Page 68 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

Her high voice carries across the entire clearing, causing everyone to look straight at us.

My cheeks flame, but Branikk just chuckles. “It’s something for adults.”

“As is the rest of this conversation,” Riselda says, shooing the pups into the den, despite all of their protests. Then she turns back to us, her eyes hard. “I just received a report. Sentries spotted sluagh this morning. A mass of them are gathering in the trees at the edge of our territory.”

“How many?” Branikk asks, all signs of humor gone.

“More than have ever attacked us before.”

Ice shivers down my spine, and Branikk looks at me, eyes full of worry.

Why do I feel like the soul suckers are attacking in force because they want me?

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Branikk

I spread out my map on the ground, and everyone gathers around, sitting on the soft moss, with Aurora standing, looking over my shoulder.

“All of this is known and to correct scale.” I run my fingers over the center of the map, outlining all of the orc lands and the Umbriall Plains the unicorns call home. Then my finger drifts south, to where we are. “I tried to fill in what I could of my trip to the new standing stone and from there to here, but I’m not sure I got it quite right.”

“You certainly haven’t,” Mist says, her bright-green eyes laughing at me. She sets her paw down an inch to the left of where I’ve placed the cu sith dens. “I can’t speak about the new standing stone, but we’re currently here.”

I grunt, dip a quill into a small pot of walnut ink, and make the correction. It actually puts us a little closer to home than I thought.

“The sluagh gather here.” Riselda taps a paw farther west. “They’ve launched several attacks on us over the past month from this same location, so we now watch it. But the sentries say the trees are black with birds this time.”

“It’s because of me. That one we met before says I taste sweet. And I think it’s the same one that got away during that last attack on us as well,” Grace says, the corners of her mouth pulling down. “I’m so sorry. You brought me here to help, but I’ve only made things worse.”

I hate the anguish in her voice.

“You’ve made nothing worse,” Rune says, leaning against her other shoulder. “Your magic made the weapon that can defeat the sluagh.”

“Yet it’s a weapon no cu sith can use.” Riselda lifts a paw. “We do not have hands in our natural form, and with all the doors of Faerie closed, we have no access to our other forms.”

“Other forms?” Grace says.

“Did you not know?” Mist grins widely. “The Wild Fae with animal forms used to be able to shift into elves. Humans used to tell stories about us.”

“Stories of the cu sith, you mean,” Rune says. “Wewere the famous ones.”

“Oh. My. God. You meanwerewolves!” My bride’s eyes go wide as she stares at first Rune, then Riselda. “You’re werewolves? Werewolves are real?” Then she sputters a laugh. “What am I saying? If magic’s real, then werewolves can be, too.”

“We’re not currently werewolves,” Rune says. “We cannot shift unless the doors of Faerie open again.”

“Bah,” Aurora says. “Who wants to be a biped?”

“You can change, too?” Grace gapes up at her, then looks at me. “What about you?”

“Orcs aren’t animal fae. We have only one form.” I smirk, showing off my tusks. “You can’t improve upon perfection.”

Aurora whacks the top of my head with her horn.

“Kidding aside, what we need is a way to trap the sluagh without hands,” Riselda says. “Grace, can you design something we can use?”

“I don’t know. I have to be able to picture it, but even then, my magic doesn’t always work. It seems to only make things from the carnival or…” She breaks off, cheeks turning pink.

“Or?” Mist prompts.

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