Page 27

27

Kargorr

P erhaps for the first time in his life, Lord Kargorr was nervous.

If he had learned anything about Cedar in his time with her, it was that she’d never been allowed to have things that children should have. She worked instead of playing and slept on a hard floor with all of her siblings. Since she’d begun living in his tent, Kargorr had seen how she loved the luxury of the furs. But it was grrosek tradition to pile a bed high with wolf and bear and fox. He knew after enough raids of human homes that this was not how humans did things.

He carried his gift rolled up under his arm, back to his tent as darkness fell over the camp. He found he liked how much later the sun set down in the lowlands, and during the winter, it would grant them even more time to work. And there was much work to be done for the next stage of his plan.

Once again he would send Orgha away, this time with a different missive: come and join me , it would say. Kargorr also planned to offer gifts to yet another parog , one even farther afield, and had to choose another of his warriors to represent him.

Samrak, the half-orc, would be perfect. He was an emblem of what Kargorr sought to create. He had the strength and dedication of an orc, but the agility and eyesight of a human. It made him deadly on the battlefield, skilled with a hammer, and clever with his tongue. He would make a perfect emissary.

Now that the plans had been made, it was time for Kargorr to present his token to his yapira and to try to earn her back.

When he slipped inside the tent, he found her on the floor, sewing together Kiya’s bed. The cat had outgrown it again, so she must have torn out the stitches to make it bigger. Soon her beloved animal wouldn’t be able to sleep in their tent anymore and would have to start integrating into the group that lived outside the camp.

Cedar looked up when Kargorr entered, and for the briefest moment, he thought she looked pleased to see him. Then her eyebrows lowered, and she dropped her head once more to continue her work.

“I brought you something,” he said, settling down next to her. Her hands stilled as he set the blanket in his lap. It was a bright color—many colors, woven together—and rather bulky. Kargorr unrolled it so it swept over her knees. She dropped her hands to the fabric, and her eyes went wide.

“What is this?” Cedar asked, sampling it with the pads of her fingers. “Some kind of wool? Or alpaca, maybe?” Her eyes were big and her lips had parted in surprise.

Yes. This was a good gift.

“It’s a blanket that will keep you warm,” Kargorr said. He took the end and carefully slung it over her shoulders, tucking it neatly under her chin so she was wrapped up in it. She petted it softly, and pulled it even closer, like she was hiding inside it. Kargorr looped his arm around her back, intending to bring her to his side so he could smell her, but she stiffened underneath him.

“It’s lovely,” she said, clenching the ends of the blanket. “Someone with a lot of craftsmanship made this.”

Kargorr nodded slowly. It was certainly finer and more delicate than anything he owned.

Silence passed between them. Kargorr placed his chin atop her head, wrapping his other arm around her, too, but she did not soften to him.

He hated this coldness between them. It wasn’t right for an orc to be so detested by his yapira . He wondered if he could ever make right what he had done.

Cedar

It truly was a beautiful blanket, with a swirling pattern Cedar knew must have been difficult to weave. How many hours had someone labored over this blanket? She turned the question over in her mind as she felt along the soft fabric. What was it made of that it was so smooth under her fingertips?

But Kargorr did not know the answer to these questions. Whoever had owned this blanket, whoever had known its story, was gone.

Still, he had brought it back with him from his raid, thinking of her. A tiny spark of warmth flared in her heart, knowing she’d been on his mind while he was away, just as he’d been on hers. But then she thought of last night, how poisoned his return had been, and squeezed the blanket tight in her hands.

“It’s time for bed, little deer,” Kargorr said to her, smoothing down her hair with one hand. He rose to his feet and peered down at her when she didn’t move. She found herself trapped for a moment in time, in a different world where she hadn’t run away, where he hadn’t chased her in a rage, where everything was as it should be rather than the tangled mess it was now.

He stooped down in front of her, and Cedar couldn’t resist looking up into his face. She took in the brutish, jutting jaw that held his big tusks, that strange nose, the pure night of his eyes and the puckered scar that crossed from his temple to his chin... it was all so familiar to her and yet now, completely foreign.

Slowly, Kargorr reached out and slipped one finger into her palm, and it was big enough that he could sweep up all her fingers. He lifted her hand until her knuckles rested on his chest.

Cedar had to look away from his dark eyes as they burrowed into her.

“Please sleep in this bed with me,” he said, leaning down to brush his lips over the back of her hand. “You are safe here. I promise you.”

Whether or not that was true, Cedar didn’t know, but she doubted she had a choice. She got to her feet at last. He carried the blanket to the bed, and when she was settled, he covered her with it. Kargorr removed his clothes, climbed in beside her and drew her into his arms. Cedar wondered if he might try to fuck her, so she held all her muscles tense.

