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22

Cedar

C edar thought the party’s return would have improved Rathka’s mood, but it only seemed to make her more irritable, as if this was an ugly chore that stood between her and time with Orgha. When Cedar slipped and called him her “husband,” it worsened an already dark mood.

“He is my agsan ,” Rathka corrected sharply, clutching the tooth that hung on a string around her neck. “Mine. For always.”

Cedar considered this as she walked Kiya toward the tent where they served the most delicious food. The orcs, she had found, made good use of what they pillaged. They utilized herbs and spices in generous quantities, and they loved salt. She had rarely eaten so much salt, and it was heavenly.

Up ahead, some orclings laughed and jostled each other as they carried bowls of stew alongside their parents. This dish smelled like apples, and Cedar thought it was an unusual but not unwelcome flavor for stew.

Kiya pulled on ahead, drawn by the smell. He was growing bigger every day, and nearly rose to her ribcage, and soon he would be stronger than his mistress. Up ahead, one of the children laughed, elbowing the other in the side—which made the smaller one trip.

The stew flew out of her hands, splattering meat and vegetables across the ground. Instantly, Kiya dove for it, and Cedar jerked with the leash. He scrambled to eat up as much as he could while she pulled him back, trying to keep him away from the spilled stew.

Rathka roared something in Orcish, lunging toward him. She kicked the cat’s head away from the spilled stew, knocking him across the jaw.

He let out a sharp, pained howl. Then he stumbled away, whimpering, his ears pinned back.

A flash of searing-hot fury lanced through Cedar’s body. Rathka snapped something else in her own language that she couldn’t understand—but she didn’t care.

“How dare you!” Cedar’s voice exploded out of her. She seized the much taller Rathka by her hair and yanked her backward, away from Kiya. Rathka cried out as it was pulled from her scalp. “You kicked him!” Cedar shouted again. “You bitch!”

Her rage poured out of her, something she’d never known existed until she heard Kiya’s helpless yowl. When Rathka begged Cedar to let her go, Cedar flung her away by the hair and then shoved her hard, knocking her to the ground.

Rathka landed on her hands. Her head jerked up, and she glared at Cedar with hard, black eyes.

“It is just a cat!” Now there was no mistaking the obstinance in her. “How dare you? You are not even a yapira . You are a concubine !”

When Rathka moved to stand again, Cedar pushed her down once more.

“No.” She had seen how Kargorr treated those who disobeyed him, who talked back to him, and if that was what it took for the orcs to respect her, then she would do what was needed. “Stay down there. Where you belong.”

Behind her, she heard a chuckle. She spun around to find Lord Kargorr standing nearby, taking in the scene before him. Cedar stepped back, putting some distance between herself and Rathka, wondering how much he had heard.

Would she be lashed for this? Rathka was Orgha’s yapira , and Orgha was Kargorr’s right-hand man.

But then, Cedar found she didn’t care as she stooped down to the ground to check on Kiya and make sure he wasn’t injured. She would do it again if she had to. The kitten flinched back at her touch, and Cedar growled anew because now Kiya was afraid of her.

“What’s happened here?” Kargorr asked, hands tucked behind his back.

Cedar stuck out her chin. “She kicked Kiya. And I won’t let anyone hurt him.”

When Cedar got to her feet again, Kargorr advanced toward her, and she thought he might hit her. He’d never raised his hand to her before, but she knew Orgha was important to him.

Kargorr took her chin roughly in his hand, pulled her up onto her toes, and snatched her into a kiss that could have drowned her. It was almost vicious in its power. Cedar gasped against him, but he only kissed her harder and deeper, invading her mouth with his tongue and clutching the back of her head.

When he was finished, Kargorr pulled away and rounded on Rathka.

“Go back to Orgha,” he said in a low voice, one that reminded Cedar of a snarling wolf. “Go back now, before I decide there should be a greater punishment for you than sending you home.”

Rathka flushed a deep green and turned on her heel, running from the scene. Only then did Cedar notice how many other orcs stood around watching, and her face burned.

But Lord Kargorr didn’t appear to notice them. His eyes were focused only on her, as if everything else in the camp had ceased to exist.

