Chapter 17 Morco #2
Her declaration scorched my heart in flames, and my obsession for this woman deepened further than the chasm she’d fallen through.
I’d desired many women, had deeper feelings for some, but it’d never been anything like this.
This feeling was beyond my heart—it consumed every fiber of my being, was encased in my strong chest, and spread deep under the skin.
I dragged her into me and kissed her, pulled her tight against my body as I kissed her in front of the men I’d just fought with, beside the dead of friend and foe that lay upon the ground. I only let her go because I had to.
“Chief.”
I turned away from her to speak to Delvin.
“This one is still alive.” He stood over one of the Knives. He lay there and bled out into the dirt, several wounds from where a sword had cut him.
I walked over and looked down at him, a beast unworthy of a name.
He stared up at me with those angry eyes, eyes that wanted to strangle me, but he wasn’t able to move.
Hanne came to my side and looked at him too, and her face was suddenly the palest it’d ever been.
The Knife switched his stare to her and remained locked in place.
A silent staredown ensured, almost as if they knew each other. “I know those eyes…” The Knife continued to stare at her with the same focused look, like he saw something in her face. “Barclay Blue.”
She swallowed before she stepped back.
His eyes followed her without turning his head. Then he took his final breath…and lay still. His eyes were still aimed in her direction, locked in place until his body decomposed into the ground.
Within a few hours, everything felt as it had been before. The tables were returned to their places, and the Knives were stripped of their armor for us to resize and repurpose for ourselves.
There was still a charged energy in the tribe because of the danger that had passed. There was also grief for the men who had laid down their lives so the rest of us could survive. We buried them in our small cemetery near the Hall of Elders.
Everyone had learned of Hanne’s heroism, and anyone who still had reservations about her no longer did.
She was officially one of us.
I visited my mother in the common room to check on her.
No danger had touched her within these four walls, but I knew she must have been frightened to know that an attack was on her doorstep and she couldn’t even see it.
Forced to sit there and wait for news without any ability to participate would have eaten her up inside.
I took my seat in front of her, and before I had a chance to speak, she addressed me.
“They tell me you’re unharmed. Is that true?”
Except for the pain in my face. “Yes.”
She inhaled a slow breath and let it out even slower. “To sit here and do nothing but hope…is infuriating.”
“Is that why you told Hanne to help?” I was a little angry with her about that. That she’d chosen to take matters into her own hands when I’d already given my orders.
She said nothing.
“I told Hanne to stay here.”
“Yes, she told me.” That was how my mother was, never one to lie or mince the truth. She was stubborn and hardheaded and, more importantly, proud. “She has her sight and her strength. They should be put to use.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make—”
“But I made it anyway,” she said calmly. “And it was the right decision, from what I’ve heard from the others.”
I gave a quiet sigh, one she could probably hear.
“I understand what she means to you. But she means what she does because of her courage and strength. She’s your partner, a leader who shares the responsibility and burden with you, not your inferior.
It would be unwise to sheathe the sharpest blade in the arsenal.
To dim our brightest light. To hide our greatest power. ”
I sat in silence and absorbed the echo of her words, knowing my mother’s wisdom prevailed over my yearning heart. “She’s never seen battle.”
“And now, she has.”
“That was but a taste.”
“Now it’s an experience she’s gained,” she said. “Our journey to victory will be a long road. You need to prepare her for it. Train her. Teach her. Nurture her.”
All I wanted to do was protect her, shield her from the life I’d been subjected to. I wanted to give her sunsets and pastries and birdsongs. I wanted to give her a life better than the one I’d lived.
My mother let the subject die. “They are searching for us, Morco. What happens when they realize their scouts are dead?”
“Anything could have killed them. Sciwards, basilisks, coyotes…”
“But what if they assume it’s us? They’ll return.”
“With the vegetables that Hanne has planted, we’ll be able to sustain ourselves without meat.
The potatoes are hearty, along with the other things she collected.
We won’t leave the island for the foreseeable future.
We’ll burn torches rather than the bonfire.
If we don’t leave for months, they won’t be able to catch our scent, and we’ll never be found. ”
My mother managed to disagree with that answer with just her features.
“If we leave for Stonework and they are searching for us, we’re far more likely to cross paths.”
She pressed her lips tightly together as she remained in thought. Then she gave a nod in agreement. “You’re right.”
“They never would have found us if Caius and Liam hadn’t been on a hunt. There are no boats at the shore, no indication that we’re somewhere on the lake. We spend that time preparing for our eventual departure. Finish the bows, make more arrows, teach the men how to use them, birth the babies…”
She didn’t argue. “I’m anxious to reclaim our throne, but we must play the game.”
“We outnumbered them, and they still killed ten of us. They’re strong.”
“But we’re stronger. Not in strength or size—but in heart.”
It was evening when I returned to the cabin.
Hanne had just bathed, standing in front of the fire with the towel around her body, combing her slightly damp hair so it could dry in the heat. Her eyes glowed beautifully when she looked at me.
