Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kragorn
‘Twas good to be home, even if—I admit—I had very little recollection of how I came to be there.
I remembered Torvolk lifting me onto a horse, jostling my broken arm, the pain spiking throughout my body. I remembered the heat of the fever setting in. I remembered looking frantically about for Lillian, only to have my cousin grab me again.
“Easy, Kragorn,” he’d murmured. “Else ye’ll fall and break something else.”
“Lillian.” I could barely make my throat work. “Where…”
“Isadora has her. I didn’t even know my Mate could ride, but she’ll keep her safe.”
Mate? Fook me, I’d been gone too long. When had this hulking dobber find the time to find a human Mate? What was the likelihood he’d spent time in a human dungeon?
But I’d lacked the strength to ask. So instead, I’d gripped my cousin’s wrist.
“She’s mine.”
“Aye, we ken it. She’s already told Isadora she’s yer captive, and we’re all looking forward to hearing yer story. But first we need to get ye to Nan for healing.”
Thank fook I passed out then and missed the agony of being paraded through the village and lifted into my bed like an invalid. Which I was.
The fever took me again, and while I woke several times in the next days, I remembered only snatches, images. My grandmother was there, as were my cousins Torvolk and Mkaalad. Even the Bloodfire Keeper appeared once, which must have been a hallucination, because Jorak never left the stones.
Human women came and went too, most of whom I didn’t recognize. It seemed my cousin hadn’t been the only one to find a Mate in my absence.
But the one constant that I could remember was Lillian.
Whenever I’d wake, I’d look for her and not be disappointed.
Sometimes she’d be at my side, spooning tea down my throat, and sometimes she’d be hovering anxiously near the hearth, pretending to attend to some chore as Nan examined my broken body… but she was always there.
And her scent in my home comforted my Kteer in a way naught else could. Lillian was here, with me…and I had another month before we had to worry about the pathway opening to the human’s world again.
Eventually the fever broke, and I could think straight.
Lillian was there, and my Kteer sang as I reached up to touch her arm, to ensure myself she was real. Since I hadn’t opened my eye yet, I suppose she hadn’t realized I was awake, because she startled, jostling the bed.
“Kragorn?”
“Good morning.” Slowly, I opened my good eye and found her sitting beside me on the bed, tucked up next to my splinted arm, wiping my brow with something cool and wet. “How are ye?”
“How am I?” Her blue eyes wide with incredulity, she leaned over, her gaze darting over my face. “How are you? How do you feel? Are you in pain? Do you need aught?”
I grabbed her hand. “Just ye, dkaar.”
With a flustered look, she jerked away from me, twisting to pick up a bowl from the table someone had dragged beside the bed.
“I have porridge for you! ‘Tis leftover from this morning, but your grandmother told me you like it with honey, and I have—”
She bit down on her words when she turned back to me, her cheeks bright pink with what I assumed was embarrassment, and she dropped her gaze to my chest.
“You need your strength.”
Obediently, I opened my mouth and allowed her to spoon some of the porridge onto my tongue. ‘Twas not the best-tasting way to break my fast, but she’d made it for me, and that fed my heart as well as my body.
“Just like auld times, eh lass?”
Of course, I meant the times she’d fed me while I’d been chained to the wall of the dungeon, but her flush just deepened. Why wouldn’t she look at me? I focused on swallowing the soft food, and she concentrated on…well, aught besides me, it seemed.
Soon enough, the bowl was empty and she still kept her gaze lowered. The pulse at the base of her throat told me she was nervous, but why? We were safe here; my home was the same it had been when I left, cozy and warm. Why would she be uncomfortable?
“Lillian,” I began, but when I saw the flash of blue beneath her lashes, I forgot my question. “Thank ye.”
I meant it; I was well aware that I owed her my life several times over, but I knew ‘twas right to trust my Mate.
Lillian, on the other hand, responded not with sweet words, but by shoving herself to her feet and hurrying across the cottage.
“You must be uncomfortable now that the fever has broken. If you can sit up, I will change the sheets and bathe you.”
My brow rose. Had my wee human learned such things as the lady of Tarbert Keep? I had to admit I did feel sticky with sweat, and ‘twould be good to finally feel clean, although it looked as if someone had already cleaned the filth of the dungeon from me.
Lillian?
I managed to lift myself into a chair, although the move exhausted me. I watched her bustle around my—our home, switching the bedding, fingering my hair—and wondering about the neatly folded set of blankets by the hearth. Surely she’d been sleeping with me these last nights?
