Page 5 of Resisting the Wicked Orc (Silvermist Mates #4)

CHAPTER FIVE

ZRAL

W ater flooded my mouth and nostrils as I clawed my way to the surface, sputtering and coughing. The roar of falling water hammered my ears. I wiped streaming water from my eyes, disoriented by the sudden shift from street to—wherever the hell we were.

“What the fuck!” I shouted, spinning around to find Rava treading water a few feet away. Her black hair plastered to her scalp, amber eyes wide with panic. “Are you trying to drown me now?”

“I’m trying to save your life, you ungrateful ass!” She slapped the water’s surface, sending a spray into my face. “Teleporting two people while bleeding isn’t exactly precision work!”

My eyes snapped to her shoulder. Dark liquid mingled with the water—blood. Gods, whatever had she mixed me up in now? Sneak attacks on the street, sudden dunkings without the joy of even a carnival prize. Fuck.

“You’re hurt.” I moved toward her, but she backpedaled, her tail creating ripples behind her.

“I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.” She winced, hand going to her shoulder. “We need to get out of here. They’ll be looking for us.”

“Who is looking for us?” I demanded, finally taking in our surroundings. We were in the pool beneath Silvermist Falls, the cascade thundering down in a curtain of water between us and the rest of the world. “And don’t feed me any more bullshit half-truths.”

Her jaw tightened. “Francis. Lydia. And worse.” She tried to swim toward the ledge, but her movements were stiff, pained. “They know who I am. They know about you.”

“Yeah? And who, exactly, are you?” I followed her, anger and confusion warring inside me. “Because all I’ve gotten so far is lies and abandonment.”

She rounded on me, water streaming down her crimson face. “I came back for you, didn’t I? I could’ve left you there!”

“After using me. Twice.” I blocked her path to the ledge. “No more running. I want answers. All of them.”

She bared her fangs at me, lifting her hand. A pathetic sputter of sparks fizzled at her fingertips before dying in the water. She tried again with the same result.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Having some performance issues there, Red?”

“Fuck you.” She tried a third time, managing only a pathetic spark before the water snuffed it out. Her tail thrashed anxiously behind her. “This isn’t funny.”

“It’s a little funny.” I gestured to the rocky ledge beneath the falls. “Come on. Before you either drown us or boil us.”

Rava glared, but swam past me and hauled herself onto the outcropping. Silvery moonlight filtered through the curtain of water, catching on the droplets clinging to her skin. Short black hair plastered to her neck, drawing attention to the elegant line of her throat. Those tiny horns gleamed like polished obsidian.

I pulled myself up beside her, not bothering to hide my appreciation as I drank in every dip and swell of her water- logged frame. Even drenched and wounded, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. And the most infuriating.

“Talk,” I said, forcing my eyes away from the way her chest rose and fell with each breath. “All of it. No more half-truths or convenient omissions.”

She held my gaze for a long moment, defiance written in every line of her body. Then something in her seemed to deflate. Her shoulders slumped, and she looked away.

“My name is Rava Kadhan,” she began, her voice barely audible over the water. “I’m the youngest daughter of the Kadhan clan, second only to Fitsum royalty.”

I blinked. “You’re a princess?”

Well, shit. That explained the tilt of her chin when she was pissed, the way she carried herself like the world should bend to her will. And the way it— I —sometimes did.

“Don’t.” She held up a hand. “It’s not what you think. Infighting split the lines and stripped my family’s claim generations ago. We’re mercenaries. The best in the business.” She glanced down at her injured shoulder. “Or they are, anyway. I’m still proving myself.”

The cut wasn’t deep, but it had torn through her shirt and still bled steadily. My jaw clenched at the sight. She’d taken that injury for me. Whatever else she said, whatever her motives, she came back for me.

It had to count for something.

“Here, let me see.”

She hesitated, then turned slightly to give me access to the wound. I tore a strip from the bottom of my shirt and soaked it in the clear pool water. “Hold still.”

She hissed as I dabbed at her shoulder, her tail whipping behind her. “Your bedside manner needs work.”

“Good thing I’m not a healer then. Though I’ve patched up enough training injuries to know what I’m doing to put you at my mercy.” She stiffened and I grinned, gentling my touch. “So how does an ifrit merc princess find herself stealing trinkets?”

She uncurled her fingers, revealing a pendant on a heavy gold chain. An opal the size of a walnut glowed with inner fire, set in intricate metalwork that seemed to shift and writhe in the dim light.

