Chapter 7
One of the wolves lunged for Bikkar. He kicked outward, slamming the canine in its jaw. It whimpered as it crashed to the ground. But between the attack and the blood pouring from his open wound, Bikkar didn’t see the other two squaring up to attack in unison.
“Watch out!” I screamed as I tore through the snow in nothing but Bikkar’s oversized shirt. Not even shoes. I threw out my hands, Bikkar’s knife still in one palm, and shot a torrent of fire toward the pack of animals, trying to scare them off.
“Get back in the cabin!” Bikkar yelled as his fist sailed to attack again. “They’re hell-wolves!”
“I can see that!” My magical flames slipped between his hand and the wolf. Bikkar pulled back as the wolf did, neither finishing their attack. If Bikkar were bit again or if I didn’t stop the venom churning in his arm right now, he’d die within hours.
The hell-wolf reared back. I squeezed my free fist tightly, pulling ropes of fire around it until the wolf burst in a shock of shadow and demonic energy. But even that much magic sent wind out of my lungs. I pressed on anyway, clearing the distance between me and Bikkar and the wolves in a few quick bounds as my lungs screamed. Bikkar took advantage of the hell-wolves being distracted by my fiery attack to grab one by the nape of its neck and chuck it across the clearing. As soon as its back hit a tree, it fell, bursting as mine had.
Just one hell-wolf left. One wasn’t as big of a challenge, but its demonic bite was dangerous all the same. Bikkar went to attack it, too, but the wolf moved fast. I lunged forward, nearly as quick as the canine, and sliced with Bikkar’s knife. A split of blood and the hell-wolf’s demonic connection to this world was severed.
I stood there, chest heaving, before Bikkar as we both recovered from the fight.
“What the hell did you do that for?” he shouted suddenly, breaking the newly found silence.
I glanced down at the fists I’d almost set ablaze, convinced I’d actually burned him. But aside from some blood from his wound, he seemed fine. Minus the hell-wolf venom anyway.
I bunched extra fabric from the shirt I was wearing. “To save you, asshole. Let me see the wound.”
Bikkar huffed loudly. He clutched his injured arm to his side. Blood poured from between his fingers. “I can handle a few hell-wolves.”
“Oh, I bet,” I said with thick sarcasm. “Especially with one arm out of commission. Can you even swing that axe with one hand?” I shot a pointed look to where his woodchopping axe was still struck into a log. If he’d even tried to dislodge it, it hadn’t moved an inch.
Bikkar grunted his response.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “And did you plan to also attack the venom with brute strength?”
Bikkar pulled his arm closer into his side. “Get back inside. It’s freezing cold and you’ve got nothing on.”
This bravado bullshit was too much. He’d needed help in that fight just as much as he did now with a venomous ticking clock in his arm. I grabbed Bikkar’s hand and pulled it away from the wound enough to get a sense of the damage. And shit, it was bad. Bone was showing, the muscle above shorn by the wolves’ sharp teeth. Blood still oozed.
“Enough,” Bikkar growled. “I’m capable of bandaging myself.”
I shot him an incredulous look. “You’re going to bleed to death if you don’t let me heal this for you.” Maybe not now, but he would. And if he didn’t, infection would surely take him. This wound was too deep and violent to leave to simple bandages. And that wasn’t even counting the venom, which Bikkar seemed insistent on forgetting about. Everyone knew hell-wolves were fucking deadly. “I know you know your healing salve won’t even touch this .” It’d numb the pain. Maybe stitch together some skin if he were lucky. But that was it. Only healing magic could cure that venom.
“Fine.” Bikkar pushed off the tree he’d had his back against. “But inside .”
“Sure, inside.” My sarcasm knew no bounds. “Whatever works for you as you bleed out.”
Bikkar trailed blood back the house ahead of me. I grabbed as many logs for the fire as I could before following him into the warmth of the cabin. Bikkar made it as far as the table tucked near the fireplace before collapsing. At least he’d landed in a chair. His skin had become pale green and sweat had broken out on his brow.
I fed the fire first so tea could brew. I added a bit of magic to the flames along with the kettle while Bikkar applied pressure to his wound. Quicker than it would have taken without magic, the tea was ready. I grabbed some clean cloths at Bikkar’s direction and brought my supplies to him.
“How’d they get the drop on you?” I sat opposite Bikkar and pulled his arm gently over the table so I had a clear view of the venom-laced wound.
“I don’t know,” he grumbled as he poured tea for us in our mugs from earlier.
