Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kragon
I was at war with myself: the thought of my Mate alone, in danger, battled with the part of me which recognized my responsibilities as a chief. My clan needed me to be in command, so I could not hie off after Lillian the way I wanted to.
“Go, brother,” Vartok finally commanded me. “Try no’ to fall off yer horse.”
I scowled at him as I twisted in my saddle to survey the Bloodfire warriors.
“I will no’ fall—”
“Ye are still no’ up to yer auld strength, and ye spent the last days depleting more.” His tone wasn’t suggestive or teasing as he spoke of the Mating Heat, which told me the topic was serious indeed.
“Go. Torvolk, the Stormseeker, and I will manage our combined warriors.”
He was right. I might be chief, used to leading my men in battle…but my brother and cousin could handle it just as well, while the Islay Battleborn were more than used to combat. Besides, my Kteer was howling in desperation to reach my Mate.
So I nodded quickly, the most I could manage in thanks before I kicked my horse into a gallop. I was weaker than I used to be. Four months starving in a dungeon, weeks fighting for my life, multiple injuries, and now a three-day Mating Heat had sapped me.
But I could be near death and it wouldn’t keep me from my Mate.
With my men behind me, I sped toward the distant army. I could make out the figures on horseback before it…and in front of them, a group of females. I prayed to all the gods my Mate was among them.
And that she was still safe.
The relief I felt as I saw her pull away and rush toward me was indescribable. I threw myself from my horse and caught her as she threw herself into my arms.
“Ye are well, dkaar?” I rasped, my face buried in her hair. “Torvar’s Hammer, Lillian, tell me ye’re no’ hurt.”
“I am not hurt,” she whispered against my chest. “I am glad you are here.” She shuddered once, then pulled away to glare up at me.
“But I will not apologize for going ahead of you. I had to protect my clan, Kragorn. I had to speak with Father myself.”
How could I help the big grin which split my face? Gods below, I’d chosen the perfect Mate, had I not?
Tucking her up against my side, I turned us to face her father and our ancient enemies.
The Bladesedge chief, Drakolt, was arrayed with a few other warriors and Tarbert atop horses beside him. The three women before them—one of which was alarmingly pregnant—had linked arms and were glaring at me.
These were her sisters and cousin then? And why did they look so angry at me?
We walked slowly toward them, me modulating my steps for my Mate’s smaller, halting stride, and stopped a few arms’ length from the females.
“Kragorn, these are my sisters, Sorcha and Roxanna, and my cousin Effie.”
I inclined my head in respect.
“Ladies. Lillian has spoken much of ye.”
The red-head—Sorcha—slowly smiled.
“And she has told us of you as well.”
Roxana, however scowled. “All about you.”
“And so have I!” yelled their father. “I told them of your perfidy!”
I had purposefully not looked at the bastard who had tortured me all winter, the one who had kept me in all four hells…but now I switched a chilly glare on him as I fingered my fur.
“Ye’re cloak is quite warm, Tarbert.”
The old man’s face turned maroon as it contorted with rage.
“You son-of-a-bitch thought to take my daughter—”
“You think to keep my Mate from me?” I roared.
Everyone there had flinched back from my outburst, except Lillian, who seemed to stand straighter. To my surprise, the Bladesedge chief swung from his saddle and moved to his Mate. I thought he meant to shield her, but he kept his neutral gaze on me.
“This is true?” he asked in a deceptively mild tone. “You claim Lillian as yers?”
I’d heard about one’s blood going cold but never experienced it until that moment. Instinctively, I tightened my hold on Lillian. ‘Twas one thing to stand off against her father, but could I face the entire Bladesedge clan?
Aye, ye could, and ye will, if ‘tis what it takes. Nae one will take her from ye.
I spat in response.
“Why do ye care?”
Drakolt lifted his arm protectively around the pregnant female.
“She is my Mate’s sister, and will always have a place with our clan—”
“Lillian is mine!” I roared, my hand dropping to my sword hilt. ‘Twas dangerous to challenge the chief in front of his warriors, but my Kteer howled for blood from someone. “I will fight any who—”
“How can she be your Mate,” Sorcha interrupted quietly, “if you do not love her?”
