Claimed By the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Chapter Thirteen

“What happened?” I growled, intercepting a warrior who was racing towards my voliki.

“A portion of the fence failed,” he shouted over the wind. “It collapsed inwards on three volikis.”

My lips pressed together. “How many were injured?”

“Two warriors,” he said, keeping up with my rapid pace as I raced my way through the camp. “But they are not fatally wounded. The healer is with them now.”

Relief only made my pace quicken, but grim realization swiftly took its place once I reached the front of the camp and saw the extent of the damage.

It was chaos. Freezing rain had begun to fall and it pricked my exposed flesh before turning to ice on the ground. Through the rain, I saw five posts of the towering fence had fallen, just as the warrior had said. Three of the voliki were crushed in, the hides soaked from the rain, the wood splintered into fragments.

The wind was fiercer there, now that there was no protection from that portion of the fence. Funneling inside, it whipped its way through the front of the camp and I heard shouts from warriors, from families, from females and children, as they tried to keep the protective layer of hide from tearing off their homes. Without it, the wind would tear through the volikis like they were made of parchment.

I saw Vodan across the way as more of the horde rushed from their homes, roused by the commotion.

Over the wind, I shouted, “Keep the hides tied down! Get these posts up and brace them!”

I joined the group of warriors hefting up the heavy posts. They would need to be placed back one at a time, given their weight and the ferocity of Drukkar’s winds.

I met Vodan’s eyes across the clearing and I bellowed, “Get the steel braces from the reserves!”

He inclined his head and ordered a group of warriors to follow him as we lifted and fought to reposition one of the posts. By the time Vodan returned, we had it in place so the other group could hammer the heavy steel braces into the remaining post at its side and secure another brace behind the post to give it strength against the winds.

We worked methodically through the freezing rain, our muscles shaking from the cold and the strain.

After the second post was secured, I looked behind me at the horde and saw groups at the affected volikis, struggling to keep the hides tied down.

For a moment, my stomach dropped because I spied Nelle among them. Despite my orders for her to stay inside, she was gripping one of the ropes in her small hands, leaning back as she fought to keep it from lifting. Two warriors and another female were securing the same voliki, and even from that distance, I saw her strain and fight to keep the rope in her grip.

A growl rose in my chest when I saw the end of the rope whip across her cheek, her face jerking to the side…but she never let go.

“Vorakkar,” Vodan shouted through the rain. When I looked at him, I saw they were ready with the third brace and I forced myself to look away from Nelle, refocusing my attention on the task at hand. The sooner we repaired the fence and stabilized it, the sooner we would all be out of immediate danger.

It took us a chunk of the night to repair the damage. I ordered every last fence post to be braced so none of the others were in danger of falling, depleting our stores of spare steel. I would need more delivered from Dothik or from one of the outposts after the cold season.

Throughout it all, I saw Nelle a handful of times when I turned to look for her. Always, she was helping the horde, helping with the volikis, though I saw the strain it put on her.

When the half moon was beginning to sink in the sky, once I was satisfied that the fence would last through a dozen cold seasons, once I was certain that no more homes were in danger from the winds, I went to look for Nelle.

When I found her, she was next to a young warrior named Odrii and a barrel fire, which barely flickered with flame. The warrior wore a worried expression on his face, which made my pace quicken.

“What is it, thissie?” I rasped when I reached her.

In the low light of the fire, I cursed when I saw she was pale and shivering violently. When I touched her cheek, it felt colder than the rain. It was then I noticed that she was soaked through to the bone. Even my furs around her shoulders did little to keep her warm.

“Vok,” I growled. Turning to the warrior, I bit out, “Bring hot water to my voliki immediately.”

“Lysi, Vorakkar,” the warrior replied and rushed off.

I scooped Nelle up, ignoring the stares of the horde members I passed, and raced to my voliki. Once we were inside, I drew her over to the fire, which still burned, and threw on more fuel, growing it until it roared and flickered in its gold basin. In the light, I saw her skin looked a little blue, her veins more noticeable under her translucent flesh.

She hadn’t spoken and that was enough to make me worry.

“I told you to stay inside, thissie,” I murmured, ripping my furs from her shoulders. Her clothes were dripping on the rugs and though my own were soaked through, Dakkari could withstand colder temperatures. Humans, apparently, could not.

A violent shiver racked her body just as the young warrior ducked his way inside the tent, followed by another, each carrying bucketfuls of steaming hot water from the common bathing voliki.

Once they filled the bath to the brim, replacing the cold water from earlier, they left, though Odrii threw a worried glance at Nelle on his way out.

