Page 35 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

Nash’s answering chuckle wasn’t as warm as usual, and the sensation of him tensing made me shiver. I opened my eyes slowly to look at the worried expression on his face. “Maybe… but still. I don’t like the idea of Koth causing trouble because of me. I want to handle it sooner rather than later—his answer will be all the permission we need to lead a hunt to the death.”

At the sound that tore from my throat, his eyes shifted to me.

“Death?” I’d seen the weapon he carried. I’d experienced exactly how strong he was, how well trained he kept his body.

But still.

Death?

“Don’t worry, Little Mate.” Nash’s fingers brushed along my shoulder gently as I pushed myself into a sitting position. “I’ve handled worse than Koth in my lifetime, and I’ll deal with worse after he’s food in the ground for the worms.”

It was the first time he’d ever spoken like that, and the first time I’d really had to acknowledge that Nash was… dangerous. All the times when he’d chased me, even when he threatened to spank me…

None of it was real. He was always soft and warm and teasing.

There was something about his tone that was dangerous now. Deadly. I didn’t question that he could do exactly what he said—that he’d probably done it before.

Hunt someone down.

Kill them.

“I’m allowed to worry about you,” I finally said, pushing completely off the bed and crossing my arms. “Especially if there’s some weirdo orc out there wanting revenge and you’re going to go hunt him down.”

I hated the thought of it so much that I actually felt something ugly twist in my chest, a little spark of anger that made me want todosomething.

“I will… see myself out.” Vex’s eyes were wide, and he scurried out of the tent before I had a chance to really get myself worked up.

It was worse, because Nash was smiling at the way my arms were crossed over my chest.

Like he thought it was cute or something.

I didn’t know how to remind him that where I came from, there weren’t many people who could look down at me the way he did, let alone call me cute.

“I’ll be fine, Kai.” He said it again, and this time when he slowly ran his fingers through my hair, I let myself relax slightly into the touch. “I’ll have all of my men with me. Koth is simply… a threat that has been allowed to run free for too long. I let it go because it didn’t matter. But… things are different now. They’re…”

He trailed off, but I realized what he wasn’t saying.

“I’m here now?”

He didn’t try to deny it. “Yes. You’re here… and for the first time in my life, I feel like I have something I could truly lose. So…” Nash leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ll hunt him down, and anything else that might pose a threat to you.”

I sighed against his mouth before leaning back to look at him. “You know, someone threatening to murder things for you shouldn’t be attractive.”

He was too quick for me, though, because he grinned as he leaned in again, pressing another kiss to my forehead before moving past me. “And yet you didn’t say it wasn’t.”

I followed him out of the tent, raking my fingers through my hair as I did. “I didn’t say it was either. You’re not attractive atall.”

We both knew I was lying.

I wasprettysure I knew where I was going. I’d been spending every second I could learning about things around the camp. That included the plants I could and couldn’t touch.

Maybe it was stupid, but the way Nash seemed so ready to pretty much go to war to protect me made something in my chest spark, and there was no way I was going to just sit around and not try to do something to show him I appreciated him.

Since his entire group moved pretty regularly—they were actually talking about packing up so they could do just that within the next few days—it wasn’t like I could build him something practical, like a porch for his house.

I could suck his dick again, but that wasn’t exactly as sentimental as I wanted it to be… even though I was pretty sure he’d definitely appreciate the gesture.

Which meant…

---