I snort out a laugh, but Cavek’s grin only widens as he bounces our son.
“You think I am joking? You may think human boys are foul at that age, but a troll’s venom glands start to develop as their sexual organs mature. Our glands produce both the sweet toxins for our mating bite and the bitter toxins we use to envenomate. It often secretes unintentionally, sweet when aroused or bitter when angry, and it mixes with our saliva until we have to spit it out. Adolescent trolls spit it out wherever they happen to be. If it’s not cleaned up, it will reek after a short time,” he laughs.
“That. Is. Disgusting.”
“But you will not love him any less,” Cavek says playfully, turning my own words back on me. He settles onto the seat beside me and I immediately take the opportunity to lean into his side, relishing the comfort of being pressed up against him.
Cavek goes out later in the evening on his patrol through the villages assigned to him on his daily route. I know he prefers the night shift because it gives us the most time together during the day, and he knows that I will often wait up for him to return. The only downside is that I usually have to put the kids to bed by myself, and sometimes Boukie can be a real handful to put down. This evening, however, Serus came over to play with her, which has made the evening far easier for me to manage.
Serus shoves a sandwich I made out of dried fish and about the closest thing I can manage to mayonnaise into his mouth. It tastes a little off—but not too bad. Much to my amusement, the guys love it. I have to make no less than three sandwiches to keep up with one male troll’s appetite for a snack. As I watch Serus put away yet another sandwich, a thought occurs to me.
“Serus, how come I’ve never met your mate?”
He shrugs good-naturedly. “We have an agreement. We mated to keep our families happy, but we do our own thing. Sometimes she will feed me if I show up at the right time,” he says with a laugh. He must have noticed the look of horror on my face because he adds, “It works well for us. It got exhausting having Mother set up a parade of females every week as if it were entertainment arranged for market day. I would much rather spend my evenings playing with Boukie than going through that nonsense to look for a mate I may or may not find.”
His shrug is so pragmatic I decide to drop the subject. Cavek should be arriving home any minute, and then—sorry, Serus—I’m kicking his brother out. I prepare another three sandwiches for Cavek and set them on the table. Serus immediately reaches for them and I slap his hand. He shoots me a look of betrayal.
“You had yours, greedy. These are for Cavek.”
“Cavek gets to eat good every day. I am allowed to wither away unless I go to the palace or come here. If I ate these, he would never miss them,” Serus says pitifully.
I roll my eyes.
“You and I both know you’re not in any danger of starving. You eat more than any two grown human men, but I feed you anyway. You already ate. Now hands off.”
“Be off with you, Serus,” Cavek says cheerfully as he walks through the door. I didn’t even hear him approach. Even after all these months together, he still can sneak up on me. Trolls must be part ninja. Well, everyone except Serus. He lumbers like an orc. I look speculatively between the brothers.
“Cavek, are you sure you two are related and he isn’t a half-orc foundling?”
My mate winks and snatches up his plate in time to prevent his brother from pilfering his sandwiches. Undeterred, Serus laughs and throws himself against the back of his seat, stretching out his long legs. He scratches at his jawline.
“I am going to miss this,” he says with such feeling that I look at him puzzled. I don’t think he means he’s going to miss it while he takes his turn at the territorial perimeter patrol. Serus’s eyes flicker to Cavek.
“You haven’t told her yet?”
“Not yet,” Cavek says. He polishes off the first of his sandwiches with just two bites. “I just heard today before my patrol.”
“Told me what?” I ask anxiously, looking back and forth between them.
“Cavek here is being officially made Middling Way ambassador to the orc clan under Chieftain Orgath. He will return for a few weeks in the midsummer to celebrate the turn of the year and report to Father and allow you all to enjoy the festivities, but otherwise you will be living among the orcs. May the gods have mercy on you,” Serus teases.
My mouth dropping open, I turn to Cavek. “Really? We’ll be living near Sammi?”