Her question deflated my anger to confusion.
“What?” I glanced down at Lillian. “What? Of course I love her.”
My courageous little Mate seemed to shrink against me. She didn’t look at me, but rather at the snow before her sisters.
“You need not say it for my father, Kragorn. He understands…”
Like fook he did.
Because in that moment, I saw glimpses of Lillian’s old self. The person she’d been beneath her father’s heel, always afraid, always trying to make herself smaller.
Lesser.
And I would be damned before I allowed her to think of herself that way again.
Turning my back on my enemies, I kicked my cloak out of the way and sank to one knee in front of her, gathering her mittened hands in mine. I studied her face worriedly, dismissing her father, her family, and the entire Bladesedge army at my back.
They didn’t matter.
Only Lillian mattered.
“Dkaar,” I murmured softly. “I love ye. Of course I love ye. We are Mated.”
I could tell she was trying to be strong, although her lovely blue eyes seemed watery.
“Just because I said the words to you, Kragorn, does not obligate you to say them in return.”
She thought that’s what this was? Slowly, my lips tugged upward on one side.
“I love ye, Lillian, more than my next breath. Fook me, love, ye are my next breath. Ye kept me alive—no’ just the food and the water ye brought me all those months, but the sight of ye, the scent of ye.” I squeezed her hands. “Ye brought me light—"
“The tray I left to reflect the sunlight for you?” Her voice was a mere whisper, but I saw the hope in her gaze, and my grin turned rueful.
“Nay, Lillian. Ye. Ye are my light. I cannae believe I havenae said the words, but what in the everloving shite did ye think I was saying all these weeks?” I gathered her hands in one of mine, then reached up to brush a strand of hair gently from her cheek.
“Love, ye are brave and strong and kind and caring, and of course I love ye.”
Her smile was hesitant at first, but slowly grew.
“You do love me,” she whispered. “You do. How could I have doubted?”
Because of the twisted hold yer bastard of a father has over ye.
Never again would she doubt. Never again would she wonder.
My grin answered hers.
“I love ye, dkaar. Being captured by yer father and spending months in that hellhole was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Lillian burst into laughter and threw herself forward, flinging her arms around my neck. I gathered her close and hefted myself to my feet. I might be weaker than usual, but I would have to be three days dead to not be able to lift my Mate and crush her to me.
By the time I’d finished kissing Lillian, the rest of the Bloodfire and Battleborn warriors had arrived.
They spread out behind us, led by my brother and Vrogul Stormseeker.
I knew we were a fierce lot, greater in force to Bladesedge.
I didn’t want a battle, but Drakolt had to know our combined forces would not be an easy foe.
With my Mate in my arms and my clan at my back, I turned to face the Bladesedge clan. Drakolt held his pregnant mate, and the other two females now stood with each of the males from the chief’s side, one smiling while the other had her eyes locked on the clouds, as if embarrassed to be watching us.
That only made me grin wider.
Even turning to Tarbert, who still sat scowling atop his horse, didn’t diminish my joy. I reached for the clasps of the fur I wore around my shoulders and shrugged out of it.
“Here’s yer cloak back, Tarbert. Mayhap it’ll warm yer frigid soul.”
The old man’s nose wrinkled in disgust.
“I would not wear it after you.”
Because I was an orc? Or because I’d humiliated him? I shrugged, my grin turning to a smirk as I made a show out of arranging it across Lillian’s shoulders. ‘Twas large enough that it brushed her heels, and heavy enough I would have to help her walk, but ‘twas a message.
“Then,” I told Tarbert as I fussed over my Mate, “yer cloak will shelter and comfort yer daughter in the way ye never did.” I glared up at him. “She will no’ go back to slave for ye, auld man. I never want to see ye again, but my Mate has a kind heart.”
My arms tightened around her. “So if ye’re verra, verra lucky, ye might have the good fortune to ken yer grandson.”
Tarbert’s eyes widened, and his gaze dropped to Lillian’s stomach. Up until that moment, had he truly not understood what I was saying? Lillian was my Mate and I loved her; our son would grow from that love, if he wasn’t growing in her womb already.
