Page 24 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

All things I’d never done before, but I was willing to do for him.

So instead, I brushed my fingers through his hair with a soft sigh. He truly was beautiful.

“Are you going to run again?” I asked him the same question I had before, and the warmth of his body tensed for just a second before he shifted closer to me with a soft sigh.

“Yeah. Probably. I have to find my friend—”

“I can help you find your friend, Kai. There is no need to put yourself in danger to do it.”

He rose up, his eyes narrowed… but he still wasn’t fighting against me or the way I trailed my fingers slowly along the length of his back.

“You haven’t been helping me this past week. I’ve been tied up in your tent and—”

I cut him off with a hard kiss, swallowing down the exasperated sound he made with a low, rumbling laugh. When I pulled back, he was still glaring.

“You were trying to run, and there are dangers that would see anything I hold dear hurt. I will help you find your friend when it is safe, and until then, I can ask others if they’ve heard anything.” When he opened his mouth to protest, I continued on. “You’d be more of a threat to him now than you would be a help.”

That brought him up short, and his eyes went wide.

“Why?”

“My enemies are close… any living creature with common sense would see that you’re mine—” I kept going before he could cut me off with a protest. “If you leave now, you’ll lead them straight to your friend.” When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “If your friend came through the portal, I’m sure he’s fine. There are guards posted across every entrance to Belzod, and I would have heard if something had happened. When it is safe, we’ll find him.”

It wasn’t a lie. If Koth was around, if he was watching, there was every chance he’d take Kai to hurt me. If Kai ran off to the cities looking for his friend, there was every chance he’d follow him there.

And maybe there was a part of me that was being selfish. If I took Kai to look for his friend right away, we might find him.

But I wanted him to realize, to admit that he belonged here—with me—first.

Maybe my need for him was my sin, but he blew out a slow breath and nodded.

“Fine. If you promise you’ll help me find him when it’s safe…”

“I will,” I said, but he kept on.

“And stop tying me up and leaving me in your tent all day. If you want me to be here, show me whathereis.” His face morphed into the cutest pout, and something in my chest blossomed.

“You want to see what life I live, Little Mate? What life will be yours?”

He dropped his head back on the pillow with a snort. “Not your mate. I just… I’m not used to not doing things. If I have to wait to find Rainn, you need to at least let me do something useful in the meantime.”

Telling him that waiting in my tent, naked and ready for my cock was more than useful probably wouldn’t get me anywhere—in fact, I had a feeling it might walk back the progress we’d made. I nodded.

“Fine. Tomorrow, we will find you something useful to do.”

Chapter nine

Kai

Iwasfrustratedforsomany reasons. What Nash said made sense, if he was telling me the truth. If he had enemies and they saw the way he acted so protective of me, it tracked that me running off and finding Rainn could just get both of us hurt. He seemed so sure that he was safe, too. If there were guards posted at all the portals, there really was every chance Rainn was living his best life at the moment, bouncing on orc dick and coming up with a million new book ideas.

And…

It was getting harder for me to deny that there wassomethingabout Nash that made me want to stay near him. I was still torn between blaming it on orc magic and some weird karma for stealing that dildo, but I was starting to realize how useless it was to fight it.

So… I could be his friend.

A friend who slept next to him and got off frotting, apparently. But… that was pretty friendly, right? Way more friendly than I’d been with anyone else. So maybe I could be his best friend.

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