The moon hung low over Elarionne, the crystalline realm of the elves, its pale glow spilling across the treetops like silver silk. Deep within her sky-piercing palace, Queen Saphira stood at her balcony, the night breeze brushing over her bare shoulders as she gazed toward the jagged mountains that scarred the horizon. Her mountains, now nearly purged of the orc tribes that had plagued her borders for decades.

Her campaign had been swift, merciless, and glorious—songs were already being written of the queen who broke the orcish warbands with nothing but elegance and cold precision.

And yet...

Victory had left something unexpected behind.

Curiosity.

Saphira had seen orcs on the battlefield before—brutish, towering, terrifying in their fury. But the one her scouts captured last week... the one she could not stop thinking about... was different. Broad-shouldered, golden-eyed, defiant even with a blade to his throat. Something about him had burrowed deep under her skin and pulsed there. A forbidden heat. A question she couldn’t shake.

So she gave the order.

Her guards had dragged him, bound and hooded, to the outskirts of the great forest—far from the palace, far from witnesses—and left him tied to the ancient stone pillar at the heart of a long-abandoned ritual clearing. A place where the moonlight pooled like liquid silver and the trees stood as silent voyeurs.

Now, Saphira stepped between those trees, her cloak trailing behind her like spilled midnight. Every step brought her closer to him. Every breath thickened with anticipation.

There—

In the clearing—

The orc knelt exactly where she commanded, wrists bound behind him, chest rising slow and stubborn against the ropes. The moon lit his skin in a sheen of pale bronze. His head lifted at the sound of her footsteps, nostrils flaring as if he could scent her desire in the air.

Saphira smiled.

Not the smile of a queen addressing a prisoner.

The smile of a woman about to indulge a secret she would tell no one.

She approached him with unhurried grace, circling him like a predator savoring its chosen prey.

“Tonight,” she murmured, her fingers trailing along his jaw, “I will learn what my people have never dared to imagine.”

She tilted his head up, her eyes glowing with ancient magic and hungry intent.

“And you, orc... will obey your queen.”