Claimed By the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Chapter Thirty-Four

My breathing was ragged and my voice was hoarse when I groaned, “I have created a monster, rei thissie. An insatiable monster.”

Her laugh trickled in my ears even though she was straddling my hips and my seed spilled from her cunt. Even though she’d just come so hard she’d left the imprints of her dull little claws in my flesh.

“You always say that,” she murmured, leaning down to brush her lips across my own.

“Because it is true,” I growled, keeping her hips anchored on me when she moved to slide away.

It had been a month since I returned from my journey to Dothik. A month of bitter cold, of ice and snow, of fierce windstorms that sometimes made it impossible to venture outside. A month of my female in my furs, of her laugh and kisses across my flesh, of lying in quiet at night as the fire crackled in the voliki, memorizing her soft eyes as though I needed to imprint them onto my very soul. As if they weren’t already.

A month of a deep-rooted, consuming happiness for perhaps the first time in my life.

Her contented sigh drifted across my lips and she pulled back.

“I miss you already,” she whispered, which was something she’d often expressed before we had to leave one another for our daily duties.

My thissie had always been open to me. She never hid her emotions and I read what she so easily expressed without difficulty.

What I had begun to see over a month ago in her eyes had blossomed and grown. A combination of desire, friendship, respect, curiosity, confidence, and complete acceptance, as though she knew her love changed everything.

She’d never verbally said it to me. She hadn’t needed to.

It was I that held back, however, despite everything that had transpired between us.

“My council meeting may run into the night,” I told her. “We begin planning for our journey south, once the thaw comes.”

She nodded. She got quiet whenever we referenced the end of the cold season, as if she didn’t want to think about it. Because she believed I would have her returned to her village, as I’d once told her. After all, I had still made her no promises, though the knowledge settled like acid in my belly.

“You will like the Hitri mountains,” I told her softly, after a lengthy pause.

Her eyes flickered to me.

“And the forests beyond them,” I added. My eyes went to Blue’s feathers, still around her neck, and said, “You may even see the thissies you are so fond of. They make their home in the southlands.”

Nelle swallowed and I felt a stinging pinch of guilt. My words were what she’d needed to hear after so long, but I thought, perhaps naively, that she would realize she would be staying with the horde. That I would not—nik, could not—send her away. Not now. Not ever.

“I think I will like them, Seerin,” she said softly before a small, hesitant smile touched her lips.

It is settled then, I thought.

I gave her one last kiss and then pulled her off me. I rose from our furs, where she’d spent every night with me. My eyes couldn’t help but go to the deviri, to the three closed chests that lined the wall of the voliki.

Inside them were gifts for my chosen Morakkari, to present to her after the tassimara, the joining celebration. Gold, jewelry, fine silks, hair adornments, and precious gems were within. Items that I had collected for her during my time as Vorakkar, from Dothik, from the Dakkari outposts or other hordes we’d passed along our journeys.

My thissie didn’t care about gold or riches. One of her favorite gifts was the rock that Arlah, the seamstresses’ young boy, had given her. It sat on my cabinet, next to the dagger I’d given her, as if she couldn’t stand to be parted from it. The Dakkari steel bow I’d brought back for her from Dothik—a more appropriate size for her—was leaning against the wall next to the cabinet.

My Nelle liked her gifts. She didn’t care what they were, just that they were given freely.

Crouching in front of one of the deviri chests, I pulled open the lid and took a jeweled pendant from within, one whose color matched the shimmering thissie feathers hanging between her breasts. Its delicate chain was gold and the gem was small, but brilliant in its beauty. It would suit Nelle perfectly.

When I returned to her, she was sitting up in bed, watching me. She stilled when she saw the necklace, her eyes flickering in surprise as I clasped the chain around her neck.

It was shorter than Blue’s pendant and settled just between her delicate collarbones. I touched the gem, feeling it already begin to warm from her skin.

“It’s beautiful, Seerin,” she said softly, looking down at it before meeting my eyes.

“Then it is perfect for you, rei thissie.”

She flushed, pleased with my words and my gift, touching the necklace.

I began to dress, aware that her eyes were on me the entire time. When I was done, I leaned down and pressed another kiss to her warm lips, lingering long enough to make me question my decision to leave that cold morning.

“Thank you,” she whispered between us.