He swept one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, lifting her into his arms. In front of everyone, he carried her down the pathways back to their tent. When she gave a startled objection, because she had left Kiya behind, Kargorr ground out a quick, “Someone will care for him,” and shut the tent flap hastily behind them.

Cedar yelped as he tossed her onto the furs. There was a red tinge to Kargorr’s eyes, the same as the time he had returned from a raid and mercilessly fucked her. He crept onto the bed like a predator, and the expression on his face would have sent most humans running. But Cedar remained still, watching him just as steadfastly as he crossed the furs. Soon he was on top of her, boxing her in, his knees straddling her hips and his arms curled around her head. He leaned down close, so his mouth was only breaths away from hers.

“You are so fierce,” he said, his voice rolling the words like stones. Then he dove down to her mouth, bruising her lips with his, plundering her for everything she had. Cedar’s blood felt too hot and too fast. Rage at what Rathka had done to her beloved animal still coursed through her, and she attacked Kargorr with just as much fervor. He rewarded her with a groan, and his groin rubbed urgently against hers, showing her just where he wanted to be.

Cedar tugged at his thick, fur-lined leather tunic, and with a pleased chuckle, Kargorr disposed of it. Once their clothes lay scattered on the floor and the bed, and Cedar was sprawled naked before him, Kargorr descended once again. He worried her lip with his teeth, then moved to her ear, nibbling her lobe while his clawed hands cupped her breasts. When he reached them with his lips, he licked a trail around each nipple before clamping down on it, sucking hard until Cedar was whimpering and arching into his mouth.

“These will nourish my orcling so well,” he said, squeezing her breasts together and thrusting his hips against her. There was a new breathless hunger in his voice. “They’ll grow so fat with your milk, and I’ll keep them that way.”

Why did his words spark a flame in her belly? She couldn’t help her moan.

While he smothered her nipples in his affection, his fingers trailed down between her thighs, where he found her already weeping with her excitement. He buried his fingers in her.

“Always so tight for me.” That red hue to his eyes grew brighter. “Perfect for taking my cock.”

Cedar wanted more than just his fingers. She whined as he pumped them in and out of her, searching out the sensitive places inside her.

“It fits so well inside me,” she managed between moans. “Please. Please, I need you.”

The demand seemed to strike a chord somewhere deep inside him, because Kargorr let out a monstrous growl, then yanked his hand free of her. He slathered the head of his cock in her wetness, and he bared his teeth as he crouched over her. Spreading her legs wide, he dragged himself through her wet petals, over her clit and back again, his hooded eyes watching her as she writhed and moaned and snapped her hips up to urge him inside her. Still he ignored her body’s pleas, just teasing her with the anticipation of him.

There was a new look in his eyes, something wild and fearsome, like he would eat her whole. Then he allowed the soft head of his cock to nudge at her entrance.

“You are mine,” he said, fisting his hand at the root as he started to push it inside. “You will always be mine.”

She wanted him, of course. She yearned for nothing else but to be filled by him. But he was saying something else this time, though perhaps it was hope that made her believe it.

Kargorr thrust inside her in one smooth motion, as if he could no longer hold it back. There he rested for a moment, settled where he belonged, panting. His huge body, the scar that rent his face in two, all of it came to rest in her heart.

As if he could hear her thoughts, her massive orc dropped onto one elbow so his heaving chest was flush with hers, his tusks brushing her cheeks. When he began to move, he remained deep inside her, simply rocking his hips back and forth to stay fully enveloped. Harder and harder, those lumps at the base of his cock pressed at her taut opening, pulsing against her. He began muttering in his tongue, something guttural and thick with need, as he thrust again and again. Cedar whined and thrashed as the two swells urged her open, demanding she give even more.

Kargorr pulled away enough that he could look at her, truly look at her, and in his eyes, she saw a version of him she’d never seen before. Something softer, with none of the same cutting edges and high walls. He was, at last, exposed to her, and his truth...

It was not what she expected to find. He was more than just a beast, and inside him lay a soul as hungry for nurturing as hers.

Then, her body finally relented, and Kargorr eased the rest of the way inside her—those twin bulges stuffing her as full as she could take.

Cedar cried out, her arms lashing around his neck like a collar and her fingers tangling in his hair. She felt something shift in that moment, and she only wished she knew what it was.