Ye were sweating with fever and out of yer mind with pain. Would ye have wanted to sleep with ye?
Likely not.
The bath—a wet, soapy cloth dipped in warm water—should have been erotic. After all, I was naked as the day I was born, saving all the bandages wrapped around me. But mayhap ‘twas because of those bandages that Lillian kept her movements efficient, her gaze locked on her hand and not my skin.
It did feel good, the water sluicing across my shoulders…but when she reached my crotch, I took the rag from her and washed myself. After all, I could see the way her hand shook as she neared my semi-erect cock, and didn’t want to frighten her.
My wee human was frightened of enough things.
Did she not remember the way I’d brought her pleasure? It had been only the once, aye, but surely she knew I would bring her to climax plenty more times, once I was strong enough? Surely she knew what ecstasy awaited her in our future together as Mates?
I would bring her much pleasure, but not yet.
Not until I had my strength, and not until I could claim her properly.
As the Mate of the chief, our joining would be witnessed by our clan to symbolize that our future was tied to theirs.
But there was much I could manage to remind her of her worth before that ceremony.
Forget semi-erect. My damned cock was throbbing by now.
Aye, the clan would witness me claiming her when ‘twas time…but for now, I could use my tongue and my fingers—
Dinnae lie to yerself. Ye can barely keep yer eyes open.
I snorted, realizing how weak I was as I could barely finish cleaning myself.
By the time I climbed back into the bed and a blushing Lillian pulled the blankets up to my waist, I could feel the exhaustion setting in. I was warm and well-fed, and sleep tugged at me. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy…
But a familiar presence, a familiar scent, jerked me awake once more.
Vartok.
My twin brother was here. I’d twisted my head toward the door when I heard his bellow.
“Kragorn!”
And then he was there, pushing his way into my home as he’d done so many times before, and the familiarity of it made me chuckle.
“’Tis good to see ye, brother.”
And ‘twas good to see him. As he crossed the floor, I realized he was the missing piece, the part of my heart I hadn’t felt before. Vaguely, I remembered Nan telling me Vartok had been out on a mission for the clan, but I’d been out of my mind with fever at the time and hadn’t understood.
As my brother sank down on the mattress beside me, his gaze swept over my injuries, and I saw his expression change. That bad, eh? I knew I was in miserable shape, but my brother’s response confirmed it.
When I offered him my hand, he clasped it with all the relief I was feeling.
“Who did this to ye?” he whispered. “The Stormseeker said ye’ve been in the Tarbert dungeon.”
He knew the Battleborn chief? The bastard who’d intended to ally with Tarbert?
He stood and watched ye escape and didnae stand in yer way.
Aye, but he hadn’t helped me either.
My brother continued to speak and I welcomed his banter, the ease reminding me I was home again. My body sank back against the pillows as I neared the limit of my energy, but I did not release him.
Even with my good eye closed, I knew Lillian was still in the cottage with us. My ears told me she was over by the hearth, stirring something in a cauldron, and the normalcy of such an action warmed me. Having her and my twin brother in the same place with me…’twas as if my Kteer was whole again.
I felt Vartok shift, his hold on my arm gentle.
“Will ye tell me what happened?” he asked softly. “Or have ye spoken of it already, and I should nag Nan?”
I didn’t remember explaining aught to Nan, but mayhap Lillian had. My brother had led our people for the last four months and had done a damned fine job of it. He was owed an explanation no matter how tired I was.
So, I took a deep breath, intending to start at the beginning. “I dinnae mind. The battle…”
“Please,” Lillian interrupted in a soft voice, and I felt her move closer. “Please, let him rest. I can tell you what you need to know. Do not make him relive it.”
My Mate was trying to protect me, and my chest swelled with pride. When I opened my eye, I could see her wringing her hands as she hovered nearby, her face pale with worry…or mayhap fear.
I needed to introduce her to my brother, but I lacked the strength.
“He’s…no’ bothering me…Lillian,” I managed.
She glanced between us in worry, but Vartok squeezed my arm and stood.
“Nay, she’s right, brother. I’ll let ye rest now.”
He switched his gaze to Lillian, and I could smell his curiosity. “Do ye need aught? My Mate—”
“Mate?” I managed to rasp in surprise. “Fook me…” What else had I missed? Vartok was Mated? When it came to females, my brother had always believed in quantity…and now he was tied to a single Mate? “I have to get better…if only to hear…”