Page 113 of Halfling
“I stay with you,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument. “For as long as you want me.”
“This has to be what you want. It’s your life, too, Orek.”
“Why are you determined to leave me?” he asked.
“I’m not!” Face crumpling, Sorcha dropped back into the blankets beside him. “I’m messing this up again. I just…don’t want you to regret it and change your mind.”
I don’t want you to wake up one day and realize I’m not worth it.
His brows lowered, but his eyes held too much sympathy for it to truly be a scowl. He regarded her for a long moment, and Sorcha tried not to squirm under that penetrating gaze.
When he did speak again, it was in that deep, rumbling voice he used to tell stories, one that snared her attention and kept it rapt upon him. “I’ve never truly belonged anywhere. To anyone. But Sorcha,mate,I’m yours. If being part of your clan is what I must do to have you, then I’ll do it. Gladly. Because you are my life now.”
She wanted to believe it, wanted to let her love for him that reached across the handspan of distance between them silence all her doubts. But there was still that part of her, buried deep behind her ribs, that saw all this hope and promise and love and shuddered in terror. What happened when he grew overwhelmed from her family and resented that they took up so much of her time? How would her heart, glowing with love, feel then?
Devastated.
Some of this must have shown on her face, for Orek reached to gather her in his lap.
“What is it?” he murmured.
“What if I’m not enough?” she whispered past numb lips. “What if I’m not worth keeping?”
At first, she thought the sound that exploded from him was another purr, but the rumble was too frenetic, the tone too aggressive. Her gaze snapped up to his to see a true frown on his face, eyes gone dark with frustration as hegrowledat her.
“You are wortheverything. Any change or sacrifice.” Clasping both her hands in one of his, he tipped her chin up with the other, forcing her to look at him when he said, “I should have told you long ago. Orcs sometimes feel the pull of a mate-bond to a chosen. If left to grow, orc-kin become beyond attached to their mate. It forges a bond inside, something unbreakable.”
Hope so sharp it bordered on pain clenched her throat. “And you…?”
“I’ve wanted you for my mate for a long time now. I thought if the bond went unfulfilled, I could give you up when the time came. But the longer I was with you, I came to understand I never could. By the time we got to the caves, I knew I was lost to you.”
He drew both her hands, still wrapped in his, to his chest to feel his heart thundering there. “You are my mate, Sorcha. The bond is there. I feel it as surely as I feel my heart beating.”
She swallowed on a dry throat, only managing to croak, “Humans don’t…”
“I’m not a human man. I may not be full orc-kin, either. But all of me is yours, Sorcha. I won’t leave you. Never.”
The words sank inside her, through her skin into her blood and bone. They settled like a tonic for pain, dulling and numbing all the worries and doubts that wanted her to push away anything that might hurt her, even something as glorious as Orek and a life with him. His words swept them away and finally, Sorcha breathed.
“I love you so much,” she rushed to say. “I have for a long time now, even if I didn’t know it.” She gripped his thick wrist, drawing his hand down to hold over her heart. “Humans may not have a mate-bond, but I feel you here.”
Deep lines carved across his face, almost as if he was pained, but Sorcha understood. The weight of what passed between them, the promise of what lay ahead, was as terrifying as it was wonderful.
She pressed a small kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Why didn’t you say?” she whispered, without reproach. Knowing about a mate-bond soothed more of her nervousness; she’d heard of other folk having such feelings, like dragons and manticores and fae. She’d never have thought it of orcs, but then again, she apparently didn’t know much about them at all.
I have so many more questions for him now.
She didn’t blame him for not saying. It was his truth to speak, when he felt the time was right.
“I didn’t want you to feel…forced,” was his answer.
“I don’t. Orek, I want to be bound to you. Iam. I’m yours.”
His face went slack with relief. “Then what are we arguing about?”
“We aren’t arguing. We…” Sorcha’s words trailed off at his arched brow, and her worries finally released the hold they had on her insides. She laughed with her own relief. “I don’t know. I’m being silly.”
“Not silly,” he said, kissing her hair. “If my mate wants assurance, then I’ll give it. As much as she needs.”
