Page 33 of Finding Her Luck
Working together, the Orki pulled them from the hole. "Corrin. My Corrin." Urku-ri was speaking, his whole body rumbling and shaking. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, buried her face in his neck, and tried to sink inside his frame. He had come for her.
Someone had come for her. People left her. Forgot her. Died on her. They did not come for her.
He was not people. He was Urku-ri, the Orki, what he had claimed he would keep.
CHAPTER TEN
FINDING HER LUCK
The hunting parties were to split again. One half stayed behind to fill the holes and collapse the tunnels the hungries had made. Corrin wondered why they had waited with them at the camp and now would stay behind. Did the other Orki hunting party live here? Or were they here in advance, because Orki knew the danger the green men would cause? She wanted to ask. But she also wanted a bath, and a cozy place to sleep like the nest they had in the tree camp.
"No back. No stop to wash here. Ride now, day, night until day. Time lost. Need home. Homeland soon." Urku-ri told her.
"Are the other's okay? The other women from the village?" She asked belatedly, once the saddle was fixed and she was snuggled into Urku-ri's lap, leaving the carnage of the battlefield behind. She yawned and felt a frown cross her face as she shifted. Ouch. Big ouch. Already tired from her willing activities with Urku-ri in the tree camp, trying to stay astride Searnon, being pulled into the pit, having her hair pulled, scratched and raw everywhere, her body was one big throbbing sore.
"Corrin mind self."
She groaned. Not that again. "I just want to know if they are okay."
"Insult toNi-orki-ror-ess. Doku-Ni care for redress. LuthNi care for young redress. Huk-Ni and Tol-Ni and the brothers all care for succor. Corrin see Urku-ri. Corrin see nestmate.
Not see other Orki."
"I'm concerned. It's how people treat each other. They help each other."
He snorted. "Like village? Like city men?"
That wasn't very nice to bring up. And she didn't know how to explain it. "Urku-ri fight with Orki brothers. You fight with them. They brought food for us when…" She hid her face against his chest, remembering the circumstances. "When we couldn't leave the nest. They hunted and shared their meat."
"Yes. Good Orki."
"I just want to help the other women," she said.
"How help? Bring food? Bring water? Hunt? War? Guide?"
"Comfort, friendship."
"Not for Corrin. Corrin is notni-orki-ror-ess."
Searnon sighed from beneath them, a big expanding heave, listening in. Corrin wondered if the war beast was feeling exasperated by the conversation. Searnon was always there. But for all her intelligence, she was still very much an animal.
Corrin let it go. Urku-ri gave her an excuse. The other village women were being taken care of by Orki, and if those Orki needed help, they would ask for it. She was too tired to argue, to understand, to ask the hundreds of questions she wanted to ask. That she should ask. Instead, she gave herself up to Urku-ri's support and let herself sleep.
Corrin woke when they stopped. What had been sore before was now a determined, outright pain. She felt the protest of every muscle and tendon in her thighs and arms. Urku-ri lifted her off Searnon, then in the cradle of his arms, helped her stand, and purred for her. As usual, he picked her up and put her where he wanted her. She found herself being washed, a cloth with warm water running over all her curves, cleaning off the filth earned in her fight with the hungries. Since she'd rather be sleeping, she tried to push him away.
With a light tap on her bottom, he reminded her why she needed to endure the bath. She smelled lavender before she felt the ointment against her skin. Cold, then hot. How did he just know where to put it? How to rub it in causing that terrible pain to transform into good pain? He got down on his knees and nuzzled his face against hers, murmuring in Orki. He told her she was strong, that soon she would build her own nest with furs he had gathered for her, that she would have all the sleep and food she wanted.
Even aching and sleepy, her heart flooded with a gushing softness now, suspiciously like adoration, every time she looked at him. Corrin pressed her face into the soft leather of his skin, wanting to hide from the feeling.
The next thing she knew, her body was in the air, and his mouth was on hers. He nipped her bottom lip, wanting access, his tongue sweeping in to steal a taste, to rob her of her sanity.
"Corrin sees Urku-ri," he said on a breath. "Urku-ri sees Corrin."
He kissed her mouth, chin, jaw, and neck, and back to her mouth again. Tender and fierce. The way she'd always hoped to be kissed.
Until bossy Searnon chuffed and he set her down. Standing next to him, her face just above the corded muscles of his stomach, his gigantic form towering over hers, Corrin's feelings filled her up. She wanted to run. To hide. To talk to Nanny.
"Corrin, we go. Need waste?" he asked, and she almost burst into tears. Her whole-body fatigue was making her silly, but it seemed so caring that he would check with what she might need before they mounted Searnon again.