“This ‘trinket’ is a hellfire opal,” she said. “Set in infernal-forged gold. One of the relics created by the ancient demon overlords to control ifrit before we were locked on this side of the mortal plane.”

I reached for it, but she pulled back, closing her fingers around it again.

“It’s dangerous,” she warned. “In the wrong hands, it can bend any ifrit to the wielder’s will. Make them nothing more than a puppet dancing on strings.”

I studied her face in the silvery light. “And you stole it because...?”

Her tail curled defensively around her leg. “Because Prince Javed Fitsum wants it. And I’d rather die than give him that kind of power over me.”

The name meant nothing to me, but the tight line of her mouth and the flicker in her eyes spoke volumes. I’d seen that look before in the way Galan used to flinch when his father entered a room, and the careful scanning for exits before relaxing by some clan members at gatherings.

“Who is he to you?”

She looked away, her profile sharp against the silvery curtain of falling water. “My betrothed.”

Every territorial instinct I possessed flared to life, a primal claim staking itself through my blood and bones. My hands clenched as if they could crush the very word she’d spoken. “Your what?”

“Not by choice.” She turned back to me, defiance blazing in her amber eyes. “My great-grandfather promised the first female born to his line to the Fitsum royal clan. A way to reunite the royal and mercenary branches of the ifrit.”

“And you said no?”

“I said hell no,” she snapped. “Javed is a monster. Rumors have it that he enjoys breaking his toys and none in the Fitsum court will let their wives and daughters alone in a room with him. Rumors, of course. Just rumors. But my wants and worries don’t trump some dead man’s signature.” Her lip curled. “Politics wrapped in tradition, tied with a bow of bullshit duty. Lucky me.”

Sharp pain dug into my palms. Fingers. My fingers. Clenched into fists I wanted to pound into this faceless fucker already. “That’s why you needed it. You said whoever returns it gets anything they ask for.”

“My brother Kaz...” She trailed off, then squared her shoulders. “Kaz should be on the throne. He has honor. I thought if I brought him Lydia’s crimes wrapped in a bow, he’d see I could do the work just as well as any of them. I’d be more valuable on the team than married off as some political pawn. I never expected to find one of our lost relics.”

I eyed the pendant still clutched in her hand, the hellfire opal seeming to pulse in time with her heartbeat. “And what happens now?”

“I don’t know. I fucked up. We knew Lydia worked some dirty shit, just not this dirty. And she knew who I was the whole time.” Her voice cracked. “She called the royal guards, and now Javed knows where I am.”

“Then why come back for me?” I asked. “You had what you wanted. You could have disappeared.”

She looked away, water dripping from her eyelashes. “Francis works for Lydia. They knew I’d been seen with you. I couldn’t just...” Her voice trailed off.

“Leave me to die?” I finished for her.

“Yes.” She met my eyes again, something fierce and protective in her gaze. “I’ve used you twice. I wasn’t going to let you pay for my choices.”

“Noble of you.” I couldn’t keep the edge from my voice. “Especially after abandoning me at the market. And the inn.”

“It’s the truth.” She straightened, wincing as the movement pulled at her wound. “I’m sorry. For dragging you into this. For leaving you. But I’m not sorry for trying to save my own life.”

I studied her face, seeing beyond the defiance to the vulnerability beneath. The desperate need to prove her worth, to be valued for her skills rather than her bloodline or body. My chest tightened watching her. This fierce woman who’d taken on armed men and teleported through danger to save my ass, now revealing the cage she’d been fighting to escape.

I hadn’t expected this morning when she first shut me down that by nightfall I’d be hiding under a waterfall with my mate, plotting against royal ifrit. But the pull between us had grown teeth. Not just simple lust, this was a fierce need to stand between her and whatever came hunting.

“Pretty sure I dragged myself in.” I reached out, brushing wet hair from her face. She leaned into the touch before catching herself. “Though a heads up about the homicidal art dealer would’ve been nice.”

She huffed a laugh. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

“Next time? Planning to make a habit of stealing magical artifacts and drowning innocent orcs?” I raised an eyebrow. “How did you find me, anyway?”

“I just…” Rava glanced away, her tail curling around her leg. “I just knew where you’d be.”

“That’s not an answer.” I tilted her chin up with one finger, forcing her to meet my eyes. “You promised the truth, remember?”

Her jaw tightened, but she didn’t look away. “Fine. I jumped to the sense of you, okay? I didn’t know where you were exactly, just... felt you.”

A slow smile spread across my face. “Rava... are you admitting the mate bond brought you to me?”

