Captive of the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Chapter Fifteen

Pacing the confines of the tent, I blew out an impatient, anxious breath for the hundredth time in the last four hours, give or take.

I was worried, frightened, irritated…and I didn’t know what else to do so I simply paced. Back and forth. The scarred guard wouldn’t let me outside, though I could tell that night had already fallen. There was still no word about what had happened in the camp prior to Arokan’s departure. And if the guard knew, he was keeping a tight lip.

Mirari and Lavi watched me, fidgeting on their cushions. They held blades in their hands, as if they were prepared to fight if something or someone entered the tent.

Earlier, I’d asked them if they knew how to use blades, if they’d been trained to defend themselves.

“Lysi,” Mirari replied. “All Dakkari know how to fight. We were all trained.”

I didn’t know how to fight. There had never been a need for it, especially when other work had to be done in the village.

But now, trapped in a tent, after what happened earlier…I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do if something came through the entrance and attacked us. I wouldn’t know what to do.

“What do you think is happening?” I asked again.

“I am sure the Vorakkar is handling it, whatever it is,” Mirari tried to reassure me.

I’d never been patient, one of my many faults.

“Do you think—”

The tent flap pulled back and Arokan appeared, a stormy, furious expression on his face. He ordered the piki to leave and Mirari and Lavi scurried out without a backwards glance, obviously sensing the same mood I was.

Sharp relief made me a little lightheaded but soon, anger took its place. Which probably wasn’t the wisest emotion to show, considering Arokan looked…untamed. He looked ready to boil over.

“Where the hell have you been?” I cried out. “What happened out there? I’ve been imagining the worst—what are you doing?”

Arokan growled, capturing my hands with his tail in a tight grip when I pushed at his chest, and he tugged down my pants with a rough pull.

Suddenly, I was naked from the waist down, my bare sex and bare buttocks on display. Then he pushed me down onto the furs, turning me so I was bent over the edge.

My breaths came out in rough pants when I struggled against him, my cheek pressed against the furs, my hair tangling in front of my eyes. “Arokan,” I hissed. “Right now is not the time for—”

I jerked in shock when he gave my exposed buttocks a slap. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to get my attention, to make me seethe.

“Enough,” he growled. “All I need right now is to be buried in your cunt. Nothing more.”

Disbelief and fury and something I didn’t want to identify—something that felt an awful lot like need—made me buck against him and hiss, “You did not just do that. I’m not your damn pyroki, Arokan!”

“Nik, you are certainly not,” he rasped, untying the laces of his pants, pushing the waist band down over his hard cock with a rough jerk. “Kailon is obedient.”

I gasped, outraged, and tried to scratch at his arms when his hands came to grip my hips, when they slid under my tunic to cup my breasts. I cried out in frustration when he pinched my nipples softly, a sizzle of arousal running through my belly.

His tail once again captured my wrists, holding them tight behind my back, until I couldn’t move, not with him keeping me in place.

One of his hands left my breasts and I felt the pad of his finger run down my slit. He found my clit and I made a desperate sound in the back of my throat, my hips bucking. I couldn’t tell if I was trying to get away…or trying to press closer.

“Tell me what happened today,” I ordered, though, to my mortification, my voice came out breathless.

“I will,” he rasped. “After.”

“Ugh!”

His finger slid inside me. When that finger curled against my inner walls, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Damn you,” I whispered when my hips moved of their own accord, moving against him, seeking that pleasure I knew he could give me. Maybe this was what I needed…a release. A release of the frustration and worry and anger that had been building and building all afternoon.

Suddenly, his finger retreated and I felt the press of his cock take its place. Though I bit my lip at the sharp twinge I felt, I didn’t cry out as he thrust inside me.

So deep, so hard.

So good.

Stars burst in my vision and I gasped into the furs as he pinched my nipple a little harder.

“Lysi,” he hissed and then he pulled out, thrusting back inside with more force.

Then he didn’t stop.

He fucked me hard and fast, grunts of pleasure emanating from him, while desperate moans tumbled from me. Every hard, throbbing, hot inch of him stimulated me in places I hadn’t even known existed…places that threatened to consume me with pleasure.

He was savage. He was thorough. He knew how to fuck me until I screamed. He knew how to fuck me until I was cumming all over his cock.

He bit out a curse. “Already, kassikari?” his voice dark and velvety and absolutely sinful. “Vok, you need this just like I do. Tell me!”

“No,” I bit out in between gasps as my amazing orgasm made every muscle in my body clench tight.

“Stubborn kalles,” he grunted, slamming into me hard.

It didn’t take him long after to orgasm. I moaned into the furs when I felt him shoot his hot seed into me, pulsing and throbbing. His roaring groan of release rang in my ears.

