Chapter 22
Waking up with Malek by my side was a unique experience.
His arm encircled my waist, and his large hand rested between my legs, covering my pussy in a possessive way that, strangely, didn’t bother me.
He breathed peacefully, his face buried in my hair, and for a moment, the cabin seemed to be the only safe place in the entire world.
The brightness leaking through the cracks indicated that the day had already broken.
I thought of Kalisha and the missed training session, of Leone and his recovery.
But the comfort of Malek’s arms was a delicious trap.
I watched his relaxed face, his features softened by deep sleep.
The intensity of the Ruk’hai gave way to a rare stillness, revealing the male beneath, who, to my dismay, had begun to claim a dangerous place in my heart.
I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his shoulder, exactly over my bite mark. The skin was sensitive, and the muscle twitched slightly beneath my lips, but he didn’t wake. When I tried to slide out of bed, the absence of his warmth hit me like a cold wind.
“Where are you going?” Malek’s voice, hoarse and heavy with sleep, cut through the silence.
I smiled at the sight of his half-closed eyes and the slight pout on his lips. He might have looked almost boyish, if not for the broad expanse of his chest revealed as he sat up, the furs slipping away.
“I have commitments, Malek,” I said, but my determination faltered when he pulled me into his lap.
Feeling his member already pulsing beneath me stirred that wild side of mine. An overwhelming urge to lick my own bite mark took hold of me, but I held back.
“Don’t go.”
“I have to see Leone and—”
He ignored my protests about Leone and Kalisha, sealing my mouth in a hungry kiss. His large hands abandoned my waist and slid up into my hair, pulling it slightly as he devoured my lips.
“The world can wait, krash'uk,” he growled without pulling away, his hot breath sending waves of desire all the way down my spine. “But I cannot.”
He eased me back onto the furs, settling over me. His lips found my neck, right over the mark he had left the night before, and he lingered there, drawing a soft moan from me. My hands slid up to him, pulling him closer.
“Malek...” I tried to say, but my words died when I felt his tongue trace a path of fire down to my breasts.
He enveloped one of my nipples with his hot mouth. The contrast between the rough stubble scratching my sensitive skin and the damp caress of his tongue was all it took. Kalisha, Leone, and the rest of the world turned to smoke before Malek’s touch.
My nails dug into his tense muscles as he trailed kisses down my belly. He continued to descend, his hot breath sending shivers across my naked skin, until his lips reached my belly button. Malek paused at the curve of my hip, his large, rough hands sliding beneath my thighs to open me to him.
“Beautiful,” he murmured.
He dove his face between my legs. The shock of his hot tongue against my center, still sensitive from the night before, made my vision darken.
I felt the pressure that expanded my senses until I was nothing but exposed nerves.
Just when I felt the beginnings of an orgasm, Malek pulled back quickly, his eyes shining with predatory lust.
He positioned himself, the tip of his length, with those golden pearls I now craved like an addict, grazing my entrance.
With a single thrust, he buried himself deep within me.
My legs locked around his waist, pulling him close so that not an inch of distance remained between us.
He let out a guttural growl, his hands digging under my hips to dictate a savage rhythm.
Pleasure coiled tight, an unbearable pressure that made me arch my neck. Malek saw the bite mark and bit my lower lip with such possessiveness that I saw stars.
We were on the brink of collapse, our breaths mingling into a single gasp, the knot at his base already pulsing, ready to seal us together once more—
“Ruk’hai, Drak and I need you now! It’s urgent!”
The voice was like a bucket of cold water.
Malek let out a growl as he wrapped me in his massive arms, hiding my nakedness beneath the weight of his body.
“I’m busy!” he roared, his voice laced with a deadly warning.
But it was too late.
The entrance bead curtain was yanked aside, and Ni’kira burst into the cabin. The female orc’s eyes widened, scanning the scene until they fixed on the point where our bodies were fused and, inevitably, on the fresh, bruised bite mark on the Ruk’hai’s shoulder.
A surge of violent possessiveness, a feeling I never imagined myself capable of almost two centuries of life, took hold of me. Before I could process it, my mind was silenced by orc instinct.
I bared my fangs at the intruder and let out a sharp hiss, a warning that this cabin and this male were mine. I felt my claws throb, ready to be used if she took a single step further.
“Out!” Malek practically roared, the sound snapping the female out of her momentary shock.
“Morak! Morak!” Ni’kira stammered, her face draining to a shade of ash as she retreated, tripping over her own feet to flee the cabin before Malek or I could reach her.