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?” His wound looked even worse in the light of the cabin. Already the hell-wolves’ demonic venom coursed through Bikkar’s veins, darkening them to black. “You don’t have to put on a brave face for me, Bikkar. I don’t know if I’ve seen something this bad on you before. I’m going to heal it, so stay still.”
Bikkar made a noise in his throat that caused me to meet his gaze, but I was immediately distracted by the scar over his eye. That’d been a pretty bad wound too. My party and his soldiers had clashed so many times.
“It’s just a bite wound,” Bikkar argued.
“Yeah,” I said as I hovered my hands above the wound, “from a hell-wolf, Bikkar. I had no idea they were in the area.”
Demon dogs, they were. I’d not run into them often until traveling the country with my party, but they’d always been tough to fight when we had encountered them. They came without warning and attacked without discrimination. At their root, they were normal wolves, but they’d been infected by the demonic undercurrents that ran through our world along ley-lines.
Bikkar hissed as I shifted his arm so I could get a better view. “How do you think I was able to broker a deal with the Crown after centuries of bad blood between orcs and humans?”
I froze and held his gaze. Realization sunk in. “The Crown’s allowed you land here because there’s a ley-line.”
Bikkar nodded. “There are things orcs and humans have in common. Hell-wolf enemies are one of those things.”
I shook my head. Anger filtered through me, but I held my hands still and tried to calm it before it got out of control. Bikkar needing healing. Now . And if I lost control, he wouldn’t be making it out of this storm alive. I’d seen people die to hell-wolf venom. It happened quick and without recourse if it wasn’t treated right away.
“Caiburn should’ve told us,” I spat as I called magic to my fingertips. They glowed, shimmering with blue energy that poured forth, enveloping Bikkar’s arm and wound. “The people who hired us were idiots.” And we’d been bigger idiots yet to believe them. To take the job.
Orcs. No, they’d feared the hell-wolves and wanted to kill two birds with one party-sized stone.
“What’s done is done, Elysia,” Bikkar grunted as he turned his gaze to the window and the forest beyond. Under my magic, his bone began to heal and muscle wove back together. I couldn’t imagine it was all that comfortable.
I shot him a look. “How can you be so casual about this? Hell-wolves are in the area. This could have killed you.”
Bikkar seemed more distant than before. “A misstep earlier this morning, and you could have.”
I didn’t stop working my healing spell, but I did openly stare at him. “Bikkar. What’s wrong?”
His massive free hand rubbed his temple and then moved to the back of his head of long, amber hair. “As I said earlier, I’m not a fan of the violence and bloodshed. I’ve seen too much of it. And the one time I’ve managed to turn it into something good, today happened.”
My party had happened. I had happened.
When silence had drifted between us long enough to settle heavily, Bikkar added, “And now the hell-wolves have grown bold. Had I been armed, I might’ve taken one or two of them with me.”
“I don’t doubt that.” My healing magic had nearly closed his wound by this point, but my breath had grown shallow. My hands shook as I held them over Bikkar’s arm. The well of my magic was nearly gone. All I could hope was that my magic had been enough to cure the hell-wolf venom. His blackened veins had returned to normal at least. “It’s not worth it to take them on alone, though. Trust me.”
Bikkar met my gaze with a pensive look on his brow. His full lips parted as though he’d speak, but no words came. He shook his head.
“What is it, Bikkar?” I shifted his arm again, looking for any more remnants of the venom and blackened veins that I might’ve missed.
Bikkar reached for the healing salve, opened the can, and dipped two fingers inside. When my magic finally waned, he rubbed the salve over the angry, pink skin. It’d heal what remained, but I’d repaired the worst of the damage.
“I thought maybe we—your party and my tribe—could work together,” Bikkar said slowly, “but then I remembered your party left you behind.”
“I can help,” I said before really thinking it through. Helping him would mean walking away from my party for good. But Bikkar was right. They were gone. Even if I found them again, could I trust them? Even if they’d only run because they’d been scared and then hadn’t turned back because of the snowstorm, they hadn’t so much as called for a retreat aloud.
“I can’t ask that of you,” Bikkar said as he screwed the cap back on the can of healing salve.
“Why not? I can handle my own in a fight.”
Bikkar rose his scarred eyebrow. “I’m aware.”
“Good, then let me.” I chuckled dryly. “A thief mage with honest work. Imagine that.”
I stood, sending the chair I sat in scraping against the wooden floor of the cabin. The room spun before I was upright. I lurched sideways, scrambling to get a hold of the chair. Bikkar threw out his newly healed arm and wrapped it around my middle to steady me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concern wrinkling his brows. He studied me from head to foot.