Kargorr

She had been magnificent, his Cedar, giving Rathka a rather firm dressing-down. The orc woman looked just as shocked to see so much fire in her, to feel her fierce protectiveness and stern pride. It warmed him from his throat to his groin, to witness Cedar standing up for her pet with such fury. She knew her place and demanded others bend before it.

Kargorr would shed his own blood for her. He would bathe in it for her. Now, inside her, her huge brown eyes gazing up into his, her soft eyebrows slack and her pink mouth round with her pleasure, he knew it in a place even deeper than his gut. His whole being vibrated with the need to finally take her, to claim her—and so, at last, he gave in to his every longing and sunk his throbbing sarga inside her.

Cedar’s whole being bucked underneath him as he shoved his cock deep, where it was meant to be. She whimpered his name, and the sweet sound of her voice nearly sent him off the edge. But he had more to do.

She was his. Fully, completely, and utterly his. It was time to show her, with every muscle and drop of blood in his body. She would never lie underneath anyone else. She would never be far from his thoughts. She would bear him many orclings and grow old with him, her supplicating body always giving, her sore but fiery soul resting close to his.

Kargorr moaned with the rush of euphoria that flooded him as his sarga were fully embedded in her. This was where they belonged. But he was also intent on teaching her what they were for—and the heights of pleasure to which he could bring her.

Gritting his teeth, Lord Kargorr reeled his hips back, his sarga popping free of her, only to thrust them in once more. Her cry was louder this time, so he summoned all of his willpower and buried himself in her, over and over, making sure his sarga slicked in and out of her impossibly tight cunt. Soon tears were breaking free from her eyes as she clenched harder and harder, squeezing his cock like Liga’s huge jaws around a rabbit.

When he finally wrenched her climax from her, it streamed out of her in a scream. No longer could Kargorr resist the wet pulse of her around him. He plunged into her, fully seating his sarga inside her, and at last he burst. Cedar gripped his arms so hard her nails bit into his skin as his cock swelled up, filling every empty space she had left. Her cunt had fully surrounded him, locking him in. He groaned as his seed streamed out of him in wild force, her glorious body wringing him for everything he had.

It was difficult not to simply collapse on top of her, so Kargorr twisted to one side so he could remain lodged in her. Cedar gasped and wriggled, and he clutched her hip tightly to stop her moving.

“Stay still,” he murmured into her hair, stroking that perfect softness. He inhaled her smell, so fragrant with her satisfaction, and a lightness he’d never felt before settled on his shoulders.

He knew who she was. At last, he had found his yapira , the one intended for him—and in such an odd place.

But telling her so, giving into it so fully, frightened him. Kargorr was never afraid, not of anything, until now. He could not yet give her that weapon, not until he was certain he had fully won her loyalty and her heart.

And not until he had achieved his mission. No one could know, not yet, not until he had secured the other kazek , and built the army he needed.

Here in their tent, though, where they were alone... he could at least know that he had found her.

His one, his only.

Cedar

It took many minutes for the swelling in Kargorr’s cock to recede. When it did, he slid out of her, and a torrent of his seed followed. Cedar gasped as her body released him, and she curled tight against his side at the slight ache it left behind.

Kargorr hummed, smoothing a hand down her shoulder and cupping it around her back. Cedar felt warm and weightless, like a bird peering down at the wide world beneath, knowing nothing could reach it up in the trees. While Cedar was exhausted, a new part of her felt awake , alive in a way it had never been before. It was as if she could feel Kargorr’s heartbeat thrumming through her, huge and slow like a steady, beating drum.

“Kargorr,” Cedar asked in a hushed, weak voice, her vocal cords still upset from the way she used them earlier.

“Yes, little deer?”

“What was that? That... on your cock.”

His muscles stiffened under her hands, as if it was the one question he hoped she wouldn’t ask.

“Nothing important,” he replied at last, drawing her closer against him. He lowered his head to whisper to her. “Did you enjoy it?”

It wasn’t commonplace for him to ask something like this, so she hastily answered, “Oh, yes.”

He grunted, and she thought it was a sound of contentment.

Cedar didn’t notice when she fell asleep. Her dreams were soft, like her bed, like her heart at this fragile moment.