Page 17 of Orn and the Real Girl

ORN

WE MADE good time, stumbling into the clearing that swaddled Sara’s hamlet before the sun had gotten fully above the tree line.

It was a small and simple place, but sweet and welcoming for all its roughness.

The scents that I’d been following were stronger here, but fast-fading, and I knew that we needed to hurry after the trail, or risk losing it.

I had hoped to give Sara time here to rest and gather herself, but it was looking like that would have to wait.

The smoke was long gone, and most of the charred remains of buildings were buried under mounds of snow, but the scent of woodsmoke and fire was still heavy enough on the air that no doubt Sara could smell it too.

But that wasn’t why I was in such a rush to leave—what worried me was that there was too much rust and iron on the air.

And something else, something sour and acrid like bile, but less…

organic. My instinct was to hide it from Sara, to protect her, but I was thinking clearly enough to know that that was foolish.

Why should I hide information from my mate?

Especially one as strong and capable as Sara?

“Orn, can you come here?” she called from the western edge of the ruined hamlet.

She was squatting beside a lump in the snow, a heavy frown marring her beautiful face.

I lowered myself beside her, going still when I realized that the strange odor was much stronger here.

And the snow was too thin; the rest of the area was heavily blanketed, but this patch was covered in barely more than a dusting.

Sara used a rag to brush away more snow from the lump, revealing a dead rabbit.

It had not been a clean kill, the suffering of the creature plain even in death.

Bits and pieces of the poor thing were scattered around it, gradually revealed by Sara’s careful brushing with the rag, and after a moment I realized there was a pattern to the way the offal was scattered. I swallowed bile.

This had been intentional.

“Vitrin’s mercy, what is this?” I asked, an irrepressible growl rumbling under my words.

I hadn’t expected an answer, but Sara gave one anyway. “Looks a bit like blood magic, but more…gods, it’s like it’s unnatural, somehow. There’s this—this taste to it that makes me sick.”

Lead settled in my gut, the hairs on the back of my neck rising. “There’s a strange scent here, too. I’ve never encountered it before, but it is somewhat like how you’re describing. It should be natural, but it’s not.”

Sara pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. “Bloody gods, what happened here?”

I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Whatever it was, we are on our way to undo it. The scent of blood is weak, scattered. This is the strongest the scent is in the whole of the hamlet.”

Sara leaned into my touch, covering my hand with one of hers.

“So they were at least alive when they were taken from here,” she croaked.

Her big brown eyes slid closed, several deep breaths fogging in the chill air.

When she opened her eyes again they were glazed with tears, but burning with fury, with determination.

I could not have possibly loved her any more than I did in that moment, seeing her beauty tempered in fire and wrath. My cock stirred in my pants, but the abuse I’d delivered yesterday made the feeling too aching to want to do anything about it except make it go away.

I stood, holding my hand out for my mate. She took it, and came easily to her feet. “Is there enough of a trail for you to follow?” she asked.

I nodded, scenting the laden air carefully. “Aye. But it’s fading fast, love. We’ll need to move quickly. Are you tired?”

“No.” She bit her lip, huffing in frustration. “A little,” she admitted, clearly unhappy about it. “Mostly my legs are stiff and sore.”

I clucked my tongue sadly. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

One brow arched, a saucy smile curving her lips out of their frown. “You should be; it’s all your fault.”

I laughed, grabbing her chin and bending to kiss her. Sweetness burst on my tongue, her scent wrapping around me from our closeness. She melted into me, her arms looping around my neck and pulling us still closer together.

Perhaps my cock was not so reluctant to perform, after all.

“Strap me in, big guy,” she murmured against my lips, her pink tongue darting out to lick up one of my tusks. Despite the fact that it had no nerves, I shivered. “We’ve got to move fast, remember?”

I grunted, too much blood pooled in my groin to string together a sentence.

I let go of her long enough to retrieve the wraps that held her to my body, hefting her into place and tying her down quickly.

