Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
“I don’t know—I was hanging on to it while you, er, tasted me,” I said. I was wrapped in another one of his big, puffy towels that was more like a blanket. If you’ve never tried Orc sized towels, I highly recommend them.
“Ah…I thought I felt something happening when you were coming.” He nodded wisely.
“What? What happened? What are you talking about?” I demanded.
“I mean, this…” He wrapped one big hand around the top rail of the brass headboard and I saw his bicep bulge as he lifted it. When he let it drop, it came down with a dull thunk! that shook the floor!
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “What happened to it to make it so heavy?”
“You did, Babygirl.” He rumbled laughter, his eyes dancing. “You turned it to gold when you came!”
“I did?” I went to put a hand on the brass headboard. Maybe it was a little different color than it had been before, I thought. But nothing extraordinary. Tark was right, though—it was too heavy for me to even try lifting it.
“Solid gold,” he confirmed, still chuckling. “Well, I guess now we know your magic works either when you’re in mortal peril or when you’re coming.”
“Wow…” I shook my head. “Well, I know which one I’d rather be doing.”
“You can make millions and billions, you know—if you want to.” Tark’s eyes were suddenly serious. “You can turn yourself into a dragon and live in a castle—a literal one—if you want.”
“But what if I’d rather just stay here with you and learn from Madam Healer?” I asked, looking up at him.
He came around the bed and took me in his arms.
“That’s what I want too, baby. And now that we’re Sworn Heartmates, we’re going to be together forever. I was just saying, if you wanted to, we could move to the Human Realm and buy a place in one of those ultra fancy high rises or something. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but I’ll follow wherever you want to go.”
“No overpriced penthouse suite could compare with Hidden Hollow,” I told him, snuggling to get closer. “I like it here. And now that Mr. Price—or the monster impersonating him—is dead, I think I’m going to have to move here. Like I said, the police would want to question me and what could I say? ‘Sorry, my Orc boyfriend chopped off his head because he made me upset so he could suck out my emotions?’ I don’t think that would go over very well.”
Tark rumbled a laugh.
“Yeah, that might be fucking hard to sell. But what about your dream of becoming a pharmacist?”
“I’d rather be an alchemist,” I said, lifting my chin. “It’s way more interesting and fun.” I nibbled my lip. “If…I can live here with you?”
“Of course you can!” Tark exclaimed. “I wanted to ask you to move in earlier, but I was afraid I might scare you off.”
“You did?” I raised my eyebrows. “Like how much earlier?”
“Oh, I don’t know…pretty much from the first time I saw you when you came running out of that door and smacked right into me.” He grinned. “I just knew the minute I saw you that you were for me. Does that sound weird?”
“Not weird at all,” I assured him, snuggling against his broad chest. “Oh, Tark—I love you so much!”
“Love you too, Babygirl,” he growled softly, stroking my hair. “And now I never have to let you go.”
THE END?
DEFINITELY NOT!
I have a lot more ideas for Hidden Hollow coming your way. And I swear at some point I’m going to write Goldie’s book. It’s just that my pesky Muse keeps giving me other ideas first. But look for Goldie’s book, Warded by the Werebears, soon as well as another book from Hidden Hollow called Craved by the Kraken. I already have the book covers so they could come out anytime my Muse behaves.
As always, if you’ve enjoyed this book, please take a minute to leave a review HERE. The e-book market is currently being flooded by AI written books, which is making it harder and harder for100% human-written books like mine to gain traction. Please support human-only books, audiobooks, and book covers. Otherwise the human artists and creatives working to bring you entertainment will be forced out of this industry. Once that happens, true creativity will be gone for good and everything you read, watch, and listen to will start sounding the same. I don’t want that and I’m sure you don’t either. So please be mindful and try to buy human written books.
Hugs and thanks for being an awesome reader!
Evangeline (Feb 2025)
PS—below is the Bonus Daddy Section for those of you who have a Daddy Kink. Enjoy! ; )
ALTERNATE CHAPTERS
THE DADDY CHAPTER SECTION
These are basically the same chapters that appear in the main book, except there has been some sweet and spicy Daddy content added. If you do not have a Daddy Kink, please ignore this section and go back to the regular book.