I stared. Stared at the swell of her tits as they were pushed together.
The curve of her slender neck. The hollow in her throat.
The beautiful color of her skin. It’d been a long and arduous day, emotions all over the place, the joys of victory and the sorrow of loss and the frustration of my mother’s interference.
But all of that went away when I looked at Hanne.
I yanked my shirt over the back of my head and tossed it on the floor, my eyes on her body the second the material was gone. My boots were loosened then kicked away before I walked to her, the comb still in her gentle fingertips.
I watched her eyes glow brighter when I came near, watched her take a deeper breath at my proximity. I gripped the fabric that concealed her naked body, and I tugged until it came loose and dropped to the floor at her feet.
Her tits were firm from the cold air that struck them, her nipples like sharp arrowheads. Her slightly damp hair was over one shoulder, the other exposed, his skin slightly rosy from the heat of the water that had warmed it.
Enthusiasm shone in her eyes as it always did, like she wanted me without reservation.
I loosened my pants and pushed them over my hips until they slid to my ankles.
I stepped out of them before I gripped her and lifted her into me.
She hooked her ankles around my waist like she knew what to do, and I carried her to the bed before I laid her back, my hips squeezing between the softness of her thighs.
With my body held over hers, I kissed her, kissed the lips that were softer than flower petals. I felt her touch me, grip the muscles of my arms before she explored my hair. She squeezed my hips with her thighs like she was anxious for me, even though I must have hurt her a couple of times.
I pushed on the back of her thigh and bent her into position so I could enter.
Every time I was inside her, it felt like the first time. She was softer than silk, wet like my face had been between her legs for the last ten minutes. Always anxious for me, like my appearance was enough to get her ready.
She gave a quiet gasp when I entered her, like the intrusion was still new to her. But she moaned a moment later, her soft hands turning into claws once I was deep inside her.
I’d been slow and gentle with her every time we’d made love, but this time, I took it further. I thrust into her hard and fast once I had her, anxious to take her after the stunt she’d pulled earlier. I’d never wanted her more, wanted right there on the spot had the moment permitted it.
Deep inside my woman in the privacy of my cabin, I took her the way I’d fantasized in the past. When her head had fallen on my shoulder in the dark, I’d been hard.
When I’d taken her hand in the dark, I’d wanted to have her right on the shore.
Anytime I’d looked at those plump lips, I’d wanted them on my mouth—or somewhere south.
It was the first time I fucked her.
And she liked it.
She moaned and panted as I made her mine, as she took my length like she’d been taking it for years rather than days.
I snaked my hand into her hair, and I tugged her head back, exposing her throat and holding on as I pounded between her legs and got lost in the woman whose body I claimed for myself.
The woman I’d die for.
The woman I lived for.
“Morco…” She cupped my neck and felt my pulse, while she touched my chest with her other hand. Felt my heart pound and my skin sweat. Her eyes were the brightest they’d ever been, warming me in their sunshine.
She slipped away under the veil of pleasure, her pretty face tensing and blotching a deep red as a flush gave way to bumps on her arms. Her climax danced around on her features, and when she came, her eyes glistened like the surface of water in the light from the apricum. “Yes…”
I fisted her hair harder, and I invaded her lands in my name, took all of her to keep forever.
To ravish for the rest of my life, to guard with my life, to hold dear.
I bridled myself until she’d taken off, and I released my restraint when I was allowed to follow.
I filled her with all of me, left my essence in a place no one else had ever been.
And every time I did, it just got me hot again.
She cupped my neck and kissed me like she felt the same way, like she didn’t want it to end but once just wasn’t enough.
Her embraces were always passionate, and she knew how to touch me.
For a woman with no experience, she learned from me quickly, mimicked my desire, and made me feel exactly the way I wanted to feel.
Like she was meant for me.
I was dead asleep with Hanne on top of me, where she liked to sleep, her leg tucked between my knees and her head on my chest, when someone pounded on the door. “Morco!” They pounded three more times in quick succession. “Morco, get up!”
I flew out of bed and grabbed my pants from the floor.
Hanne jerked away too, breathing hard when she’d been asleep just a second ago. “What’s going on?”
I shoved on my pants as quickly as possible.
“I don’t know.” I flung the door open and stepped onto the path barefoot.
“What is it?” I looked down the path, seeing the blue color of the dirt, the land on the other side of the lake, the details of the nearby crags that stretched high above.
Then I looked at Caius. “What is the urgency? I see no enemy.”
He breathed hard like he had when he’d run from the Knives who had chased him here. But his eyes somehow looked more afraid than they had before. With utter hopelessness in his gaze, he stared at me for a few more seconds.
I’d just opened my eyes, so I wasn’t fully awake yet. “Caius?”
He raised a shaky arm and pointed to the right.
Irritated, I followed his finger.
In the short distance was a bright light in the shape of a bud. It glowed with sunshine and bathed all of its surroundings in ethereal light. The details of our territory were suddenly in daylight.
The apricum was lit.
“Oh fuck…”