Recent content by Rori

She ran with everything she had. Her wounded feet ached, mud slicked beneath her boots, smoke burned her lungs, her heart thundered so hard she thought it might tear free of her ribs, but she did not slow. She saw the javelin streak past her in a blur, heard it strike home with a brutal clang...

Her breath caught, sharp and painful, and for a heartbeat she couldn’t move at all, could only stand there as the old, familiar guilt reared up inside her. The reflex that told her this was somehow her fault. That it always was. That if anger and violence followed her, then she must have invited...

Rori flinched as though struck when he tore himself from her touch, the recoil cutting deep. For a heartbeat she just stared at him, at the ice that had replaced the warmth she’d been growing used to, at the fury that she hoped wasn’t for her. Her chest ached. Her breath trembled. But she...

Rori froze at the sound of his voice, at the words he spoke. Her heart climbed into her throat, panic thundering through her ribs as she stared down at him, he looked less like the orc she had come to know, and more like a weapon honed for vengeanc. Tears welled before she could stop them, hot...

Her eyes burned as she trudged down the valley behind him, the world around her, that she'd admired so deeply, now blurred and meaningless. She couldn’t stop shivering. Her fiery hair clung to her neck and shoulders in dark, sodden curls, her clothes soaked through until the cold seemed fused to...

He wished for her?... He.. wished for sons. The words struck harder than any fist. Her brows drew together, lips parting with a soft, pained breath as her hands drifted instinctively to her stomach, an old habit and useless habit. Her fingers curled there, trembling. As though she could simply...

Her brow knit as if his words physically pressed against her, demanding answers she didn’t have. “Because...that isn’t real life,” she breathed, frustration and disbelief tangling together. “I can’t just… just leave everything and run off into the wilds like some..” She cut herself off, unable...

For a heartbeat, all she could hear was the thunder of the waterfall and the low, steady thrum of his voice beneath it. I will not give you back. Her breath caught. She looked up at him, wide-eyed, the meaning of his words settling in her chest. Her lips parted, but no words came at first. He...

Her pulse still thrummed in her ears, but the steadiness of his voice and the warmth of his arms began to ground her again. His touch, though rough and powerful, was steady. A shelter, not a threat. She let out a shuddered breath and rested her cheek against his chest, the rise and fall of it...

Her breath hitched as his grip held firm, his fury a living thing in the space between them. The roar of the waterfall dimmed beneath the rush of her pulse in her ears. Panic clawed at her chest when she found she couldn’t move, when his hands refused to let her go. “Only because I did not wish...

Her breath caught in her throat at how his voice changed, at the way his chest rose and fell. She took a small step back, but his hands came up to her face, his palms rough but careful, the heat of his anger thrumming through his touch. Her cheeks burned as though the words themselves had peeled...

"What?" Rori turned sharply, water dripping from her hair as she moved back toward him, her brows drawn tight. “No…” she shook her head, and before she could think better of it, her hands came up to his face, drawing it toward her so he would see that she meant what she said. “I do not fear...

It startled her, the depth of her wanting. How fiercely his kiss had awakened something she thought long dead. She should not crave this, not from him. An orc. Her captor. The one who held her for ransom and would send her away the moment her worth was paid. And yet… she could not deny the pull...

Her heart stumbled into a wild, unsteady rhythm that rivalled the thunder of the falls. The world tilted as his hands caught her, lifted her, the cold of the pool falling away beneath her feet. Her startled gasp was swallowed by the heat of his mouth and the fierce, unhesitating press of his...

Rori’s breath caught as their palms met, and gasped aloud as the rush of the waterfall roared around them. The rush of sound consumed everything, their voices, the sound of their breaths, the world itself. It was as though they stood within a living storm, water pounding down in endless...