His tail released my hands and it wasn’t until just then that I realized he’d been mindful of my fresh, raw markings.

With a purring sound, he dragged me up the bed until I collapsed against him, my head cushioned on his chest, which heaved underneath my cheek. He was flat on his back, with his pants still down to his mid-thighs, his cock resting on his taut abdomen.

When I caught my breath, I pressed my fingernails into his flesh and said, “I hate you.”

“Nik, you do not,” he said next, his voice surprisingly soft. He turned his head to look at me and continued with, “I think you want to. But you do not, kalles.”

Arokan stretched his other arm over his head, arching his back a little, and I realized that he no longer looked ready to kill someone. Most of the tension had drained from his body.

I didn’t know what the hell had just happened, but he’d fucked a little of my temper right out of me. It should disturb me how easily I’d given into him, how much I’d wanted it.

But right then, with my cheek pressed against his chest, with my tunic ridden up to just below my breasts, and his seed leaking from my body…I felt decidedly less disturbed than I should be.

“What happened this afternoon?” I asked, not wanting to dwell on that thought, needing a distraction.

His muscles tensed. He turned his head to regard me, those yellow-rimmed eyes contracting. “I am not done with you yet.”

He wanted…more?

Swallowing, I said, “You said you would tell me after and this is after.”

He blew out a breath, reaching out to run a hand through my hair. He grunted, though I couldn’t tell if it was in frustration or amusement. “You are right.”

Surprise made me raise my brows.

He frowned and said, “We captured a Ghertun scout on the edge of the camp.”

I gasped, sitting up to look down at him. “What?”

“He came from the forest. He will not tell us where the rest of his pack is, despite our methods of…persuasion.”

I thought back to the movement in the forest we’d heard during the walk we’d taken and I brought a hand to my throat, “I thought there was something or someone in the forest when we went in earlier this afternoon.”

Arokan froze. “Neffar?”

Had that been a Ghertun? Had he been watching us?

I shivered and said, “We heard branches snapping. I thought maybe it was a beast of some kind and we turned around. But now…I can’t help but wonder if—”

Arokan broke out with a loud curse, pressing a hand to his eyes.

“Arokan,” I said gently.

“You will have two guards watching you at all times if I am not with you,” he said, his voice hard and unyielding.

My mouth dropped. “That’s completely unnecessary. I don’t even need one.”

“Ghertun are dangerous. I will not risk your safety,” he growled, glaring up at me, though his words made my breath catch. “I have seen them do unspeakable things and if there is a scout nearby, then his pack is not far behind.”

“You think they mean to attack us?” I asked, freezing. “They mean to attack a whole horde? That’s suicide.”

“I do not know yet,” he replied. For some reason, I had expected him to be tight-lipped about matters like these. It surprised me that he shared the information without hesitation. I was…grateful for that, that he wasn’t keeping me in the dark. “It is possible the tassimara drew them near. Regardless, we are close enough to Dothik where I have to take action before they get too close to the capital.”

My heart beat drummed with dread. “What do you mean to do?”

“Find them before they find us,” he answered. “Ghertun scouts usually travel two days ahead of a pack. We have time.”

I dragged my knees to my chest and I felt Arokan’s hand stroke up my back. We were quiet for a moment before I said, “Thank you for telling me.”

“You are Morakkari,” he replied. “You have a right to know.”

Did I? Up until a few days ago, I hadn’t even known about the Ghertuns’ existence, much less the danger that they posed.

Turning my head slightly, I looked down at Arokan, sprawled out beside me.

I could have done a lot worse for myself, I realized suddenly, that knowledge bursting through me. I’d never given thought to joining my life with a man. Never given much thought to a future with a family, with children, not when my village was struggling, not when there was work to be done, not when Kivan needed me to be strong.

But Arokan was strong. He protected his people at all costs, could show mercy when needed, kindness when it was unexpected.

He hadn’t abused me, hadn’t hurt me. Instead, he’d made me his queen and answered my questions without hesitation. He’d given me a job that would challenge me, he’d given me guards to protect me, and he’d driven me mad with frightening desire.

He was…not what I had expected.

“I dispatched my pujerak to your village this morning,” he said quietly.

Hope sprang in my chest. The messenger with the three bveri. The deal we’d made last night at the tassimara…

“You did?”

He jerked his head in a nod. “He should have already arrived.”

I looked away when unexpected tears sprang in my eyes. I didn’t want him to see me cry, but the thought that my brother could have fresh meat, actual food for the first time…it was something I never thought would happen.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“You honored your promise to me,” he said. “I have honored mine.”

