And, though it almost hurt to see, Ella couldn’t miss how that tension also extended toward her. How Natt would smile as he introduced her, and run his warm, familiar hand against her back or her bare waist — but how he carefully avoided the wordmate, and also that loaded wordfriend. And instead he only called Ella hislass, again and again, while his brothers looked at her shocking ensemble and the still-present mess below it, and drew whatever conclusions they wished.
And when some of them again referred to Ella as Grisk, or praised her as scent-bound — and one old, white-haired orc named Sken even congratulated her on snaring the Speaker as her mate — Natt didn’t correct them. And neither did Ella, though she could feel the ever-increasing tightness in Natt’s smile, the clench of his hand on her back.
There was thankfully no mention of Alfred throughout, no acknowledgement of his existence from Natt or any of the other orcs. And though the urge to ask rose in Ella’s thoughts more than once — have you had news of Alfred, or the men — she fiercely quashed it down, and instead focused on smiling, and remembering the strange orcs’ names, and showing herself a worthy mate to Natt. A worthy partner, to the Speaker of the Grisk.
They ate a hearty, much-needed meal in the mountain’s kitchen — but it was only after waiting in line for what felt like an age, with perhaps a hundred other orcs, that Ella discovered that the proffered roots and deer-meat were entirely uncooked, and thus impossible for her to eat. And after Natt threw a casual, but slightly irritated, order at the two orcs working in the kitchen, they hurriedly cooked a plate of food for Ella, handing it over with bowed heads, and furtive, fearful glances toward Natt.
Natt’s polite but curt reply led to open whispers, and even more uneasy glances as they ate. And it wasn’t until they’d returned to Natt’s rooms that Ella could finally feel him relaxing, his form sinking heavily down onto one of the fur-covered benches. And then, much to her inexplicable relief, he drew her down after him, and curled her close into the warm, comforting safety of his lap.
“Your mountain,” Ella said, muffled, into his chest, “is hugely fascinating, and utterly shocking, and also thoroughlyexhausting, Nattfarr.”
“Ach, is it not?” Natt said, with a faint sigh into her hair. “This is why I must yet escape it some days, even at this risk of my death. I ken I shall go mad, if I am trapped in here for too long a spell.”
Oh. So that was part of all this, too. And suddenly there was a rising, jolting urge to drag Natt up and away with her, out of this dark, twisty mountain altogether, and back to their forest. Where they would run, and laugh, and no one would see or follow or care, and Ella would shove him down, and —
“Is there anything I can do, to help?” Ella said, biting off that thought, but it was still there, whispering behind her eyes. And behind Natt’s eyes, too, as he blinked tired and half-lidded toward her in the lantern’s faint light. As his black tongue came out brief, tantalizing, to wet his lips.
But he didn’t speak, and maybe that was because — Ella took a breath —she was the one who needed to prove this to him. To prove that she was here, by his side, no matter what. And what had he said, in the cave that day, what felt like an age ago? Pleasure is always good, for edging away pain.
So without thinking, without taking her eyes off his, Ella slithered herself downwards, until she was kneeling on the fur-covered floor at his feet. And when her audacious hands reached to shove up at his kilt, the bemusement in his eyes flicked toward astonishment, and then, oddly, toward the door.
“My brothers shall return soon,” he said, soft, but a challenge. “Are you sure of this, lass?”
But Ella didn’t care about anything, in this moment, beyond that look in Natt’s eyes, the slight tremble in his fingers as they went for the waist of his kilt, and loosened it. Not all the way, but more than enough to release —that.
And suddenly it did feel like an age had passed since Ella had seen this, so hungry and thick and swollen. Jutting up and out toward her, impossibly large, with that smooth tapered head, that deep tantalizing slit, already glimmering with a bead of thick, growing white.
Ella’s mouth betrayed a low, heated gasp, her eyes fluttering as she watched, drank in the sight, waited for more — but Natt hadn’t moved in the slightest, because he was waiting for her. And she’d done this before, surely she could do it again, she could —
Even so, it took nearly the whole of Ella’s willpower to raise her hand, and brush her trembly finger into that slit, to feel that delectable white liquid pooling onto her finger. But then she was doing it, and it was touching her back, twitching and vibrating and clenching against her.Kissingher.
