Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ryder
“Come inside with me,” I murmur against her hair. “Let me love you properly.”
She pulls back to look at me, eyes still wet but shining with something that looks like hope. “I should let you rest. You’ve been fighting fires for six days—”
“I’ve been fighting for us for six days.” I stand, pulling her up with me. “And now that I have you, now that you’ve chosen this—chosen us—I need to show you what that means to me.”
Inside, the cabin is warm from the fire burning in the fireplace, golden light spilling across the worn wooden floors. I lead her to the bedroom, each step deliberate, giving her time to change her mind.
She doesn’t.
Instead, she turns to face me, hands already reaching for the hem of my shirt. “Let me,” she whispers. “Let me take care of you first.”
“Laney—”
“You’ve been taking care of everyone else for six days. Let me take care of you.”
So I do. I let her undress me slowly, her hands gentle as they peel away smoke-stained clothes. She removes her own clothes and leads me to the shower. The water is hot, and her touch is gentle as she washes away days of ash and fear.
Her fingers trace over my body—checking for injuries, soothing sore muscles, memorizing every inch of green skin. When her hands slide lower, wrapping around my hardening length, I groan.
“Laney, I should—I need to—”
“Shhh.” She strokes me slowly, deliberately. “Let me.”
She drops to her knees in the shower spray, and the sight of her—this strong, brave woman looking up at me with love and desire through her water-spiked eyelashes—nearly undoes me.
What follows is reverent and healing. Her mouth on me, her hands gentle and sure, both of us affirming that we’re here, we’re together, we chose this.
When I’m clean and boneless with pleasure, she leads me to bed. I should be exhausted—I am exhausted—but the sight of her, naked, still dripping rivulets of water, sends new energy flooding through me as we tumble onto the mattress together.
“Now you,” I growl, pulling her beneath me. “My turn to worship you.”
My hands roam her body, relearning every curve, every dip and hollow. She’s soft where I’m hard, warm where I’m hot, and absolutely flawless in my eyes. I take my time, kissing my way down her throat, pausing to suck gently at the pulse point that makes her gasp.
“I love you,” I murmur against her collarbone. “I love every inch of you.”
“Show me,” she breathes, arching into my touch.
I take my time, mapping every inch of her with my mouth and hands.
I linger at her breast, circling until she’s panting.
My palms span her waist easily and hold her still as I drift lower.
The soft skin of her inner thigh—I graze it with my tusks, careful and teasing, until she’s trembling beneath me.
Each touch is a promise, each kiss a vow. Her gasps and moans guide me, telling me exactly what she needs.
“Ryder, please—”
“Please what, my Solarin? Tell me what you need.”
“You. Just you. Inside me. Now.”
I position myself at her entrance, and the sight of us—green and tan, orc and human, two people who should be impossible but somehow fit perfectly—makes my heart clench. My cock throbs against her slick heat, and I have to force myself to go slow.
“I will love you forever,” I tell her as I push inside, slow and careful despite the urgency thrumming through my veins. “It’s terrifying how much I love you.”
“I love you too.” Her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me deeper. “Show me what forever looks like.”
So I do. I sink into her inch by inch, watching her face for any sign of discomfort. She’s tight—so tight—and I can feel every flutter of her inner walls as her body adjusts to accommodate me.
“Okay?” I manage, muscles trembling with the effort of holding still.
“More than okay,” she gasps, nails digging into my shoulders. “Amazing. You feel so good it’s hard to believe it’s real.”
I establish a rhythm—slow, deep strokes that make her feel every ridge, every inch of me.
Our bodies move together as if we’ve been doing this for years, like we were made to fit this way.
Each thrust draws breathy gasps from her lips; each withdrawal makes her tighten around me, trying to keep me inside.
“God, Laney,” I groan against her throat. “You feel incredible. So tight, so perfect.”
