Stay, visiting Orc Mountain. It was laughable, it was utterly ludicrous, but neither of them was laughing, and Natt’s face was a mask, betraying nothing.
“And what,” he ground out, “do you think to do, lass, whilst youvisit. Speak of your betrothed, and your duties, and your dreams ofreallife as a lady, before all my brothers? Shall you spurn my touch, as you have done all this day, and treat me as only yourfriend? Shall you talk of your plans to take the rightful Speaker of the Grisk as yourpet, once you have wed the manhuntinghim?”
Ella’s gut twisted — did Natt really think she’d do such things? — and her head was shaking, hard, desperate. “N-no, Natt,” she said. “I’d wish to be a good guest. To — learn more of your home, and your ways. To — honour you, before your people.”
There was a brief stillness in those eyes, holding onto hers — and then a purposeful glance away, his gaze flicking beyond Ella’s shoulder. Toward the sounds of distant crunching feet, coming closer, closer.
“Ach,” he said, slow. “Then tonight, once we are in my mountain, you shall seek to please me, and welcome my touch, and my taking? You shall swear never to speak of this man, or this betrothal, before my brothers? And” — those eyes snapped back to hers, suddenly hard, brazen, challenging — “you shall give me leave to dress you just as I should wish, so that you may honour me, as I show you to all my kin?”
Good gods, he wasn’t truly on that again — but the look in his eyes said that he damn well was. And that this was perhaps even some kind of test, some kind of proof to him, something to show that he truly did matter to Ella, after all. He wasn’t just a friend. Apet.
Natt was waiting, his eyes glittering on Ella’s, almost mocking. Almost as if daring her to say yes, knowing she wouldn’t say yes, being utterly sure that she wouldn’t. Not with these men so close, and with them respectability, and safety…
Ella’s eyes darted desperately over her shoulder, but the men weren’t in sight, yet — and this would only be for a week, at most. A small, measly fraction of her life. And would it truly be so terrible, to embrace a week’s worth of secret wild wantonness, before the lifelong public constriction of her marriage? Surely Ella could give Natt this, even if only as part of his vengeance, after everything Alfred had done to him, foryears?
She gulped down the fear, the unease, the shame — and felt herself nodding,nodding. “Very well, Nattfarr of Clan Grisk,” she whispered. “I will.”
But Natt’s eyes on hers were still hard, mocking, inexplicably angry. “Do not speak false to me, foolish woman,” he hissed. “You donotwish to be at my mercy. You do not wish to be bared and marked by me, before my brothers. You do not wish to belong to anorc,who has no wealth or standing, and has lost all that matters!”
He was nearly shouting at the end,Nattwas shouting at her, his eyes flashing with anguish and rage. And Ella couldn’tthink, couldn’t breathe, could only seem to stare at his huge menacing bulk, and shiver at the ever-rising sounds of men approaching.
“B-but,” she heard her thin voice say, “you’re myfriend, Natt.”
It was the wrong thing to say, clearly, because the rage only seemed to kindle higher in Natt’s eyes. “Ach, yourfriend,” he spat at her. “Yourpet. I do notmatter. I am notreal. I longed for you all these empty years, Idreamedof you in the dark, and when finally I come to you again, you reek ofhim!”
Ella was barely following, her eyes darting again and again behind her, caught in the sudden clawing, miserable fear. “I — I didn’t know,” she stammered. “I thought you weredead.”
“And now that you know I am not, you wish to make me yourpet, and hand all you pledged me tohim?” Natt shot back, his voice hard, bitter, furious. “Tothis man? Of all men?”
To Alfred. To Alfred, who had hunted Natt, and destroyed his life for nine wholeyears, and Ella fought for air, for thought. “I — I didn’t,” she managed. “I kept my pledge. I gave you mymaidenhood. I stayed with you, when you were hurt, even after youkidnappedme. I’mhere, Natt. I want this, and I — I’ll prove it to you.Please, Natt.”
She shot another fearful glance over her shoulder, her heart pounding so loud she could hear it, the men’s crashing feet even louder —
When suddenly, there was —Byrne. Coming over the little ledge toward them, with his sword drawn and gleaming, and a dog leashed to his belt. And as Ella stared, his hand snapped to the belt, and yanked the leash off, and the dog was running straight for them, so fast it was a little brown blur —
“Halt!” his voice shouted, carrying over the trees. “At once!”
Ella twitched and stared, caught — but then Natt’s hot, powerful hand clasped hers, and dragged her toward the rock. Toward a tall, jagged crack around the side of it, scarcely large enough to fit through —
But Natt yanked her through it, and suddenly Ella was plunged into utter darkness. So black there was nothing, only the feel of hard flat stone beneath her boots, cool air tickling against her skin, the clench of Natt’s powerful hand against hers — and then the sound of the dog’s furious barking behind them, echoing wild and shrill through the air.
Natt didn’t even hesitate, but just kept moving. Dragging Ella close behind him in the total darkness, turning one way, and then another. Dragging her intoOrc Mountain, deeper and deeper, twisting and turning, pitch-dark and dangerous, she would never escape, not from this —
But the dog’s barks had faded, gradually slipping into silence — and then, with a sharp turn sideways, it was like the cool drafty air had changed, become warmer, stiller. And Natt’s warm hands grasped for Ella’s tired body, yanking her close — and then he shoved her down, onto something flat and soft. A bed.
“You wish to prove this, woman,” Natt’s voice hissed, “then do so.”
Do so. Ella’s breath was gulping, her heart still hammering, her frantic thoughts fighting to catch up — she was inside Orc Mountain, prove this,prove this— and at least it was dark, they seemed to be alone, the men wouldn’t dare follow them here. And Natt was here, prove it, he deserved it, Alfred, kidnapped, vengeance…
Ella’s hands seemed to search for Natt on their own, finding his warm body still standing massive and stiff beside the bed. But when she yanked, and yanked again, he finally came, his big bulk sinking hard onto the bed beside hers in the darkness. But not touching her, not moving, not speaking.
He had to, hehadto — and with a hurtling lurch of bravery, Ella kicked off her boots, and then reached to fumble for Natt’s hand in the blackness. And before she quite caught what she’d done, she’d yanked up her shift, and parted her legs — and then shoved his big warm hand close against her bare thigh.
There was a choked, halting quiet, broken only by Ella’s desperately dragging breaths, while Natt’s huge bulk stayed entirely still against her — but then, oh thank the gods, his hand moved. Curling tight against Ella’s bare thigh, and then sliding upwards with slow, deliberate intentness.
It was glorious, it was truth in the chaos, it was Natt saying he was here, Ella was here, they could do this. And even as that hand kept sliding up — an orc was disrobing her in a strange dark room in a terrifyingOrc Mountain— there was only feeling it, gasping for it, Ella’s traitorous body arching closer into his touch. Willing for more, begging for more, while that strong, torturous hand slid not between her thighs, as she might have wished — but rather over the curve of her hip, her waist, sliding her filthy sleeping-shift up, and up, and up.
“Once this is gone from you, lass,” Natt hissed, as his hand slid to her bared breast, gripping brief and proprietary against it, “you shall never be clothed thus again, as alady, in my mountain. You shall only dress as I wish.”
