Madness of the Horde by Zoey Draven

Chapter Nineteen

“Maman always protected me,” Vienne began. “I told you that when I was younger, she had a dream—a premonition, she believed—that I would be taken from her. Since then, she kept me close. Sometimes, too close. She didn’t let me roam the village alone, not unless my sister or my brothers were with me. My father took pity on me, however. He was still alive then and he knew how desperately I craved time…away. Alone.”

She’d just wanted to be free, I mused.

Reaching around her, I snagged the goblet of wine, tipping it up to my lips. The wine burned a wonderful heat down my throat, quenching the worst of my thirst, as I listened to the pleasing, quiet lull of her voice.

“I was never alone,” she admitted softly. “One day, my brothers were out repairing fences and my mother, grandmother, and sister were working in the home. My father let me walk the village myself. He told me it was just our secret. Then he left to help my brothers.

“There was a boy. One who I think fancied my sister. My sister’s very beautiful, so all the boys in our village liked her,” she said quietly. “But that day, he was talking to me. And looking at me. And I wanted to do something a little reckless because I knew I might not get the chance again.”

She blew out a small breath, color heating her cheeks.

“He kissed me and…I liked it,” she admitted softly. “We slipped into the forest next to our village.”

“Go on,” I murmured, my eyes straying to her lips. I swallowed when her tongue darted out to wet them.

“It happened so fast. He was kissing me and then he, um, pushed into me. Twice. Then it was over.”

I huffed out a sharp breath.

“That’s all,” she said quietly. “It’s not much of a story.”

Her cheeks were burning and I found the sight of her like this quite…tantalizing. I also found it tragic that that had been her first experience with sex and pleasure.

“Did he make you come?”

“C-come?” she questioned.

My lips curled.

She swallowed. “No,” she admitted softly. “I’ve never…I mean, I’ve never felt that.”

I realized what she was saying and my nostrils flared.

Vok!

She’d never orgasmed before?

Temptation rode me hard, flaring my pupils and making one of my claws curl into her waist. If she were any other female, I would have had her on her hands and knees right then, tonguing her from behind, listening to her whimpers and moans filling my voliki as she orgasmed on my tongue. Then I’d have slid into her with long, deep strokes, growling as she received me so sweetly.

Vok. Arousal filled me. How long had it been since I last felt this way? How long since it had felt this consuming, this intense?

Perhaps never, I mused. With Mala, sex had been different. Then again, that female had been nothing more than a parasite, feeding off my grief, using my body for her pleasure.

“Leikavi?”

She released the corner of her lip she’d been nibbling after her confession. “Yes?”

“I will promise you this. When I fuck you, you will know it. You will crave it.”

I didn’t think she knew how much her desire showed on her features. At my words, her eyes went half-lidded, her nipples puckered even more under my tunic. Her soft pink lips parted and there was one thing I found I could not deny myself.

Leaning forward, I caught her bottom lip with mine, sliding my hand into her white hair, catching the back of her neck. I held her in place as I gave her my kiss. She froze at first, shy, unsure what to do. But then my leikavi let out a shuddering breath against me and when her tongue darted out to taste me on her lips, I captured it and suckled.

Her startled gasp filled the space between us. My cock bobbed, my dakke swelling and throbbing, my seed beading at my tip. My grip on her tightened, my need surging. I hadn’t taken release since the night of the jrikkia, when she’d watched me from the shadows. Remembering her curiosity, remembering her needy, greedy little gaze on my cock only stoked the roaring fire that was beginning to consume me.

You need her to trust you, that rational part of my mind reminded me.

Would she trust me after I gave her the rough fucking on the floor of my voliki that I craved? Or would she look at me like I was a barbaric brute, with her scorn?

For some reason, I couldn’t stomach the latter. Not with her.

But her lips were so sweet, her tongue warm and tentative against mine. I kissed her the way I wanted to mate her…thoroughly. I pulled away when I felt her little nails curling into my chest. When had she placed them there? Her dull little claws were dug deep, clasping me to her.

I’d been right. Though sheltered, my leikavi was a sensual creature, one who needed to be introduced to the pleasures of the flesh.

With time, I told myself.

When I unclasped my hand from the back of her neck, it shook.

Her gaze was still half-lidded, that warm desire still directed at me. I was unused to the females I took to my furs looking at me like that. With…softness.

The females I mated all knew what I was and I knew what they were seeking. They wanted a piece of the story I’d found myself woven into…the tale of the Mad Vorakkar, who laughed as he killed and fucked like a snarling beast. They wanted a piece of a Vorakkar, all while knowing I would never take a Morakkari, a queen.

