Blessing moons? That made no sense to her.
Corrin was accustomed to daily physical exercise, but the travel wore on her. It was another day and night before they entered the Orki homeland territories. Urku-ri told her where they were, but she squinted in brief acknowledgment before closing her eyes again. She vaguely noted when they stopped moving. When she woke, head throbbing with exhaustion and a need to pee, they were alone in a dark, roomy structure. Urku-ri carried her down into a deep bowl-shaped impression in the floor, filled with furs and wool blankets, settling her on top of his body, they both slept.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHERE DID HE SAY HE CAME FROM?
Fur in her face, pressure on her belly, and too much heat woke Corrin. She opened her eyes to a room lit with torches, the flaming things burning yellow. She thought she was tangled up with Searnon, but there were three other wolfish heads, with mouths full of sharp teeth, and long silky pointed ears. Smaller than Searnon, with softer neck ruffs, the three war beasts turned yellow eyes on her, all growling at once. Talking.
Urku-ri wasn't with them, not that he'd fit in this bowl full of hairy animals and one very naked woman. "You know I can't understand you, don't you?" she asked.
"And I don't know who you belong to, or why all of you are here. Oh, please stop. I can bathe myself, thank you." She pushed at the paw over her waist, and the head twisted to lick at her.
"Corrin is awake," Urku-ri said.
She looked up. Way up. When she scrambled over bodies, standing, Corrin realized that the Orki bed sat deep into the floor, instead of on top of it, carved out of stone. The lip of it was just below her chest. No wonder Urku-ri referred to the bed as a nest. This looked and felt like a nest.
Her heart sped up in her chest at the first clear-eyed sight of him she'd had in days. She'd been too tired to take him in and before that, too afraid and angry. Now that she no longer feared he'd rape her or hurt her, she saw how splendidly he was put together. All his parts, not just the fevered impressions of him. Dark gray, almost black skin wrapped over glorious bulges, curves, and ripples of pronounced carved muscle. More muscles than any village blacksmith. Taller and stronger than any man, no part of his body showed want or weakness. He took her breath away. Saliva pooled in her mouth, and readiness dampened her core. His pale blue eyes gleamed, too aware when she met his gaze. She saw his nostrils flare. Could he smell her? Did he scent her? Jerking her gaze away, she looked at his boot covered feet.
"I'm awake. Where are we? Where is my blanket? My boots?"
Urku-ri returned her inspection with one of his own, a focused, hungry expression upon his face as he watched her breasts bounce when she was jostled by the war beasts.
"Corrin has not bathed yet," he said. The idea delighting him. He had on a loin covering, but it looked lighter and thinner than the one he had been wearing while traveling. A tight wide belt spanned his waist at the low part, just at the top of the v-shaped ridge of muscles of his lower abdomen. The long panels hung below his knees, but split at the hips all the way to the belt, revealing the skin of his thick thighs. The tanned, light-weight leather-tenting in her direction–revealed all his thoughts.
Pulling her hair over her chest and crossing her arms over her parts, Corrin asked again, "Where are we?"
"Inkur nor ko odur orki–Urku ok," he said slow and clear.
"And that means?"
"Home. You are home. Corrin in her nest, with nest mates. That," he pointed, "is Durrit, Searnon's mate. The kits Pallnon and Poll, from Searnon's last birth. I let Corrin sleep, but Durrit is an indulgent sire, and Durrit wanted to meet Urku-ri's redress also."
Urku-ri said something to the one called Durrit, who answered back, black lips rippling.
"And my blanket?"
"Is Corrin cold?"
The room was warm. Laying in the pit with the war beasts made it warmer still. She was damp with perspiration. She glared at him. It had been days since she'd been properly dressed. Her chest hurt from more than his attention there. She was used to the support of her structured clothing. "I'd like a covering. You promised me clothing." The blanket had not been clothing, but it had allowed her some pretense at civilized modesty. Naked, surrounded by oversized creatures, Corrin felt small and childlike. She didn't like it.
Urku-ri bent, holding out his hand. "Come, Corrin has needs."
He had different ideas about her needs than she did.
She couldn't decipher what sort of structure they were in. It felt cave-like, but not a natural cave. The walls were shaped, curving evenly into the ceiling, over a marble smooth, glass-like floor. A series of trunks lined one wall, clamped shut, not the wood, leather, and iron kind merchants used in the village, but the light-weight black kind tourists from the steel cities used when traveling long distances. He opened one.
Inside were clothes and fabric. All kinds. Some like the familiar style from the village, fine linen tops with gathered sleeves, long skirts, woolen stockings, and some were strange, glittery and sheer, with straps and cups and purpose she could only guess at. Women's city clothes. She didn't ask where he got them, was happy with the idea of covering herself. While she leaned over the trunks, the male stood close behind her, his head above her own, the thing from beneath his waist covering, poking at her. "Corrin need dress? Want clothing now?" he asked playfully, while his hands moved from her hips, one open over her belly, the other cupping a breast.
His hands were so big. Powerful. Gentle. The rasp of his hot, dry skin against hers created ripples of sensation. Now that she knew what pleasure she could have with him, he was difficult to resist. "Corrin glows. Skin so soft, warm. Wants touching.
Tasting. Urku-ri taste Corrin."
She pushed him away, wanting to be irritated, but a silly giggle escaped instead. "Do you have a girdle, something like that wide belt of mine you ruined?" She swung her hips away from him but could only escape as he allowed.
He stood too close, then he wasn't standing at all, crowding close on his knees. Because he was so ridiculously tall and wide, even kneeling, he dwarfed her. His hot mouth was on her skin, the place where he had bitten her during sex, sucking at it while one hand cupped her breast, teasing her already peaked nipples. Each suck and lick on her shoulder had its answer in her womb with a pulse of want. The other hand tucked between her legs and opened high on her left leg, fingers brushing against her pubic hair, the parted lips of her slit; teasing her. He purred at first, but it roughened to a growl and she moaned, body responding, yielding, and leaking slick.
Clothes forgotten.
