Now I knew her taste, knew the sound of my name on her tongue, and I had a reason to live.
This time I swiped my tongue—the width of it—along her palm, and she jerked her hand away. I wished I could grab it, pull it back, pull her fingers into my mouth and stroke them with my tongue. I wished I could show her howsensitive an orc’s tusks were, and what we could do with them.
But she just stood there, peering down at me, eyes confused.
“Are my sisters honored Mates?” she asked again, and my brow rose, impressed by her tenacity.
The least I could do was give her the reassurance she sought.
“Drakolt leads the Bladesedge clan, and although we are ancestral enemies, I have heard naught to believe he is anything other than an honorable orc.”
Lillian stroked the cloth against my eye once more, then pushed herself upright. She had to press against my injuries to do it, but I wouldn’t have minded even if I hadn’t gone numb; I would hold her up if she asked for it, even with my arms chained.
“My older sister Sorcha is Mated to Drakolt.”
I nodded, knowing full well that’s why I’d led my men to battle against her father. “Then she is his partner.”
“Not his prisoner?”
Why would she think that?
“I told you, Mating is not marriage. ‘Tis something more. Akenning, Lillian, that this is the female ye will cleave to for the rest of yer life, and spend those years making her happy. Matinghonorsthe female, no’ holds her prisoner as yer human marriage does.”
In the moment before she turned back to her tray and those hated poultices, I saw tears spring to those brightblue eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she bent to smear more of the goo on another cloth.
And there was naught I could say in response, becauseshewas the one caring forme.
When she turned back to me, her attention on the wound in my side—her eyes still watery but not shedding tears—I took a deep breath and braced myself for the pain. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and began to worry it, then glanced at me.
“This will hurt.”
“So did the rest.”
“You must not yell. The guard will ask questions.”
And she was disobeying orders? I had enough forethought to nod once, quickly, to let her know I understood. But the mystery of her actions distracted me when she slapped the poultice against my side, so I was able to swallow down my roar of pain.
Mayhap for the best.
Lillian twisted, and before I understood what was happening, had her arms around my torso.
Nay, strike that; Istilldidn’t understand what she was doing, not before she began to wriggle—a movement my cock andKteerappreciated very much—and I realized she was pulling a bandage around me.
She wasbandagingme.
I took a deep breath, suddenly struck with an emotion I couldn’t name, and she froze. Her head tipped back, thosewide eyes staring up at me, her arms around my chest…my filthy skin, stinking of months of captivity, pressed against her chin…
Mine.
The thought slammed into me before I could react, and I shook my head to clear it. Nay, Lillian was a lady of Tarbert Keep, my enemy’s daughter.
And she is yers.
MyKteercrowed, and I shuddered.
“Kragorn?” she whispered, still wiggling to get the bandage around me. “Are you in pain?”