‘Twas Drakolt, seemingly unbothered by my treatment of his Mate’s father, who stepped forward.
“The next chief of Bloodfire?”
“Aye,” I drawled mildly, “and cousin to the next Bladesedge chief. Would ye have them each inherit their fathers’ hatreds?”
The other male reared back.
“I dinnae hate—fook.” He glanced at his wife, who was making little shooing motions…then sighed and rolled his eyes and stuck out his hand. “I suppose ‘twould be foolish to condemn our sons to such a fate.”
“Foolish indeed,” I agreed, clasping his forearm.
Behind me, behind him, murmurs and mutterings spread.
I wasn’t the only one here who recognized how historic this handshake was.
With one handclasp, Drakolt and I had wiped out generations of feuding.
Nay, ‘twas because of love. Today, here and now, love was stronger than years of anger and violence.
Sorcha twined her fingers through her Mate’s, and I felt Lillian step up to my side once more. When I glanced down at her, her grin made my heart expand and my Kteer vibrate with satisfaction.
“I suppose this means ye’re going to want to come visit,” Drakolt sighed.
I shrugged. “I could learn to not completely dislike ye, especially if yer father-in-law isnae around.”
The other male snorted. “He’s yer father-in-law as well.”
“Is he?” I hummed and glanced at Lillian. “Please do not ask me to be polite to yer father, love.”
She pushed the fur out of the way and snaked her arm around my waist.
“Mayhap by our third or fourth kitling…”
The thought of Lillian bearing our children, the fact she spoke of more than one, the fact that after months of bleakness, I finally had a future filled with love…all of it combined until I couldn’t contain my Kteer’s exuberance.
Throwing my head back, I allowed my joy to spill out.
“Bloodfire!” I roared happily.
Behind me, dozens of voices took up the call.
“Bloodfire! Bloodfire.”
Drakolt began to chuckle, and as I met his gaze, he accepted the challenge.
“Bladesedge!” he bellowed, only for his men to echo it.
“Bladesedge!”
We were both grinning as we clasped forearms again.
“We might as well make camp here,” he announced. “I ken for a fact my brother has some of the finest uisce beatha ye’ll ever taste.”
“Impossible,” I told him succinctly, “because my cousin doesnae leave home without a flask of our grandmother’s brew.”
“’Tis a drinking contest then!” Drakolt declared happily. “By the way, is that the Battleborn colors I see?”
He pulled away to investigate—he seemed determined to meet the Stormseeker—and I turned to wrap my arms around Lillian.
“Ye dinnae mind staying a day here? To solidify our new alliance? Bloodfire, Battleborn…and now Bladesedge.”
“Not at all.” She grinned shyly up at me. “But Vrogul is going to need to find his own Mate, because I have run out of sisters.”
Chuckling, I lifted her so our noses were almost touching.
“I would no’ wish yer father on him.”
“Me neither,” she whispered. “But I do insist ye send someone back to the village so the women willnae worry over their Mates.”
‘Twas a brilliant idea, and one I would not have thought of.
“How did I get so lucky when I found ye?”
“I found ye, as I recall.” She kissed the tip of my nose. “Freezing to death in my father’s dungeon.”
“Och, aye, how could I have forgotten?” I teased.
But her expression turned serious. “I do not know. Kragorn, you lost an eye, your scars—”
“I am no’ dead,” I told her gently. “And I will no’ leave ye, no’ for many years. I will see our sons and daughters find their own Mates, and we will die happy in our auld age.”
Her lips twitched. “You can predict the future now, Mate?”
“I have declared it to be so.” My tone was arrogant, of course. “And I am the Bloodfire chief.”
“Och, aye,” she mimicked, “and the future would not dare disobey you.”
I kissed her. “The memories of the pain fade when I’m with ye, love,” I murmured against her skin. “’Twas worth whatever hardship I needed to endure to have ye here in my arms.”
Sighing, Lillian pressed herself forward. “I love you, Kragorn.”
“Good.”
Another kiss.
“Because I love ye, Mate.”