Page 21 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

“You can’t run from me, Kai. You’re mine.”

And before I could protest, or do something really embarrassing like ask him to stay and touch me more… Nash turned and left the tent.

My eyes followed him, then jerked down the length of my body. My cock was standing erect, pointed upward like it was accusing me of something.

“Oh, fuck off. This is your fault… and wedon’tlike dudes.” And like it could actually hear me, the damn thing twitched in defiance at the memory of Nash’s broad body pinning me to the bed and the warmth of his mouth on my own.

Chapter eight

Nash

“Stoppacing,Nash.”

Vex didn’t sound annoyed, though. My head snapped up to find him grinning at me, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

“What?”

“If you are so anxious about it, go into your tent and make up with your mate.” The grin on his face grew wider. “The entire camp knows he belongs to you. Is it not time you showed him the same?”

“I—”

How did I explain to Vex that I’d left Kai in the tent to teach him a lesson—that I could feel the way his body wanted me, and I was using the chance to let himseethat running from me was useless?

How did I explain to him that if I went into the tent, there was every chance I wouldn’t be able to resist the need pulsing through me so viscerally I could barely breathe around my want?

I’d been furious when I’d chased him into the trees, so sure that he’d feel the tether between us and he wouldn’t try to run. I’d let my guard down, and he’d taken advantage of it…

And then he’d kissed me like I was the only air he knew, the only way he could breathe, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put him on his knees and feed him my cock, or if I wanted to put him over my lap and spank him until he was sobbing.

I groaned, my hand coming up to run through my hair roughly.

“I think—”

“Well, there is your problem, Nash. You arethinking.” Vex’s laughter made me glower, but when he shoved me, I couldn’t really argue.

I wasn’t the type of orc who thought long and hard about a situation—I functioned on the desires of my body and the instincts that drove me forward.

And every instinct I possessed was telling me that being away from Kai, leaving him tied in that tent without me when his body had so clearly said he wanted me there, was tantamount to sin against the gods.

“Quiet, Vex.” I finally snapped, but I was already moving. “You exhaust me.”

“Hm, yet there you go, to your tent.” The warmth on his face was infectious, the smile drawing one out of me in turn.

“Because I’m tired. Not because you’re sick of me pacing.” I didn’t look back to see if he was still smirking or not.

Honestly, a gentle breeze would have led me back to Kai. I’d lasted less than two hours.

When I pushed into the tent, I instantly caught sight of his eyes. The blue burned in irritation, but there was a low undercurrent of heat beneath the stare… like he could feel that same tether trailing between us. I knew he’d spent the last week without any kind of relief, and whatever had bubbled to the surface when I’d pressed my lips to his earlier seemed incapable of quieting now that it had fully woken.

I knew fated mates were inexorably drawn to one another even before they took their marks—once they’d found each other, it was instinct to be close, agony not to give in to what the gods themselves had laid out as your destiny.

It was that pull that brought me forward, that draw that had me sitting on the bed beside Kai and running my fingers through his hair.

He moaned before he realized what he was doing, then bit the sound off with a snarl.

“Done teaching melessons?” he said through gritted teeth, though I noticed he didn’t jerk away when I trailed my fingers through his hair again—it was slightly damp, like he’d truly been suffering while I was away.

“It depends.” Even as I spoke, I was enraptured by the slight flush of his body, the way the sweat on his skin filled the room with the scent of him. The way he leaned into me even while his eyes flared in irritation and defiance.

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