Cavek nods and shoves the rest of another sandwich into his mouth before opening his arms to catch me as I leap on him. I wrap my arms and legs around him, dropping kiss after kiss all over his face. I feel his cock against my core and he captures my lips turning the kiss to something more intimate.
Serus chuckles and moves toward the door.
“I think your mate is happy, brother. I think I will leave now before she appreciates you a little too thoroughly and scars me for life.”
Cavek waves his brother away with one hand as he plunders my mouth, his tongue sliding upon mine. The door shuts firmly behind Serus. At that sound, both of Cavek’s hands drop from my waist to cup my ass as he begins to grind against me. I moan into his mouth.
“Are we going to make it into the bedroom?”
“Are the kids asleep?” he asks, doing a delicious swivel against me.
“Gods, yes.”
“Fuck the bedroom,” he grunts and flips me so I’m leaning over the table.
I push back against him eagerly, rubbing against his cock pushing out of his breeches as he fumbles with the hem of my dress. Once he has ahold of it, he shoves it up over my hips, baring my ass and pussy to him. Without hesitating, he falls to his knees and licks me from clit to ass with sweeping strokes of his tongue. I choke on a strangled cry of desire.
His mouth moves over me with the expertise bred of familiarity with my body, pulling moans from me with every long lick and teasing nibble. His lips gently tug on my folds that are swollen with desire. He pauses every now and then to plunge his tongue deep within me, drinking from me like a male dying of hunger and thirst. And my mate is ravenous. My back arches as an orgasm rips through me, fireworks popping in my blood as fresh heat floods my pussy. Cavek growls against my flesh and laps it up greedily until nothing remains. Only then does he finally pull back and look at me. I see little more than the glow of his eyes in the rapidly dimming light.
He breathes a word that snaps with power and small lights leap up on their sconces along the walls. The only thing that doesn’t light is the hearth, and I thank the gods for that because as summer solstice nears it’s only getting hotter and more humid.
I lay my head back against the table and tilt my hips as I feel his cock nudge my slick folds. I’m more than ready for him. The two small knobs of his piercing and the pebbly texture of his skin brush against my sensitive skin as he slowly sinks into me. After days apart my body resists ever so slightly, but it makes the burn all the more exquisite. We moan together when he bottoms out in me. To my surprise, he doesn’t move. Instead, he leans forward and rests his head against my shoulder, his breathing ragged.
“I don’t think I am going to last long,” he grits out apologetically.
“Then you’d better fuck me hard and quick,” I reply, swallowing back a moan as his cock twitches deep inside of me.
Cavek snarls and latches onto my throat with his teeth. The sensation is almost familiar to the night we mated, except he doesn’t break skin. He only restrains me. His hands grip my shoulders and I feel his shaft withdraw from my body. The wet squelching of my pussy is loud as my body attempts to keep him deep within me. He pulls out to the tip and I whimper before he rams himself home again. My knees bump into the table as my body lurches forward, but I’m kept in place with his unbreakable hold.
In and out he shuttles, my pussy wetter with every brutal thrust, my breasts swinging until he lets go of my shoulders to cup them with his large hands. His fingers pull and pluck on my nipples, teasing my nerve e
ndings. I feel each tug in the very core of me, tightening until it spills over into an orgasm. But that’s not enough for him.
Cavek releases one breast and allows his hand to slide down, dipping over my stomach until he reaches the apex of my thighs. On his next forward lunge, he wedges his hand between my legs to cup my mons. One finger carefully slips over my clit, rubbing it relentlessly as he rides me. I feel the world go out of focus. A tremor sweeps through me like riding the highest crest of a wave as I feel him swell within me. Then everything inside me shatters and my pussy squeezes him as he pulsates and drenches my insides with his copious seed.
We collapse together on the table until I shove him off me so I can breathe. He mutters an apology and pulls me over his chest, our hearts both beating out a rapid tempo. Everything gradually comes back into focus. I’m pretty sure he just fucked me cross-eyed for a moment there.
I wince and sit up slowly.