I hauled our pack onto my back, and then we were off, the rank scent of whatever had come here my guide.

“If you stay with me…” I said at length, ducking my head to take a deep breath of her scent, my nose planted in the bend of her neck for long moments. The foul smell I was following was turning my stomach and giving me a headache, and Sara was the sweetest reprieve from it.

“Yes?” she asked, a little breathless. I grinned, nipping her delicate skin gently.

“You’ll have to get to used to being carried like this,” I continued, straightening with an appreciative smack to her round ass. “I like it too well to give it up.”

She laughed, looking up at me with a soft affection that took my breath away.

“I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with it, then.”

I could have flown, in that moment. There was no way Sara would ever be rid of me, not anymore. If her affections changed, I would respect them…but I would not be able to leave her, even if it meant I followed her from the shadows like a lapdog. She was everything.

She was my mate.

SARA

THE SUN was swollen with color and nearing the horizon by the time we finally found the bastards who’d taken my coven. There was only one tent with two figures standing near a nearby cave’s entrance, both people so heaped with furs it was impossible to tell much about them.

“Only two?” I whispered, my eyes darting to Orn’s sharp profile. His jaw was tense, knotted muscles jumping under his deep olive skin. His nostrils flared, taking in the breeze that stirred the thick black strands of hair that had escaped his braid.

He was so beautiful.

After a moment he shook his head, turning his dark eyes to me. “No, the bulk of their force is in the cave. They’re…celebrating, I think.”

Panic threatened to grind me down, but I took a deep breath, then another, and beat it back once more. But when Orn took my mittened hand and held it tight, I took his comfort gladly. “Can you tell anything about what they’re celebrating?”

He shook his head, tusks glinting as they caught the dying light.

“No. But the smell of blood is old, and doesn’t strike me as human.

” He sniffed again, closing his eyes to concentrate.

Disgust wrinkled his nose, but he seemed to have figured something out.

“Deer, I think. Maybe a little rabbit,” he told me. My panic subsided further.

“How can you smell all that?” I asked, letting him lead me farther from the encampment. “Is that an orc thing?”

He shrugged. “In a way. My nose is keen, but it’s never been this sharp before.

Likely it’s the blood song.” He lead me through the forest until we couldn’t see the encampment anymore, parting the heavy snow-laden boughs of a huge pine tree, the branches providing a rough shelter from the wind.

“We’ll camp here tonight, I think. I’m going to scout some more, try and get a better idea of how many there are. ”

I snatched his arm and gripped it tight, stopping him as he tried to pull out a tarp for our bedrolls.

“You’re going back? Alone? At night?”

Orn’s face softened, his free hand cupping my cheek. “My sweet little witch. The gods themselves couldn’t tear me away from you.”

I swallowed a painful lump. “But they managed to capture most of a coven of talented witches. They’re not going to be pushovers, honey.”

“Ah, but they had time to prepare for that, to craft that hideous spell they used to smooth their way.” He grinned wide, eyes going unfocused as he pictured it.

“And they will have never come afoul of an orcish man with the blood song in his veins and a sweet goddess to worship when the job is done.” His gaze returned to me, something wild and dangerous glimmering in his coal-dark eyes.

“They won’t know what’s upon them until it is far too late. ”

I shivered, but not from the cold—this was my first time seeing this side of Orn, and while it should have terrified me, should have sent me running, instead it…

it excited me. There was so much menace and deadly power in that huge, solid body—but every second with him had shown me that it was all for me, for him to use to take care of me, to protect me.

I pressed close and kissed him hard, my arms circling his neck and squeezing tight. “Be careful, you madman,” I told him, my voice hoarse from unshed tears. “If I have to go in there by myself and rescue you along with everyone else I will be so angry.”

He laughed, kissing me back. Then we parted and got our little camp set up, the night quickly falling to cloak the forest in dark.