Madness of the Horde by Zoey Draven

Chapter Thirteen

Iwas sweating by the end of it and the pyroki did, indeed, hate me all the more for it.

But the deed was done and her wounds had been sealed after they had been cleaned. I sat back, feeling strangely ill, the scent ofburningflesh still lingering in my nostrils. The horde king was still kneeling by his creature’s side, winding thick swaths of bandage around her flank.

He cared for the creature. Tremendously. That much was obvious. And even though I didn’t like him, or trust him, his obvious love for her made me soften towards him. It meant his heart wasn’t only empty darkness and hatred if he could love.

After it was done and the pyroki had closed her eyes, resting, the Vorakkar rose and said, “Stay here. I will return shortly.”

“Where are you going?” I asked in mild alarm, still feeling like the remnants of the dried meat I’d consumed earlier would make a reappearance.

He jerked his head towards the shadowed line of the trees. “To wash. There is a stream not far. I will bring back water for you and then we will eat.”

He stooped down to gather the water skins we’d used to wash his pyroki’s wounds…and then he stalked away. I could hear his hard footsteps and I saw the sway of his tail as he disappeared into the shadows.

Then I was alone. The bodies of the jrikkia were piled near the base of the tree, a grotesque, disturbing mound of darkened fur. I huddled closer to the sleeping pyroki, drawing my knees up to my chest, and waited. I jumped when the fire crackled loudly.

I tensed when I heard a trickling sound in the distance but then I realized it was only water. I heard sporadic splashing, close enough that it was comforting.

My eyes went back to the mound of jrikkia.

When the trickling stopped, however, and no sound came after that for many long moments, I found my hands trembling, my eyes trained between the two tree trunks where the horde king had disappeared.

What is he doing?I wondered, my belly beginning to churn in fear again. When the canopy of the trees rustled behind me, my spine tingled and then I was up on my feet, though my entire body protested in response. My backside throbbed from falling off the pyroki. The flesh on my inner thighs screamed as the hide of my pants brushed it but I hurried forward nonetheless.

It was perhaps a foolish thing to do but I stepped beyond the clearing, scanning what laid beyond the thick tree line. I didn’t need to go far. I found the stream—he’d been right, it hadn’t been far from where we were camping for the night—and then I stilled, trailing my gaze along the winding, babbling water, searching.

Until I found him.

And when I did, my mouth went dry, my eyes went wide, and I immediately ducked behind the wide trunk of a tree, the roughened bark of it pressing painfully into my back.

His head had been turned in my direction and I prayed he hadn’t heard me. My eyes stared, unseeing, into the darkness. He’d paused briefly in what he was doing and then I heard his roughened pants again, soft huffs of breath that escaped him, followed by an unmistakable rhythmic sound.

I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid he’d discover me if I returned to the clearing now. I thought it a miracle he hadn’t heard me when I’d approached—but perhaps he’d been too lost in his pleasure.

My face flamed. I didn’t dare breathe as the rhythmic sounds came faster.

I want to see, came the thought. I didn’t deny the wanting and it bloomed in my belly. It was curiosity, I told myself. Of males, of Dakkari males, of him. Nothing more.

Slowly, I turned against the trunk until my front was pressed against it. And, with a small breath, I peeked out from behind it.

The horde king had his head tilted back, the long, strong column of his golden throat exposed. He’d cleaned himself up, his hair dripping water across his bare shoulders. He had one hand braced on a boulder next to the stream, his back bowed. And his other hand was working between his thighs, stroking his thickened length.

My nipples immediately tightened beneath my tunic, pebbling hard against the material. A tingling sensation stroked from my belly to my sex, warming me. I’d always loved the sensation of arousal, whenever I’d felt it before. It turned my mind to mush. I’d continuously been in awe of its power but had always been too hesitant to explore it more.

I didn’t dwell on the fact that watching the horde king pleasure himself made me aroused. I didn’t want to think about what that meant, so I simply ignored it.

