AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Especially since I’ve already a mate. He leaves a lot to be desired, sure. But I obviously left Solaya for a reason.
“You are not mine. I am not yours.”
“Really?” His eyebrows twitch, just once. “Is that really what you feel inside?”
“I would not have forgotten a mate.” God’s fire, I have a nightmare one at home.
“Nay. I foolishly held you at arm’s length, you see. I thought it would keep you safe.”
I raise my brows.
He sighs. “When you were born, I was entranced with the tiniest, most angelic brat I’d ever seen. Your father and mine were best friends, our mothers too.”
I’d like to call bullshit, but I stay quiet because at least he’s giving me a story, unlike Stug who makes me work for snippets of my life. Here, on the other hand, I’ve been fed, given a tent, carried in his arms—I haven’t done much work at all.
It’s baffling.
“But my mother has what’s called the sight, you see. Though they didn’t realize it, it trickled into me. I explained to my grandfather that the sweet baby was going to be mine, I was going to protect her in every way. When he asked why, I told him that I’d dreamed she was going to get lost and was going to cry and cry. She would hurt, and her tears would break my heart. He thought I was a sensitive brat... until one day the adults realized I was having these dreams while awake. Not asleep. You see, when I slept, they were good dreams of you. It was during the daytime that I worried over the pretty wench.” Forward orc, he twists a lock of my hair between his thumb and forefinger—and I let him.
“I watched over you as we grew, and soon my sister was born, then there was two of you to guard. You were a handful too.” He chuckles. “While your best friend was an innocent little miss that you dragged into schemes.”
I snort. “If she’s related to you, I doubt she’s all that innocent.”
His smile is huge and... well, sexy. It catches my breath.
“If there was trouble to be found, you were in the midst of it. We went to see my grandfather in Serenity and found you feeding the baby piglets in the middle of the mud and dung. You were barely four.”
“Surely not by myself?”
He chuckles. “Nay, you dragged your little friend into it too. At six, you were skinny dipping in the pond.”
“I’m sure it was her idea. She probably fell in and I removed my clothes so they wouldn’t ruin when I rescued her.”
He snorts. “Very magnanimous of you to remove your clothes while she’s drowning in the pond. Besides, I taught you both to swim. I was old enough to give lessons.”
“We must’ve thought you were our hero.”
“Practically a god,” he agrees.
Now I’m grinning as wide as him.
“This. This banter between us is what I’ve missed. The last year between us has been rough.”
The smile drops from my face as I realize I’ve never laughed so much as when I’m with this orc. My own males will never recognize me.
“How so?”
“The attraction between us was getting harder to deny. You were starting to touch me. Not that you ever held back but it felt somehow different. A stronger pull between us.”
I roll my eyes. “I touched you?”
He laughs again, then flexes his biceps. My mouth goes dry and I don’t doubt that I might have touched him—if this unbelievable story is true. In any case, I love listening to his deep rumbling voice. “Aye. And you pretended it was innocent, but I had to set you away from me many times so I wouldn’t walk around perpetually hard.”
“So, I was yours but we never...”
“Shared the furs? Nay. See, that’s where my foolishness comes from. When I got older, the visions became clearer. I knew it was my mate, the princess of the clan, that was going to lose her way. And so, I decided if I refused to make you my mate, I could avert the prediction. But this last time, when I dropped you off in Creede, I kissed you. And it was everything.” The male licks his lips as if savoring the memory. “It was as if the same thought hit us both: When I picked you up, our wait would be over. We would give in.”
“When you came back for me, I was gone?”
