Page 35

Ruugar

D inner passed in a blur of laughter and warm firelight, but my mind stayed on Beth. Always Beth. The way she smiled at something Mary said, the way her fingers twisted in her lap when she was uncertain. And how the glow from the fire softened her face and made her eyes seem endless.

When the meal was done and the dishes put away, someone suggested we lay in the field and gaze at the stars. You couldn't see them as well with the firelight. Pete said it, probably. The man knew things like this better than me.

Blankets in hand, we walked a short distance away from camp, stopping on a grassy knoll near the lake. The air had cooled, but the sky stretched vast and clear above us, thick with streaked galaxies and pulsing stars. A perfect night.

Mary and Carol whispered to their husbands as we settled in, their glances toward Beth and me too knowing.

It wasn’t subtle. Nothing about those two ever was.

Beth didn’t sit by me at first. She stood a little way off, her arms wrapped around her waist to ward off the chill.

With her head tipped back, she looked at the stars as if they held the answers to all her questions.

When I shifted my feet, Carol spoke up. “Enough of that.” She tugged a few extra blankets from Joel and tossed them at Beth. “Sit down before you freeze.”

Beth hesitated, then laid the blanket right beside where I stood, wrapping the second around her shoulders. Glancing my way, she lifted one side, offering to share. My heart pulled tight as I joined her, letting the warmth of her settle around us both.

Shoulder to shoulder. Heat to heat. I didn’t move away. Neither did she.

Around us, the group talked about the constellations, the distant worlds, and wished on stars. Orc didn't do the latter, but I closed my eyes and made a wish anyway. Every one that I could come up with involved Beth.

Could wishes on stars come true?

Voices blurred into the night, overlapping the rustling grass and water lapping the shore of the lake. All I could focus on was Beth. The way she tipped her head back, her eyes wide and lips parted. Her breath misted the air.

I wanted to remember this moment. Capture it like a streaming image in my mind.

A knot formed in my throat, too thick to swallow. I loved her so much.

Eventually, the others stood and shook out their blankets, drifting toward the campsite while murmuring their goodnights.

But not without more knowing glances and winks tossed in our direction.

I'd only recently figured out what closing one eye while keeping the other open meant.

A kind of tease with a sexual slant is what I determined.

Whatever it was, they kept directing them at Beth after looking at me.

Pete gave me one long two-eyed look before joining Carol to walk to their cabin.

Then it was just us. Beth pulled the blanket tighter around her other side, scooting closer to me.

My pulse pounded. My throat went dry. Words rushed up to my mouth, desperate to be spoken. I couldn’t hold them back in anymore.

“I’m falling in love with you,” I said.

She froze.

My stomach dropped. I'd said too much. Too soon. Maybe I should've held the words back forever.

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “I’m sorry.

I shouldn’t have said it.” My chest squeezed, my voice going rough.

“I don’t want to pressure you. I understand if you don’t feel the same.

You have a life and plans for a new, shining future where you'll be free. And I…” My fingers tightened on the edge of the blanket as my voice dropped to a bare whisper.

“I’m just an orc living in the middle of nowhere. ”

Beth turned, watching me with something unreadable in her eyes.

I sighed, shaking my head. “Forget I said anything. ”

“No.” A single word, but it stopped my breath. “Don’t take it back.”

I went still.

Her hands trembled as she pulled them free of the blanket as she reached for mine, catching it in her small grasp. She swallowed hard. “Because I love you too.”

The world tilted. The stars, the lake, the distant shadows of the trees all blurring into nothing.

Everything inside me seized. She loved me.

Something broke free from deep inside me before I could stop it. I rose to my knees in front of her, where I cradled her hands in mine, my thumb brushing over her palm, memorizing every line, every tiny scar.

Holding her gaze, I bent forward and brushed my tongue over each of her palms, slowly gliding my tongue up to each wrist. My heart thundered at the meaning of the gesture.

The moment my tongue met her skin, a golden, circular mark flared to life on her inner wrist.

Beth gasped at the glow, her eyes widening. “Ruugar…?”