I felt lightheaded, but I knew the cause. “It’s from using my magic so intensely. I’m not highly trained. I’m better with blades and lockpicks.”
Bikkar stood and scooped me up into his arms. I sighed against his hold, gripping his arm for safety as my vision swam. “You need rest.”
“So do you.” My words were soft but clearer. I was coming back to myself now. It’d come in waves, this wariness. I knew from way too much experience exerting myself in the heat of battle. “You need to make sure that venom is gone from your system.”
“I feel fine,” Bikkar argued.
I chuckled dryly. “Yeah, as fine as I do, I’d imagine.”
Bikkar sat on the edge of the bed with me still cradled in his arms. This size difference between us would never cease to surprise me. This anything between us never would. Hours ago, I’d been ready to kill him and now I was in his arms while recovering from a dizzy spell.
Bikkar laughed, too. The sound was so unexpected, so beautiful , that I couldn’t help but smile. “We’ve become a spectacle, I’ll admit that.”
“You can say that again.” I nodded to the snowstorm outside. “All thanks to your holiday traditions. Sorry I’ve not been the model guest. You didn’t have to show me kindness. I’m grateful for it now. I should have been earlier, too.”
Bikkar grunted an acknowledgement. “I understand why you didn’t trust me.”
“I do now.” It didn’t hit me that that was true until I’d said it. But now that the thought was out there, spoken aloud and confessed, I saw it as clear as day. Before, respect for him might have been mixed with fear. But the trust had started long before our encounter in the woods earlier.
I glanced up at him. “One question, though.” Now that I was thinking about it again.
“Hmm?” he asked.
I affixed a mock-serious expression to my face. “Do you vow to claim all of your enemies in the middle of the woods as punishment for being bad guests on Yule? Because I might have to visit yearly?—”
Bikkar laughed as he leaned in and kissed me, swallowing my words. I didn’t mind. With my hands free, I enjoyed holding his face, keeping him close as we kissed. He was warm—from the fire and the fight. His warmth staved off the last of my shivers from running outside in nothing but a shirt.
When Bikkar pulled back, I saw lust once more in his eyes. “It is unfair the things you do to me.”
I ran my fingertips gently over the scar on his eye, tracing the wound I’d given him months ago. “I could say the same.”
He smirked. “With the way you were mewling earlier, I’d say it was anything but unfair.”
My tongue fell between my molars as I smiled at him. Okay, he’d gotten me there. “ That , I had no control over. You made sure of that.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
The smug look in his eyes—this humor and back-and-forth—was so out of place, I wasn’t sure what to do. But then an overwhelming need came over me to make him cry out my name, too. To have him writhing beneath me as I’d done earlier.
“How about this…” I worked my way off his lap and to my knees before him. “If I can make you beg, instead of turning me in tomorrow when Yule is over, you allow me to work with you and your tribe against the hell-wolves. And to create peace.”
Bikkar rested a large, warm hand on my cheek. “I was no longer convinced to turn you in. And I don’t beg.”
I tapped my lips with a finger. “I seem to recall saying the same thing.” I slid my other hand up his inner thigh to the bulge between his legs.
Bikkar’s eyes tracked the movement. He swallowed hard. “What happened to resting?”
I was feeling better now. My thoughts and vision no longer swam. I needed sleep, and so would Bikkar, but… “It helps to exert oneself before sleep to get good rest.”
Bikkar inhaled sharply as I began to untie his pants. His hand left my cheek to rest on my fingers. “Elysia…”
“Trust me.” The words came out so simply, but the weight of them was immense. “Trust me.” Bikkar had asked for trust in his orcish tradition and I’d denied him that. Then, I’d been forced to trust being naked beneath him earlier. Trust between enemies was rare, but not unheard of.
But we were no longer enemies, right?
Intense attraction burned in Bikkar’s eyes, where before there’d been rage. A feeling I was scared to identify bloomed in my chest. Not fear. Not worry. Not guilt. Something else entirely.
Yes, this was no longer an enemy situation.
Bikkar nodded and removed his hand. I smirked and undid the ties of his pants teasingly slow. By the time I’d reached a hand inside to withdraw his massive length, it was as hard as steel. I smirked as I wrapped my fingers around it. My hands were simply not big enough, but I stroked him slowly as my thumb ran circles over the head.
