A low rumble makes the water vibrate. “As in the bird.”
I nod, closing my eyes again, staying in the moment as I let the disaster of the world outside drift away.
“My Raven. My Selthe. My perfect little bird. I will protect you forever.”
ChapterEight
Mol
Light is breaking through the horizon as I lumber back toward my cabin. I took care of what was necessary as quickly as I could, my every thought back here with my mate. My little girl, my obsession.
I make a stop at my mother and sister’s, gathering the package I asked them to prepare when I set off early.
“I hope she likes them. She’s little, they are child sized.” Athaan smirks. “You look…” She squints, taking the last bite of meat off a rib bone then throwing it. It bounces off my chest as I tuck the bundle under my arm and growl. “Happy.That’s it!Is that your happy face, Mol?”
My mother smiles next to her. “That’s his mating face. I want ten babies.”
“Let’s make sure she can live through having one,” Athaan says.
“She will be fine,” my mother says as fear rakes through me. “Mol. She will be fine.”
“I have to go,” I grunt, spinning and heading toward the firepit where Oran and a few other males are setting logs and preparing a newly hunted deer.
I see their eyes dart toward my structure, then back to me. They busy themselves but I catch them looking past me toward my cabin again.
There, in the window, with the sun outlining her, is my mate. Watching me walk toward her, without a thread of clothing covering what’s mine.
A low growl rumbles from my chest. “You all want me to cut your eyes out with a rusty knife?”
They draw back, muttering, and I catch the wordtrouble, although who said it is a mystery even to me. It’s no idle threat, and they know it.
“I catch you looking at her like that again, brothers or not, we will have fuckingtrouble.”
I bare my teeth, then continue on to my structure, heading inside in a fury.
Red haze clouds my vision. “What are you doing?” I growl through gritted teeth. I block the window with my body, then grab a table and flip it over, jamming it against the clear glass, darkening the room.
“Waiting for you. You told me not to leave here without you but it’s been, like, twohours. I practically fell in the toilet and I have nothing to wear, so that’s on you, big man.”
“Big man?”
She winks, fluttering her lashes. “I mean, Daddy.”
“Uh huh. The brat is back.”
I reach down and pinch her nipple, making her chirp, then whack her ass, enjoying how it jiggles.
“Here.” I hand her the package, then catch the change in her scent.
She unwraps the cloth and pulls out the leather and fur female kilt and vest dappled with silver metalwork.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Youare beautiful,” I say, taking a long draw of the air from above her head. “But, you are also a terror for me. You saw those other orc males looking at you?”
She shrugs. “Sure, not my fault they were looking in the windows.”
“You will not do this again. No one is to see you like this but me.”