Her hips rise to meet mine, taking me even deeper. The sensation is almost overwhelming—the slick heat of her, the way she clenches around me, the little sounds she makes with each thrust.
“Harder,” she pleads, and I’m more than happy to comply.
I increase my pace, driving into her with controlled power. The cabin fills with the sounds of our passion—skin meeting skin, her gasping cries, my rumbling groans. I reach between us, finding that sensitive bundle of nerves with my thumb, and her whole body jerks.
“Yes!” she cries out. “Right there, don’t stop—”
The pleasure builds, coiling tighter and tighter in my spine. I can feel her trembling beneath me, can feel her inner walls starting to flutter.
“Come for me, Solarin,” I murmur against her throat. “Let me feel you.”
She shatters with a cry, her whole body arching as the orgasm crashes through her. Her inner walls clamp down around me in rhythmic pulses, and she screams my name—actually screams it—with such abandon that it echoes through the cabin.
“Ryder! Oh God, Ryder—”
The sensation of her clenching around me, the sound of my name torn from her throat in ecstasy, the way her nails rake down my back—it all sends me hurtling over the edge.
I come with a roar, burying myself deep as my release pulses through me. My hips jerk with each pulse of my climax, and I grind against her, wanting to be as deep as possible, wanting her to feel every throb of me spilling into her.
And in that moment—in that perfect crystallization of love and commitment and physical bliss—something shifts.
It’s like a door opening in my chest, a connection clicking into place. Suddenly I can feel her—not just physically, but emotionally. Her love, her joy, her lingering fear, her absolute certainty that this is right.
And then I see it—a shimmering red glow emanating from her skin, soft at first, then growing stronger until she’s bathed in warm, pulsing light that only I can see.
The red haze. The mark of a soulbound mate.
Still buried inside her, I collapse to my side, pulling her with me so we’re face to face, still joined. My heart is pounding so hard I’m sure she can feel it. I cup her face, thumb stroking her flushed cheek, needing to see her eyes, needing her to understand what just happened.
My breath catches as I drink in the sight of her—flushed and glowing and absolutely radiant. “Laney,” I whisper, voice rough with emotion. “Do you feel it?”
“Ryder?” Her voice is shaky, wondering. “What—I can feel you. Like, really feel you. Your emotions. It’s like you’re inside my heart.”
“We’re soulbound, Laney. It’s rare—a gift from the Goddess. It happens when two people love each other deeply, commit to forever, and seal it with…” I gesture vaguely at our still-connected bodies.
“Seal it with mutual bliss?”
I pull her impossibly closer, one hand tangling in her hair, the other splayed across her lower back.
“Exactly. And I never thought—” My voice cracks with emotion.
“After everything, after all the loss and loneliness, I never thought I’d be blessed with this.
Soulbonds are rare even among orcs. But here you are, glowing like captured fire in my arms, bound to me heart and soul. ”
Her eyes shimmer with tears. “I can see it in your eyes—how much you love me. I can feel it. It’s overwhelming.”
“Good overwhelming or bad overwhelming?”
“The best kind.” She kisses me softly. “I love you, Ryder. Now and forever.”
“Now and forever,” I echo, and seal the vow with a kiss that tastes like salt and promises and home.
We lie tangled together for a long time, neither of us willing to break the connection. Outside, the world continues without us. Inside, everything has changed.
“So this is permanent?” she asks eventually, tracing idle patterns on my chest. “This bond?”
“Permanent,” I confirm. “Unbreakable. You’re stuck with me now, Solarin.”
Her smile is radiant. “Best curse ever.”
“It’s a blessing, not a curse.”
“I know.” She presses a kiss over my heart. “But ‘best blessing ever’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
I laugh, the sound rumbling through both of us thanks to our connection. “Sleep, Solarin. We’ve got all the time in the world now.”
“Forever,” she murmurs, already drifting off.
“Forever,” I agree, and hold her as she sleeps, watching the red glow that only orcs can see pulse in time with her heartbeat.