I leaned in and brushed my lips against the head of his length. Bikkar hissed a breath and his legs tensed. His fists white-knuckled there too, but he didn’t remove them from the tops of his thighs. What control he must have been exerting right now. He’d been in charge earlier, plunging into me and holding me captive as I writhed beneath him. But Bikkar was playing along for now, and I was oh-so-eager to see how long that would last.
With a last look at Bikkar’s straining, huge length, I opened my mouth and took him in. Just a little at first, testing the limits, because there was no way I’d fit all of him. Bikkar groaned deep in his throat. One hand lifted to fist a handful of my blue hair, but he didn’t push my head down or force me to take him.
I rewarded him for that with a hum as I took more of him past my lips. I worked him slowly, stroking with my hands as I went. Bikkar threw his head back and his jaw locked. His fingers tightened their grip in my hair. I took it as encouragement and sped up my movements, plunging him deep into my throat and back out again, my tongue working him where it could.
“Elysia,” he moaned breathily. It sounded like a prayer, or a plea, and sent a shock of excitement right to my core. Warmth pooled between my legs. “Your glorious mouth was meant to be fucked.” When Bikkar moved his free hand to fist the sheets of his bed, a throbbing ache built within me.
I couldn’t help but smile against him and take him deeper, holding him there as long as I could, hollowing my cheeks.
“Fuck.” Bikkar’s entire body stiffened and released. His chest heaved. My pulse was pounding in my ears as I watched his body react to my touch. He was unraveling slowly, but I wanted to see his resolve shatter. I wanted him to lose control. Like before in the woods, but at my touch. Because of me. Not out of a need to punish my actions.
I worked him harder, taking him as deep as I could go, stroking him as I went. My tongue and hands worked in unison, moving in time with his staggered breathing until I remembered what my plan had been in the first place.
I pulled back slowly, reducing my actions to little more than kisses.
Bikkar grunted loudly. “Woman,” he breathed as his free hand joined his other at the back of my head. He still didn’t push down, but the message was clear.
I glanced up at him with innocent eyes. “Yes? Did you want something?”
Bikkar’s eyes lit with frustration. I couldn’t help but smirk. His fist in my hair pulled my head forward just the slightest bit, but, gods, was it hot. “Do not stop.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling again. Bikkar was nearly there, his self-control waning. Yes. Exactly where I want you. “Hmm. Sounds like a suggestion to me.”
Bikkar grabbed his massive length with one hand and pushed my head down until my lips brushed the tip of it. “Suck me off like the little slut you are. Opening your legs for me in the forest. Mewling my name.”
My eyes narrowed playfully. “I thought I was the one giving orders here.”
Bikkar move to protest, but I swallowed it as I swallowed his length, taking him all the way to the back of my throat before he’d even spoken a word. His hips bucked and his fist held my head in place for a few moments so I couldn’t withdraw.
I smiled as I bobbed my head once he’d let go, taking him as I stared into his eyes. It was hard to do—the intensity I found in his green irises set my core ablaze. It wasn’t long before I’d dropped a hand between my own legs, satisfying my own need just the slightest bit. Seeing this huge orc, a man I’d fought a dozen times, fall completely apart into a creature of lust and need was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
“Enough.” With a sudden and fierce growl, Bikkar ripped me off him and stood, pulling me with him. I yelped as he took three huge strides with me nearly straddling him before my back slammed into the wall of his cabin. I was now pressed between the wood and his muscular body, which he used for leverage as he hauled his shirt from my body, leaving me bare to him and my legs wrapped around his middle.
“Enough of your pretty little mouth,” he said as he pushed down his pants. In moments he had his length lined up at my entrance, sliding it along my folds. “You are mine, and you do as I say.”
As if I had much choice at the moment. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned in to claim his mouth as he had mine earlier. His tusks grazed my cheeks lovingly as our hot tongues danced.
Bikkar grabbed my hands as we kissed and planted them above my head, holding both of my wrists with just one of his. It wasn’t fair. I wanted to touch him . To hold him. To explore his body as much as he had mine. But it quickly became clear that exploring wasn’t happening right now.
Bikkar groaned as he pushed his length into me in one fluid motion. I gasped at the size of him, a sharp inhale followed by a guttural moan that took even me by surprise. I didn’t know I was capable of making such an affected, pleasured noise.
“Gods,” Bikkar whispered against my lips as he held us there, unmoving against the wall. “The sounds you make when I’m inside you.”
