The Toll (73 page)

“
Talkin’,” Troll barked
distractedly, gaining his feet.

Running his tongue along the inside of
his cheeks, Quaz couldn’t hide that smirk. “Nothin’, ye say?
Talkin’, eh?” Grunting, he scratched at his chin. “Would Ketik be
wantin’ ye ‘talkin’ an’ doin’ ‘nothin’ in his cave, ye
think?”

“
This is Ketik’s cave?” The
squeak my voice came out at was completely uncharacteristic. Eyes
darting around, I was glad he’d stopped me, shuddering at the
thought.

Ketik was a spiteful sort, and while I
wasn’t afraid to challenge him openly when the situation warranted,
I wasn’t about to start an all-out war with the easily hostile
male. Territorial and beyond possessive, you don’t mess with an
Ornthren’s claim. This cave, as it turns out, was Ketik’s bit of
space.

The sudden and undeniable need to flee
flooded me. I had no urge to linger.

Taking a step towards the entryway and
Quaz, Troll’s hand snatched out and yanked the back of my shirt,
sending me careening into him, smacking soundly against his wide
chest.

“
Oomph! Troll! What are
you-”

“
Hush,” he grumbled,
sliding a hand over my belly to keep me there, thinking he could
just shut me up with a bark and a tug.

“
Oh! Why I-”

Nipping my ear hard enough to make me
jump, he muttered low, “Dinna make me say it twice, love.”
Straightening back up, he kept his hand firmly planted against my
belly, while I fumed silently, wishing for a rusty spoon or a heavy
club right about now.

Ignoring the anger emanating from me,
steaming from my pores, he glanced at Quaz. “So, ye be watchin’
him, get him another one. Why ye need ta come snitchin’? Probably
likes the taste of it, an’ the feel against his gums. What, was it
yer favorite one, eh? Canna sleep wit’ out it?”

“
Yer woman dinna like it
when we handle things. Thinks we be too rough.”

Arms folding over my chest
obstinately, I frowned up at the pair. “That’s because you are, all
of you.”

Troll, ignoring me, tossed his head to
his brother. “Just give the wee beastie the spoon, he’ll
keep.”

“
What?” I sputtered. “But
he’ll just eat that one too!” Ready to march right past them both
in search of our child, and an alternate object for him to teethe
on, Troll’s hand shooting out to grip my arm kept me firmly in
place.

“
Not so fast, Nugget. Aint
done wit’ ye yet.”

“
Oh,” I muttered, eyes
flashing, “I think we are.”

Plucking me up off of my feet, arms
banding around me as he nuzzled my neck, he nipped my ear and
growled, ignoring my ire, fingers tightening. “Tempt me, woman,
tease me an’ leave me like this.” Troll pressed his erection firmly
into my backside to make his point. “Run from me, bonded, I dare
ye. See what happens.”

There was that fire and grit I’d been
trying to draw out of him, but the audience we’d gathered wasn’t
conducive to showing how much I appreciated the bulge in my
backside, or the sexy growl rattling his chest.

“
Gave the beast something
harder ta tear inta, already broke another spoon.” Ketik shoved his
head around the corner, Calder tucked into his side, chewing away
on a thick piece of folded, tanned, green skinned hide. “Hey! Oi!”
he shouted. “No tuppin’ in here, ye horny lot! This be me place ‘o’
solitude, ye dirty bastards! Dinna be muckin’ it up wit’ all yer
lovey dovey jinxin’!”

“
Ketik!” I gasped, pointing
a finger at him warningly. “Don’t talk like that in front of the
baby!”

Eyes narrowing, he hoisted Calder
higher, muttering under his breath. “Aren’t ye one ta point
fingers, Milady Peepots, tryin’ ta dirty up me place wit’ yer
feminine wiles.”

“
Feminine wiles? But, I
don’t... I didn’t...” I spluttered, a flush stealing over
me.

Nodding knowingly as his eyes drifted
between us, guilt stamped all over my crimson mug, the look on his
face facilitated between haughty and disgust.

Caught red handed, and there wasn’t a
thing I could do to deny it.

