Page 30 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

Grace doesn’t hesitate, leaping across and windmilling her arms to keep her balance when she lands.

I follow, quick on her heels, hands braced to catch her.

Nymphs wait for us at the next break in the rocks. Their translucent faces rise out of the surface, their long water hair pouring continuously down the sides of their heads like little waterfalls. They hold effortlessly in place, as if the rushing current means nothing to them, their magic giving themcomplete freedom of movement in the water. High, burbling voices, playful as a brook skipping over stones, call out to us as they lift entreating hands. “Come play! We’ll have such fun today!”

Grace crouches and reaches out to them, allowing their foam-flecked fingers to feather over hers. She turns wide blue eyes up to me. “They’re real! I can feel them!”

“Of course they’re real,” Aurora yells from the bank. “The damned things tickle my stomach every time I have to cross a river!”

This time when my moon bound jumps the gap, a nymph leaps from the surface to wrap a hand around her ankle. “Come play!”

Adrenaline floods my veins. The nymph’s intentions might be harmless, but Grace can’t fight the river’s raging current. She’ll be pounded into the rocks and swept downstream.

I lunge, catching Grace around her torso right as she’s jerked toward the water. We sail forward, my boots hitting the other rock hard. Only long years of warrior practice allow me to keep my balance.

Once I set her down, Grace whirls to look up at me, her cheeks flushed. “That was incredible.”

“Anything to keep you safe.”

“Thank you.” She scowls down at the nymphs. “I see why Aurora doesn’t like them now.”

“I don’t think they’re malicious,” I say. “They’re simply oblivious to the fact that not everyone can move in the water as they do.”

There’s a wider gap between this rock and the one that holds the Ferris wheel, and even more nymphs wait for us. It’s a wide slab of granite, but there’s not a great deal of clear space around the large base of the contraption, and the sides of the large wheel rising above us hang out over the river.

“Hey!” Grace calls out, pointing to where one of the baskets rises up over the water. “Why don’t you catch a ride into the air so you can dive off?”

With delighted cries, the mass of nymphs surge toward the place she indicated. As the next basket crests the lip of the rock and rises up over the river, a brave nymph leaps and clings to its bottom. Water covers her body in a continual movement that resembles the flow of a long robe. The great wheel continues up and out, and when it’s a good twenty feet above the river, the nymph pushes off, flipping in the air in a perfect dive that strikes the water with barely a splash. The water nymph surfaces, waving a translucent arm and giving a triumphant cry, “It’s great fun!”

The nymphs yell with excitement, and two leap up to grab the next basket.

“That worked even better than expected.” Grace grins and gestures to the nymph-free gap.

“Your idea is brilliant.” I smile back. My bride is a practical problem solver. I love it. “You not only got them out of our way, you did so in a fashion that gives them something fun to do instead of threatening them. You have a kind heart.”

“Nah, I’m just used to dealing with kids,” she says. “The easiest way to keep them out of trouble is to give them something else to do.”

“You’re too modest.”

Pink flushes her cheeks, and one corner of her lips lifts in a wry smile, even as she glances away. She looks uncomfortable yet pleased, and I would guess she hasn’t been praised for her accomplishments nearly enough.

I vow to make up for it. My bride deserves to know exactly how amazing she is.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Grace

I stand on the edge of the channel separating this rock from the one the Ferris wheel’s on. I really,reallywant to get over there and figure all this shit out, but… Not going to lie, after that last jump went wrong, my heart pounds like a heavy-metal drummer finally getting a solo. I’m used to thinking of myself as strong and capable, but that nymph would have yanked me into the water without me being able to do a single thing to stop it.

Thank god Branikk saved me.

My emotions are all over the damned place. I’m so used to going it alone, of only having myself to rely on that him saving me like that…

I’m embarrassed. I’m grateful. I’m angry at the “nymph” for grabbing me. I’m angry at myself for being grabbed. I’m hornyfor his big, powerful body. I’m confused about the Ferris wheel being here.

I’m too many emotions, all of them loud and banging around inside me, and I don’tdoemotions. Thanks, uptight Scandinavian Minnesota upbringing!

Branikk stands beside me now, and I’m so hyperaware of him my heart races for a completely different reason. God, the feel of his big body scooping me out of the air, his arms like steel bands of protection and strength…

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