Kargorr let out a heavy breath. “Not tonight, little deer,” he said, leaning down to brush his nose over her hair. “Just sleep.”

And after a time, wrapped in the soft gift he had brought for her, she did. But now in her dreams, the blood was everywhere, swallowing both of them—and they were drowning.

When Cedar awoke, she was surrounded by warmth. The blanket was tugged up to her chin, and big arms were wrapped tight around her, pressing her close to Kargorr’s enormous body. There was something long and thick nudging at the space between her thighs, caressing her ass. Instinctively she rolled her hips back against it, and she heard a soft grunt. Lips touched the crown of her head, working their way down to her ear, where she could feel his hot breath.

It was only then, when he rubbed himself against her back and her scratches burned, that Cedar recoiled, remembering what had transpired the night before last. Kargorr’s grip on her loosened, letting her move away.

His resigned sigh filled the air, and Cedar cringed, wondering what he might do if she refused his advances. Instead of encroaching on her, though, Kargorr sat up in the furs, his bare chest exposed. She couldn’t help the rush of heat that raced down into her belly at his familiar form, at the bulk and size of him. He sniffed the air, and his dark eyes narrowed.

“You want me, little deer,” he said quietly as the morning light spilled in through the roof of the tent.

Cedar curled in further on herself, embarrassed by how her own body betrayed her. He moved toward her, and she thought surely he would push her down and pry her legs apart. Instead, he ran one huge hand, with its sharp, black claws, down her arm in a soothing gesture. When she finally turned her head to look at him, she found an unfamiliar expression on his face—something like sadness, perhaps, or regret.

Carefully he traced lower, smoothing over her skin, then the fabric of the tunic she’d worn to bed. She shuddered involuntarily as it crested her hip before sliding back up to her shoulder. He simply petted her that way, deepening his touch with every pass, kneading her with his strong fingers. He moved up to her shoulders, continuing those sure, steady touches, and only barely digging into her flesh. Cedar couldn’t help but groan at the sensation of her tight muscles giving to him as he slowly worked them over her back, which faced him still. Once he had finished with her upper body, he spread his exploration of her lower, across the curve of her spine, where he continued his methodical manipulating. She couldn’t help sagging into the bed as he unraveled more and more of her tense edges, forcing her body to relax into his touch. When he reached her ass, she didn’t feel that same sense of lust radiating off of him that she usually did when he rubbed this part of her body. No, it was with a distanced precision that he continued downward, massaging the hard, strained flesh of her hips. It was a combination of pain and relief as he expanded his reach to her thighs, finding all the places where she didn’t even realize her body hurt.

Gently, he put a hand around her belly and encouraged her to roll onto her back, and Cedar reflexively obeyed. Now she could see him as he focused on his work over her clothing, his brows furrowed in concentration as he performed the same motions on her thighs, her calves, her ankles. Her heart beat faster as he trailed his hands up again, and his forehead smoothed as his fingers edged to her thighs, slowing their ascent at the laces of her pants.

His eyes shifted slightly to look at her as he unfastened them, and Cedar remained very still, wondering what he would do. Would he insist on putting his cock inside her? Her heart rebelled at the idea, but the lower half of her twitched instead. They remained, holding eye contact, as he slid the pants down her hips, over her feet. After he’d freed her from them, he even held her feet, rubbing them as he had the rest of her.

Now that her skin was bare, Cedar could feel the callouses on the tips of his fingers as he trailed them back up her legs to her thighs. But he did not demand she open them. Instead, he resumed those firm dips into her flesh, following a path that led him closer and closer to the mound of her pelvis. There, he paused and waded through her dark curls with his claws, twining them around his fingers.

That was when, of their own accord, her thighs parted. She wanted that touch, needed that touch, as much as it pained her to admit. It would be a welcome relief to the growing heat that left her tingling and wanting.

Kargorr gave only the barest nod as he ventured farther down to the hood of her sex. He spread his fingers and slid them deeper between her thighs, one on each of her lower lips, merely brushing the swells of them. She was surprised to find his hands cold, which must have meant that she was quite hot, and Cedar hated this, too.

It only grew worse, and her folds became more engorged as Kargorr traced the outside of her, refusing to gratify her. Soon, her body was rising of its own accord, desperate for his touch to travel inward.

Abruptly, Kargorr moved, climbing over her to position himself between her legs. Cedar tried to snap her thighs shut, alarmed at his abrupt movement and what it meant, but he kept them splayed in front of him. This time, the rush that went through her was not pleasure, but panic, remembering the last time he had forced her legs apart.

Kargorr sat back on his knees and rubbed her calves in soothing circles.

“Be still,” he said, a phrase that would normally have come out rough, but now was softer than his voice had ever been. “Please.”

Please .

Cedar could not think of another time he had ever uttered this word to her, when he had ever asked for her agreement. So she obeyed.