Captive Of The Horde King

by Zoey Draven

“I tried to stay calm,” I told him softly. “I watched them. I came up with a plan. You remember that night in the forest? When I drew the blade on you?”

  He nodded.

  “I remembered that night too. I did the same thing. I got one alone and close. I managed to get his dagger and I did what I had to do. I cut him where you taught me to,” I said, “to protect myself and our baby. Then I ran. I hid and then I heard the horde coming. The leader…he must’ve seen me. He was desperate by then, but you came before he could act on it.”

  Arokan looked at me and I watched him process my words.

  “I know that you think you failed me, but you didn’t,” I whispered, leaning forward to give him a small kiss. He breathed me in, his fingers delving into my hair. “You didn’t. It breaks my heart knowing you think that.”

  “I want…I need to kill them again, kalles,” he rasped. “For hurting you.”

  I stroked his hair, felt his tail wrap around my thigh. I knew that feeling wouldn’t go away for a long time.

  However, his words made me remember something.

  “Arokan, there’s something else,” I whispered.

  “Neffar?”

  “The leader,” I started, looking at him. “He said the Ghertun have a king. Did you know that?”

  Arokan’s lips pressed together. “We heard reports, lysi.”

  “They were going to take me to him,” I told him, eliciting a growl from my husband. “Apparently the scout that we found at the old camp…that was one of his sons. He wanted revenge. That’s why he took me because he knew it would hurt you. The leader said…he said that the king is planning to take all of Dakkar, that he has an army big enough to succeed.”

  “It is a concern, lysi,” Arokan rasped, “but the Ghertun do not know how many Dakkari warriors we have. I can assure you, kalles, that any army he has is no match for us.”

  I relaxed, nodding. After a moment, I whispered, “I was frightened, Arokan. I won’t deny that.” He tensed beside me. “But only because I feared for the baby. I feared that they would take me away before I ever saw you again.”

  He blew out a long breath that ruffled my hair, his arm tightening around me.

  “I was frightened too, Luna,” he confessed softly, his voice guttural and raw. “I have never been so frightened in my entire life.”

  My chest squeezed because I heard the truth in his voice.

  “Promise me you’ll stop thinking you failed me, Arokan,” I said, seeing his irises contract at my words. “Promise me.”

  His jaw clenched as he said, “I will do my best, kalles. That I can promise you.”

  It would have to be good enough. It would take time to move past this, to move on. It had both shaken us, I knew, but I knew that it would make us stronger. I didn’t doubt that.

  I took his hand again. I leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips and then I pulled back and said, “I love you, Arokan. No matter what, I love you. I regret not telling you sooner.”

  He leaned his forehead against mine. His voice deepened as he said, “I love you too, my Luna, rei kassikari, rei Morakkari. I think I have from the very first moment.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Two days later, when the sun sank just below the horizon, Hukan was standing before the raised dais, before Arokan and I.

  Night was falling. Her judgment was coming. The horde was assembled, the mood somber, the air so thick with tension, with anger, with disbelief, that I felt it as tangible as a touch against my skin. It weighed heavy in my lungs as I sat beside Arokan.

  I was dressed in gold, my shoulders and thighs bare. On my skin, for all the hordes’ eyes to see, was the Ghertun marking that had been burned into me. The healer had offered to cut it from my skin, so as not to be reminded.

  However, I wore my burn like a badge now. I didn’t want to erase what had happened simply because it hurt me to think of it. It had happened. I accepted it. I moved on.

  Just like Arokan’s scars, it had become a part of me the moment they’d burned it into my skin. I wore the marking of an enemy and it would forever be a reminder. I accepted that too.

  But it also reminded me that I survived. I came out the other side, not the five Ghertun who had taken me.

  And now, Hukan would answer for her betrayal. She was standing there, unchained, dressed in nothing but a white shift dress, her feet bare, her hair undone.

  Arokan had just finished recounting her crimes for all the horde to hear. He had finished revealing her conspiracy with the Ghertun to take me to their king when he said to her, “You have betrayed us all, Hukan of Rath Kitala.”

  I couldn’t help but flinch when he used her given name, a public disgrace. It pained Arokan, I knew it did. I wanted nothing more than to reach over and take his hand, but I was his queen and I had to be strong. I would sit beside him as he did his duties as Vorakkar.

  “She is not Dakkari,” Hukan hissed. “I did this for you. It was always for you.”

  Arokan’s hands clenched into his throne, but otherwise, he held his emotions in check.

  “She is Dakkari,” he argued, his voice deep and hard. “As is the child she carries in her womb at this very moment.”

