Page 24 of The False Shaman (Claimed by the Red Hand #2)

DROKO

The burning handprint on my chest had subsided to a dull ache by the time I finally headed back to my sleeping quarters to shed myself of feathers and paint, tie my hair up, and lay down my weary body. Taruut’s litter was gone now. But the broad cushion from the meditation room had been dragged in, taking up most of the space. And sprawled on that cushion…was Archie.

Not dead. Not even harmed.

Just sleeping.

He smelled of sulfur, as if he’d scrubbed off the violence of the day in the spout of the Great Whale. But the handprint that blazed on his pale cheek couldn’t be sloughed off so easily. I tossed my feathered cloak over a nearby chest and knelt on the floor beside him. When I ghosted my fingertips across the angry red mark, the matching print on my chest prickled…just as Archie’s eyes, the color of sky, fluttered open.

“Aren’t you worried about putting your scent on me?” he said with a sleepy smile.

I traced the thumb’s contour, which stretched across the crest of his cheekbone. “We bear the same mark. So, it’s common knowledge now that you are mine…and I am yours.”

He crooked an eyebrow. “Maybe orcs and humans aren’t so different after all. You can get away with pretty much anything…once you prove you’re a badass. Dare I ask—are you still bent on sending me away? Or now that we belong to each other, do I get a reprieve?”

“How much more plainly can I say it?”

“Humor me,” he said teasingly.

I’d never been much for pretty words, but I did my best. “A slave is his master’s property, but you’re not property to me. In fact, you’ve never been mine to command. I think of you like a hawk that perches by a man’s campsite, or a fox who deigns to accept a bit of meat…a wild, untamed thing who only stays with me because it pleases you to do so. Though I hope you’ll stick around.”

“Of course, it pleases me to stay. It pleases me very much.” Archie grabbed my hand, then turned to brush his lips across my palm. My breath caught. When he spoke again, the light, bantering tone was gone. “But back there in the amber room…. What came over you?”

“There’s old magic in these caves—”

“Maybe so. And yet, it didn’t send the other orcs to their knees. It drew no prophecy from anyone else. Only you.”

In my heart, I was still a soldier. But if the clan truly thought I was their shaman, then that would need to be enough.

Archie noticed my eyes raking the enticing curve of his hip. He smiled into my palm and said, “Should we adjourn to the private meditation room? One of the walls is missing now—but I don’t think we’ll be disturbed.”

“We can stay right where we are. If my scent is on you, and yours on me, no one would dare challenge it. Not after what happened in the crypt.”

Archie tugged at my wrist, encouraging me to join him on the cushion. It wasn’t quite big enough for both of us, but if I braced one foot on the floor, I could manage to spread out beside him. Archie prodded the handprint on my chest. “Does it hurt?” he asked as his fingers traced the outline of the hand.

“Some,” I admitted.

“Good. Because I want to make an impression.” Before I knew it, he’d flipped me onto my back and straddled my thighs, pinning my arms to my sides, with his mouth hovering just above my heart. “I want to make sure you feel this.”

Oh, I felt it, all right. But when his hot breath played across the handprint…it was anything but painful. He gripped my wrists tight—for a human—and while I could shed him by simply standing up, I was intrigued by the deeper meaning. Archie wanted me. And he would take what he wanted.

His breath hissed over my scorched chest and he ground against my thickening cock. “Da-yum. Your hard-on’s practically lifting me off your lap.”

“This is what you do to me.”

The tips of his ears went pink. “Yes. Well. I’m told there’s a way I could actually take it—something called Easewater—”

“I’ve heard of this.”

“—but with all the plotting and scheming going on, I haven’t had the chance to brew a batch myself.”

“Archie.” I cupped his tuskless face and tilted his chin so he was looking me in the eye. “If I am yours, and you are mine, then we have plenty of time for Easewater. There are so many things I want to do with you, we’ll never get through them all in a single night. And it would be a shame to even attempt it, when I want to cherish every touch and taste.”

His eyes flicked to the side.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s just that I’ve done all the things. Many times over, in fact, with countless men—whether I wanted to or not.” Archie swallowed hard, and his scent tinged with saline. “But I can’t say I’ve ever been cherished.”

“Then we’d better do this right.” I gentled him off of me and headed over to the shelves of bones and baubles that lined the chamber. Nothing was labeled. But I’d conditioned enough blades with rocknut oil to know the smell anywhere.