And I simply watched.

“Vok,” he hissed softly, his hips bucking, and my treacherous little heart leapt in delight, my breath coming more quickly.

When I shifted to see better, the rough bark of the tree dragged across my nipples and I bit my lip against the sensation. This was the power of arousal, I knew. Because I was covered in his pyroki’s blood, we’d been attacked by jrikkia, he’d been nothing short of terrifying to me…and still, I was watching his hand speed and then slow over his engorged cock with bated breath and rubbing my nipples against a damn tree.

Arousal was dangerous.

Yet, I didn’t want it to end.

His body was unlike any I’d ever seen before. His scars told of his battles—of stories I wanted to hear, however dark—his muscles were perfectly sculpted and honed, befitting a warrior king who had shed enough blood in his lifetime. He terrified me, yes. He also fascinated me.

I watched as a shudder racked him, a low growl rising, his hand speeding.

Licking my lips, I pressed closer, sliding my fingers across the bark.

Then I almost gasped when his eyes lazily opened—those twin, red orbs glowing in the darkness—and he looked in my direction. Heart hammering, I ducked behind the tree again, cursing myself, pressing my forehead against the trunk.

Had he seen me?I wondered.

I couldn’t be certain.

Fool, I thought, biting my lip even as my body throbbed.

I knew I’d been found out because the forest went quiet again. The sound of his hand against his flesh ceased, his roughened pants ended.

My only hope was that I could escape before he found me. When I looked again to see where he’d gone, the space by the stream was empty.

The back of my neck tingled. I felt his heat, scented his skin, before I heard him.

Then he rasped in my ear, his lips brushing the sensitive shell of it, “Spying now, leikavi? If you wanted to watch, you only needed to ask.”

I gasped when he kept me pinned in place against the tree. I turned my face so my cheek rested against it, and sucked in a breath when he brushed my hair to the side, a cool breeze drawing over my nape.

“I told you to stay there,” he said, his tone taking on a darker edge. “There are more dangerous things lurking in this forest than the jrikkia.”

Like you?I wondered silently.

His hips pressed me firmly into the trunk and the force of it put pressure against my groin. I bit my lip. Though I was gasping and mortified that he’d discovered me, even though I feared what he would do in retaliation, that warm, deep, blooming arousal hadn’t left me. Not one bit.

Suddenly, his hips pressed more firmly and the bark of the tree stimulated the pleasurable spot between my thighs, a spot I’d only explored in darkness and whenever I found time alone—which was almost never.

My tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of my mouth. I felt his hard, hot length through the material of my tunic. He was much taller than I was and his cock pressed into my back.

“Do you want to watch, leikavi?” he murmured, leaning forward and nipping at the skin on the back of my neck. Goosebumps broke out over my arms. “Because I need to come. Desperately.”

Still, I hadn’t said a word. I wanted to leave…and yet, I didn’t. I could easily draw on my power, change his emotions, and make him release me.

Yet I didn’t.

The horde king shifted to my side and the pressure on my hips released, though his shoulder and the side of his chest kept me in place. When my eyes flicked down, I sucked in a shuddered breath. His cock was next to my waist, still untucked from his trews.

Unconsciously, my fingers curled against the trunk. The head of his cock was large and shimmering with the beginnings of his seed. He was massive, thick and long. A small bump right above the base of his shaft was swollen. He was so aroused his cock was almost completely pressed against his abdomen in one long, curving arc.

His hand came to the base before stroking upwards, squeezing around the head. A drop of his seed rolled down the side and I tracked it. He exhaled sharply, a small groan vibrating his chest, which I felt thrum in my own body.

“Vok, leikavi, I can feel your gaze on it,” he groaned.

My head felt like it was spinning. The darkened forest, which had at first been so terrifying, now felt different. Altered. Strange. A hushed quiet that felt like we’d entered an alternate realm, an alternate world.