With a growl, I pulled away.

“I will return to you later, starling.”

And with one last look, I forced myself to leave.

* * *

Later that evening,long after the sun had begun to sink behind the Hitri mountains, I finally made my way to the council’s voliki towards the front of the encampment.

When I ducked inside, I found the elders, my pujerak, and my head warriors were already within.

Angled looks turned to me and one of the elders, who’d been speaking in a low tone, ceased abruptly when I appeared. I straightened to my full height and shrugged the pelt from my shoulders, hanging it near the entrance before studying my council.

A strange tension permeated the air, but one I’d grown more familiar with in the last month. This wasn’t the first time I’d caught them speaking in hushed tones prior to my arrival. And I knew that it couldn’t go on.

When I stepped up to the high table, I said quietly to all of them, “You must think I am a fool if you believe that I will tolerate whispered words behind my back. You must think me a fool, indeed.”

My head warrior, Ujak, shifted on his feet. Only Vodan met my eyes.

“Look me in my eyes and tell me,” I said, cutting my gaze to the elders, to the three that stood across the table. “I will not allow this to continue so we may as well discuss it now.”

No one spoke. When I looked to Vodan, his jaw ticked, but his eyes were knowing. They said, I already warned you this would happen.

The back of my neck tingled. I rasped, “Tell me what you were speaking of. Now.”

It was one of the elders who finally spoke.

“You intend to take the vekkiri as your Morakkari, do you not?”

My gaze narrowed on him, not liking the way he twisted the word vekkiri on his tongue, as though it was distasteful. My mother had done the same.

“The entire horde suspects that you will,” he continued. “You will make her your Morakkari before the thaw, before we travel to the southlands. Is that not true?”

Claws digging into my palms, I met his gaze steadily, though I did not deny his words.

“We cannot forbid you from doing this, Vorakkar,” the elder next to him said. Slowly, he added, “However, we can strongly suggest against it.”

I bristled at the tone in his voice.

“Neffar?” I asked quietly, drawing out the word slowly, meeting his eyes.

It was…a threat. A subtle one, but a threat nonetheless.

The third elder spoke, “Already, three families are planning to leave the horde once the thaw comes. Four unmated females and one of the bikku have also announced to the pujerak that they intend to return to Dothik, to await the next horde launch once the Dothikkar selects his newest Vorakkar.”

My gaze turned to Vodan and he at least had the decency to look away.

My head warrior spoke next, “Seven warriors have told me they will also detach from Rath Tuviri once the thaw comes. Unless…”

He trailed off but I knew what he would say.

Looking down at the table, at the map of Dakkar, I mentally traced the route I was planning to take to lead my horde through the Hitri. Over two dozen of my horde would not be a part of that journey. A significant number of my horde. Losing seven warriors didn’t seem like much, given over forty would remain, but my horde would feel their loss once the Ghertun attacks started again. Losing four unmated females could potentially decrease that warrior count even further, compromising the safety of the horde.

“She would weaken us. She is already weakening us since there are those that will not tolerate a vekkiri queen. They would rather return to Dothik than have her rule this horde beside you,” the first elder said. His jaw set, sure in his decision, as he continued, “We have decided that if you take the vekkiri as your Morakkari, then we can no longer serve Rath Tuviri either.”

“We?” I rasped, feeling his words like they were a punch in my gut. My eyes turned to my head warrior, whose lips pressed together in hesitation, before they went to Vodan.

My oldest friend swallowed as he met my gaze.

“Even you, pujerak?” I asked slowly, a knot forming in my chest. “You agree with the council? You would leave Rath Tuviri and return to Dothik if I took her as my Morakkari?”

You would leave me, what we’ve built? I asked him silently. It went unspoken between us. Vodan hated Dothik as much as I did and he’d told me long ago that he would follow me always.

Vodan straightened, drawing in a deep breath, as he nodded. He didn’t say anything. It was only a brief incline of his head but it was a physical and emotional blow that hit hard. It stunned me in place.

His answer was a betrayal, one that took me by surprise because I’d never suspected that he would ever betray me like this, with whispers among my council. I’d trusted Vodan more than I’d trusted anyone in my entire life. He was a brother to me, a loyal friend, an advisor. We’d been together since we were boys in the streets of Dothik and we’d always looked out for one another.

