Claimed By the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Chapter Five

“Her fever grows, Vorakkar,” the healer said. “She will burn up before the dawn.”

I stared down at the wreckage of her flesh. The human female was slick with sweat and she trembled every so often in sleep. Despite the healer’s attempts, infection had already taken root. It had been three days since I’d brought the kalles to my camp. She had not woken up on the second day.

“What will you do?” I growled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the healer still at my tone.

“I recommend an ice bath,” she replied, her voice hesitant. “Have your warriors bring in the water from the river. They will need to break the ice to retrieve it.”

“Very well,” I said, rising.

“Vorakkar,” the healer called out softly. I turned back to her, but her gaze remained averted. “I—I have never treated a vekkiri before. They are different from us, weaker. I do not wish for you to be angry with me if I cannot heal her. I—I cannot go back to Dothik.”

My brows drew together. She thought her place in the horde balanced on the kalles’ life. Had I given her that impression?

“Your home is always here, kerisa,” I told her, trying to soften my tone. “But do not let her die.”

Vodan found me when I exited my tent. His eyes strayed to the entrance but I caught the flash of disapproval in his gaze.

Beyond him, I saw a small group of horde warriors standing around a barrel fire, laughing and eating.

“Darukkar,” I called out. The group immediately turned and straightened when they saw me standing there.

While I relayed my orders to the horde warriors and watched as they filed out of the camp, heading west towards the river, I sensed my pujerak close in.

“What is it?” I asked him, breathing in the crisp air through my nostrils and looking out over my horde.

“There are already whisperings around the camp,” he told me. “You will need to address her presence soon. Many wonder why a vekkirikalles stays in your voliki.”

“Tell them what you must,” I said.

“That she is your war prize? That she is your whore?”

I huffed out an impatient breath, my eyes seeking the moon hanging above our camp. It was only a crescent moon, but once it was full, whether the cold season descended or not, I had to be in Dothik.

“Should I tell them everything but the truth?”

“And what is it?” I rasped, locking my gaze with his. “Tell me, pujerak, what you believe the truth is.”

He said nothing, but I could see the knowledge of it in his eyes.

I shook my head, my eyes returning to the moon. Then, I said, “You are not my blood brother, Vodan, but you are my family. You always have been, since we were young.”

Vodan sighed. I remembered him right then as when I’d first seen him. Dirty and small and hungry. Just like I’d been.

“We built something in Dothik. Together. We built this horde because I could not have done it without you,” I said. “Now, I need that support. I need you to stop questioning me. Because though you are my brother, I am still your Vorakkar and I need you to remember that.”

He held my gaze but I saw when my request permeated.

“I will not pretend to know what it is like, going through the Trials of the Dothikkar,” my pujerak said after a brief pause. “I will not pretend to know what it takes, mentally and physically, to become a Vorakkar.”

“Maybe it takes a monster,” I said, meeting his eyes. “Maybe that is the only way.”

Vodan huffed out a sharp exhale, dismissing my words. “You believe you are a monster? I disagree. I believe that you have to be strong in order to best lead this horde. You cannot have mercy because mercy can kill. You cannot be swayed.” His eyes went to tent. “And this female? She sways you. She will.”

“The horde always come first. You know this,” I told him, furrowing my brow. “One female will never change that.”

Vodan sighed. He looked out over the horde encampment at the gentle golden glow from the drum fires and oil lamps.

“I will tell them that she is yours,” Vodan said simply, quietly.

Desires I’d long thought dead reawakened at his words, but I pushed them from my mind as best as I could.

Discipline. It was required of us all, I reminded myself. The Dothikkar had ensured that in his selection of his Vorakkars.

“Return to your wife, Vodan,” I rasped, turning from him, my voice husky from my thoughts. “Enjoy her warmth and think no more of this tonight.”

“Then return to yours, Vorakkar,” my pujerak said, tilting his head towards my voliki. His eyes were watchful and knowing as he added, “Because that is what she will become, is it not?”

* * *

When the hordewarriors returned with the river water, I returned to my voliki, following them inside, watching as they filled the bathing tub.

After I dismissed them, the healer said, “Can you lift her in, Vorakkar? Her back cannot get wet or the sutures will fail. Keep her bent forward.”

The healer stripped the kalles of her pants, leaving her naked on my furs. I froze for a moment, looking at her backside, her legs, the jutting bones of her hips. I swallowed. She was much too thin. I hadn’t realized how much until just then.

And she was much too light, I thought, when I picked her up, careful of her back. She was shivering in my arms.

When I placed her in the icy water, she didn’t even wake and I maneuvered her body as the healer said, kneeling by the side of the bathing tub to keep her steady and in place.

Her back was red and inflamed from my lashes, little veins spearing out from the wounds.

“How long?” I asked the healer, not lifting my gaze from the kalles’ face.

“Not long, but we will need to do this multiple times through the night.”

When her trembling vibrated the water around her, I took her out. A short while later, I put her back in, once we brought in more ice to cool the water.

It was a long night, but once morning broke, the exhausted healer told me that her fever was under control, that the worst of it was over.

“I will return,” the healer said, packing up her serums and vials, “in the evening. Or if she wakes before then, you can send for me, Vorakkar.”

“Kakkira vor, kerisa,” I said.

My gratitude made color rise in her cheeks, but I was already looking back down at the kalles and I didn’t notice when the healer slipped from the tent.

Lowering myself onto the furs next to her, I stretched out in my bed, knowing I needed to sleep, though dawn was just breaking. I hadn’t slept for three days and exhaustion was beginning to pull at the edges of my mind.

Now that I knew the kalles would make it through another day, I let myself relax, if only slightly.

When I turned my head to look at her, I saw her closed eyelids twitch.

Her eyes opened a fraction and connected with mine. She didn’t react when she saw me close to her, as I guessed she might. She was a peculiar thing, unpredictable in nature, and that frustrated me.

Perhaps she didn’t realize she was awake, or perhaps she was still delirious from the fever. She looked at me, deep, and whispered, “Hello, demon.”

Her eyes closed before I could react.

“Sleep, thissie,” I said back after a quiet moment.

Then I slept too.