Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Keric
Iwake before dawn, but for once it’s not anxiety keeping me from sleep.
It’s her.
The front room is filled with shadowy darkness as I stare at the ceiling, replaying the epic events of last night.
My first kiss. Ever.
At my age, I’d wondered if it would ever happen. Would I die without knowing what it felt like to press my lips against a female who wanted me back? And then Anna Lee boldly kissed me.
I close my eyes and let myself remember the taste of her lips. My tusks scraped against the corners and she didn’t pull away. She leaned in and made a sound in the back of her throat that went straight to my cock.
I’d been so careful and controlled, terrified of hurting or scaring her…of being too much. My whole life I’ve been too much where humans are concerned. Too big, too wild, too primitive with black horns and elongated tusks that mark me as something other. Something scary.
But Anna looked at me like I was exactly right.
I’m getting there. I’m closer than I’ve ever been.
Her words echo in my mind and I let myself believe, for the first time, that she might actually choose a life with me. Become my Bride and bear my sons.
My body responds to the memory, blood rushing south, my shaft thickening against my thigh. I breathe through the instant need to sink into her wet heat. I’ve had plenty of practice at denial these last two weeks, walking around in a near-constant state of arousal that cannot be relieved.
Dinah meows from the bedroom. Anna’s awake.
I hear the creak of the bed, soft footsteps on wood, the bathroom door closing. And something settles in my chest. She’s still here.
She’s always still here.
Thirty minutes later we’re in the kitchen together.
I’ve taken a shower and changed my clothes.
Anna shuffles out in one of my flannel shirts over her pajamas, her hair mussed from sleep, eyes still heavy-lidded. She looks soft and rumpled and so beautiful it hurts to look at her.
And she’s wearing my shirt which means my scent is on her skin.
I nearly lose my mind.
“Coffee,” she mumbles, making grabby hands toward the pot.
I pour her a cup before she can reach for it. She takes it, our fingers brushing, and something electric passes between us. We both remember last night’s kiss. The way we’d pulled apart, breathing hard, wanting more.
A hint of pink creeps up her cheeks. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
We stand there like idiots, grinning at each other. I want to kiss her again. Want to push her against the counter and taste her until neither of us can think straight. But I hold back. “I have another security meeting,” I say reluctantly.
“I know.” She takes a sip of coffee, watching me over the rim. “Be safe.”
I step closer and cup her delicate face in my hands, tilting her head back. Her eyes are sparkling and her eyelashes are so long. I’ve always thought Anna was the most beautiful female I’d ever seen. She’s so small compared to me. So fragile. And yet she’s the bravest female I’ve ever known.
I press my forehead to hers—an orc gesture of devotion, of claiming. She sighs and her eyes flutter closed.
“I’ll be back soon,” I murmur against her skin.
“You better be.”
I force myself to leave. Every step away from the cabin feels wrong, but the commune’s safety depends on all of us staying vigilant.
The mood in the security office kills my good spirits within seconds.
Kelt stands at the head of the table, his expression grim. Whelan, Urdan, and three other orcs from patrol rotations are already seated. Their faces tell me everything I need to know before anyone speaks.
“How close?” I ask, taking my seat.
“Five miles from the perimeter,” Kelt answers. “Scout spotted them early this morning. Four human men with military-grade equipment, moving in tactical formation.”
My body grows tense. “They’re not even trying to hide anymore.”
“They’re out of time and they know it.” Kelt pulls up a map on the screen behind him. “The evidence goes public in two days, but without Anna’s testimony to authenticate it, their lawyers will eventually tear it apart. She’s the linchpin. They need her dead before she can ever take the stand.”
“Desperate enemies are the most dangerous,” Whelan mutters.
Kelt nods. “They’ll strike within twenty-four hours. Maybe less.”
The warriors around the table shift, hands moving to weapons out of instinct.
These are good males, trained and ready.
But I can barely hear the tactical discussion that follows.
All I can think about is Anna alone in the cabin, the Glock under the bed, the panic button she’s memorized and the kitten in the carrier in the closet.
