Kraving Dravka by Zoey Draven

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rage and hatred like he’d never known seemed to choke him. Even losing his father and sister hadn’t felt like this. There had been grief there, an overwhelming depression combined with his helpless anger, but it hadn’t felt like this.

But the moment that Dravka had seen the human male strike Valerie, the moment he heard the thick, sickening thud of it landed across her temple, a place he’d kissed the night before, that rage snapped and lashed at him, like a whip across his back.

He didn’t remember lunging for him. He didn’t remember tackling him to the ground.

But before he knew it, the human male was underneath him, looking up at him with fear and bewilderment and perhaps a little bit of disgust.

So this was Gabriel Larchmont.

Dravka unleashed that fury, finding its channel, and his fist connected with the human’s face, that same sickening thud echoing through the alleyway. Dravka didn’t feel the dull ache from the bones compressing in his hand. He hit him again, a growl rising in his throat.

This male dared to harm his female!

“Get the fuck off of me!” Gabriel cried out, his nose leaking red blood, his tone nasally, bucking underneath him. Like he could squirm his little body out from underneath a Keriv’i. As if he was stronger than a Keriv’i.

Gabriel’s fist caught Dravka across the jaw in his flailing and Dravka responded with two more punches across his cheeks, quick and clean.

There was a strange rushing in his ears. All he could see was Valerie, pressed against a wall, her hands coming up to defend herself, her back hunching.

And I wasn’t there to protect her, he thought.

He bellowed, trying to tear that memory from his mind.

But I’m vauking here now, he finished, three more rapid punches falling across Gabriel’s face, his whole being seeming to lock in on him.

This male had hurt his mate, his female! The one he loved! He would have his vauking blood. He wouldn’t be satisfied—he wouldn’t rest—until it coated the entire path leading up to the brothel. A warning to others. To never come near his female. To never think about harming her, touching her.

No one would ever dare—

“Dravka!” came Valerie’s panicked, shaky voice, her soft hands tugging at him. “Stop, you’ll kill him!”

Clarity returned, her fear permeating the foggy haze that had descended over him with a singular purpose.

Vauk.

Vauk…because for a moment, he’d wanted to kill him.

Dravka froze, growling, his arm cocked back, angled down for another blow.

That was when he felt it.

The warm blood coating his fist. The metallic scent in the air. Valerie’s rapid breaths. Hands on him.

Hers?

Veki.

Tavak’s.

Tavak and Ravu were trying to pull Dravka off Gabriel underneath him. The human male was limp and unmoving, his face bloodied.

“Stop,” Tavak growled in his ear. “It’s done. He won’t hurt her. It’s enough.”

Dravka stumbled away from Tavak, dragging the warm night air into his tight lungs, though it didn’t seem like he could get enough.

Valerie.

He turned towards her when he felt her tentative touch on his arm. His hands were covered in blood but he still cupped her face, turning it to inspect the reddened spot at her temple.

She flinched when he brushed it, a wince escaping her. That fury rose in him again. He almost swung back towards Gabriel to finish the vauking job…

Only Valerie reached up, tugging his gaze away from the human lying on the ground, Tavak hovering over him, checking for a pulse no doubt.

“Dravka, look at me,” Valerie ordered, her voice shaking. She still sounded afraid. Of him? “Dravka.”

He realized he was still growling and he made an effort to stop, though the Keriv’i in him was still thirsting for blood.

“Look at me,” Valerie whispered and Dravka focused his gaze on hers, locking eyes. “That’s it.”

Suddenly, he felt his hearts begin to slow. His pupils contracted from their dilated state, his vision darkening. His chest was bare but he felt a streak of rapidly cooling blood across it.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, her fingers digging into his cheek. “I’m okay.”

A massive breath escaped his lungs and he wrapped his arms around her. A part of him felt relieved when she returned his embrace without hesitation. A part of him had worried that the fear in her voice had been because of him, because of what she’d witnessed, that feral, violent part of him.

But he would vauking destroy anyone who sought to hurt her.

He felt the way her heart thundered against his chest. Then Tavak’s voice cut between them.

“He’s alive,” the male said. “Just unconscious. He might wake soon.”

Vauk.

Valerie pulled away and Dravka turned his gaze to the two brothers, hovering over Gabriel’s limp form. They must’ve followed after him once he’d stormed from the Cluster. Then he remembered…he’d been watching the little courtyard in front of the brothel, had seen Valerie escort Celine Larchmont away.

Then he’d watched with trepidation as a male figure had approached Valerie, who’d been alone and unprotected. His voice had been raised, booming against the walls. He’d heard ‘mother’ and knew that this was Gabriel Larchmont, the sorry excuse for a human male who dared to lay his hands on a female.

Hisfemale.

He’d raced from the Cluster, hearing the anger in Gabriel’s voice, and he’d burst from the brothel, nearly blowing the entire door off its hinges…just in time to see Valerie pressed against the alley wall and Gabriel’s fist connect with her head.

“Dravka,” Valerie whispered, pressing a hand to his chest. He realized he was growling again.

He made the effort to stop, closing his eyes.

She doesn’t need this right now, he told himself. Pull yourself together so you can be useful.

He took a few more calming breaths. When he opened his eyes, while the rage simmered underneath, he didn’t feel like it would control him. Not any longer.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped to her. “I’m sorry you saw—”

“It’s okay,” she told him, biting her lip, worrying it when she cast a glance to Gabriel on the ground. “But we have a serious problem.”

Realization seemed to dawn on all of them at once.

“Vauk,” Ravu rasped, raking a hand over his head. He’d just finished with Celine Larchmont, had just given the woman the Blue Light drive…and now her son was bleeding all over the pathway she’d just walked down.

“When he wakes up,” Valerie said quietly, “he’ll have you imprisoned. Or worse.”

Vauk, vauk, vauk.

“There’s an easy way to make sure he won’t wake up,” Tavak murmured.

“Not helping,” Valerie snapped quietly, not taking Tavak’s words seriously…though Ravu and Dravka knew better.

“What the vauk are we going to do?” Ravu rasped.