Ella’s laugh was choked, but warm. “Compared to Alfred’s kidnapping,” she said, “yours was a pleasant diversion, Natt. I mean, apart from thoseclothes.”
Her shudder at the thought was still real, even now, and Natt laughed aloud, and again bent his head to inhale at her hair. “Ach,” he said. “I did not yet ken that you only longed to be dressed as the orc’s mate you truly were.”
Ella couldn’t even argue that, giving a disapproving frown down at her current ensemble, earning another peal of laughter from Natt’s mouth. “Soon, lass,” he said. “Once I have brought you home.”
Home. There was something in that, suddenly, charging to life between them, and Natt’s head had already tilted thoughtfully, his eyes studying hers. “To your second home, mayhap,” he said. “You wish to keep your own also, do you not?”
The possibility of that was still too new, too tenuous, to really feel real — but Ella made herself consider it, drawing in a deep breath. Seeking truth.
“I do want to keep my home,” she said. “But I also want a home with you, Natt.”
His replying nod was firm, quick, decisive. “Thus, you shall have both,” he replied. “It is a gift of the gods that these two homes are so near to one another. You shall live upon your lands, and come to our mountain as oft as you should wish. And thus” — his eyes twinkled — “we shall have ample time to run and play between them, also.”
The thought was suddenly almost too delightful to be true — Ella could run the forest with Natt again, with no fear, and no shame. She could be Ella of Clan Grisk, and perhaps even still Ella Riddell, when she wished.
She was grinning up at Natt, her audacious fingers coming up to gently brush at her teeth-marks against his neck, and his broad replying grin was so viciously wicked, it took her breath away.
“There is much you must yet learn, my lass,” he said, his voice heated and smooth. “You cannotfathomall the lessons your hungry mate shall teach you. First, I ken, shall be how to best bring an attacker to his knees, when next you are so rudely kidnapped.”
The words sent a marvellous surge of heat straight to Ella’s groin, and she gave a choked, breathless laugh. “Next time?” she asked, husky. “You orcs are the most devious creaturesimaginable, Nattfarr.”
But he only kept grinning, holding her close, warm and rich and wonderful. “Ach,” he said. “Just as my filthy beast has always wished.”
And in a breath, in that truth, Natt clasped her close against him, and ran.
38
Ella and Natt’s triumphant return to the mountain was greeted with more hoots and hollers and congratulations, and with Ella being bodily brandished again and again over Natt’s head.
“My mate has defeated the man hunting me!” he said to every orc who approached, no matter the clan, no matter how warily they greeted him. “My mate has asked me towedher!”
Even the wary-eyed orcs — even those from Skai and Bautul — smiled and nodded at that, and gave Natt careful claps on the back, which he returned with force, and an almost maniacal grin. “You ought to have seen this man mewling through his missing teeth,” he gleefully told a huge, bewildered-looking Skai orc. “We even stole his hunting-dogs!”
The three dogs had refused to enter the mountain, and had halted outside it, whining — but Jule, who’d caught up to them with surprising speed, had promised to take care of the dogs for the time being, and had accordingly taken them off toward a nearby timber-framed building that appeared to be an actualstable.
“This is good,” the Skai orc said, in a heavily accented voice. “Shall we thus make merry tonight?”
“Yes, we shall,” replied a familiar voice behind them, and when Ella whipped around, it was again Jule, giving a grin that looked almost as maniacal as Natt’s. “In the muster-room. I’m having a fresh supply-cart delivered. We’re so glad you’re safe, Ella. And that everything’s all worked out.”
“I’m glad too,” Ella said, with a true, genuine smile toward her. “I’m so grateful to you and Grimarr for coming up with that plan, and rescuing me. Thank you.”
But Jule only waved it away, and beamed at them again before taking off back down the pitch-black corridor. And Natt hoisted Ella up again, and then jogged off in the opposite direction, still speaking delightedly to every orc that passed.
They spent a short stint with Efterar, during which Efterar became so annoyed with Natt’s bounding about that he sent him out of the room altogether. And next was a trip to the baths, where Natt carefully, reverently removed all Ella’s jewels but the piercings, and drew her into the water — but their heated embrace was almost immediately interrupted by Thrak and Thrain and Dammarr and Varinn, who had also been sunk half to the knees in swamp-muck.
“This isyourfault,” Thrak informed Ella, as he shucked off his muddy trousers, revealing a tall, scarred, muscled grey body, and an alarmingly large orc-prick. “Why you thought it was a good idea to run us all into the bog, I can’t fathom.”
Ella belatedly dragged her eyes away, from both him and the other undressing orcs, and fixed her gaze on Natt’s amused face. “Well,” she said, with a wince, “if those awful men were going to kill me, they at least weren’t getting my body to frame Natt with.”
Natt’s face briefly stilled, a darkness passing across his eyes, and he clutched Ella closer against him in the water, his clawed fingers sinking almost painfully into her skin. “Brave lass,” he murmured, against her neck. “I love you, my sweet mate. I thank you for such kindness toward me.”
There was a snorting noise from above them, and a massive splash from what had clearly been Dammarr, who was now shaking the water out of his long, loose black hair. “If you want to thank anyone,” he snapped, “thank the Captain. Or Olarr. I know he swore to help you, brother, but I ken the Captain hadsomethingon him, to make him trot out his pretty man on command like that.”
“Ach, surely it was something good,” said Thrain, with gusto, as he also leapt into the pool, with Varinn close behind. “That man looked ready to faint.”
“Or, mayhap Olarr had just ploughed him, straight before this,” Thrak cheerfully pointed out. “I ken I should be ready to faint from this also.”
They all laughed, even Ella — but across from them Varinn was looking thoughtful, stretching his muscular arms out wide along the pool’s stone edge. “Olarr has seemed in good spirits these past weeks, though, has he not?” he asked. “Timo said he has even offered to help Simon train with him. That is not like him.”
