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Where do those words come from when he cannot speak?
While I have been lost in thought, he has risen and is staring at me through the gloom.
I shudder. There is something wrong with my memories of the forest scenario, only I’m exhausted and cannot work it out.
Doug approaches, stooped low to fit beneath the tarp covering, his nostrils flaring and eyes narrowing as he bends down. I think he is perceptive.
“I’m okay,” I say. “I was just... How did you kill the bear?”
His chest rattles with a low warning growl. I take an unsteady step back.
Then I remember that this is Doug who saved me, and I’m only a little nervous now.
“You’re very fearsome,” I say, “but you have been only gentle and kind to me.”
I take the blanket from him and, aware of his eyes tracking me, spread it out on the wagon floor, where I settle down cross-legged.
He huffs out a breath before he rummages in his sack and hands me a strip of jerky and the end of a loaf of bread. With a grunt, he makes the motion for me to eat.
“I’m not very hungry,” I say as I stare at the food. “Don’t you want it? You have a very big body, and it must need a lot of food.”
He shakes his head.
Maybe he has eaten already. I nibble on the jerky. But all the while, I’m aware of the giant male looming over me. I wonder if he’s going to rut me tonight. I pause my chewing and, staring up at him, swallow the mouthful.
“Have you claimed me?”
He nods once, decisive.
I blush, thinking about our last time in the wagon. Was it only last night? It feels like a lifetime ago, yet it is also intimately close.
“Good,” I say, just as decisive. “I’m glad that you are. I want you to claim me. It makes me very happy.” I am rambling, but it’s like my mind seeks to fill in his silence with nonsense.
I’m also a little nervous about this development because it means he will definitely rut me, for that is how an orc claims his mate. I blush, my cheeks getting so hot there is a danger they might catch fire. “I liked that thing you did. It was very uncivilized. I’m sure goddess-fearing village folk, such as I once was, should not be doing it. But I’m not that lass anymore. Now I’m a bondservant about to be claimed by an orc.”
His eyes grow wider with every word I speak.
“A strange white orc,” I muse. “You are very beastly, but inside, you have a princely soul.”
He raises both brows and grunts.
I smile. “I used to want a prince to rescue me. When I fled the camp during the attack, I had a foolish notion that if only I could get a little distance away, the prince would find me, take me back to his castle, and claim me as his queen. There we would live happily ever after and have lots of royal babies.” It sounds utterly ridiculous now and further might have gotten me killed in more ways than one. “Will you tell on me to General Tulwin?”
He shakes his head.
“I think I already knew that, but I wanted there to be no lies between us. It was foolish to run, and even so, I’d already decided that I wanted you to be my mate.” I need to stop talking, I cannot meet his eyes anymore after this rambling confession. He is a good listener, which makes me want to giggle, as inappropriate as that is when we are having a very serious conversation-cum-confession. “No, I did not think you would tell on me. Why would you? Now that you have claimed me as yours, I mean.”
He grunts again.
“When I close my eyes at night now, I dream about you. Even before you”— my cheeks heat again—“did that uncivilized thing with your tongue.” I gesture in the general direction of my pussy.
His eyes lower, and he swallows loudly before he lifts them again and they clash with mine.
“I do not want a prince to rescue me anymore,” I whisper. “I only want you.”
His chest rises with a heavy breath. Then his nostrils flare. The food is snatched from my fingers and dumped on the sack that lies beside the blanket. I’m tipped over onto my back. My skirts are thrust up, and his nose is pressed against me intimately where he heaves ragged breaths.
“Goodness!”
