“Why are you here?”
He pulled her head back, reveling in the small gasp that escaped her lips. He hadn’t missed the darkness in her eyes, overshadowing the nerves. Nerves, not fear. Nor had he missed the fact that she’d gotten turned on by a little rough loving up against the tree the day they’d arrived in camp.
Suddenly it was important that she hadn’t been forced into this. That she hadn’t been forced to become one of the claimed and that she’d come back to him willingly. But she was human, not faery. Their debts were not her debts. And… she’d warned them, warned him about the faery bomb.
She was compliant in his hold, her nearly naked body pressed against his. All he had to do was tear his loincloth open, sweep the flimsy fabric aside and he could be inside her in a heartbeat.
“For gods’ sake, Karak. Claim her if you’re going to or stand aside and let someone else have her.”
Batak’s voice brought him crashing to reality. It didn’t matter what she wanted now. She’d come to them in the white shift of the claimed, which meant she wasn’t getting away. She would be owned, body and soul, by an orcish warrior before nightfall. That warrior would be him, whether she wanted it or not.
He wouldn’t let anyone else have her.
“Please, don’t let them.” Her voice trembled as she whispered. “I came back for you, just you.”
She wanted him.
She’d come back as a claimed… for him.
Elation exploded through him as he dropped his head and claimed her lips. Not soft or gentle, he took her lips like the conqueror he was, parting them with a rough sweep of his tongue and delving between them for the honeyed sweetness he knew lay beyond.
Legs tangled in hers, he pulled her footing from under her and rode her to the ground, careful to ensure her safety in the cradle of his arms. He kissed her as if she was the last female in existence, smothering her gasp under his lips. For him, she was the last female in the world. She was all he wanted, all he’d ever wanted. He just hadn’t realized that until now.
“I’m sorry, little one,” he said between kisses as he lifted up and freed himself. His cock sprang from confinement, ready and eager. “I have to do this. I’ve got to claim you. Here. Now. So they all know you’re mine. You’ll never be safe otherwise.”
He parted from her luscious lips long enough to look in her eyes. The look of trust and something else, something deeper, was more than he’d ever thought he’d see in a woman’s eyes and it nearly unmanned him. She nodded, her teeth white as she bit into her lower lip.
“Hold on to me.”
He kissed her again, shoving the claiming shift to the side and wrapping her pale-skinned legs around his hips. The crowd behind them cheered as he dipped his hips and drove forward. His cock found her entrance easily, her feminine channel yielding as he slid into her, a long, slick ride of sheer sensation until his balls slapped against her.
They both groaned, chest to chest, gazes locked. He’d sworn to himself to make it quick and get her out of there as soon as possible, away from lascivious gazes only interested in using their coupling to fuel their own solo efforts. But he couldn’t. As soon as her tight sheath closed around him, he froze in place, the feeling of coming home absolute.
“Oh fuck this. I don’t want to watch his ass flashing away and not see any of the good stuff. Get on with the rest.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Batak’s complaints behind them were ignored as they stared into each other’s eyes. The attention of the crowd drifted away, a roar of approval telling him that another of the claimed had been chosen.
Karak didn’t care. All that mattered was he had Kelly back in his arms, her delectable body wrapped around his while his cock found its home in her tight sheath. A home he’d return to time and time again, until her belly swelled with his seed and bound her tighter to him than any voyeuristic claiming ceremony.
He knew she’d be a good mother, fiercely protective and loyal to her young. He’d never had that. He’d never known his own mother. Her absence had left him to his father and a warrior’s upbringing of hard lessons and harder blows for the smallest infraction. He’d never had a mother’s love, but he wanted it for his offspring. He wanted a family.
Her nostrils flared slightly, eyes darkening at his slight movement deep in her pussy. She used her nails to rake lightly along his arms, her eyes alight with amusement. “I thought this was a claiming, orc scum… or do I have to go parade myself half naked again to get a good fucking?”
“Mine,” he growled, a deep sound of warning from the depths of his soul, and started to move, pulling out of her almost all the way and slamming back in. They both groaned. “You want a fucking, you’ll get one.”
Fuck her he did, calling magic to shield everything but the bare minimum from anyone more interested in them than the claiming still going on. The scent of magic and sex swirled around them as he forgot about finesse or making it last and just took her as his heart and body demanded.
“Why did you come back? Admit it,” he panted between heavy thrusts as she moaned and writhed beneath him. She’d put herself in danger coming back here. Had run the risk of being claimed by another orcish warrior. If that had happened, he would have ripped the male limb from limb in front of her. Feral rage rose up at the thought of another man touching her.
“I came back for you. To save your ungrateful, green ass.”
She shot him a defiant glare and rolled her hips against his. His balls pulled tight and he bit back a groan. Smart-mouthed wench. He’d teach her a better use for that sharp tongue later.
“Not good enough. Admit it… the truth.”
Each word was punctuated by another heavy thrust as he speared her with his cock, slamming into her and fucking her so thoroughly that she’d never look at another guy.
The first spasms of her climax rippled through her body, her cunt clamping down on his cock with an almost punishing grip that tempted him to join her as she went over the edge.
Gritting his teeth, he spread her thighs and drove deeper. He needed to hear it, needed to hear the words.
“Oh gods, I’m coming.”
“Admit it.”
She gasped as her back arched, her eyes wide and unseeing.
“I love you!”
Her climax ripped through her slender body with the force of a storm. Her body tightened around his, the feeling and her admission too much for him. With a roar, Karak released the rigid control on his own body.
Three heavy thrusts later, he followed her into bliss with a roar. White hot pleasure exploded through his body as he pulled her closer, his hips still pumping as he turned onto his back. He nestled her against his chest, his hand sliding up into her hair as he placed a gentle kiss against her temple.
“I love you too, my beautiful little human.”
He was out there. Somewhere, out there in the darkness of the woods, he lay in hiding waiting for her to make a mistake and reveal her position. Kelly’s heart pounded in her chest, a rapid tattoo as her breath rasped in her ears, the sound all but deafening her. Adrenaline and anticipation rolled through her veins as she slid from the cover of the shadows and stepped out onto the narrow path.