CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Brokk

My mate’s sweet lips open under mine, and I need no further invitation.

I groan into her mouth, plunging my tongue into its sweet heat. The scum who thought to take her from me lie defeated at my feet. The need to claim my prize, to take her hard and fast, makes my cock ache. I—

“Orc, if you have a moment,” the panther interrupts, amusement coloring his voice. “I’d like to get off this one sometime this century. He smells.”

I growl and set Lara down.

Vines snake across the ground, wrapping up both the men until they resemble green mummies, with only their faces free.

“You really are good with those vines, orc.” The other fae’s eyes glitter with mischief as they flick toward my mate. “For all the various things you do with them.”

“Oh. My. God. Did you watch us?” A wealth of emotions flickers across her face. Shock and embarrassment followed by… is that intrigue? Well, well. It seems my mate might have a little bit of an exhibitionist in her.

“Don’t worry,” I tell her. “He couldn’t have been close. The plants would have told me.” Though part of it’s my fault—I told them to warn me of humans, not other fae—it’s an oversight I won’t make again.

“I didn’t watch… for long.” The panther’s bushy tail tip flicks as he turns that too-wide grin on us. “And I did just save your life, enabling you to cavort with your little human again.”

“I’m not ‘his little human.’” My mate unzips the catsuit and shakes out the dried vegetation stuffing it. “I’m Lara.”

“I’m Grey,” the feline fae says.

“Brokk.” I gesture toward the center of the island. “Let’s get moving. I don’t know how long the Faerie Fruit will detain the rest of the humans.”

“All right.” Grey saunters in that direction, disappearing into the trees.

I stare after him, losing sight of him quickly, even with my keen senses. As much as I wanted fae warriors to fight with, I wasn’t hoping for one of the feline fae. Though I can’t deny they’re skilled warriors, they’re also tricksters.

Turning back to Lara, my magic flicks outward, unwinding the palm-frond bikini. I catch the journal before it can fall and hold it while Lara gets dressed.

She takes it from me and slides it into the front of her catsuit, then tugs me down to whisper in my ear, “I don’t actually mind being your little human, you know.” Then she gives me a saucy grin and takes off into the jungle, following the cat.

My cock leaps at the promise in her words, and I growl and hurry after her.

“Tell me. Why are we traveling in this direction?” The cat sith paces us, off to one side as I blaze our trail forward, using my magic to move plants out of our way.

“There’s a building at the center of the island that the humans are interested in,” Lara says. “It’s why they kidnapped me. They can’t read the writing carved into the walls.”

“The building at the top of the waterfall? I’ve been there,” Grey says. “I have no idea what they want it for. It’s empty. It’s been abandoned for hundreds of years.”

“I wonder what it is.” Lara’s voice rings with excitement. “The guy who kidnapped me says there’s a magical artifact of some kind, but if he can’t read any of the writing, I don’t know why he thinks that.”

“I don’t know either.” Grey’s tail flicks. “I took a look around a few months ago but didn’t notice any writing.”

“Do you live on this island all alone, or are there more cat sith?” I ask.

“No to both.” He grins over at me. “I came to the island a couple of months ago to hunt. There’s a particularly tasty type of wild boar that we don’t get on the mainland. But the humans and all their noise drove my prey to the far side of the island. Which makes me ask: how are there humans on this island? The doors of Faerie are closed.”

“Not anymore,” I say. “A human witch opened them a few months ago. This island somehow got transported to the human realm of Earth.”

“Ah, that explains why none of the shadow roads will take me back to Fruvalia’s mainland.”

“Shadow roads?” Lara asks.

Instead of answering, Grey steps forward, disappearing into thin air. His smile appears several feet away, the rest of his body slowly materializing around it.

She gasps and points. “That is amazing.”

His grin widens. “The cat sith have special paths we travel that allow us to move quickly and unseen.”

“It makes them excellent sneaks,” I add.

“You’re simply envious.” His eyes glitter with amusement.

“What else can you do?” Lara asks.

“This is a new one.” Grey’s body shifts into a fae. Tall and muscled, he has pale skin and long black hair that changes color along its length until the tips end in silver. His green eyes and huge smile remain the same.

He’s also completely naked.

And my mate’s gaping at him.

Irritation flashes through me, and I send a palm frond flying through the air to plaster over his crotch.

He tsks at me. “Since when are orcs prudish?”

“Since living among the humans for several months,” I snap.

“Then how about this?” His body flickers again, shifting into his dual form, a seven-foot werepanther covered in thick fur. Grey stands upright and has human-shaped hands tipped with vicious claws, his furry face something halfway between fae and cat.

I let the palm frond drop.

“I suppose the doors of Faerie opening explain why I can shift, too.” He stares at his own hands in fascination, making the claws extend and retract several times.

“The cat sith are shifters ?” Lara’s voice is full of awe. “That is too cool! Does that make the cu sith werewolves?”

“It does,” I say.

“Oh, man. I have got to put this in my next book.” Her expression grows thoughtful, her thumb tapping across her fingertips like she’s counting. No, she’s making one of her lists.

I start walking again, parting a hanging mat of vines.

The others follow, Grey shifting into his cat form.

“Back to what we were talking about,” Lara says after a few minutes. “Why is Elton doing all of this? He kidnaps me. He has people shooting at us. What in the world does he think is this important?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “My people don’t have many stories of the Faerie realm this island comes from. It was considered more of a… vacation spot than a place of power.”

“That’s why my ancestors came to Fruvalia,” Grey says. “It was supposed to be a hunting trip, but the doors of Faerie closed, and they were trapped. My people are still back in Fruvalia, probably with no idea they can now go home.”

“There’s got to be something that makes Elton think there’s more to that building than just ruins. I need to take a look at those photos I grabbed and see if there’s any clue what it could be.”

“Good idea.” I glance back over my shoulder in time to catch her happy smile.

It’s still light by the time I call a halt for the evening, the days long this far south on the globe. I leave Lara in a sheltered clearing with the plants ordered to form a protective barrier around her.

Grey joins me on the hunt.

“So, orc. This human world,” he says, his tone serious for once, “is it a place one such as me can live? My fae form can pass as human.”

“True.” His skin color falls within the range of human norms. He’ll have an easier time than me in that regard. “But the people of this time are quite different from the humans of the past. They have their own kind of magic now, something called technology. It includes various forms of identification paperwork. You need it to do almost everything, and you won’t have it.”

“You’re clearly getting by.”

“Perhaps.” I grunt, remembering Lara’s insistence that my agent takes too much of my money. It wasn’t an issue before now, because my needs were simple and I had enough to survive on. But everything’s changed.

This paperwork is going to be an issue if I leave Steve’s “employ.” Will I be able to support my mate? Will I even be able to marry her in the way humans do?

I scowl. No matter what it takes, I must find a way to be the mate Lara deserves.

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