I kept hissing for a few seconds after she left, my chest heaving, the lingering scent of her in the hut grating on my nerves. Malek turned back to me, pressing a kiss to the curve of my neck, almost apologetic, as if trying to soothe the beast the reckless orc had stirred.
“She’s gone, krash’uk.”
“What did she want?” I asked, my voice raspy with the anger of having not only my territory invaded, but my pleasure denied.
“It doesn’t matter.” He reached out with an enormous hand and, with a delicacy that contrasted sharply with the fury from moments before, brushed the damp strands of hair from my face.
“She should have waited. No orc enters a Ruk’hai’s cabin without an invitation, especially when the scent of mating is in the air. ”
His possessiveness pleased me in a way my Ceilte upbringing would have condemned as wild.
“Is she the female who wants to be your mate?” I asked, unable to hide the jealousy in my voice.
Malek frowned. “Ni’kira?” he asked, confused. “She wants to be the Ruk’hai’s mate, Fiona. She wants the position, the power that comes with the leadership. She doesn’t want me.”
He leaned in and kissed the top of my head. The weight of his hand on my waist was a cocoon of safety. There was no more room for doubt; what we had now, however much I still couldn’t name or explain it, was the most real thing I had ever experienced in my life.
“You’re mine, krash’uk,” he whispered against my skin, pressing me against his massive chest. “Remember that.”
I didn’t need a reminder. His scent clinging to me and the mark of his fangs on my neck were more than enough.
“And you’re mine,” I countered with the same intensity, burying my face in the curve of his neck and placing a possessive kiss over his mark.
? ? ?
We didn’t leave the cabin until hours later.
Malek looked like the imposing warrior he always was, but there was a different spark in his eyes, a heat that hadn’t existed before.
The bite scar on his shoulder was the only visible proof of our union, and it filled me with pride as the orcs of the village noticed it.
He had given me new clothes: a deep green top and an orange loincloth, colors I never would have imagined wearing in my life, yet they made me feel beautiful.
We walked side by side to Leone’s hut, and the respect in the village was clear; the orcs noticed the change in the Ruk’hai’s posture immediately.
Many smiled, while others bowed their heads in reverence.
I didn’t see Kalisha anywhere. I had to apologize to her for keeping her waiting. I hoped she wasn’t too angry.
When we reached the cabin, we found Leone more alert. He was propped up on one arm as the fever finally broke. His blue eyes, so familiar, studied me with the clarity of someone who had known me for more than a century.
“You took your time,” he remarked, a faint smile touching his cracked lips. “I thought the orc had eaten you for lunch.”
“Almost,” I replied, feeling the flush creep up my face. Malek let out a low grunt beside me, a sound of pure satisfaction that did nothing to help my embarrassment.
I handed Leone the bowl of stew, and he ate with a ravenous hunger.
But as his appetite was sated, his focus shifted.
He flicked his gaze back and forth between Malek and me, processing the electricity that still crackled in the air between us and the scent of mating that was undeniable to a sensitive nose.
“Did you sleep together?” he asked bluntly.
I froze. Malek, on the other hand, leaned over me, leaving the bite scar on his shoulder, my mark, plainly in view.
“What of it?” he countered, his tone defiant, unwilling to tolerate any questioning when it came to his female.
“How... what?” Leone stammered, his shock twisting into horror. “Fiona, have you lost your mind? He’s an orc!”
“I’m an orc too,” I shot back.
“You aren’t an orc, Fiona!” he exploded, struggling to sit up. “You were cursed to look like one. You’re the Princess of Ceilte!”
Malek took a step forward, his large hand resting possessively on my waist. The heat of his touch anchored me, reminding me that I was no longer that princess protected by walls and lies.
“I’m what I am now, Leone,” I said, staring him down. “And I’m not ashamed of it.”
“Did he force you?” Leone’s question was an insult that made every one of Malek’s muscles tense.
“Never,” Malek growled, his voice as dangerous as thunder before a storm. “Your sister is strong. She could never be forced into anything.”
“Enough, Leone!” I snapped, covering Malek’s hand with mine to keep him in place. “I wanted to mate with him, and I want you to respect that, or we’ll have problems. Understood?”
Leone stared at me with profound grief, as if I had just betrayed our entire kingdom.
“You must be going out of your mind,” he murmured, shaking his head and shifting his gaze to the wall. “If Lord Fenric doesn’t kill Alasdair for this, the heartbreak surely will.”