Quickly, I stripped her of her clothes, throwing them near the fire, and steam curled off them.

“What is this?” I rasped down to her, still worried that she hadn’t spoken. “You will not fight me when I undress you, kalles?”

When she was naked, I scooped her up again and she hissed when my wet clothes touched her bare flesh.

“I am sorry, thissie,” I murmured to her, slipping her into the hot bath.

A startled cry escaped her and I gritted my teeth, knowing the hot water was probably painful against her freezing flesh.

“It will pass,” I tried to soothe, kneeling next to the bath. “It will pass, kalles.”

Her eyes were dilated when they met mine. I dipped my hands into the water, warming them so they wouldn’t startle her, and I ordered, “Dunk your head under.”

She was still shivering, but did as I said. I helped her resurface as she sputtered.

I rose and went over to one of my chests, pulling fermented wine from my stores. I brought it over to her in a goblet and had her sip it.

“This will help warm you from the inside,” I told her, having her take another sip, though a rattling cough rose from her chest after the first.

Another shiver ran down her spine and finally she spoke, through pale lips, “I c-can’t get w-warm.”

My jaw clenched. “Just give it time, rei thissie.”

There was a harsh mark across her right cheek and I knew it was from the rope. I remembered the way she’d fought to keep the hides tied down and my chest squeezed with a familiar sensation, the same one I’d felt when I saw Kakkari’s light in her eyes.

“You were brave tonight, Nelle,” I murmured, my voice low, as I skimmed the backs of my fingers over the mark. “Thank you for helping.”

She blinked at my words, her pale lips parting. Outside, Drukkar’s winds still raged and for a brief, startling moment, I was furious with him. For putting my horde in danger, for putting Nelle in danger. For injuring two of my warriors.

Let it go, I ordered myself, like all fierce emotion I experienced. I didn’t let myself feel it for too long. I couldn’t.

A drip of water ran down my arm from the furs around my shoulders, into her bath, and I was reminded that I was still soaked.

After I gave Nelle another sip of the fermented drink, I rose and went closer to the fire, undressing quickly to warm up. I stood there, nude, for a brief moment, feeling the heat flicker across my skin. But it didn’t take long for my body to return to its normal state, even as my thissie continued to shiver in the hot bath.

When I returned to her, she had dragged her knees up to her chest and hugged her arms around them, folding in on herself in an attempt to get warmer.

The three lashes across her back looked purple in the light. The kerisa had Nelle stop wearing the bandages and the salve once the skin had begun to heal over. Though they still looked tender, the flesh had mended, but it didn’t stop my belly from churning at the sight of them. It didn’t stop my mind from going back to that morning, from remembering the way her body jerked as the first lash fell, from remembering her soft cry after the third.

She’d told me she wasn’t angry with me for the whipping, but how could she not be?

My fists clenched as I kneeled next to the bathing tub. Her face was turned towards me, her uninjured cheek pressed to the top of her knee, those dark eyes tracking my own.

“W-will the fence h-hold?” she asked.

“Lysi,” I rasped, my voice dark with my thoughts. Underneath the water’s surface, I saw her breasts, her slim waist. She had put on weight in the past week, for which I was relieved and grateful.

“Was anyone hurt?” she whispered.

“Two warriors, but the healer is with them,” I said. I would check on them in the morning.

I saw her eyes flutter briefly before she reopened them and I knew she needed sleep. When I dipped my hand into the water, I realized it was beginning to cool from her body.

After another long moment, I decided that I could keep her warmer than her bath could and pulled her from the tub.

I dried her off quickly next to the fire, though I was still worried when she didn’t try to fight me off. Once I was satisfied, I wrapped her in a thick fur and carried her to bed.

She didn’t fight me when I dragged her close. Even when I parted the furs, even when I pressed her bare skin against my body so that she could absorb my heat, she didn’t fight me. I cocooned the both of us and she pressed her still-cold cheek into my side, shivering, and shoved her hands between the furs and my back.

I felt her pebbled, tight nipples but I tried to fight off the poorly timed desire that rose. She would only retreat if she felt it, so I kept my need close, knowing that getting her warm was the most important thing that night.

But I didn’t expect how good it would feel…holding her close. That primal part of me that I tried to keep locked away reared its head and thickened my cock and made that moment feel so right. Like I was always meant to hold her like this.

“Veekor, thissie,” I rumbled, tightening my arms around her lashed back, spreading my warm palms over her thickening scars, and tucking her legs between mine. “I will keep you warm tonight.”