Chapter 64: Bond That Burns
Urzara’s pov
"Your bond feels... strange."
Urzara stood outside the tent, her massive frame tensed like a warrior preparing for battle. But this wasn’t an enemy she could face with axe and fury. Through the bond she shared with Arthur, something writhed like a wounded animal—dark, hungry, and utterly wrong.
Inside the tent, Arthur’s voice carried desperation she’d never heard before. "Stay back, Urzara. Please. Just... stay back."
The orc queen’s tusks gleamed as she bared them in defiance. In thirty-seven years of life, through countless battles and three previous mates, she’d learned one truth above all others: you don’t abandon your bonded when they’re in pain.
"Like hell," she growled, pushing through the tent flap.
Arthur stood in the center of the pavilion, and for a moment Urzara forgot how to breathe. Shadows clung to him like a second skin, writhing and reaching toward her with unmistakable hunger. His eyes—those dark eyes she’d gazed into during their bonding—now held depths that seemed to swallow light itself.
"I said stay back!" Arthur stumbled away from her, pressing himself against the far wall of the tent. The shadows followed him, coiling around his body like living things. "Something’s wrong with me. The evolution Lyralei warned about—it’s accelerating."
Urzara took a step forward. "Then we fix it. Together."
"You don’t understand." Arthur’s hands clenched into fists, and she could see the effort it took him not to reach for her. "I can feel your System, Urzara. Every beat of power running through you. And all I want to do is take it."
The confession should have frightened her. Instead, it ignited something primal in her orc blood. Fear was for prey. She was Urzara Bloodfang, Queen of the Northern Tribes, and she’d be damned if she’d run from her own mate.