Chapter 14 If I Killed Someone For You
If I Killed Someone For You
Icame back into my body slowly.
The rage, an endless pit that I hadn’t experienced since I went through a phase as a teenager where all I wanted to do was fight, was still bubbling below the surface.
But it wasn’t spilling over anymore.
For now.
I sighed.
I couldn’t keep going like this.
I was turning into what some of the orc elders I’d met throughout the years warned us about… Feral. I was turning feral because I was denying the mating, trying to take my time like a human would instead of giving into my instincts to make Stevie mine.
Orcs were known for quick courtships, especially if a scent match was involved.
Normally the bite and claiming ceremony happened within minutes of a scent match hitting our nostrils.
The scent-matched partner felt the same instinctual need in every encounter I’d read, which explained why Stevie was crushed the first night I tried to protect her instead of giving in.
I was grateful for my self-control but incredibly tired and nearing my breaking point.
You just broke Jeb’s fingers. I think we’re past that buddy.
I wanted my mate.
I wanted my bite on her neck.
I wanted—I needed Stevie to know what I was battling and for her to agree and let me claim her like I needed to.
After six days.
Not too fast at all.
“You okay over there?” my mate asked, sweet voice, honeyed with caution as she tested the waters.
We’d been sitting at a table in the back corner of Sunny’s for several minutes, and since most folks were still at the field where the game was probably continuing, we had the place to ourselves.
It might have been rare for me to lose control like that, but overall, it wasn’t a rare occurrence for a Maplewickan to get territorial.
Which meant we also had all the cats to ourselves.
I had one cat on each thigh, purring steadily, soothing me more with each moment. A cup of cocoa resting within sipping distance and my mate sitting across from me looking hot as sin—still wearing my colors—was another calming factor.
I took a deep breath and met her gaze. I had to rip the Band-Aid off and dive into the most important conversation of my life before I lost the nerve.
“You know I’d never hurt you, right?” Her eyes were like a calming green field of grass as I stared into them, hoping she’d see my sincerity.
Stevie answered by reaching across the table, gripping my hand in hers. “I know you’d never hurt me, Thrakh. I know you’d normally never hurt anyone, but that was a shit circumstance.”
“Right. I just don’t want you to think I go around breaking people’s fingers for—”
“Whoa, what?” Felipe clearly sensed the gossip about to unfold. He hopped over the counter, approaching our table but didn’t get too far.
“Back off,” I snarled, immediately regretting it at the shock in Felipe’s eyes. He backed away slowly.
“I’ll catch you up tomorrow, Felipe,” Stevie added. “Thrakh snapped Jeb’s fingers after he grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. But we need some privacy right now, okay?”
He continued backing away toward his spot behind the counter.
I sighed again. I was digging myself a deeper hole each moment.
“You were saying?” Stevie asked, slowly caressing my thumb. She calmed me so easily, even if I wasn’t doing a good job of showing it.
“I don’t normally act like that. I have been…” How did I say this? “I haven’t been myself lately—it’s not an excuse—violence is never okay, but the sight of him—”
“Thrakh,” she interrupted my rambling. “I would’ve snapped his fingers if I had the time before you showed up.
Briar would have done worse if you hadn’t climbed that fence like one of those zombie hoards trying to get to the human flesh, like in those movies?
You know the ones.” She blushed at her own rambling.
“Sorry, got off track there. But seriously, in my book you did nothing wrong. I’m only worried you’ll get charged with something or arrested, should we get a lawyer? ”
We.
I settled instantly. We implied together.
We meant she wasn’t dumping my ass.
We meant I still had a chance.
“Police are more of a formality here. We tend to solve our disputes whatever way nature tells us to, otherwise things build up. What I did would probably be punishable by some law in most towns. In Maplewicket Jeb is the one who started it by laying his hands on you, with many witnesses, so he’ll get more shit for it than I will. ”
“They wont, like, kill him, right?”
I laughed at the thought.
“Nah, but they’ll lock him up somewhere to cool down. The Castillo’s act as enforcers around here, but they won’t do anything to end his life.
“So, back to what you were saying. You haven’t been feeling like yourself lately? I haven’t either,” she admitted. “The weirdest things have been happening.”
I swallowed. It was now or never; she was giving me an opening to come clean and tell her everything I’d been holding back.
“And what was that about a mate?” Her face couldn’t hide that she was leading this conversation in a direction she wanted. There was a knowing gleam in her eye like she was waiting for me to catch on.
I coughed up a surprised laugh. “Goddess help me, Stevie, you already know, don’t you?” I shook my head.
“Know what?” she asked, blinking as if she had no idea what I was talking about while grinning maniacally.
I grabbed a kitten who’d sprawled across the table, putting her on the ground before continuing.