I pressed her hands between mine, stroking the soft skin of her wrists. The golden mark shimmered, pulsing faintly in time with her heartbeat. With mine.

Her voice shook. “What is this?”

I willed myself to keep breathing. To speak. “It’s a mating mark. An orc’s vow. A claiming. It only appears when we’ve found our fated mate and completed the ritual to show the world we belong together.”

Her lips parted, her inhale breaking the silence. Eyes sparkling, she studied the glowing circle, tracing it with her fingertip. “You knew. I saw this same mark on your wrist days ago. I thought it was a tattoo.”

Guilt twisted through my belly. “I—” My throat closed off. “Yes, I knew.”

Beth’s fingers tightened around mine. She wasn't pulling away. She wasn't rejecting me.

I fought to keep my voice steady. “I felt it the moment I met you, months ago when you came here to tour Lonesome Creek before your wedding.

I couldn't say anything. You were with a man I thought you loved.

You seemed sad, but I decided that was because you didn't like the location or the plans your intended was making.

I never thought you didn't want to be with him.”

“You didn't say anything.”

“What could I say? Long ago, I thought of mating with another female.

We weren't fated, but I liked her. I told her so, but she was already with another orc.

That made me feel bad, and I vowed that I'd never try to step between two people who wanted to be together. That's how I saw you and your Bradley.”

She huffed. “He never was and never will be my Bradley.”

“I'm sorry. You're right. But do you see why I didn't say anything back then?”

“And at the wedding?”

“I was there, hiding in the back. I wasn't going to interfere. I never would. But I wanted…” My heart pinched tight. “I wanted to see you one last time.”

“Oh, Ruugar. ”

“I left and that's when I saw you climbing out the window. You were so beautiful in the dress. And even lovelier when I realized you were running away.”

Her laugh snorted out. “I hated that dress. Those shoes.”

“You're beautiful wearing anything—and wearing nothing. You're perfect in every way. You've had the best life possible. Fancy clothing. Nice things. You've never had to worry about anything. Cooking? You probably didn't have to do that. So you see, I held back. I wouldn’t, couldn’t, force you into anything that wasn’t what you’d had before, what was better.” Shaking my head slowly, I stared into her eyes.

“I needed you to love me on your own. To choose me , not because of a mark, but because you want me and nobody else.”

Her entire body trembled, her breathing coming faster. “You silly male,” she whispered.

My heart stopped beating.

She threw herself at me. Her arms wound around my neck, her weight pressing against my chest as she nearly knocked me backward into the grass. I caught her, my hands finding her waist, steadying her.

Beth buried her face in my neck, her breath warming my skin. “Can't you see? I do choose you. I love you. I love you so much it scares me.”

I crushed her against my body while her fingers twisted my vest. My heart pounded, my entire body thrumming with the force of the truth between us.

She loved me. She loved me .

I buried my face in her hair, inhaling the scent of her, the feel of her.

Her nails dug into my back. “Say something, Ruugar.”

I pulled away enough to tilt her chin up. And when our gazes met, I let the words pour free. “You are my mate. My heart. My world.” I slid my fingers into her hair, cradling her head. “Say you’ll stay. Say you’ll be mine, always.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes, catching the starlight. “Always.”

Then she kissed me. Soft. Sweet. Shattering.

I groaned against her mouth, lost in the sheer rightness of it. Her hands glided up my chest and over my shoulders as she deepened the kiss.

This woman tasted like forever.

I lifted her, standing with her in my arms, her legs wrapping around me as I carried her to our tent.

The night hummed around us, the distant rustling of leaves a whisper compared to the wildfire burning between us. Every touch, every kiss, every breath bound us tighter.

Inside the tent, I laid her down gently, hovering over her, afraid to blink, afraid to breathe. I worried she’d slip away like the best dream of my life.

Beth cupped my face, drawing me closer until there was no space between us. “I adore you, Ruugar. Forever.”

A shuddering breath left me. “I am yours, mate. Always yours.”

And this time, when we kissed, we didn’t stop.