He obliged, and I had to untie the blanket to reach the spot. This was one of his minor wounds, the dirt and debris already turning his green skin a sickly pale color. I had to head off the infection before it brought back the fever.
Biting my lower lip, I bent closer…
And Kragon turned his head.
I froze as his nose brushed against my temple. Had it been an accident? Then he moved again—was he nuzzling me?—and his tusk caught my earlobe as his lips brushed my jaw.
“I am only a male, Lillian,” he breathed.
My eyes fluttered closed, and for the first time, I wasn’t shaking, I wasn’t shuddering, I wasn’t shivering. I wasn’t even breathing. I was frozen, all of my senses focused onKragornand the fact his lips were on my skin.
“I am only a male,” he repeated, his lips moving along my jaw. “And ye are the most desirable female I’ve ever seen.”
Lies.
‘Twas as if someone had dumped a handful of that snow in the corner atop my head. Sucking in a startled gasp, I slapped the poultice to his wound and jerked backward.His stiffening and grunt of pain were the only indications he felt the intrusion.
But at least it distracted him from such false flattery.
However, my voice was far from steady when I assured him, “You do not need to say such things, orc. I know my duty; I will heal you with or without your clever tongue.”
There was tightness around his eye and jaw when he lowered his chin to meet my gaze. His hands curled into fists, and I imagined his claws piercing his skin to contain his—what? Anger? Was that anger which blazed in his eye?
“Ye ken naught of myclever tongue, Lillian. But ye will.”
I wasn’t sure if ‘twas a threat or a promise. Either way, I found myself shivering as I turned to spread more of the healing herb on another cloth. I needed to focus on my duty to my father and finish this soon.
Hogmanay was only days away, and then Kragorn would be gone; gifted to someone Father was trying to impress. I just needed to keep him alive that long.
And force myself not to think of him, not to remember his words or the touch of his lips on my jaw.
I was afraid ‘twas a hopeless battle.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kragorn
I was angry.
At myself, at the gods, and at fooking Tarbert himself. My anger kept me warm that day after Lillian more-or-less slapped some poultices on me and hurried from my cell. I told myself ‘twas not a fever, not this time.
There was an itchiness under my skin, aye, something I couldn’t identify. A sense of doom, or close enough, I guess, and I wasangryabout it.
I shouldn’t have scared her away.
I shouldn’t have been captured in the first place.
If ye hadnae been captured, ye would have missed the opportunity to meet Lillian.
And now that I’d met her, tasted her scent, tasted herskin…I knew I couldn’t regret that. She was mine, in a way I couldn’t explain, even to myself.
All I knew was that I would not be dying here in his hellhole. Not anymore. She’d saved me, and I would get myself out of here…and take her with me.
With the fever gone, the hallucinations had stopped. But that didn’t mean I couldn’timagineVartok’s smirk and teasing insults as I resolved to return home. My brother was younger than me by only minutes, but had never had a desire for leadership. From the time we were bairns, we knew I would be chief…his role as the village’s blacksmith and resident charmer was more than enough for him.
For the first time since I woke in this dungeon, I began to allow myself to truly think of home. Vartok would have led the clan in my absence, which he would have hated. I wondered what had changed in the months I’d been locked up here—had my idiot twin gotten his head out of his arse and realized Myra the midwife was his Mate? Or would they still be at each other’s throats when I returned home?
Home.