It’s not enough. Nothing is enough.
“—defensive positions along the eastern ridge,” Kelt is saying when I tune back in. “Urdan, take your team to sector seven. Whelan, you’re on the north approach.”
“And Keric?” Urdan asks.
Kelt meets my eyes. “Stay with your female. She’s the primary target. If they breach the perimeter, they’ll be coming for her.”
I’m already standing. “I need to get back.”
Kelt nods. “We all need to be with our families today. Stay alert. This ends one way or another before the sun rises tomorrow.”
I’m out the door before he finishes speaking.
I’m halfway back to the cabin when the alarms start.
The sound rips through the quiet morning, a wailing siren that echoes off the mountains. Every orc on the commune knows that sound. Perimeter breach.
I floor the accelerator, gravel spraying behind me as the vehicle tears down the road.
My radio crackles to life. “Breach at sector seven.” Urdan’s voice is strained. “Two hostiles down but there’s more. They split up.”
“Breach at north approach,” someone else reports. “Three hostiles. Engaging now.”
“Where’s the primary target?” Kelt demands.
Oh hell. They’re heading for my cabin. For Anna.
I abandon the vehicle at the edge of the tree line and run. My legs eat up the distance, faster than any human could move, but it’s not fast enough. Nothing is fast enough.
Through the trees I see my cabin. See two figures in tactical gear approach the front door, weapons raised.
No.
I throw back my head and let out a thunderous roar. I hit the first mercenary from behind before he even knows I’m there. My hand closes around his throat and I squeeze. Bones crunch under my fingers. He drops to the ground.
The second one spins, rifle coming up, but I’m already on him. I grab the barrel and wrench it aside, then drive my fist into his face. He goes down hard and doesn’t get back up.
But there are more. Footsteps crunch behind me. I turn to see two more humans approach, one from the east, another from the west. They planned for resistance and came prepared.
Good. Let them come.
Rage ignites in my chest, hot and dark. But I hold it back. I need to stay in control long enough to eliminate the threats and get to Anna.
The mercenary on my left gets off a shot that grazes my shoulder. I barely feel it. I break his arm, take his weapon and use it to drop his partner. The fifth mercenary tries to run away and I chase him down, slamming him into a tree trunk hard enough to crack the bark.
And then I hear it.
A gunshot from inside the cabin.
Anna.
For one terrible second, I can’t breathe, think or move. Then I tear through the front door, ripping it clean off its hinges.
The scene inside stops me cold.
One mercenary is on the ground, blood spreading beneath him. Anna stands in the bedroom doorway, Glock raised, hands trembling but steady. My female’s face is pale and her eyes are wide, but she’s alive.
Alive.
“Center mass,” she breathes. “Like you taught me.”
Pride surges through me so fierce it nearly brings me to my knees. My female is incredibly brave. She shot a man to protect herself and didn’t hesitate.
“Anna.” Her name comes out rough, broken.
“Behind you,” she cries out.
I spin.
The sixth mercenary—I miscounted, there were six—stands in the ruined doorway. He’s holding something small and cylindrical in his hand. I recognize it instantly from Kelt’s briefing. Dammit. A scent bomb. “No—”
He throws it directly at my face.
The canister explodes on impact, spraying a fine mist into my nose, my mouth, my eyes. I choke on it, stumbling backward. The chemical burns as it enters my lungs, my bloodstream, my brain.
And then Anna’s scent hits me.
But it’s wrong. Twisted. Her normal sweetness is laced with something acrid and artificial. Synthetic terror pheromones designed to trigger every protective instinct in my body at once. My brain screams a single, overwhelming message:
MATE IN DANGER. PROTECT. KILL.
The world goes red.
I can’t think or reason. There’s only rage and the primal drive to destroy anything that threatens what’s mine.
The mercenary who threw the bomb doesn’t even have time to react.
I’m on him before his hand drops back to his side.
My claws—when did my claws extend?—tear through his tactical vest like paper. His ribs crack under my grip.