“
Fine,” he went on, rubbing
salt into the wound,
“yer highness.
Dinna know what ye got yer knickers all up in a
twist fer, anyhow.”

“
You’re cursing in front of
my child,” I gritted out embarrassedly. “I don’t like
it.”

“
Cursin’? Och, he’s bound
ta know ye love the ugly arsehole ye spawned him wit’. Aint a
hidden one.”

Gaping at him as Quaz bellowed out a
laugh and slapped his lame brained brother on the back, waving off
Troll’s warning snarl, the red eyed Ornthren laughingly explained,
“She meant cussin’, ye fool, no’ a curse. She dinna want ye sayin’
tup in front of the little lad.”

Blinking down at Calder, Ketik
frowned. “Oh.” Scratching at the back of his bald head, he
shrugged. “Still, I dinna want ye fuckin’ in me space. This one’s
mine. Find yer own.” Turning as Quaz sighed, covering his eyes with
his hand, he winced as I squirmed out of Troll’s arms, bellowing
after the purple-eyed menace.

“
What?” he shouted, yelping
a few minutes later as Troll and Quaz dutifully lumbered after us.
“Dinna say tuppin’, aye?”

“
Give me my baby.”
Cornering him in the hall, he scowled but handed him
over.

“
What?” He muttered to my
retreating back, following me down the corridors to the
left.

Pausing once I reached my living
quarters, I shook my head, setting Calder down on the floor with
the small wooden toys the males had all carved for him. “How do you
not... you really don’t understand, do you?” A small, hysterical
bark of laughter escaped me.

Taking up too much space in the
doorway, he grumbled, “Get what?”

Feeling like I might explode, marching
right over to him and glaring up, I did just that, “Fuck is so much
worse!”

“
Then aren’t ye a right
potty mouth, Mrs. Pee in the pots, cursin’ like a bloody sailor.”
The smug look on his face, the cocky lilt of his voice, told me I’d
just taken the bait. The bastard had been messing with me the whole
time!

“
Oh! You!”

Arms crossed, he leaned forward,
grinning in the face of my fury. “Oh, yes, me.” Leaning casually
against the entryway, he smirked, flicking a thick finger over the
end of my nose. “Ye aren’t goin’ ta screw in me spot now, are ye?”
A deep, rumbling chuckle tumbled out of him when I jerked away from
his touch, his head thrown back when he let go completely,
bellowing out a laugh.

That’s alright, he didn’t see it
coming when my eyes flashed blue and I sent him flying into the
hall, either.

Boom. Thump. “Bleedin’
hell!”

Snarling my displeasure while Calder
giggled, clapping his hands at his mum, I glared up at Quaz and
Troll when they stepped over Ketik, still pissing and moaning, and
walked right into the room.

“
Pay up,” Troll muttered,
fingers unfurling for Quaz to drop a small charm into
it.

Picking up a bar of soap and a fresh
change of clothes, I gave the two a warning look. “I should send
you two flying too,” I grumbled, pushing past them and out of the
room. “Watch Calder. I’m going to have a soak.” Ketik groaned and
grunted when I made sure to step a little too hard on his hip as I
passed. “And I don’t wish to be disturbed. By anyone.” There, that
was clear enough.

“
Hey!” Troll called. “What
did we do?”

“
He,” I waved my bar of
soap at Quaz, glancing at them from over my shoulder, “bet I’d
lose.”

“
An’ what did I do?” I
could hear the laughter in my male’s voice, badly
disguised.

“
You didn’t bet
enough.”

His booming laugh, echoing behind me,
lightened the mood a little as I made my way deeper into the
catacombs.

****

“
Ye sleepin,
woman?”

“
No,” I mumbled, peeling
Calder’s little fist from my face for the third time, “but I’d like
to be.”

“
I’m thinkin’ the beastie
needs his own quarters,” he muttered, grunting when a little foot
kicked him in the gut. “Or at least a bed of his own.”

Rump hanging off the edge of the bed,
arm and neck cricked, I seconded the motion. “Agreed.”

Several minutes passed and I closed my
eyes, scooting until tumbling tail bone first onto the hard dirt
floor wasn’t imminent.

