"Maybe."
He tosses his shirt—the one I'd been wearing—at me. "Get dressed before I forget about breakfast entirely."
I pull the shirt on, swimming in it, then wrap a fur around my shoulders. The cabin is warmer than yesterday, the fire burning steady and the storm's fury finally spent. Pale morning light filters through the shutters, casting a glow in the cabin.
Thane moves to the shelves, pulling down jars and a wrapped bundle. "I should have asked yesterday, are there foods you can't eat?"
"I'm not picky." I pad over to him, curious. "What do you usually eat?"
"Meat, mostly. Root vegetables that store well. Herbs." He unwraps the bundle to reveal dried meat and hard cheese. "We trade with humans sometimes, in the lowlands. We get flour, salt, things that don't grow up here."
"You trade? I thought you stayed hidden."
"We do. But there are some humans who know about us—who keep our secrets. They’re outcasts, too. The trade happens in neutral territory, no questions asked." He sets a cast iron pan over the fire.
I settle onto a stool, drawing my knees up under the shirt. "Tell me about your brothers."
He glances at me, a smile tugging at his mouth. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything. You said they have mates.Humanmates. How did that happen?"
He slices cheese and meat with economical movements, then adds them to the pan with a handful of something that looks like wild onions. The smell makes my stomach growl audibly.
"Kroy was first," he says. "When he found Kayla, she’d tread on a hornet’s nest and was trying—andfailing—to outrun the swarm. He rescued her and brought her back to his cabin. You’ll like her. She’s a writer, too.”
“I can’t wait to meet her,” I say, excited. "What about the others?"
"Drak met Jasmine in the woods. She’s a photographer and was trying to get the perfect shot of a fox when she stepped on loose rocks and slid down the mountain. She was injured, but Drak found her, took her home, and treated her injuries.”
So, one of the other orc wives is a writer and the other is a photographer. I like them already.
"Then Varn," he continues. "His mate Mazie actually came looking for us. She's a cryptozoologist with a popular podcast.” He says the wordpodcastlike it’s a foreign concept to him. And Irealize that it probably is. “She'd heard rumors about orcs in the mountains and came to investigate." He laughs. "Well, she found us.”
"And she stayed too?”
Thane nods. "Once the bond formed, none of them could imagine anything else. Mazie has found a way to stay in both worlds, at least a little, but it’s becoming harder and harder for her to stay away from Varn for any length of time. She feels incomplete when they’re apart." He dishes the food onto two wooden plates, hands me one. "It's always like that. The bond isn't a cage, Lila. It's a recognition. A certainty. Our mates are free to come and go as they please… but theywantto stay."
I take a bite and nearly moan. Whatever he cooked is savory and rich, the cheese melted and the meat tender. "This is amazing."
"It's just breakfast."
"It's the best breakfast I've had in months." I eat eagerly, suddenly ravenous.
We eat in comfortable silence for a while, the kind that feels intimate rather than awkward. I watch him over my plate, the way he eats with single-minded focus, the way his eyes keep drifting to me like he's checking that I'm still here.
"What are you thinking?" he asks.
"That I keep waiting to wake up," I admit. "To find out this was all a dream or a really elaborate hallucination. And if it is, I don't want to wake up."
He sets his plate aside and crosses to me, kneeling so we're eye-level. "This is real. I'm real. And you're mine." He takes my hand, presses it over his heart. "Feel that?"
His heartbeat is steady and strong under my palm. But more than that, I feel the bond—the warm golden thread connecting us. When I concentrate, I can sense his emotions.Protectiveness, satisfaction, and underneath it all, a fierce possessive tenderness that makes my breath catch.
"I feel it," I whisper.
"Good." He leans forward, resting his forehead against mine. "Because I need you to understand something, Lila. The bond goes both ways. I feel it just as strongly as you do.”
"I'm scared," I admit.