When I was sure that my tears weren’t going to fall, I looked at him, resting my cheek on my knees. It occurred to me that this moment almost felt comfortable. That it felt almost natural to sit there and talk to him in that bed.

“When I was younger,” I said softly, “a Dakkari horde came to our village. A few males walked through. It was my first time seeing a Dakkari up close. They were just observing us, though their presence put everyone on edge.” Arokan grunted. “Then one of them saw one of our villagers. A young woman named Mithelda. He took her, which shocked us all. They left and we never saw her again.”

Arokan said carefully, “What are you asking me?”

“Nothing,” I said softly. “I just…I wanted you to know that before you even stepped foot inside my village, I had decided that if you had another use for me, if the Dakkari did indeed take female war prizes from settlements, that that was something I was willing to give you.”

Arokan’s tail came up and wrapped around my ankle. “Dakkari do not take war prizes, Luna. It is more likely that that male’s Vorakkar gave him permission to take a kassikari. He saw a female he wanted and he bound himself to her, in the old tradition by capturing her. If he is an honorable horde warrior, I can assure you that this female of yours is safe and well.”

I sucked in a breath, staring at him. “What?”

“Horde warriors may only take a kassikari with permission,” he told me. “Only when he proves himself a valuable and strong warrior to his Vorakkar.”

“What do you mean by the old tradition?” I asked quietly, my mind racing. He’d said something about that, about claiming me in the old way. What did that mean?

“It is ancient. Perhaps primitive,” he said with a small quirk of his lips, which sent my heart racing, “but it speaks to the soul of the Dakkari. We were once a race spread across the planet, of warring factions, until we united under one king, though it took many bloody, many long wars before then. During that time, warriors would unite their factions together, growing stronger, by capturing females from opposite sides to bind themselves together, creating offspring, forming blood ties between the enemy factions that were unbreakable. It created a network across the planet, held together by females and their sacrifices, bridging gaps, gaining alliances. That is the old tradition.”

“You…” I trailed off, processing the information. “You always knew, from the beginning, what you intended for me.”

“Lysi, I told you as much,” he replied. “Kakkari revealed you to me. I took you. I bound us.”

“Because I’m human?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Because you want to bridge an alliance between my kind and yours?”

Arokan growled, his hand reaching out to grip my waist, dragging me closer until I was pressed against his side again.

“Nik. I took you because I wanted you for myself. I do not care that you are human. That never mattered.”

“It should,” I whispered. “I told you it would’ve been easier, easier for your people to accept a queen if she was Dakkari.”

“I do not want easy,” he murmured. “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

My breath hitched and I looked up at him.

“You’re being…sweet,” I said. “Stop, I don’t like it.”

Arokan barked out a stunningly laugh, which shocked me enough that my jaw fell open.

“Why?” he rasped when he stopped. “Because it reminds you that you do not hate me like you say?”

My belly was fluttering from that laugh and alarm bells went off in my head. Warming his bed, standing beside him as his queen was one thing. Having feelings for him was an entirely different beast.

“You’re right,” I whispered. “I don’t hate you.”

That knowledge grated. I should hate him. But except for the whole capturing me from my village thing…he’d never given me a reason to hate him.

I gasped when his fingers trailed to my sex, softly stroking between my thighs.

“I would have been more gentle with you last night, had I known you were untried,” he murmured.

I stiffened as a flush rose to my cheeks. He’d seen the blood coating my thighs that morning. “I didn’t think to tell you.”

“Even still, you should have.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s done now.”

Arokan inhaled a slow breath, those eyes watching me, those fingers exploring me. I bit my lip when his thumb brushed my clit. “Do humans have an aversion to mating as they do with nudity?”

I rolled my eyes, though the question embarrassed me. “No.”

“Then why were you untried?”

“Because there wasn’t any time to think about that,” I confessed. “There were men in my village who I think would’ve had me, if I had shown interest.” Arokan stiffened, a growl rising from his chest, though it sounded like he tried to stop it before it emerged. “There was much to be done. I worked all my waking hours, trying to keep us fed. Sex seemed…unimportant compared to that. Food keeps you alive. Sex does not.”

Arokan was frowning. His hand paused between my legs and he seemed to be thinking something over.

He went quiet for a long time, long enough for me to grow drowsy from the day, from the sex, from the warmth emanating from his body.

Finally, he said gruffly, “Sleep, kalles. Tomorrow will be long.”

“Why?” I whispered, my eyelids already half-lowered. Why was he so warm? Why did he feel so good?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his jaw clench.

“Because tomorrow you will stand beside me and do your duty as Morakkari.”

“What do I need to do?”

“Something I do not think you will like,” was all he said.

My eyes closed, lost to the world, before I even registered his words, before I ever wondered what he meant.