“
Nugget?”

About to drift off, I feigned
sleep.

“
Nugget?”

Lids lifting, I stared at him.
“What?”

“
What were ye-” Calder
stirred and he quickly lowered his voice to a whisper, lifting his
head to watch me in the dark. “Ye never told me.”

“
Hmm?”

“
At the river’s edge, under
Ketik’s bridge.”

“
Oh,” snuggling down
farther, I said around a yawn, “I was thinking about the cave—your
cave.”

More silence, and then, “What about
it?”

“
I just miss it sometimes,
that’s all.”

“
Ye... ye do?”

I chuckled quietly at his baffled
tone. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

“
It dinna stir up bad
memories fer ye?”

“
No. Maybe at one time, but
not anymore.”

The bed creaked as he shifted his
weight, and when he spoke again, his voice was much closer.
“Nugget?”

“
Uhm-hmm?”

“
Why?”

“
I don’t know, I stopped
thinking-”

“
No,” he interrupted,
orange eyes flashing in the dark, “I mean, why were ye thinkin’ of
it.”

“
I guess you could say,
it’s sort of... home to me, uhm, in a way. You know?” I didn’t want
him to think I didn’t like living here in the caves below Under,
and I understood this was home to him, but it didn’t necessarily
afford one privacies that one might normally otherwise
have.

Intimate privacies that had me
crawling out of my skin as the urge to tackle him to the ground,
wad up my night dress and stuff it in his mouth, then mount his
surly Ornthren hide and ride him, hard, right now.

The long soak I’d taken didn’t help
matters much, nor did the jump I took into the river shortly after,
but I had to be patient.

My nails dug into my
palms
. Patience.
A virtue I’m beginning to think I no longer
possess.

“
Really?”

Did I want to screw him three ways to
Sunday? “Of course.” That came out louder than I’d
intended.

“
Huh?” Troll leaned in
closer, frowning.

“
I’ve been wanting to- Oh.
You meant the cave.” Clearing my throat as my face heated, for lack
of a better thing to do, I mumbled, “Sorry. I’m tired,” and faked a
yawn, “must be the sleep and... lack of it, talking. Good
night!”

“
Wait. What did ye
mean?”

“
Nothing. Nothing.”
Huddling down farther into the blankets, I took a cue from Calder
and slowly slid them over my mortified head. If only I could put my
foot in my mouth like my little Ornthren son too.

“
Nugget?”

Easing my breathing, I faked a light
snore.

Troll grunted but rolled over. “Know
yer snore, woman, an’ that aint it. Sound like a damned bear
chokin’ on snot, ye does, no’ a fartin’ whistle.”

Lips pursed, I glared at the back of
his head through the thin sheet, tempted to whop him
one.

“
Last I checked,” he
chuckled, shaking the bed as his shoulders shook, “ye dinna snarl
in yer sleep either.”

Whoops!
Clamping my lips shut tight, I stilled the discontented
grumble rumbling my chest.

“
Means so much to ye, luv,
ye can have yer secret.”

Relaxing, I melted into the furs
underneath me.

Mumbling under his breath, he huffed,
“No’ like I canna get it outta ye later, if I wished it,
anyways.”

Oh, if only he
knew.

Tipping Point

“
I can’t take this
anymore.”

Glancing up from the stool he sat on,
Calder gnawing on a small, meaty bone in his lap, possibly wild
dragon or feral gryphon meat, the non-shifting kind, I marched over
and held my hand out.

Watching me curiously, he handed
Calder over to Quaz, who nodded and placed his nephew in his lap,
both of them continuing on with their supper, Troll took my hand as
I turned and tried to drag him from the room.

“
Nugget?” he rumbled
curiously.

“
Not. A. word.” Forcing
myself to take deep, even breaths, I led him deeper into the back
catacombs, closer towards the center of the Ornthren
labyrinth.

Glancing around when we reached the
large, open section with small pockets blanketing every corner,
warm air rushing up from all the millions of tiny holes dotting the
walls, I dropped his hand to recover the small bundle I’d hidden
away.