“Okay, maybe fucking on the table—as sexy and spontaneous as that sounds—was a really bad idea,” I groan.
Cavek stretches his back and climbs off the table to fetch a damp rag, which he sweeps between my legs and down my thighs before wetting it again to clean his cock.
That’s one thing I can really brag about: my mate keeps his shit clean. No nasty mystery smells coming from there and very little ball sweat odor unless he’s been laboriously working on something. While I imagine drying semen isn’t comfortable, I know it’s really a courtesy to me, one that I greatly appreciate.
After ogling him for several minutes and admiring that nice male part that just turned my world upside-down, I wrangled my brain long enough to form intelligible conversation.
“We’re really going to the orc village?”
His lips curve and he nods.
“Father knows that diplomacy is where my interest lies. I’m not like my brothers, who happily look for an opportunity to fight and find patrolling to be fulfilling work. Not that I don’t enjoy beating on someone every now and again. Don’t get me wrong. I am a troll, after all,” he says with a disdainful snort. “But I want more than that, and I think that the Middling Way needs ambassadors. I’ve been advocating for it for years. Father agrees now that he’s seen the true strength of allies.”
I bound up in excitement.
“This is fantastic! I can’t wait to tell Sammi. Wait... when are we leaving? Will she even have time to receive a letter?”
Cavek chuckles. “We still have a few weeks left. We won’t be departing until after the High Sun Festival. Plenty of time to ready our family for moving and enjoy the festivities of the season here.”
I drape my arms over his shoulders and feel the silly grin as it spreads on my face.
“Still going to take me to the lotus pond for the pixie orgy?”
His smile widens with a touch of mischief. “Pixie-dust-induced sex? We can’t miss that.”
I giggle and hug him close to me. I can’t believe it. I have my family and soon I will be together with Sammi again. Things can’t get any better than that.
Chapter 22
Kate
The High Sun Festival is beyond anything I would have imagined. The entire clearing is lit by pixies flitting through the air. But what’s truly captivating are the performers who are everywhere.
Boukie has Cavek and I each by the hand, dragging us through the small market area. She jumps back as a fire-breather blows fire out of his throat just feet away from us without a torch. Troll magic is subtle, and they seem to use a lot of it for amusement. Boukie giggles and claps her hands.
I smile and lean to the side to whisper to Cavek. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I’ve seen these last few months, including on the battlefield, most examples of troll magic either involve subterfuge or entertainment rather than anything... uh... big.”
Cavek snickers, his sexy lopsided smile baring his fangs. “That is an accurate—if not simplistic—summation of troll magic. Some more industrious among us will study the more powerful spells, but most don’t have the patience or interest to go through all that. Father learned just enough magic to seduce Mother, but she is one of the most powerful trolls in Ov’Gorg.”
I raise my eyebrows. “What magic did your father learn to win your mother?”
He smirks and adjusts the baby sling draping across his chest.
“He gave Mother a flower bud brought from the gardens of the dryads. It was her favorite flower and very difficult to get. He set this dried bud in Mother’s hand and made it bloom right there. He said that was the only bit of magic that he ever found worth the trouble of learning since she agreed to mate him that night.”
I rest my head against Cavek’s arm.
“You know, that’s actually really romantic.”
Cavek tilts his head thoughtfully. “That’s what Mother says whenever she tells the story. Speaking of—there she is.”
I look over and to my not-surprise she’s introducing a young troll, of a forest green hue, to an apple-faced female who gleams a lovely shade of jade. Ah, Madi. Although she’s not fully back to her old self as far as I can tell, she seems in good spirits doing what she loves to do: interfere in people’s love lives. I choke back a laugh as a mischievous smile spreads across her face and she “accidentally” shoves the bashful youth into the female.
They flail and fall over as Madi feigns horror. She apologizes but the experienced individual can see the gleam in her eye that belies her words. The male jumps to his feet and in a rushed apology helps his love interest back up out of the dirt. The dismay at her festival dress being ruined is fleeting, and she smiles at his efforts to dust her off and win her over with a cool treat. Madi looks nothing less than smug as they wander off arm-in-arm.
