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Kargorr

W here was she?

How he hungered for his Cedar. He had pushed his warriors hard to return to the parog so he could claim her again, finally. He had even brought her a gift, an offering, as only mated orcs did.

He couldn’t avoid it, not any longer. He had to have her.

Kargorr dismounted his horse, the big, stupid creature, and handed the reins off to whoever happened to be standing nearby. The grrosek parted for him as he stalked through the crowd, searching for her, sniffing the air just to catch her smell. His sarga throbbed thinking about her, imagining how warm and soft and tight she would be, relishing how she would taste, how her eyelashes would flutter as he held her, how she would curl up close to him as she slept. He needed to find her, now.

When he didn’t see her among his parog , who all tapped their chests as he passed, his throat tightened. Ravenous, he barreled toward their tent. Surely she hadn’t slept through this.

Unease rose in his belly as he reached the door and snatched it open. He expected to see her inside, perhaps naked on the furs—oh, that would be ideal—but instead, the tent was empty. Empty save for her cat, who was tied up, whimpering and whining.

Kargorr stared at her beloved pet. Where had Cedar gone without Kiya? Why would she have left him tied up?

The realization hit him like a sword through the chest.

She had run .

The swell of rage that overtook him was unlike anything he’d felt before. Never, even in the heat of battle, had he experienced such blistering fury.

His yapira had run from him. Carrying his orcling. She intended to abandon him, forever.

The shout that erupted from him shook the ground, and Kiya hunched into the corner of the tent. Kargorr nearly took the place down as he searched for an article of her clothing, finding one scattered across the furs. Clutching the garment tight, he stormed out. His eyes darted left to right as he considered which way she had gone.

How could she do this to him, after all the battles he’d fought to come home to her? How could she leave him after what he’d shared with her?

He thought of the orcling they’d created growing up without him, and he was nearly blinded by rage as he charged into the snow. He howled, “Liga!” and his cat came running, thrilled to see him again. Grabbing her scruff in his hand, he leapt onto her back and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“Find her,” he growled. “Find her for me, Liga.” He held out the clothing so she could smell it, then tucked it away while she sniffed the air. Liga paused, ears flicking forward, and then all at once she sprang into motion.

It was as if Liga could sense Kargorr’s urgency the way she flew through the snow, one huge bound after another. She dove into the trees, weaving between trunks, following her nose.

Kargorr’s arms swelled with his fury, and he gripped Liga’s mane even tighter. His yapira was leaving him, taking their offspring with her. He had given her his sarga , and she dared run from him?

He ground his teeth together, his vision clouded. He was glad for Liga’s eyes as she made her way deeper into the woods, because all he could see was her betrayal.

Liga snarled, and up ahead, Kargorr made out a shape with dark hair sprinting through the snow.

Cedar.

He roared as he jumped from Liga’s back, landing in the snow behind her. She spun around, her cloak flying, and her eyes went huge when she saw him. For a moment, their gazes locked, and the whites of her eyes were shot through with red.

Then she turned and ran off again, even faster.

All of Kargorr’s predator instincts took over as he watched his woman flee into the branches. Running from him . A wordless shout ripped itself from his throat as he took one step for every three of hers, easily gaining on her. When he was close enough, he threw himself at her, tackling her to the ground.

Cedar cried out as they both landed in the snow. Kargorr was on his feet instantly. He seized her by the wrists and hauled her up into the air, trapping her arms at her sides like she was little more than a toy. Her face was flushed bright red, and tears had frozen on her cheeks.

“You run from me?” he snarled, jerking her closer to his face. Her huge, brown eyes were wild as he stared into them, his vision narrowing to the single point of her face. “You would steal my orcling from me?!”

Her fear gave way to her own fury. Like she had done so long ago, Cedar spat on him.

“And you would replace me!” she snapped back, wriggling to get free of his iron hands. “You would throw me away!”

If his anger had been aflame before, it now erupted into a forest fire. He slammed her against a tree, and she gagged as the air was knocked from her lungs.

“I would never,” he hissed between closed teeth, “ never throw you away. Not like you have me.”

It was the most acute sting he’d ever felt, to find his tent empty and his true mate gone. His hands tightened around her arms, and she whimpered when his claws bit into her flesh. But he was too deep in his blood fury to notice how he hurt her.

His body had ached for her while he was gone, his chest empty and hollow. Now the thrill and pleasure he’d felt at returning to her had dried up into sand, and all that was left was his despair and rage.

Before Cedar could answer, Kargorr smashed his lips to hers, crushing them, forcing her mouth open so he could wind his way inside. Her tongue fought with his, but he easily overpowered her. All his fire boiled up and over until he had not one of his senses left.

He had to punish her, his yapira , who had so brutally maimed him—far worse than the scar across his face. So he conquered her mouth as he reached under her cloak, finding her round breasts with one hand while the other kept her pinned. She writhed, whimpering as she tried to push him away. But Lord Kargorr only snarled, no longer capable of words.

He had become the manifestation of wrath itself, an animal driven by its instinct to hunt, to devour, and to claim.

Cedar

He was a demon. A beast.

A monster.

When Lord Kargorr pulled away from his bruising, demanding kiss, there was nothing left in his black eyes—they were empty save for the red that glowed around the edges. This was surely how his victims saw him, covered in dried blood, his face contorted in his thirst for the kill.

