Page 17 of Orn and the Real Girl
“Orn, can you come here?” she called from the western edge of the ruined hamlet.
She was squatting beside a lump in the snow, a heavy frown marring her beautiful face. I lowered myself beside her, going still when I realized that the strange odor was much strongerhere. And the snow was too thin; the rest of the area was heavily blanketed, but this patch was covered in barely more than a dusting. Sara used a rag to brush away more snow from the lump, revealing a dead rabbit.
It had not been a clean kill, the suffering of the creature plain even in death. Bits and pieces of the poor thing were scattered around it, gradually revealed by Sara’s careful brushing with the rag, and after a moment I realized there was a pattern to the way the offal was scattered. I swallowed bile.
This had been intentional.
“Vitrin’s mercy, whatisthis?” I asked, an irrepressible growl rumbling under my words.
I hadn’t expected an answer, but Sara gave one anyway. “Looks a bit like blood magic, but more…gods, it’s like it’sunnatural, somehow. There’s this—thistasteto it that makes me sick.”
Lead settled in my gut, the hairs on the back of my neck rising. “There’s a strange scent here, too. I’ve never encountered it before, but it is somewhat like how you’re describing. It should be natural, but it’s not.”
Sara pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. “Bloody gods, whathappenedhere?”
I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Whatever it was, we are on our way to undo it. The scent of blood is weak, scattered. This is the strongest the scent is in the whole of the hamlet.”
Sara leaned into my touch, covering my hand with one of hers. “So they were at least alive when they were taken from here,” she croaked. Her big brown eyes slid closed, several deep breaths fogging in the chill air. When she opened her eyes again they were glazed with tears, but burning with fury, with determination.
I could not have possibly loved her any more than I did in that moment, seeing her beauty tempered in fire and wrath. My cock stirred in my pants, but the abuse I’d delivered yesterday made the feeling too aching to want to do anything about it except make it go away.
I stood, holding my hand out for my mate. She took it, and came easily to her feet. “Is there enough of a trail for you to follow?” she asked.
I nodded, scenting the laden air carefully. “Aye. But it’s fading fast, love. We’ll need to move quickly. Are you tired?”
“No.” She bit her lip, huffing in frustration. “A little,” she admitted, clearly unhappy about it. “Mostly my legs are stiff and sore.”
I clucked my tongue sadly. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
One brow arched, a saucy smile curving her lips out of their frown. “You should be; it’s allyourfault.”
I laughed, grabbing her chin and bending to kiss her. Sweetness burst on my tongue, her scent wrapping around me from our closeness. She melted into me, her arms looping around my neck and pulling us still closer together.
Perhaps my cock was not so reluctant to perform, after all.
“Strap me in, big guy,” she murmured against my lips, her pink tongue darting out to lick up one of my tusks. Despite the fact that it had no nerves, I shivered. “We’ve got to move fast, remember?”
I grunted, too much blood pooled in my groin to string together a sentence. I let go of her long enough to retrieve the wraps that held her to my body, hefting her into place and tying her down quickly. I hauled our pack onto my back, and then we were off, the rank scent of whatever had come here my guide.
“If you stay with me…” I said at length, ducking my head to take a deep breath of her scent, my nose planted in the bend of her neck for long moments. The foul smell I was following wasturning my stomach and giving me a headache, and Sara was the sweetest reprieve from it.
“Yes?” she asked, a little breathless. I grinned, nipping her delicate skin gently.
“You’ll have to get to used to being carried like this,” I continued, straightening with an appreciative smack to her round ass. “I like it too well to give it up.”
She laughed, looking up at me with a soft affection that took my breath away.
“I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with it, then.”
I could have flown, in that moment. There was no way Sara would ever be rid of me, not anymore. If her affections changed, I would respect them…but I would not be able to leave her, even if it meant I followed her from the shadows like a lapdog. She was everything.
She was my mate.
SARA
THE SUNwas swollen with color and nearing the horizon by the time we finally found the bastards who’d taken my coven. There was only one tent with two figures standing near a nearby cave’s entrance, both people so heaped with furs it was impossible to tell much about them.
“Only two?” I whispered, my eyes darting to Orn’s sharp profile. His jaw was tense, knotted muscles jumping under his deep olive skin. His nostrils flared, taking in the breeze that stirred the thick black strands of hair that had escaped his braid.