And so, they looked at me with lust and possession and always, always fear. Like I could kill them as easily as I fucked them.

But Vienne, this little vekkirikalles, sitting so sweetly in my lap, clutching me to her, who had knowingly teased me with the sight of her breast through the almost-transparent tunic, looked at me with warmth.

Maddening.

It was discomforting when I longed to stroke her hair in response. It was discomforting when I wanted to kiss her more gently this time, like she was…cherished.

Vok, I cursed.

This was why I didn’t get close to females.

Because as much as I hated that she looked at me like I wasn’t a monster or a crazed beast…I also craved that softness in her gaze.

“I need sleep,” I said, my tone gruffer and more cutting than I’d intended.

She swallowed, blinking. Right before my eyes, I watched that softness fade. I watched realization and wariness return.

When it did, when I saw a little bit of her fear, I felt more in control. I felt relief.

Sick in the head.

Lysi, always.

“All right,” she whispered, her lips still reddened from my kiss.

I stood, bringing both of us up, and setting her on her feet. The fire was dying but I didn’t bother to throw more fuel onto it. We would be warm enough through the night.

She hesitated at the end of the bed, still standing next to the low table, as I climbed underneath my mound of furs. I almost groaned with pleasure. I’d pushed my body hard the past few days and now it was time for much-needed reprieve.

“Come, kalles,” I rasped, sliding my gaze over her. The furs brushed my hardened cock, tickling over the heated flesh.

Hesitantly, she walked to the other side, her bare feet brushing the carpet. The dying fire illuminated the outline of her body in the tunic. She was small, thin, but her hips were gently flared. Her light grey eyes seemed to glow as she looked down at me. Her beautiful hair had begun to dry but the ends were still dripping. When my gaze dropped, I saw her nipples were still pebbled.

My mouth watered.

Vok, she was…exquisite.

“As long as you are with me, you sleep beside me,” I murmured when she hesitated again.

She slipped under the furs and my tail reached out, wrapping around her calf, pulling her closer.

Despite moments ago, when I’d felt relieved to see the evidence of her fear, I still…needed her close to me. I didn’t understand it. But I was too exhausted to care right then.

Rolling towards her, I clasped her tight, tucking her into my body. Her wet hair pressed into my shoulder. My cock was nestled between us, throbbing against her soft belly.

Vok, it felt right.

So damn right, to hold her like this. I remembered the way I’d reacted to her when she’d been led into the Dothikkar’s great hall. That undeniable drive to protect her, as if I was meant for it.

I’d wanted to protect her as certainly as I’d wanted her to surrender to me. Now, I wondered if I craved being conquered in return.

“Veekor,” I ordered, my arms tightening around her. I felt her warm breath across my chest and my eyes closed. “Sleep, leikavi.”

* * *

I woke in a cold sweat,my heart hammering against my bones, sucking in breath.

Movement came at my right. Something warm.

My tensed muscles relaxed when I saw Vienne, sleeping. She shifted, tossing her head. I wondered if she too had nightmares.

Sitting up, I scrubbed a hand down my face before my claw drifted over the deep scar on my cheek. It throbbed, like the mere memory of how I’d received it had gotten the nerve endings firing again. Icy hot pain. Blood filling my vision, making everything dark.

My sister, her eyes open and unseeing, her dress around her waist, blood bubbling from her mouth.

A shuddered breath released from my lungs and bile rose in my throat.

Squeezing my eyes shut didn’t help. I could never get that image out of my mind once it returned. I growled, curling my fist and then hitting my temple. Over and over again until the pain bloomed, until I could think of something other than that night, the night everyone I loved had been taken from me. A senseless crime.

When I felt calmer, when I relished the throbbing pain at my temple, I looked back at the kalles in my furs.

She shifted again. Her legs kicked, her lips parted.

My heart slowed the longer I looked at her. And when I brushed a hand through her dry hair, when I lay back down next to her, pulling her close once more? I felt like I could actually breathe again as I drew her scent deep.

I closed my eyes, knowing I needed a full night of rest, though I didn’t remember the last time I’d had it.

“Davik.”

My eyes flashed open and I froze.

I listened, wondering if I was seeing things, hearing things again that weren’t there.

“Davik.”

A rough breath tore from my lungs.

Nik. No spirits this time.

It had come from Vienne.

My name was on her lips, in her dreams…

It was a name she should not know. A name I hadn’t heard since my sister’s death. A name I had never given her, though she’d given me hers on our first meeting.

My blood turned to ice in my veins. My temple pounded harder.

For the first time, I wondered if the Dothikkar had been right.

If this white-haired beauty was a sorceress…come to destroy us all.

“Davik!”