His head dropped forward. His hot breath fanned out on the back of my neck. His hair, still wet from the stream, fell forward and wetted my tunic. His scent—warm and musky—was all around me. I felt like I could taste him on my tongue.

Another drop of his seed rose and he growled, his hips punching forward until his length slid through his clenched fist.

“I would not have been able to last another day. And battling always makes me want to fuck,” he rasped. His lips came to the side of my throat. “I can feel your little heartbeat. Quickening. Tell me…is it because you are frightened again? Or because you’re needing a male?”

Swallowing back a gasp, I watched with a hooded gaze as he rolled the pad of his thumb over the slit at the head. I licked my dry lips, wetting them.

His dark laugh filled my ears, heating the tension surrounding us. “Your cunt is wet from watching me, leikavi? Isn’t it? I can smell it. Your body does not lie.”

His crude words barely fazed me. That was how deep I was in arousal, in the warm heat that made me want to surrender to him. I felt like a stranger in my own body…and what scared me the most was not what could happen. It was that I wanted it to happen.

Still, he didn’t touch me. My body was throbbing, my skin humming, my sex tingling so acutely it was almost painful. Instead, his hips fucked his fist faster, his breathing becoming more ragged and labored.

“Vok, vok!” he cursed, his voice dragging out in a long groan. “I’m going to—”

A rough, short bellow tore unexpectedly from his throat. His forehead dropped and I felt his teeth on the space just behind my ear, biting me but not enough to hurt. Just enough to mark.

The only sound that came from me was a whimper when I watched his cock twitch and expand…and then ropes of milky white seed burst violently from his tip. His ravaged groans vibrated across my skin, his body pulsing and rocking, and the essence of him marked the ground in front of us, glimmering on the forest floor.

Then quiet came. His hand dropped away but his forehead was still pressed against me. The strong bulk of his chest brushed my back with every quick breath he took.

Like I was in a daze, I blinked slowly. My fingers were still curled into little claws of my own. I felt like I was one touch away from something. What did it feel like? His pleasure?

“Go,” he growled into my ear. “Go back before I fuck you against this tree. And this time, stay there.”

He released me and I almost stumbled. My knees were shaking. When my gaze met his, I wondered what expression he saw in my face to make his jaw clench tight and his nostrils flare.

The next moment, he turned his back to me, returning to the stream, tucking his spent cock into his trews as he went.

My good sense returned. Shame and embarrassment quickly followed it.

Without a backwards glance, I fled, running back to the clearing where his pyroki lay. I didn’t bother looking back, though my neck prickled.

I saw the golden glow of our fire ahead. When I burst through the thick tree line, I saw a grey shadow move. A grey shadow that had been crouching by the pile of dead jrikkia…and when the shadow whipped around, I saw its eyes and I realized our mistake too late.

The Vorakkar had said the jrikkia had been brought to our planet by the Killup. Only, he’d wrongfully assumed the ones that had attacked us had been a wild pack of them, drifting too far west from their home.

Now I realized they’d been the Killup’s scouting pack.

A slim, chiseled stone blade came to my throat from behind, something wet adorning the tip. Two pairs of smooth, cold hands gripped my arms on both sides as the grey shadow with pitch black eyes approached me.

Movement flickered to my right. Then to my left.

More Killup emerged from the trees, their feet silent across the forest floor. I heard only a whisper of their clothing against their dark grey skin. I counted over ten, males and females alike, stone blades all drawn. Not even the Vorakkar’s pyroki had heard them. She still slept by the fire.

Over by the mound of dead jrikkia, the first Killup I’d seen approached me. Their leader? His clothing was a slightly darker shade of grey than the others and he wore a black band of fabric around his throat.

I saw my frightened face reflected in his eyes when he drew close. He tilted his head as he regarded me carefully. The gills on the sides of his neck fanned open.

It only occurred to me right then that it might be too late to scream.