“Fuck me, Bikkar,” I cried. I couldn’t stand this stillness. I needed him to move. I needed to feel his ridged cock thrusting in and out of me until we both were screaming with need. Part of me would always question how we’d gotten here . But that part of me would always be drowned by thoughts of Bikkar and his length drawing pleasure from me I hadn’t known existed. “Claim me every day as yours. We’ll fight this war. I am yours. Bikkar, please .”
So much for getting him to beg.
The look in Bikkar’s eyes intensified until my body registered how dangerous that look could be. But this was Bikkar, not a predator, and no matter how monstrous this orc and his cock might have been, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. My core throbbed around him, begging where my words could no longer speak.
“You are mine,” Bikkar repeated. “Another will never know your body or the way you sound as you come.”
And then he moved , thrusting into me so hard, I thought the wall at my back might give out. Instead, it held fast, allowing Bikkar a vicious angle from which to set an impossible pace as he pistoned up into me. It was all I could do to hold on with my legs at his waist as I moaned and gasped and cried out his name. My orgasm built rapidly and sent me plummeting over the edge without time for recovery. Bikkar didn’t slow, not even when a second orgasm careened through me quickly after the first. Every thrust was punctuated with my begging, my urging him to move faster, to thrust harder, to make me come again and again until Bikkar finally growled loudly and tore us from the wall.
Bikkar turned fast, took three steps back to the bed as he dislodged himself from me, and threw me onto the mattress. When Bikkar’s weight followed, settling in around me, the frame beneath us creaked precariously. I reached for him before he could bind my hands again and ran my nails down his back. He groaned and sank his length back into me, each delicious ridge of his cock at a time. With a better angle now, Bikkar rutted into me with abandon. I hung on, crying out in pleasure as I let Bikkar lose utter control until the bedframe beneath us snapped. The top of the bed where my head was tilted downward, allowing Bikkar an even better angle that he used to hit every single pleasure spot within me.
“Bikkar,” I gasped as another orgasm rocked my body. Gods, how many was he capable of dragging out of me?
Bikkar’s movements stuttered. He grabbed the now-loose headboard of his bed for leverage and slammed his length into me once, twice more before holding himself there as he came. His breath froze, his mouth open. Then came the roar as he filled me. Only after a full minute did Bikkar move again, open his eyes, and lean down to kiss me.
“You turn me into a madman,” he whispered against my lips. “A fucking lunatic.”
I smiled up at him. “I do sure hope I’m the only Yule guest you treat this way.”
Bikkar chuckled deeply. But before I could add anything else, something hanging from the ceiling caught my eye. My eyes narrowed at the bit of leafy green with tiny berries.
“Is that mistletoe ?” I asked incredulously.
Bikkar followed my line of sight. He was still nestled between my thighs, his hands still anchored to the headboard. “That it is. Look at that.”
I smacked his arm lightly as I started to replay the last day or so in my mind. “Did you plan this?”
Bikkar withdrew from me but didn’t extricate himself from my legs at his hips. “Not entirely. But I’ve wanted to fuck you since we first met.” He leaned in to kiss me fiercely as I recovered from his words. “This little human female who has caused me so much strife.”
I understood. And look what wonders a fantastic hate fuck had done for our relationship. “What now?”
Bikkar glanced up at the mistletoe again and then at the window. The sun was setting. Yule would be over once it rose again, and Bikkar’s decision about me and my impending justice would be final.
Bikkar’s expression was resolute. “I’ll explain to Caiburn’s mayor what happened. And that you’ll be working with me to clear the hell-wolves. That the rest of your party, should they reappear, will not be arrested, either.”
“And us?” I was almost afraid to even ask. One day and two fucks couldn’t erase months of conflict. But it was a good start.
Bikkar grabbed the side of my head and kissed me hot and fierce until I was breathless. “I told you I’ve claimed you as mine. Was that not clear?”
My core throbbed hard. “You did, but?—”
“You are mine so long as you wish to be,” Bikkar said with a heavy emotion in his eyes. “I won’t hold you against your will.”
“That’s a long time to be yours,” I whispered. And yet, the future was starting to paint itself in my mind.
Bikkar nodded in small motions. “That’s the point. Will you make peace with me?”
I was personally hoping to make a lot more than peace with him, but I understood. “Yes. I will.”
He smiled that rare toothy smile and grabbed the mistletoe. He held it between his fingers before me. “That is the best gift I have ever received for Yule.”
It was a gift that would bring the same kindness and peace Bikkar had started this morning. One he’d brought out within me. And when the sun rose tomorrow, it’d be on a new day and journey filled with empathy. Kindness.
And, quite possibly, love.
THE END