Ella’s groan was guttural, utterly humiliating, and so was the way her finger slipped deeper, feeling the reward of his kiss on her skin, the bubbling splutter of that white nectar against her touch. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted her to kiss him, her mouth was watering as she stared, she was leaning up closer, she could —
And then, oh gods above, she was. Her lips brushing brief, soft, tentative, against that slick smooth head — and in reply Natt’s entire body flailed up in his chair, that delectable thick wetness spurting hard against her tongue. And fuck, that was good, tasted good, felt so good — enough that Ella could thrust all thought away, and do it again, lingering longer this time. Taking him deeper, carefully brushing her tongue further into him, as her traitorous throat greedily swallowed his bubbling sweetness, and her hungry tongue searched for more.
Natt’s groans were already harsh, steady, thoroughly thrilling, and one of his hands carded into her hair, his claws sinking deep. His eyes hazy, warm, breathtaking on hers, fluttering hard whenever she sucked, and even more when she delved her tongue deeper against that filthy kissing slit, with its beautiful sputtering sweetness —
And it was then, curse Natt, curse the entire world — that his damned brothers walked into the room. Their voices chattering, legs striding, swords clanking — and then it all skidded to a halt at once. The room frozen, the world frozen, and catching Ella on her knees, with an orc’s cock deep in her mouth, and her tongue sunk almostinsideit.
The mortification was like an eruption of flame, burning Ella alive in its wake, but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide — and Natt, Natt’s eyes were glittering, pleased, alive, as his hand came to pat her scarlet cheek, and his eyes gave a brief, easy glance up toward the four watching, staring orcs.
“Ach, brothers,” he said, with astonishing coolness. “I am busy with my lass, but you may yet stay, if you wish.”
They could stay. Because Natt wanted them to stay, he wanted them to see this, Ella bent over him, with her mouth stretched wide around his thick, veined grey cock. And curse these damned orcs, because they wanted to see it too, Thrak and Thrain looking with frank curiosity, Varinn with a kind of wide-eyed awe, and Dammarr with a staring, open-mouthed disbelief.
It was that look on Dammarr’s face, oddly enough, that somehow kept Ella there, trapped with Natt’s huge heft in her mouth, trapped in her complete and utter humiliation. Because Dammarr’s frowning disbelief wasn’t even focused on her, but instead on Natt’s admittedly dazed, hooded eyes. Dammarr was surprised, and he was —jealous.
And Natt was saying something with this, with the brief challenge of his eyes on Dammarr’s, before dropping his heated gaze back to Ella’s face. Saying, perhaps, will you show him you’re worth it, will you show me — and Ella was lost in this, utterly lain waste in it, because she actually gave a shaky little nod, and then sucked him deep.
Natt’s replying groan was sheer heat, shuddering hard down Ella’s back, but it was enough, just enough, to make her keep going. To thrust away the awareness of all those watching eyes, and just to do, to taste, to be. To let her tongue seek as it willed, delving furtive and ashamed into that deep slit, almost as if to hide — but it only kissed her back with startling force, pulsing out more of that sweet seed, drinking her up, as she drank him.
But nowthat, dear gods, was the sound of one of the orcs, finally moving — and it was Thrak, coming to sprawl his tall form beside Natt on the bench, so he couldwatch.
The mortification burned again, screeching wide across Ella’s thoughts — but Natt only gave Thrak a smug, satisfied glance as he settled his hand deeper into Ella’s hair. As if to say, yes, come, look at what she does to me — and it was perverse, it was utter depravity, but Ella’s traitorous mouth only seemed to suck harder, her tongue plunging further into his secret depths, revelling in the reward of his kiss, the splutter of surging sweetness.
“She knows how to kiss an orc, at least,” cut in Thrak — and he wascommentingon Ella, and that wasamusementin his watching eyes, ohgods. “She is not afraid to seek for her seed.”
And Nattlikedthis, Natt was revelling in this, his shameless cock kissing her, feeding her, his hooded eyes alight with wickedness. “Ach, this is truth,” he said, with an unmistakable, heated pride. “I did not even need to teach her this. She is a clever, filthy little lass, who has always closely watched me, and then quickly learnt to meet me, and please me.”