He screams. Then he doesn’t.
I stalk through the cabin, overturning furniture, following the scent of fear and sweat and gunpowder. There must be more outside. I’ll tear them apart. I’ll—
“Keric.”
The voice cuts through the red haze. Familiar. Important.
“Keric, please.”
I whip around, snarling, and find the source.
A small, dark-haired, curvy female. She’s standing in the doorway of a room, hands raised, palms out. Her eyes are wide and wet but she’s not running.
Mine.
The word rises up from somewhere deep, somewhere the chemicals can’t touch. This female is mine. I know her. I... “Anna,” I growl. The name feels strange on my tongue, like I’m speaking through water.
“Yes.” She takes a slow step toward me. “It’s me. It’s Anna. You know me.”
I do know her. But the rage won’t let go. The hormones scream in my blood. My body is caught in a loop it can’t escape.
Danger here. Must leave. Must take mate somewhere safe.
“We have to go,” I rasp. “I must keep you safe.”
“Okay.” Another step closer. “Okay, Keric. We can go. But you need to—”
I don’t let her finish.
I close the distance between us and grab her—not gentle, not controlled, pure instinct. She gasps as I lift her, throwing her over my shoulder like she weighs nothing.
“Keric, wait—”
But I can’t wait. The only thought left in my broken brain is safe and ‘safe’ is not here. Safe is away on high ground, in the cave I found years ago while hunting, hidden in the mountains where no one will find us.
I run.
The forest blurs past me.
Anna screams at first, struggling against my grip, but I barely register the movement. My legs pump beneath me, carrying us higher into the mountains, away from the commune, away from the blood and death I left behind.
At some point she stops fighting.
“Okay,” she says, her voice shaky but calm. “Okay, Keric. I’m not going to fight you. Just... just don’t drop me.”
I would never drop her. Instead, I do my best to keep her comfortable during my race through the forest. The rational part of my brain tries to surface, tries to tell me this is wrong, I’m scaring her, I need to stop and explain.
But the feral part shoves it back down. The feral part knows only one thing.
Protect the mate. Get her to safety. Kill anything that follows.
I run for miles. The terrain grows steeper, rockier. Anna’s weight is nothing. I could carry her forever.
Finally, I smell what I’m looking for, the damp mineral scent of stone, the musty emptiness of enclosed space.
The cave.
I duck inside, adjusting Anna’s position so I don’t scrape her against the low ceiling. The darkness swallows us whole. I keep going, deeper through the rocky walls, until we reach the back chamber where the ceiling opens and a shaft of light filters down from a crack far above.
Only then do I set her down.
Anna stumbles when her feet touch stone, catching herself against the cave wall. She’s breathing hard, her face flushed, my flannel shirt torn at the shoulder from where I grabbed her.
She stares at me with huge eyes.
I stare back, chest heaving, trying to remember how to form words.
Safe now. Mate is safe.
“Keric?” Her voice is barely a whisper.
I can’t answer. The feral instinct is still too strong, riding me hard. All I can do is pace the entrance to the chamber, blocking any approach with my body. Protecting what’s mine.
She doesn’t try to run. Doesn’t scream or cry or beg me to let her go. Instead, she slowly slides down the wall until she’s sitting on the cold stone floor. She pulls her knees up to her chest and watches me pace. “It’s okay,” she says softly. “We’re safe now. You got us out. You did good.”
The words barely penetrate, but something about her tone makes the roaring in my head quiet slightly. She keeps talking, murmuring soft things I can barely understand. And gradually, so gradually, the red haze begins to fade.
But the feral instinct doesn’t disappear. It just... shifts.
Mate is safe. Mate is here. Mate is MINE.
I stop pacing and turn to face her fully. My chest heaves and my claws are extended. My tusks feel enormous, longer than they’ve ever been, and I know without looking that my eyes have gone full black. No white remaining.
Anna swallows hard. “Keric,” she whispers. “You’re scaring me a little.”
I take a step toward her.
Mine.