway. Tentatively the troll lets him take his arm, and we start hobbling away into the trees.