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But the words stick in my throat, bitter with the taste of uncertainty, of looming loss.
"Shh, little human,” I murmur instead, pressing a kiss to her temple. "You're safe, I swear it. I'll protect you, cherish you, for as long as you'll have me."
For as long as I can, my traitorous mind whispers. For as long as she can bear to look on this monstrous face, these blood-stained claws...before the day she inevitably flees, seeking the comfort and familiarity of her own kind.
She sighs, nestling deeper into my embrace, but I can feel the tension thrumming through her, the unspoken doubts and fears that plague us both. Around us, the hall is a cacophony of hoots and howls, lewd jests and bawdy cheers...but they sound distant, muffled, as if filtering through a haze of dread.
"We should go," I say after a long moment, regret and resignation heavy in my tone. "Get you cleaned up, tended to. I was...less than gentle, in my need to claim you."
She huffs a strained laugh against my throat. "You weren't the only one caught up in the passion of the moment," she murmurs. "I seem to recall drawing my own blood, my king, with how fiercely I clung to you."
I growl softly, tightening my arms around her. "Brazen wench," I rumble, trying for playful and falling short. "What am I going to do with you, hmm?"
"Love me," she whispers, and there's a desperate edge to it, a breathless plea. "Fight for me, for us...but Grok, if you ever feel I'm not worth the battle, the risk...I'll understand. I'll...I'll let you go, no matter how it breaks me."
My heart clenches at her words, at the glimmer of noble self-sacrifice in her eyes. Oh, my fierce, fragile flower...always so ready to martyr herself, to bear the burdens of the world on her slim shoulders.
But maybe she's right. Maybe loving me, choosing me, is a weight too heavy for any human to carry. Maybe, in the end...I'll have to be the one to let her go. To free her from the gilded cage of my devotion before it becomes a shackle, a noose.
Not yet, I vow silently, fiercely. Not until I've exhausted every effort, moved every mountain, to keep her at my side. Not until I've proven, beyond the slightest doubt, that ogre and human, monster and maiden...we belong.
I cup her face in my great, battle-scarred hands, my claws carefully sheathed. "Never doubt that I care for you, Lily," I rasp, my eyes burning into hers. "Never doubt that you are worth it, worth any price or peril. You are my mate, my destiny...and I will fight for you, for us, until my last breath."
"And if it's not enough?" she whispers, her pulse fluttering, a tear gathering beneath her eyes. "If I'm not enough, in the end? What then, Grok?"
I brush away her tears with the pad of my thumb, my own eyes stinging and blurred. "Then...then I will honor your wishes," I manage, each word ripped from my very marrow. "I will set you free, no matter how it guts me. Because your happiness, your peace...they will always come first. Before my own desires, my own bleeding soul if need be."
She makes a small, broken sound, her hands coming up to cradle my jaw. "I don't want to be free of you," she breathes, and it sounds like a vow, a prayer. "I want to be yours, Grok, in every way. I'm just...I'm terrified I won't be enough. That I'll fail you, disappoint you...and lose you."
"Never," I growl, low and fierce. "Never, Lily. You could never disappoint me, never be less than everything I want, everything I need. You're it for me, don't you see? There will never be another, never a second I don't crave you, cherish you, with every beat of my black, battle-broken heart."
I seal my words with a kiss, hard and hot and hungry, pouring every ounce of my lust, my certainty, into the slant of my mouth on hers. She moans into the kiss, her arms twining around my neck, her lush curves pressing urgently to my harder planes.
For a moment, the world falls away, narrowing down to the sweet, scorching perfection of her mouth, her skin, her presence in my arms. For a moment, the future is blindingly bright, shimmering with possibility, with promise.
But all too soon, the uncertainties come creeping back in, dousing the blazing hope in my breast with cold claws of doubt. All too soon, I remember the reality beyond this hall, this haven...the reality that would see us torn asunder, our bonds reduced to ashes and regret.
Slowly, reluctantly, I break the kiss, resting my forehead against hers as we both struggle for air, for equilibrium. "We should go," I rasp again, the words heavy and hoarse. "Face the challenges to come, whatever they may be. Together, for as long as the fates allow."
She nods, a flicker of sorrow in her eyes, of grim understanding. "Together," she echoes softly. "Come what may, Grok...I'm with you, for you. Until the bitter end, if need be."
And beyond, I vow silently. In this life and whatever waits on the other side...I will find you, fight for you. Wait for you.
Always.
With that thought held tight to my heart like a talisman, I rise from the throne with Lily cradled against my chest. I hold her close, breathe in the scent of her, the essence of her...and then I turn to face the crowd, the clan, my expression hardening into a mask of resolute defiance.
Let them jeer, let them doubt. Let them question the devotion of a warlord to his human mate, the staying power of a connection so strange and scorned.
I will prove them all wrong, with every beat of my heart, every breath in my lungs. I will build a future with this woman at my side, because of this woman at my side...or I will perish in the attempt.
There is no other path for me now. No other purpose.
She is my queen, my reason...my home. And come what may, whatever battles lie ahead...
I will never stop fighting to keep her, to honor her. To be worthy of her.
This I swear, on the blood in my veins and the fire in my soul. This I vow, before the eyes of the clan and the spirits of the ancestors.
