Tears streamed down my face, hot and too powerful to resist.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, my voice choked, barely able to articulate the words. "Why did you let me believe I was just a stranger to you?"
Malek closed the distance between us until I could feel the heat radiating from his massive chest. He reached out and wiped away a tear with his rough thumb, a gesture so tender it hurt.
"You were afraid, krash’uk. Afraid of being discovered, of my people, and of what you have become," he explained. "You needed help to survive, not the weight of a past debt. I wanted you to see me for who I am now, not for who I was in that cage."
"Forgive me," I pleaded through sobs, hiding my face in the palm of his hand. "For leaving you in that place... for running away and abandoning you to your fate. I thought you had died."
"You didn’t abandon me," he said, and the absolute certainty in his tone unraveled me. Suddenly, he pulled one of his braids forward and took a red bead from it. Before my eyes, the object transformed into the very same ring I had given him. "You saved me, Fiona. If it hadn't been for this ring, my destiny would have been very different."
The breath left my lungs. The gold shimmered under the cabin’s light, a relic of Ceilte preserved in the heart of orc territory. In the background, Leone let out a muffled exclamation. He recognized the jewel.
"What does this mean?" he intervened. "Fiona? What’s he talking about?"
Before I could answer, Kroshak stepped forward with a solemn expression.
"The fates have bound you, Ruk’hai." He stared at me as if he were seeing beyond my physical form. "Fionnuala is one of us now. Which means that you, kir’shakur, are part of the kuturo."
Leone stood speechless at the elder’s declaration that he was now part of the Okshai family. Just like me, he would be protected.
With the shaman’s approval, we could finally take the next step.
Chapter 24
Malek
I watched Fiona from a distance, standing beside Drak. He was instructing her on how to use the longbow, carefully correcting her posture, mindful of how he touched her. Everyone there could smell my scent clinging to her skin, just as hers remained on me. It was more than enough to ward off any male who might think of getting too close.
Days ago, before our mating, Drak would have flirted with her, as he always did with all the single females in the village. Now, however, there was an invisible line drawn between them, and he knew exactly where not to step.
Fiona loosed the arrow, but it veered off course, vanishing into the forest instead of striking the target. A frustrated grunt escaped her lips, yet she didn't back down; she adjusted her posture and tried again. I admired her tenacity. Since she arrived here, she had pushed herself to fit in, no matter the cost.
She still didn't speak Okshakai perfectly, but she could already communicate with the other orcs and understand them better; her skill with the axe and her physical strength had also improved, though she would have to train hard to become an Okshai warrior, if that was indeed the path she wished to follow.
My heart beat faster as I remembered what she had told her brother: she wanted to stay with me.
She was the same princess who had helped me escape the dungeons of Ceilte. Everything I had done for her since then had been to pay that debt. I was the Ruk’hai; my decisions hadto be for the good of my people, not to satisfy an attraction to a kir’shakur. But the line between obligation and desire had become far too thin.
She was a perfect paradox: the daughter of my enemy, the female who had saved me… and now, my mate.
When her arrow finally struck the edge of the target, she let out a small, triumphant jump, flashing a bright grin at Drak before her eyes searched for mine. It felt as though the sun had suddenly broken through the clouds.
I had never wanted to mate. No female had ever sparked my interest, not in Oksha nor in any other clan. Many had tried to win me over, almost always drawn more to the title of krash’uk than to who I truly was. Yet none had earned more than a single night of pleasure when physical necessity spoke louder than anything else.
Orcs mated for life. Unlike Fiona’s people, we didn’t believe in a destined partner. We chose whom we wished to walk beside, and only after the blessing ritual did our souls intertwine, connected for eternity. It was a choice.
High Fae, on the other hand, bore a connection that transcended choice, reason, even time itself—a bond forged whole and unbreakable, from which there was no escape. I had no idea if such a person existed for Fiona. I didn't know if, by choosing to stay with me, she was surrendering that possibility. I didn't care, either. For the first time in nearly a century and a half of life, I had found someone who made my heart beat faster, and my blood run hot, the kind of feeling I had only ever known with an axe in my hands, standing on a battlefield.
I wanted her like I had never wanted anything in my life. It should have frightened me; after all, I had always prided myself on hiding every weakness, and Fiona was a massivetarget for anyone trying to strike at me. Even so, every time I saw her laugh with the others, train until her arms shook, or persist even when she failed, I felt an instinctive recognition that she belonged to me and I to her.
If she chose to leave one day, I would not stop her. Orcs didn’t cage what they loved. But as long as she stayed… As long as her footsteps echoed through Oksha and her scent wove itself into the very air of my home, I would fight for her as fiercely as I fought for anything that truly mattered to me.
A low growl pulled me from my thoughts. When I looked to the side, I found Kalisha watching the scene before us, her brow furrowed. My cousin had always carried a stern expression, even when we were children. Her gaze was glued on Fiona and Drak. I had long ago noticed the desire she harbored for my right hand, but Drak, much like myself, had never shown interest in forging a bond with anyone.
Our reasons, however, were very different. Drak enjoyed the company of many females; in fact, I suspected he had already bedded nearly every single female in the clan. Kalisha, for some reason, wasn’t part of that list of conquests.
"What’s it?" I finally asked.
