“Why don’t we make a deal, Alfred,” she said, voice flat. “I won’t bring any kidnapping accusations publicly against you, if you stop hunting my betrothed,forever. I mean, you finally got him” — she waved at Natt beside her — “and see how well that worked for you.”
Alfred’s rapidly bruising mouth did something that might have been a grimace, but Ella was taking it as a yes. “And as surety for your pledge to cease all orc-hunting at once,” she continued, “I’ll be keeping these dogs for my own, thank you very much.”
The dogs were indeed still sniffing and jumping at Natt’s legs, one giving what seemed like an approving little bark — and when Alfred groaned, Ella ignored it, and gave him a decisive nod. “Oh, and a word of advice,” she said. “Next time you become betrothed to a woman, I would suggest keeping your hands to yourself at your engagement-party.”
Natt gave an appreciative grunt beside Ella, and then ushered her away, with the dogs following close at their heels. “My bright, clever lass,” he murmured — and then hesitated, mid-step, to frown down at where Ella was slightly limping on her soaked boots. “Ach, are youhurt?”
Ella tried protesting — it was only a few cuts and scrapes — but Natt cut her off with a disapproving growl, and snatched her up bodily into his powerful arms.
“I shall carry you back to the mountain,” he said firmly. “You have faced much today, my lass. You must needs be tended, and petted, and fed, and healed. And bathed, also, for you are filthy, yet again.”
Ella attempted a snort, and an elbow in his gut, but Natt only chuckled and cuddled her closer as he walked, bending his face to nuzzle into her hair. “You have brought me such pride this day, my lass,” he murmured. “Even as I raged against this man, it was such joy to see you run from him as you did, so free and bright and swift. You should have easily escaped them, if not for my scent upon you.”
Ella pulled back a little to blink up at him, her head tilting against his shoulder. “Um, how did you see?” she asked carefully. “You weren’t — there. Were you?”
“Was I not?” Natt asked, his lip twitching up, enough to show a sharp white tooth. “I could follow your scent to the end of the realm and back again. You think I should not follow when you are taken away from me, by my greatest enemy?”
Ella kept blinking at him, slowly putting that together. Natt, his guard, all the orcs, even John, and Olarr, and the right hand to Preia’sduke…
“You planned it all?” Ella asked, her voice faint. “Youplannedto follow me, and rescue me from Alfred?”
Natt gave a twitchy shrug, a wry smile. “I only meant to come with you, and be sure you were safe,” he said. “But the Captain had this plan instead. He said he only did this because I should be a better Speaker with you by my side, and his mate wishes you to stay, but” — his mouth grimaced — “I ken this was what he meant to do all this time. To test my fealty, and foil this man’s plans for war — and also to halt my being hunted, and push me to reclaim my bonded mate, all at once.”
Ella had been nodding along, considering that — until those odd, unexpected wordsbonded mate. And she didn’t even have to ask, because Natt was already grimacing again, and letting out a long, heavy sigh.
“And here is the one last truth I ought to have spoken of, my lass,” he said. “And it is one you ought to have known long ago, but I did not wish to frighten you, or give you cause to think you could not yet leave, or break it. Or that I had tricked you into it before you knew what it meant. But I —“
He’d been speaking very quickly, the words tumbling from his mouth, and Ella brought up her trembly hand to spread against his chest, feeling the rapid thuds of his heartbeat. But then feeling his heart slow, too, at her touch, his breath coming out thick and deep.
“You and I are mated, lass,” he said, quiet. “We have been mated since we spoke that pledge, all those summers past. Do you remember what I spoke to you that day, after you spoke your pledge to me, and granted me your blessing?”
Ella’s thoughts hurtled backwards, back to that quiet, peaceful, magical day deep in the forest, when Natt’s hands had held both of hers, and his eyes had looked into her soul. When she’d said Yes, Nattfarr of Clan Grisk. I will.
And then, after that. When Natt’s gangly body had seemed to shiver all over, his black eyes flaring with purpose, determination, relief. With truth.
“I pledge you my troth, my Ella,” his voice said, so quiet, matching the words he’d said so long ago. “I grant you my favour, and my sword, and my fealty. I shall keep you safe. So long as I am able, and so long as you shall wish.”
There was a pure, powerful prickling under Ella’s skin, a warmth unfurling bright and wide, understanding finally settling deep. Natt had been hermate. All this time.
“I swore, before all my fathers and mothers, and all the gods, to keep you safe,” he whispered. “It was why I could not return to you, for all these years. I sought to keep my pledge to you.”
Oh. Ella’s eyes briefly closed, her thoughts reorienting themselves, settling around this new truth — but then she was blinking at him again, giving a slight shake of her head.
“But you,” she said, oddly breathless, “you didn’t keep it. Did you? You said you took pleasure with others, you —“
Her hand had given a fluttery wave toward where all four of his guard were striding a short distance behind them, Dammarr included — but Natt only gave a hard, jerky shake of his head. “Pleasure, mayhap,” he said, “but never fealty, lass. Not the same as what I held toward you. And I ken I have not told you this either, but I have never done this with another woman. You are the only woman I have ever touched. The only one whose scent is upon me.”
His voice had gone low and fierce at the end, his head bowing to hers, his breath inhaling deep. “And when I first was taken by another,” he said, “it was not of my choosing. And I had thus lost all hope of becoming scent-bound to you, and after this, it seemed better to claim this for myself. Better to take what peace I could find, in a world that had stolen my true mate, and my true calling, away from me.”
Ella’s throat felt very thick, suddenly, too much to speak, and instead she nodded, quick and fervent, her hand clenching against his bare chest. And Natt nodded too, and squeezed her even closer, rocking her against him.
“It — shocked me,” he said, so soft now, “when we met again, and you had kept your pledge. We were so young when we spoke this, I ought to have waited, it was not right for me to speak such a vow without first teaching you the full weight it carried for me, and among my kin. I was short-sighted in this, and selfish, just as the Captain has said. You could have broken this pledge. Yououghtto have broken it.”
Ella grimaced, and tried to clear her throat, to find words again. “Well, I kind of did break it,” she said. “With Alfred.”
But Natt only gave a snort of clear derision, a hard shake of his head. “This broke naught, it was so pitiful,” he snapped. “I washed away his foul scent from you our first night. And all the rest” — his voice went lower, assured, triumphant — “you kept forme.”
Ella nodded, without hesitation, and Natt shot her another wry, breathtaking smile. “I have never been so felled in all my days,” he murmured, “or so hunger-drunk, as I was that night. It is a gift of the gods that I did not frighten you away from me for all time. Or that you did not have me killed, when I sought to kidnap you.”