“Stevie.” I looked her straight in those freshly-mowed-outfield green eyes that peered into the deepest parts of me.
It was clear now that Briar had blabbed or Stevie’s own curiosity had her researching orcs.
It wasn’t hard to find information on us, and mates were a hot topic.
“You’re my mate. I knew as soon as I scented you that first night.”
“After you yelled at me?”
“About mid-way through you yelling at me, actually,” I admitted.
“You deserved it.” She smirked at the memory. “So, what do I smell like?”
I laughed. “That’s what you want to ask?”
“I mean if my BO is what lured you in, then—”
“Peaches. The juiciest, ripest peaches freshly picked from a southern orchard after a perfect spring so they could grow plump, round, and bursting with flavor.” Her mouth popped open.
She licked her bottom lip. “Cinnamon. Spicy, comforting, and swirling with the peach to bring in another level of temptation. Candied almonds. The kind you can smell at the ren faire when you’re about to leave but the sweetness hits you, and before you know it, you’re in line waiting for the warm crunchy goodness. ”
She gulped.
“I don’t know what Briar told you or what you read, but a scent match is something revered among orcs.
Meeting a scent match is the greatest honor.
When I scented you, my biology responded and literally started changing to be the best mate for you.
And with that comes some other things.” I shrugged, wondering how much she wanted to get into it in a public place.
“The biting?”
“That, yes.” I took one of the cats off my lap so I could get us out of here when Stevie was ready.
“The biting is important, but the commitment is more. You’d be with me forever, Stevie.
It isn’t like a human marriage, there isn’t really a divorce, and I honestly haven’t heard of a mated couple ever wanting one if there was.
We’ve only known each other a week, and I’ve barely kept myself in check around you.
I’m struggling even now with no triggers.
“You’re it for me. You’re mine. And I can only hope that you’ll take me as yours too, because I am. I’m yours, Stevie, even if you aren’t ready. Every bit of me, the angry asshole, the possessive over-the-top, the—”
“Mafia daddy breaking the fingers of my enemies?”
I scoffed. “Suits aren’t for me. Have you seen these arms?” I flexed obnoxiously, thankful for the levity. “No way.”
She laughed. I savored the sound.
“We’re inevitable, Stevie. We’re fated. You’ve probably felt it in your own body, the need for me, one I’ve been trying to keep at arm’s length to give us as much time to get to know each other as possible.”
Silence fell over the table as Stevie took in everything I’d said. I waited on pins and needles wanting to ask her what she was thinking, needing to know if she would reject me, or have me, or tell me to fuck off.
“Two,” she muttered.
I blinked. “Two?”
“It was two days before Declan bit my sister’s throat and claimed her.
I remember her telling me about it; how I thought she was crazy and stupid and na?ve and had no clue what she was doing.
Dolly’s my big sister, always telling me what to do and what not to do.
She wasn’t one to go around and make mistakes like marrying—or mating—a dude she swiped right on after one date.
I remember the fight we got into, how she didn’t speak to me for weeks and how she told me that I couldn’t possibly understand. ”
She took a deep breath.
“I remember the first time Declan came to me himself to explain his side of things without Dolly. He’d started with the same points she’d made over-and-over.
He told me how much he loved her, cared for her, how he’d always protect her.
He laid it on thick, you know?” She chuckled and I nodded, knowing how much Declan loved Dolly.
“Then he told me there was something I wasn’t considering—that I was now his sister, too.
He mated Dolly which meant he was my brother.
He was my family; I was his family. Which was all I’d ever wanted, you know?
To belong and feel loved like only Dolly had until then.
“So, I spent more time with them. I visited Maplewicket a few times a year. I saw their babies grow up into little half-vampire cuties. I felt love I’d never experienced outside of my sister every time I visited. I saw the way their worlds revolved around one another.”
“I’ve never told anyone, not even Dolly,” she whispered, leaning in and looking me in the eyes.
“I was so fucking jealous, Thrakh. The idea that someone could love my sister like that so effortlessly, simple, yet completely soul-consuming? I figured they’d get bored or hate each other, but they only grew more-and-more in sync over the years.
I knew I’d been wrong to question it at the beginning.
It’d been a natural response, sure, but so wrong.
I got to witness a real-life love story unfold, and it started with Declan smelling my sister, knowing he was hers instantly. ”
It stayed silent at the table as my mate bared her truth to me.
“So, I don’t say this lightly or with some na?ve idea of what mating is. I say this as a fully informed adult in her thirties who knows what she wants.”
I braced for rejection, for her to tell me to kick rocks.
“Bite me. Claim me. Do whatever you want with me, Thrakh. I’m down for everything that comes our way. I’m yours.”