Cavek makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat.
“Now that Mother has run out of children to play matchmaker to, she’s set herself loose over the rest of the populace. How horrifying.”
“I think it’s cute,” I say, shoving a bit of spun sugar—that’s similar to cotton candy but even better somehow—into Cavek’s mouth to silence him. He grins around the confection and licks it off his lips in such an intentional way my belly heats.
“Behave,” I whisper, swatting at him.
My eyes track Boukie as she wanders over to a low stage surrounded by trollbies and children of various species attending the festival. There are even a few orc children mingled among them, since Orgath and Sammi have come with a number of orcs in a show of friendship. The children fall silent as a number of tiny magic flames spring out around the perimeter of the stage.
An elderly troll walks out onto this stage. He’s possibly the oldest troll I have seen yet. His dark green skin is creased with wrinkles, and his lavender hair has gone completely white and hangs down in a tangled mass. When he speaks, though, his voice is a deep baritone with only the slightest rasp to betray his age. As he spins his stories, he weaves simple illusions with his magic to accentuate his tale. He’s so captivating that even adults stop to watch. This goes on for well over an hour, one tale slipping into another until the elder bows and retreats from the stage.
Boukie comes running up, her face radiant. She’s holding hands with the boy from the palace. The small male appears to be completely smitten with Boukie, willingly allowing her to pull him around to whatever destination she spontaneously sets her heart on. He appears to be two or three years older than her, but that doesn’t concern me. He obviously dotes on her. Rather, I worry for him. Boukie can be a beast at times. No doubt he is aware of that fact and is still looking at her like she’s the best thing since sliced bread. I’m glad she has a devoted friend like that.
Cavek examines him, the corners of his lips quirking despite the fierce glower he attempts to adopt. Although he isn’t Boukie’s biological father, though I have no doubt that the man who gave her life would approve of Cavek, he plays the overprotective daddy role very well.
“Who is this?” he grumbles.
“Dad
dy, you know who he is,” she giggles. “Uncle Serus told you. He’s my friend Bafulk.”
“Boukie, even if he knows, it’s still polite to introduce him,” I remind her gently. Boukie is slow to grasp manners, but that’s normal for kids her age back in the human realm. “Now try again.”
Boukie lets out a put-upon sigh and whispers, “This is stupid,” but plasters an eager to please smile on her face when I narrow my eyes at her. Seven years old is too young for an attitude like that. I dread puberty if she’s already getting this mouthy. What ever happened to my sweet little girl?
“Daddy and Mommy, this is my friend, Bafulk.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Bafulk” I say kindly. Cavek is silent beside me, obviously still sizing up the male. I nudge him with my elbow, which my mate doesn’t even acknowledge. To my surprise, the child bows so far that he nearly prostrates himself.
“Forgive me. I didn’t protect Boukie and she was almost hurt. As her friend and a male, I failed.”
I blink at the rather formal speech coming from a child. Cavek, however, appears unmoved as he frowns down at the trollbie. His critical gaze sweeps over him and the youth almost appears to wilt.
“Cavek,” I hiss. “Be nice to her friend.”
My mate mumbles something unintelligible under his breath, but he smiles and inclines his head in polite greeting.
“No harm done, Bafulk. You attempted to intercede to the best of your abilities. You showed bravery despite the odds. You are proven and your name is noted.”
The boy relaxes noticeably and puffs out his chest with pride. He smiles with such pleasure one would think he’d done something pretty grand. The two of them scamper off while I’m still busy trying to work out just what exactly happened here.
“Okay, what did I miss?”
“Nothing aside from the fact that you rushed me through one of the pivotal moments of that trollbie’s life,” Cavek complains half-heartedly.
“You’re going to have to break that down for me, because I don’t see how I did any such thing. That boy was clearly terrified of you.”
The Troll Bride Page 16