I turned and let my hide kilt drop to the floor.

Archie stood and faced me. His eyes went to my cock, hanging heavy and dark, thick with arousal. “Actually…” he said. “Maybe it is worth taking a brief respite to whip up that potion—”

I unstoppered the oil, gave it a sniff just to be sure, then pressed the phial into his hands. “One step at a time. When I couple with you, I want it to be good. But I won’t know how it’s supposed to be unless I’ve felt it for myself.”

Archie’s brow furrowed. “Hold up. You want me …to top you ?”

“You just said you’ve done all the things.”

“Well, sure. I just thought…I mean, you’re so….”

Had I ever before seen him at a loss for words? “Since this is all new to me.”

“Being with a human,” he clarified. “Or did you mean being with a man?”

“Being with anyone.”

Archie’s mouth worked and nothing came out. But eventually, he managed, “You’re a virgin?”

I shrugged. “I am untouched…aside from that thing you did with your tongue, obviously.”

Archie sat down hard on the cushion. “Well. I see.”

“I was to be wed. But my betrothed was given to someone else.”

“Oh.” He turned the bottle around in his hands. “I’m so sorry.”

Strangely enough, I realized I wasn’t. I crouched beside Archie, which put my face level with his. I coaxed his lips toward mine. He moaned into my mouth as I deepened the kiss. I could feel his hands shaking as he pushed the phial of rocknut oil aside and wrapped his arms around my neck. I pulled him closer still, pressing our bodies together and feeling the warmth of him against my bare skin. He wore far too many clothes now, and yet the barrier of the fabric between us only heightened my anticipation.

With one hand, I reached down and slipped a hand between his thighs, stroking him through his tight breeches as we kissed. Archie’s hips jerked forward, and he gasped into my mouth. “You don’t kiss like a virgin.”

“And you,” I murmured against his lips. “You don’t kiss like a jaded man who’s done it countless times before.”

Archie shifted his hips as his cock strained his breeches. “True, I’ve had my fair share of sex. But, kissing? That’s reserved for someone special.”

His tongue skimmed my lower lip, and I shivered. I wanted more. I wanted to touch him, kiss him, taste him—to feel him, in every way possible.

I cupped him between the legs and found a hardness that startled me…mainly because it was most definitely not an erection.

“Sorry ’bout that.” Archie pulled a bone-handled dagger from his breeches and set it aside. “I thought some protection was in order.”

“You don’t need to hide it. I will say you are allowed to carry a blade—and no one will dare contradict me.”

“Have I mentioned how alluring it is when you’re not second-guessing yourself?”

I answered with an amused huff and slid my hand up the inside of his thigh, finding my prize and reveling in the feel of his arousal. Orc cocks stiffen when the time comes to couple, but apparently, human cocks grow. I gasped at the sensation of his hardness prodding against my hand, much bigger than I’d anticipated. If orcs were proportioned like that, our partners would never walk again.

As I learned the shape of his cock, it grew bigger still. “I need to see,” I gasped, pulling from our kiss.

“What a relief…I’m a heartbeat away from busting out of my new pants!” Archie’s human shirt was a confounding series of lacings and tucks, but thankfully, his breeches were straightforward. While he struggled to free himself from his shirt, I tugged the breeches around his knees. His hard cock bobbed free, ruddy and smooth—and fragrant with human musk. “It’s…bigger than I expected.”

“I’m not quite sure if that’s a compliment or a—oh yeah, sweet mercy, yes….”

I wanted to sniff, to savor—but I also wanted to make him tremble with pleasure. There’d be time to revel in all the new scents later. Right now I focused on sucking his pretty human cock.

I went at him mercilessly—like so many of my bunkmates claimed they’d been pleasured, though probably it was all just a brag they’d made up, given how the only thing we did outside the longhouse was wade into skirmishes. Archie seemed to enjoy it, if the broken sounds coming out of his throat were any sign. Or the way he scrabbled at my head.

My topknot came loose. Archie grabbed a hank of hair with one hand and a tusk with the other, and pumped into my mouth like his life depended on it. I relished his taste, salty and musky with just a hint of sweet bitterness, as his cockhead butted my throat.

Archie’s knees locked as he closed in on the edge. I could feel his sack tighten, and I knew he was about to spill his seed. But before he could, I pulled away.

He looked at me, panting hard, with an incredulous mix of confusion and desperation. “Why did you stop?”

