Page 86 of Reap the Night
“Stay back,” Ordell warned, his nostrils flaring. “Hemlock…”
A bolt of fear shot up my spine. The urge to run raced through my blood, but I held my ground. Because this was Ordell, still my Ordell. The beast hadn’t claimed him yet.
“You’re good,” Hemlock said. He grabbed shackles attached to chains and fit them to Ordell’s ankles. There were more fixed to the wall. For his wrists and…his neck? “It’s close to the full moon, that’s why…” Hemlock trailed off as runes flared blue on the shackles and Ordell’s breathing evened out. “You’re fine now. They’ll mute your beast and hold you.”
“How much did you hear?” Ordell asked me.
“Enough.”
“Well?” Hemlock said. “Will you do it? Will you give up your blessing to save my brother?”
“Shut up!” Ordell growled. “Orina, you don’t need to?—”
“I know.” I crossed the flagstones to stand before him, and his body rippled with tension.
“Don’t…” The word was a throb of pain. He inhaled. “Fuck, you smell so good.”
The pupil in his yellow eye dilated, drinking me in. I suppressed a shudder, lifting my chin so I could look at his face. I reached up and grazed first the gray half, covered in thick, coarse fur, then the unmarred half, where his beard sat soft and silken beneath my fingers.
His eyes drifted closed for a moment. “You should go. It’s harder to control it when you’re close.”
“He’s turning fast,” Hemlock said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, he’s?—”
“Dammit, Hemlock will you shut the fuck up,” Ordell snapped.
“I’m trying to help, asshole,” Hemlock shot back.
“If you want to help me, then get her out of here and keep her away.”
I stepped back, and his shoulders dropped.
He thought I was leaving, that I’d abandon him? No. Never. “I’m not going anywhere, Ordell. I swore an oath to protect the innocent, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re innocent. You didn’t ask for this. None of you did.” My throat ached for what I was about to lose, but if I lost Ordell by keeping my blessing, it would forever be tainted. “I won’t stand by and watch you be consumed. I won’t take the risk of losing you to this beast or to death. So I’ll do it. I’ll consummate the mate bond.”
Chapter 32
I’d wanted Ordell from the first moment I’d set eyes on him in his gray joggers. But that had been lust. Lust could be managed and handled, and I’d done that. Controlled my physical reaction to him easily. But somewhere along the line, emotions had intruded, and then he’d marked me, taking our connection to a new level. Honestly, keeping my distance had been one of the hardest things I’d done, and now…Now I was going to remove the one thing that was keeping us apart.
But that one thing had been my life for so long.
My purpose. My guide and my anchor.
Who would I be without it?
I shut down the thoughts because all they’d do was spawn doubt, and there was no room for doubt when it came to saving Ordell’s life.
“You don’t have to do this, Orina,” Ordell said.
“I know. But I want to.” My throat went dry as I raked him over, laid out on the stone floor while Hemlock checked the shackles. He was a feast for the eyes even with the beast having taken half his body, and maybe more because of it. He was larger, the muscles in his abdomen cobbled and ridged, hispectorals flat and taut. When he tugged on the chains to test them, his biceps bulged, and my pussy throbbed.
Hemlock stepped back, hands on hips. “He’s ready.”
“Fine. You can go.”
“Oh, I’m not leaving,” Hemlock said. “I need to be here to help subdue his beast when it rises once you two…finish.”
My face warmed. “I am not doing this with you in the room.”
Hemlock’s jaw ticked. “You think I want to be in here watching you two…” He took a breath, composing himself. “Look. I need to be close. I’ll stand over there with my back to you, okay?”
