“Better,” he gritted out, harsh, taunting, his huge body shifting above her, his hot hand tightening against her wrists. “You be silent. You listen. Youlearn.”
Maria could have spat it out,shouldhave, the noises and wails now escaping wordless from her blocked mouth — but the craving kept screeching, soaring in relentless, white-hot streams. Needing more, yes,more, even as Simon’s other hand dropped back to her neck, circling warm and close and deadly.
“No,” he hissed again, stern, commanding, utterly in control. “You learn, Skai. You accept your Enforcer’s judgement.”
Skai.Your Enforcer. Those words enough, somehow, to knock Maria nearly back to stillness again. Blinking and quivering beneath a massive, bloody, powerful orc, who had one hand on her wrists, the other on her neck. With his dagger-hilt filling her mouth, the monster at his groin swelling and leaking deep within — and deeper still, the new life he’d already made inside her. Skai. His.
“Mine,” he said, so smooth, so sure, the words twining into Maria’s belly, into her soul. And he slowly dragged out, all the way, hovering at just the edge — and then slammed back inside, wrenching her whole body beneath him. “Skai.”
Maria couldn’t think, answer,breathe, and Simon’s eyes held steady on hers as he did it again. “Mine,” he said, dragging out, driving in. “Skai.”
And then he did it again, again, again. So intent at first, so deliberate, as if piercing the words into her, writing them with hot flesh and cold merciless steel. But then faster, harder, deeper, railing against her with the stark depth of that truth, slamming against her heart, scraping into her soul.Mine.Skai.
Maria’s sense was spiralling into darkness, deeper and faster, her helpless moans escaping around the steel in her mouth — but there were no words now, no protests. Only this moment, watching, listening, learning. Sparking and swirling in her Enforcer’s eyes, his truth, his judgement. The sheer strength of his determination, desperate and tightly controlled, all of him lost in showing her, teaching her. She was his, she was Skai, and he would do anything,anything, to guard that truth. To hold it safe.
His. Skai.
And suddenly Maria needed to hold it too, so urgent it flooded all else. Her hand yanking against his grip on her wrists, just for a moment, please…
But he knew her, he did, he always had. And he released her wrist without question, without hesitation — and in return, Maria’s fluttering, tingling hand found his sweaty chest, and spread wide over his furious thundering heart. His. Hers.
Skai.
She nodded, abrupt, desperate, jerking the sharpened dagger-blade toward his face — and it was like he’d instantly uncoiled, sagging against her, his relief thick in the hot, musky air. His grip relaxing on her neck, his hand slipping up, sliding the steel out from between her swollen lips.
“Ach?” he whispered, so hoarse, so tenuous. “Ach, my Maria?”
And Maria was still nodding, but he wanted to hear her say it, needed it — and she coughed, found her breath. Her truth.
“Ach,” she whispered back, her voice a croak. “Yours. Skai.”
And gods, there was water streaking down her face, dripping into the fur, and Simon’s big hand cupped her cheek, cradling it, so soft, so reverent. “Ach,” he breathed. “Ach, my love.”
His love. His truth. Twisting and clamouring inside, settling against all the rest. Filling her with its power, with the strength still rooted deep in her belly, with the weight of his body finally sinking low and warm and close.
And when he buried his face in her neck, and began rocking once more against her, it was… different. Unlike it ever had been before. Quiet, quivering, with no challenge, no aggression. Not even when Maria felt the unmistakable truth of deadly sharp orc-teeth against her neck, skittering and scraping against smooth untouched skin…
And when those teeth sank deep, breaking the skin,bitingher, Maria didn’t cry out. Didn’t resist. Only clutched him closer, gulping for air, her body stilled, her eyes snapped wide. Watching. Learning. Skai.
And in the mingled pain and pleasure, the filling and the taking, the sound of an orc’s throat swallowing her verylifeblood, there was also… peace. Ecstasy.Euphoria. Being claimed, consumed, cleansed. Being one with an orc, filled with orc, lost in his cock and his teeth and his craving, his need, his truth. In his most vulnerable, most powerful parts driving into her again and again, marking her, knowing her, swelling full, locking tight —
And then he reared up, his face smeared with blood, his mouth howling to the sky — andfloodedher. His hot molten seed spraying and bursting within her, while the screaming relief of her own release clamped and shouted and flared. His. Hers. Skai.
And as they stared at one another, the shocks still rippling through them both, Maria again felt this truth, still fragile and new, but real enough to touch. An Enforcer and his Enforced. An orc and his woman. A Skai… and a Skai.
And in that instant, all was utter, perfect clarity. Cleansed. Whole.
She needed to… run.
31
She needed to run.
And as Maria blinked up at Simon’s blood-streaked face, the truth of it seemed to twine tighter, deeper. She had to run. It was the only way.
And it was almost as though Simon saw it, knew it. As though Maria could see it, stealing across his eyes, stilling his breath.
“Now you stay,” he said, his voice very low. “Youstay. I keep yousafe.”