I found the phial of oil that had rolled onto the floor and pressed it into his hand. “I want to feel you inside me.”

Cheeks flushed, he shoved the rest of the way out of his breeches. “Lie back,” he said, voice husky, and I spread myself on the ridiculous cushion. He let out a shuddering breath as he slicked his fingers with oil while his gaze roamed my body. “I’d ask you to tell me if I’m hurting you, but I suspect a strapping, young orc hardly knows the meaning of the word.”

“Then I’ll be sure to let you know when something feels good.”

Archie’s eyes sparkled. “I think I can figure that out—since I have done this a time or two. But don’t worry. I’ll do my best to teach you everything I’ve picked up along the way.”

He spread my legs wide and probed me with oiled fingers—taking too much care, I suspected, though I didn’t correct him. I was more concerned about learning how humans touched each other so that when the time came, I didn’t damage the fierce, fragile wild creature that insisted on staying by my side simply because it pleased him to do so.

Once I was slickened, Archie pushed my knee into my chest and prodded my arse with his cock. It didn’t just seem proportionally large anymore, and human cockheads were less tapered than an orc’s. I grunted as the bluntness of his tip strained against my tightness. Archie paused and said, “We don’t have to.”

“No. But I want to.”

Hovering over me, he reached down to stroke my cheek. “Don’t worry, my sweet shaman. I’ll make it good for you.”

It already was. Feeling his silken thighs against mine, basking in the scent of his human arousal, gazing into his sky-colored eyes…I’d never felt anything better. And the sting in my arse was quickly forgotten when the glide of the oil took over and Archie flexed his nimble hips just so. He fucked me deliberately, shifting his angle with every few thrusts, watching my face as if waiting for—

Oh.

Satisfaction curved the corner of his mouth. “That’s it—right? The sweet spot.” He thrust again, rubbing up against something inside me, and an indescribable flood of pleasure throbbed through my body, lighting me up like the amber room, heightening the sensation of everything at once…but mostly my aching cock.

“You clenched so hard I nearly lost it.” Archie’s color was high and his words came on a ragged breath. “But I owe it a few good prods at least…if only to see the look on your face, and know I’ve put that look there.”

A bead of arousal dropped to my belly from the tip of my own cock as Archie thrust, and thrust again. Sweat glistened on his brow in the steamy heat of the caves, and soon his limbs with their silken skin were sliding against mine.

He bent forward to press his lips to the throbbing handprint on my chest—which now felt more like pleasure than pain—and trapped my cock between us.

Orcs don’t perspire like humans do. Archie’s scent was like nectar on my palate, heady and intoxicating. And the slick of his smooth belly, damp with sweat against my shaft, soon had me reeling toward my peak. I was just as helpless as I’d been in the amber room when the prophecy took me. But this joining with Archie didn’t obliterate me….

It made me whole.

Strands of hot seed flooded between us as orgasm surged through me. My arse was ready for his cock now—no, it was eager—and he fucked me hard, bumping the place deep inside that had me seeing stars—in the best possible way. Archie’s thrusts grew wild, even frantic, until his own peak overtook him. With a guttural sound, he clenched all over, and the salt of his human spend mingled with my musk.

Levered up on his elbows to gaze into my eyes, Archie went very still—aside from his breathy panting, and the tremble of exertion in his thighs. His cock was starting to soften and return to its usual unassuming posture. But neither of us wanted this first joining to be over just yet.

Even if it wouldn’t be the last.

With a regretful sigh, Archie eventually pulled out. I lowered my knee, and he stretched out beside me. Somehow, we both fit on the cushion now. Probably because he was mostly draped over my chest with a leg slung across my thighs.

I turned my head to gaze at my human lover as he trailed absent patterns through the sticky seed on my belly, while somewhere deep within the cave, the Great Whale geysered its own spume. The cheek bearing the red handprint was facing away from me, but still, I felt its echo in my chest.

This wasn’t how I expected my first time to be, I decided. Not at all. I’d expected to be in a normal house. With a normal wife. And certainly to be burying my cock instead of sheathing one.

But when I basked in the smooth, pale, lightly freckled angle of Archie’s cheek and jaw, the wisp of red fur on his upper lip and chin, the expressive arch of russet brown eyebrows over his sky-colored eyes...I could scarcely recall what Farya even looked like.

And I certainly wasn’t thinking of her when I cupped Archie’s face in my hand and drew his sweet lips to mine.