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“Damnation! What are you doing, female?”
“MaryAnne,” she huffed, and he blinked through his fingers as his eyes slowly adjusted to see her standing there a short distance in front of him with her hands resting on her rounded hips. “I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to hold a conversation in the dark.” A look of concern flashed over her face. “Are you all right? Perhaps I should have given you some warning.”
“A warning would be nice,” he bit out as his mind desperately tried to work out what she was talking about. Conversation? Oh, right. His cock had distracted him from the fact that she wished to talk first. “What did you wish to discuss?” he managed gruffly, muttering a silent prayer of thanks as his eyes adjusted to the blinding light.
He slowly straightened and finally dropped his hands away from their protective position. He gave the strange, tube-like lamp on the bedside table an unhappy look. He didn’t realize that humans possessed anything so bright. Or that a night elf would have one in his tavern.
Her brows knit together slightly, and he found her befuddled expression quite adorable.
“About the carnival and how you’re going to get me inside,” she replied.
That… that was not quite so adorable. In fact, it was devastating to every fantasy he had quickly built in their short trip to her room. It was no matter. He would win his mate, and they would have all of that. Somehow.
But first…
“No,” he growled flatly.
There was no way that she was going to get him to go back there. Certainly not taking her. To the abyss with that idea. No.
ChapterFifteen
“No?” MaryAnne echoed in disbelief, any remaining fear of the troll cut through by the sharp edge of her temper. “What do you mean no?”
The troll’s brow furrowed, and he peered at her. “Exactly what I said—no. Now that I’ve left, I refuse to go back. And I’m certainly not taking my mate there.”
“Your mate?” She gaped at him.Seriously?With all the petting and nuzzling and purring—and he already had a mate? And what was all that nonsense from Marik? The elf had to be crazy.
But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting into the carnival.
“You don’t need to take your mate. Just help me get in and that’s all I need. Please.”
He reared back, confusion filling his eyes as he stared back at her sourly. “I don’t know how you imagine that working.” He shook his head with a bark of grim laughter as if exasperated and regarded her sternly, his long ears twitching as his eyes narrowed on her. “Why do you need this so badly? It is a terrible risk. There is an unsettling darkness there, especially along The Bend where the carnival has settled for the winter. It is dangerous, especially for a human. Humans often have a strange reaction to fae magic, but it is not just that. I’m a troll. and it unsettles even me. This is not a good place, female.”
“You don’t understand. None of that’s important to me. All that matters is my children.” She dashed her hand through the air in frustration. “I’m responsible for them, and they’re gone.”
“Gone?” he echoed, the stubborn set of his face yielding as surprise flickered in his eyes. “What do you mean? They were well enough with you when you left the carnival.”
MaryAnne gave a weak, exhausted laugh. “They were. We all went home that night and went about our usual evening routines, but when morning came—the same morning that the carnival left—they were just gone. Not just my kids but all the children in the town nearby. All… gone.”
The troll rubbed his jaw. “The carnival traveled for days on end and set up rough camps, and not once have I heard, seen, or scented a human youngling with us, much less several.”
“Somethinghappened, and that carnival holds the answers,” MaryAnne snapped as she threw up her hands and paced away from him. “Over a dozen children don’t just disappear without a trace.” Frustrated tears rushed to her eyes, and she impatiently dashed them away with her fingertips. “Please. They have no one else, and it’s up to me to find them and bring them home. And if that place is that terrible, it’s even more important that I go and find them as quick as I can. I have to.”
His face softened, and a heavy sigh left him as he scraped his long, clawed fingers through his hair. “Idounderstand the need to protect. Troll clans are not as close-knit as those of orcs, but it is customary for trolls to take in younglings we find in our territories, regardless of species. Trolls, like many fae, value younglings dearly and would see no harm come to them.”
“Then you’ll help?”
He considered her quietly and grimaced in such a way that suggested that he might yield, and she felt a spark of hope. She just needed to give him a stronger push. It shocked her that she wasn’t afraid to do so with him. Despite his considerable size and the fact that he had quite a bit more weight and height on her as well as sharp teeth and long, sharp claws,, he was calm and unruffled now that he was away from the other males downstairs.
In fact, he was a lot more in control of himself now than some of the men who lived near the home. Though he wasn’t terribly flexible, he was listening to her and taking her seriously. That, paired with the warm contentment and strange, throbbing heat she felt in his presence that didn’t seem to go away even when she was terrified, made it hard to hold onto her fear. Around him, anyway. Even now, as she vented her frustration, he remained calm as his eyes followed her as she paced back and forth across the room.
She just needed to appeal to him on a more personal level now that she understood that the fae races had at least one redeeming quality about them. “You know my name, but what’s yours?”
A look of surprise and wry amusement crossed his face. “Do you not know better than to ask a fae that? Or to give your own true name?”
“Oh.” She tilted her head. “There are rules to all of this? I didn’t realize it would be so complicated.”
Generally, she either ran from or altogether avoided monsters. Etiquette had never crossed her mind.