He loved me like a brother and I loved him. But in one single moment, the trust that I’d placed in him chipped and fractured and I mourned the loss of it.

Silence weighed heavy in the voliki as they waited for me to speak.

I thought of Nelle. I thought of her love, written plainly in her eyes, and the thissie feathers around her neck. I thought of when I’d first seen her in that darkened forest with a wooden bow clutched in her grip. I remembered thinking she seemed sad, but I didn’t realize at the time that I’d felt that same emotion in myself. That over time, she had erased that sadness in me, as I’d erased it in her.

But it was I who would give it back to her in full.

My mother’s words returned to me then, words she’d said to me in Dothik.

“Do you think your council and your pujerak will stand behind you if you take a vekkiri as your queen? Nik, of course not. If they leave you, your horde will fall. Everything will be for nothing.”

I remembered thinking then that Vodan would stand with me, and with him by my side, the horde would always be strong. Because, unlike the other hordes, ours was a partnership.

Now, he was threatening to leave.

“Then I see that it has already been decided for me,” I said slowly, meeting the eyes of my council.

They had backed me into a corner. The horde could survive a couple dozen members leaving, but it would fall if my council and my pujerak left, just as my mother said. They knew that and I knew that. Even a Vorakkar had limits on his power.

Dread and grief lodged in my chest, making it hard to breathe.

“The horde always comes first,” I murmured, though bitterness tinged my words now. I met Vodan’s eyes, saw the relief in them. “Isn’t that right, pujerak?”

Whatever he saw made his gaze shutter, made shame creep into his expression. He knew this would change us. It already had.

“We are done this night,” I rasped, needing to leave the voliki. “We will meet tomorrow to make plans for after the thaw.”

“Very good, Vorakkar,” one of the elders said, a small smile on his lips. A smile that made my belly churn and nausea rise.

I turned my back on them and left, already struggling to breathe when I was hit with the reality of what I had to do next.

Outside, the cold bit at my skin painfully. I was already halfway back to my own voliki, where Nelle waited for me, when I realized I’d forgotten my pelt.

“Seerin,” Vodan called from behind me. I’d heard his footsteps crunch after me immediately after I left the council. “Please. Let me explain.”

“There is no need, pujerak,” I said, my voice strangely detached. I was numbing myself, something I’d done often growing up, to keep the emotional pain at bay. It was something my mother taught me.

Bury them deep, my son. So you never know the pain of them.

“Seerin,” he said, “I tried to tell you. I tried to stop this from—”

“Enough,” I rasped, turning my gaze onto him. “I do not want to hear your excuses. You got what you wanted. So did the council.”

“I took no pleasure in it,” he assured me, as if it would make me feel better.

“I do not believe that,” I told him softly. His expression tightened at my words, his brows drawing together. “Return to your mate, pujerak. I have no more use for you as my advisor tonight.”

“I am still your friend, Seerin,” he said to my turned back when I resumed my journey to the voliki I shared with my thissie. “I hope you remember that.”

There were a million cutting things I could have said, but I bit my tongue. Instead, I said nothing and continued on my way, leaving him far behind me.

When I reached the entrance of my voliki, I closed my eyes, drawing in a deep breath before I pushed inside.

Warmth immediately infused my veins, a shocking contrast to the bitter cold outside. Nelle smiled when she saw me, sitting cross-legged in the middle of our bed, weaving a scarf for Arlah. She’d been working on it all week.

It only took her a moment to realize that my mood was off because her smile slowly died and her hand stilled on the half-finished scarf.

“What’s wrong, Seerin?” she asked, frowning, concerned.

Vok, I can’t do this, I thought. How was I ever going to do this?

I went to her, undressing as I went, shivering. She put the scarf aside and I caught her in my arms, pulling her under the furs.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, her hands resting on my chest. “What’s happened?”

I shook my head. I lied to her. “Nothing. I just need sleep. I just want to hold you, lysi?”

My answer didn’t satisfy her but she hesitantly settled down against me. “Alright,” she whispered, her breath drifting across my flesh, laying her head in the crook of my arm.

We would talk in the morning, I knew. I couldn’t bring myself to right then, though I knew that I should.

Nik, tonight, I would hold my thissie close because it could very well be the last time.