Cedar’s tunic split open with an audible rip as his claws tore it from her body. The bitter, icy wind hit her bare skin, and she tried to cover herself, but he had both of her wrists clutched tight in his one huge hand. His chest heaved, and the air filled with steam from his breath as he traced her breast. Then he slid further down, snapping the laces of her pants, and Cedar’s pulse sped up. He was truly terrifying, and how she could ever have thought he cared for her...

She was a fool.

When Cedar was at last exposed to him, the bitter chill whipping over her skin, she gave up fighting. There was nothing she could do to escape him, not now. She had left her dagger behind—another stupid mistake.

He had told her to always keep it with her. She wondered if it was because he thought she might need to use it on him .

Lord Kargorr snarled as he yanked down the front of his breeches, and that huge, familiar dark green cock of his emerged. Cedar had tried to hold in her fear, but now she sobbed knowing what he planned to do with it.

“You are mine ,” he thundered, his voice shaking her bones. “Only mine. Forever.”

All she could do was nod in understanding as her limbs fell limp. Cedar would never be free again.

Keeping her arms above her head, Kargorr hooked his hand under her ass and lifted her off the ground. Her body cried for his, but her heart was quiet. He lined himself up, and she closed her eyes as the head of his cock made its way inside her.

Her mind rebelled at how good he felt, how she grew slick and wet for him as he finally buried himself inside her. A moan escaped her lips as he reeled his hips back, then plunged into her again. And again.

She moved like a doll as he took her, owning her, claiming her over and over. Those lumps at the base of his cock pressed harder and harder against her opening, and she cried out as she started to give way to them.

“Never forget,” he said as he thrust in again, deeper. “Never forget who you belong to. My yapira .”

The word startled her. Had she heard him right? His yapira ?

His cock dragged along the sensitive lining of her channel, the pleasure she fought winding higher and higher. Tears slipped free from her eyes at how her body betrayed her, how it sought the rest of his cock to fit inside her.

And then it did. The bulges on his shaft slipped through, spreading her as wide as she could go, and her tears flowed even more freely as her peak took her. It catapulted her into the flames, and then dragged her back out again, right into ice water. He fucked her harder, those lumps slicking in and out while her pussy clenched down around him. Kargorr groaned, his black eyes burrowing into her.

“My yapira ,” he muttered, over and over, until he began to swell. Cedar felt as if her body might simply squeeze down to a dot and then vanish.

Kargorr roared one last time as he jettisoned everything inside her, and she felt the hot rush of his seed filling her. The swollen bulbs at the base of his cock had lodged in her again, and to her horror, she felt his huge heart beating next to hers.

They were reunited now. She was forever tied to a creature of pain, destruction, and death.

When at last Kargorr was finished with her, Cedar fell to her knees in the snow and wept.

Kargorr

He shook his head again, trying to clear the red haze that had taken over. He could hear Cedar crying, and he longed for nothing more than to stop it.

But he had done it. He was the reason she kneeled helpless on the ground before him, her gentle sniffles filling the night air.

He pulled up his pants, then reached down and lifted her out of the snow, fully naked. She didn’t object, simply shivered in his arms as he brought her in close to his chest. She stayed with her head turned away from him, her eyes focused on nothing. He bent to snatch up her cloak and lay it across her in his arms, hoping to stave off the frigid chill.

Her clothing was in ruins. There was no hope for them, so he left them there, like a grave marker. The place where he had reclaimed what was his; the place where any innocence left between them had died.

Cedar didn’t speak as he carried her back on foot, Liga following at a safe distance behind. When Kargorr entered the camp, the other grrosek turned to stare. Perhaps it was obvious what had happened; perhaps his authority would be questioned for not keeping his woman on a leash. But he would not have his yapira whipped, so he ignored them until he reached their tent, and then stepped inside.

Kiya growled as Kargorr passed. Perhaps the cat didn’t recognize him anymore. He laid Cedar on the furs, and she remained where he put her. Kargorr untied Kiya, then returned to the bed, where his yapira still had not moved. Tears slid over her nose, dripping down to the blankets, but she made no sound as he lay beside her.

He combed back through his memory, trying to remember anything outside the fog of his rage. Why had she done this? Why now?

You would replace me! You would throw me away!

Kargorr dropped a hand to her side, simply seeking her warmth. She flinched, but didn’t move. She was shivering, he realized, so he pulled over an extra fur and covered her with it.

“Why did you run?” he asked at length.

There came no answer, but he waited anyway.

It could have been minutes or a whole hour later when Cedar finally answered.

“The women.” She closed her eyes. “More concubines. More... orclings .” She spit the word, and curled away from him, wrapping her arms tight around herself.

Kargorr tried to think what she meant. What women? What concubines? There was no one but her.

At last, he remembered: the humans the party had brought back with them from their conquest, with their loud and pitiful crying.

It all unraveled in front of him. The moment he understood was like a blow to the side of his head.

Cedar had waited for him. Not only was she loyal, but she was jealous, too. There was only one reason why she had left his side, why she had fled tonight of all nights, at this moment of all moments.

The truth settled in, ugly and dark in Kargorr’s belly, of what he’d done to his yapira . She was his only. The one he had been destined for. The woman who carried his orcling, who had moaned so sweetly under him when he pleasured her, who ate too much and had once thought about killing him with a dagger in the night.

Kargorr had hurt her. He had hurt her in a way no grrosek should ever hurt his chosen one.

“No, little deer,” he said quietly. “It is only you.”

Kargorr wrapped his arms around her, trying to bring her in close—but she was as stiff as a stone, and he hoped against all hope that he hadn’t broken her.