“Don’t look so smug.” She shoved at my chest, but there was no real force behind it. “It was an idiotic decision. I could have jumped into you, or the lamppost or any?—”

“But you didn’t. You saved me.” I caught her hand against my chest, holding it there. Her palm was warm despite the cool water, her pulse racing beneath my fingers. “Are you lying to me or yourself when denying this pull between us? The one you’ve been fighting since the market?”

A lifetime ago, experienced in mere hours.

“It doesn’t matter what I feel.” She tried to pull away, but I held firm. “I can’t—I won’t be trapped by another bond I didn’t choose.”

“Is that what you think this is? A trap?” The idea stung more than it should have. “Mates aren’t prisoners, Red.”

“Aren’t they?” She laughed, a bitter sound that echoed against the stone. “My whole life has been decided by bonds I didn’t pick. Daughter. Sister. Princess. Bride.” She spat the last word like poison. “At least those chains were visible. This one...” She pressed her free hand to her chest. “This one sneaks inside you. Makes you want the cage.”

I released her wrist, stunned by the raw pain in her voice. This wasn’t just about me, or us. This was about a lifetime of having choices made for her.

Fate was just another unwanted master.

“You know what’s funny?” I leaned back against the rock wall, letting the spray from the falls cool my heated skin. “I never wanted a mate either.”

She blinked, clearly surprised by the admission. “Why not?”

“My parents died when I was small. The clan took me in, raised me alongside their own kids. Everyone had a hand in it. The chief taught me to hunt with his boys. The shaman put a carving knife in my hands.” I stared through the curtain of water at the moon-dappled forest beyond. “I was grateful, but I never really belonged. Not completely.

“And then my friends started finding their mates. Torain and Carissa. Galan and Hannah.” I shook my head, remembering the looks they shared, the private language of touches and glances that excluded everyone else. “They’re happy. But it’s like they’re in their own world now. And I’m still... extra.”

Her expression softened, understanding flickering in her eyes. “The perpetual third wheel.”

“Exactly.” The thunder of the falls surrounded us, water crashing against stone, drowning out the world beyond our small ledge. No one could hear us here. No clan members with expectations, no shitty royals tracking her down. Just us, our words, and our hopes. “I’ve been watching them build their lives around each other, and I keep thinking—is that what I want? To be so consumed by another person that everything else fades away?”

“And is it?” she asked quietly.

I met her gaze, letting her see the conflict inside me. “I don’t know. But I know I’m tired of being on the outside looking in.”

She let go of a shuddering breath. “I understand that better than you might think.”

“Then believe me when I say I don’t want to cage you, Rava. You might be stubborn.” I tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear, my thumb brushing against the curve of her horn. “Reckless. Loyal and brave to the point of stupidity.”

She rolled her eyes, but didn’t pull away from my touch. “Such flattery.”

“I’m not finished.” I traced the line of her jaw, feeling her pulse quicken beneath my fingertips. “I want to know you. I want to learn what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what makes you fight. I want to taste every inch of your skin. I want to hear you scream my name when you come.”

I leaned closer, my voice dropping lower. “I want to carve a place in your life that’s shaped exactly like me, so that when you look at your freedom, I’m part of it, not opposed to it.”

Her breath hitched. “Pretty words from a pretty mouth.”

“Truth.” I reached for her hand, giving her time to pull away. She didn’t. “I won’t lie to you, Rava. I want you. All of you. But I won’t force the bond. I won’t trap you.”

She stared at me, fingers trembling. “It’s not that simple.”

“It can be.” I brought her hand to my lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “For tonight, at least.”

Seconds passed, marked only by the roar of water and pounding of my heart. Rava’s hand drifted from my hold, hovering above the bare skin of my chest.

“I can’t promise you forever,” she whispered, eyes meeting mine. “I don’t know if I’ll even survive the week.”

I covered her hand with mine. Her fingers curled against my chest, tracing patterns that burned hotter than her flames. “Take tonight, Red. Whatever comes tomorrow, take this one imperfect night and make it yours.”

She watched me, considering. Water streamed down her skin, droplets catching in her thick lashes and dampening her lips. I forced myself to stay still, waiting. Wanting, but allowing her to decide.

Her tail curled around my leg, a tentative embrace that spoke louder than words. I pulled her closer, careful of her injured shoulder, until our foreheads touched. Her breath mingled with mine, cinnamon and woodsmoke filling my lungs.

“Tonight,” she whispered against my mouth.