Page 38 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

We stop and start the ride a couple of times so they get the hang of it, then I ask, “Who wants to go for the first ride?”

“ME!” they chorus, even the three who’ve learned the controls.

“Okay. I’ll run it for you this first time. That way, you all get to go up.”

They pile into one car, and I start the controls.

I don’t know who’s happier, the gnomes or the nymphs, as the wheel turns, carrying both groups of fae up, up, up into the blue sky.

I stand, head tipped back, soaking it all in as the water nymphs dive from the lifting cars, and the gnomes go around and around, yelling every time they get to the top and see the view.

We stay like that for a while, Branikk standing beside me. His voice is gentle when he finally says, “We should get going.”

“I know. I just wanted this Ferris wheel to be used, to bring joy.” It’s one final piece of home for me. But it’s more than that—it’s also what made me finally admit everything in Alarria is real, including the man beside me.

I dart back between the cars one last time and bring the ride to a halt with the gnome car at the bottom. Then I turn everything over to Pebble with one last promise to give the pixies rides at night.

Back at the riverbank, Branikk’s strong hands lift me into the saddle, and I lean back into him once he’s behind me.

This man who thinks of my happiness.

This man who I’m falling for.

It would have been inconceivable to think the word with any certainty only a day before, but now it comes easily.

This man who’s my husband.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Branikk

We pass a couple of summer apple trees, and I ask Aurora to pause long enough that I can stand in the stirrups and pluck several of the small fruit, their bright yellow skin dappled with dots of pink. They make a welcome addition to our breakfast as we ride, small and tart and bursting with flavor. I wolf them down, tusks ripping through them, cores and all, but my bride takes dainty bites, circling around them with little human teeth marks.

Once done eating, Grace’s body relaxes back into mine in a way it’s never done before.

I love it. I love the new closeness and ease the previous evening created between us. I was right not to press things this morning, much as it pained my cock. I will remain the patienthunter, luring my prey to me instead of pouncing in unseemly haste.

I will make her pounce on me, make her think it’s her idea. I will tease her until she writhes with need, begging me to take her.

My arm tightens around her as I breathe in the scent of her hair.

Aurora leaps a clump of ferns and races ahead, true to her impatience to create distance from the Ferris wheel.

I glance back every time there’s a large enough break in the trees to see its circular top cutting across the sky. My friend certainly has a point. The great wheel is visible for miles.

A baying in the distance makes me jolt.

“What is it?” Grace says.

“I’m not sure,” I say. “Regular wolves are few and far between in this part of the continent.”

“If there’s loud barking, then it’s cu sith,” Aurora says. “Although even the dogs aren’t stupid enough to make unnecessary noise.”

“Cu sith aren’t stupid, so something’s wrong.”

“Cu sith?” Grace asks.

“A canine fae much like Aurora is an equine fae.”

---