Page 48 of Claimed By the Orc Lord

When the camp packed up to start moving a little closer to the city so Nash could be in easier contact with his brother, I helped everyone. It felt good, spending all day breaking down tents and packing everything into carts so weird critters that Nash called Rhinoppek could haul everything for the journey.

When I asked Nash how often he moved, he gave a slight shrug. “Whenever we feel the need—I have a home in the north where I could settle if I wished, but this…”

I smiled at him before he could finish, threading our fingers together. “This is better.”

And it really was.

And when we settled down to camp that night, Nash laid me out on his bed and took me apart with his tongue, then fed me his cock until he came. I spent ten minutes running my tongue and hands over his knot, fascinated with the way he pulsed under my fingers, completely enraptured with the low groans of pleasure that me touching him tore from his chest.

He was so… responsive. I’d always enjoyed making my partners come, but it was different with Nash.

It was different because I could almost feel his pleasure pouring through me, to the point that I’d gotten hard again after touching him for a few minutes. He’d happily flipped me over and filled me with his cock. The sensation of his knot smacking against my ass, and me being too tight to take it now that it was already full, was almost as hot as mouthing against it.

Monster fucking. I’d listened to so many books, but none of them did a damn thing to really convey howgoodit was. Especially since Nash seemed to have an inhuman amount of stamina. He wore me out every night, and for someone who’d been sure they were fit as fuck before, I was so sore the next day I was pretty sure he’d discovered muscles I’d never known I had until he fucked them ragged.

And… I was happy with it.

I washappywith him.

I’d never been so happy, and I only felt a little guilty that I wasn’t as worried about finding Rainn as I had been when I’d first come here. We were making our way slowly toward the city, so I’d get my answers. And…

Well…

I knew if my best friendknewhow I was feeling, he’d want me to stay exactly where I was, being exactly as happy as I was.

He’d want this for me just as much as I’d want it for him.

It kind of made sense, when I thought about it. We’d both been so listless, both without partners, both looking for something—Rainn with his words, and me with the endless jobs, the endless hookups, the endless books I read and lost myself in.

We’d both been looking for a world we’d never seen before. We just didn’t realize it until we got there. I was more than sure now that he’d come through the same way I had, and I was trusting my instincts when they told me he was probably just as happy as I was right about now.

Maybe I didn’t always have the best common sense, and sometimes I did a shit job of telling time, or keeping appointments… but my instincts were never wrong when it came to my feelings.

And my feelings were telling me the world was finally spinning on the right axis, that everything had pivoted.

That things were right.Maybe for the very first time in my life, everything was right.

Chapter eighteen

Nash

“Nash,yourbrother’sletterhas finally arrived.”

My head snapped up—Kai’s fingers running idly through my hair, braiding the loose strands, were half putting me to sleep. I was in a daze, still half drunk on the feel of our connection like it had happened minutes instead of days ago. I had to pull myself from the warmth of his touch so I could concentrate.

“Perfect.” I started to stand to take it, and Kai’s hands slid around my chest, drawing me back against him.

“I’m not done yet,” he hissed in my ear, tugging on another strand of my hair before he started back to work—the feel of his lips pressing against the back of my head soothed the sting and made me want to give him whatever he asked for. My eyes lifted to Vex, who shook his head as he glanced between us.

“Read it to me?” I asked, because it was clear I was the one being held captive now. Kai’s fingers were gentle as he kept working.

“He was apparently attacked by some of Koth’s men.” Vex’s voice was soft, and I felt my body tense—though I’d half expected something like that to happen. Before I had a chance to ask, my second in command continued on. “Axum is perfectly fine. A few of his men were injured, but all the wounds were superficial. It seems things have been quiet on the front here because Koth went north to recruit any dissenters he could find in an attempt to grow his army.”

“Is Axum taking care of them?”

Vex’s eyes continued to scan the letter, and I leaned back fully against Kai’s warmth. His fingers were still combing and working through my hair, but his thighs were squeezed tight around me now. It was like he could sense that this was something important—he could probably feel the tension running through me, if not through our bond, then through the places our bodies touched. Having him here, having him so close, probably made the news settle better than it would have otherwise.

Before Kai, I would already have been out of my tent and preparing to ride to war against Koth for daring to threaten my family, for even thinking about hurting my brother, even if he hadn’t managed to.

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