  A murmuring went through the horde and Hukan’s face paled. I jerked my head over at Arokan before I looked at my brother from across the way. I hadn’t told him just yet, but he inclined his head when he saw me watching, as if to say it was alright. He was watching Hukan’s trial with Mirari standing right next to him.

  “A child,” Hukan said softly. Her eyes flashed to me. To Arokan. “I—I did not know there was a child.”

  “My child,” Arokan growled. “A child of Rath Kitala, your own line. You betrayed my queen and you betrayed your own blood.”

  Hukan was shaken by the news. For all her hatred of me, it seemed she held no hatred for my child. Because my child would share her blood, the blood of my husband, of his mother.

  Before Arokan delivered his judgment, I knew what it would be. He’d told me before the trial had begun. Dakkari were never executed for their crimes. Instead, they were to face the judgment of Kakkari. They were exiled into the wild lands, never again to have the comforts and security of a horde. They were given a single dagger with which to live or to die. If Hukan somehow reached an outpost, it was up to their leader to allow her admittance or not.

  A lonely, uncertain, and harsh existence awaited her.

  Tears pricked my eyes thinking about it. Not for Hukan’s sake, but for Arokan’s. This was a female he’d grown up loving and respecting. A female that had looked after him after his own parents had been murdered by the Ghertun. Yet, she’d conspired with them to betray me, to betray him.

  I didn’t feel sorry for her. She’d made her choice. She hadn’t denied it when she’d been confronted and two Dakkari had been murdered because of her.

  My heart ached only for Arokan, for the difficult decision that he’d had to make and the grief that would always haunt him because of it. He would always live with this decision.

  Arokan jerked his head at two Dakkari warrior escorts that would lead Hukan out into the wild lands, far away from the horde. Arokan stood from his throne. He descended the steps of the dais and stopped in front of his aunt. From his belt, he drew a dagger, which he gave to one of the escorts.

  “This was my mother’s dagger,” he said. “May it serve you well.”

  And then he bent his head low and spoke in Hukan’s ear. A goodbye, I knew. Perhaps even a thank you, for all that she had done for him up until that point. Because for all of her faults, she had protected Arokan when he’d been a child. She had given him council whenever he sought it. She had been his only remaining family.

  I didn’t know what was said. It was a moment only for them and my heart twisted in my chest when Hukan reached up to touch Arokan’s cheek.

  Then she looked at me. Our eyes held for a brief moment. I saw hers flicker over my healing split lip, the bruises on the side of my face from the
Ghertun leader, the burn that took up half my shoulder.

  Her eyes dropped to my belly, where my child grew.

  “You are at the mercy of Kakkari now,” Arokan said, breaking her gaze. “Pray that she is merciful. Pray that she is more merciful than I.”

  Hukan’s head dipped.

  Then she turned away slowly, towards the warrior escorts.

  Wanting to give Arokan comfort, I descended the dais to stand beside him. Discreetly, I slipped my hand into his as we watched the two escorts, on their pyroki, lead Hukan away. I squeezed his hand as we watched them grow smaller and smaller in the distance. The entire horde remained silent, watching until darkness fell over Dakkar. Watching until Hukan could be seen no more.

  She was lost in the wild lands now, never to return.

  Arokan kept a tight grip on my hand and I stood there with him, long after the horde members left, until it was just the two of us, staring into the dark night.

  Arokan’s eyes were closed as I smoothed the washing cloth over his shoulders, over his chest. The day had been hard on him, the grief still raw.

  The water was warm around us, in our bathing tub, our skin pressed together. I spread my fingers wide over his chest, felt his strong heartbeat underneath my palm. Steady and slow.

  I didn’t ask him if he was alright. Of course he wasn’t. I couldn’t make the pain go away. Time would help heal it, but it would always be there, like a scar. A reminder.

  And I was doing my best to comfort him, but I worried that it wasn’t enough.

  His eyes opened and he looked at me. He caught my hands and brought them up to his lips, before he slid his own hands down my body, to rest against my belly.

  “I don’t even know what to say this night,” I confessed, licking my bottom lip, the cut stinging.

  His eyes met mine. “Tell me that you love me,” he said, his voice guttural, deep.

  “I love you, Arokan,” I whispered into his ear. Words just for him. Though my shoulder was still healing, I brought my arms up to rest on his shoulders, wrapping my hands around the nape of his neck, holding him close.

  “Tell me that you will be with me always,” he murmured.

  “I will be with you always,” I said softly, “until my last breath.”

  “Tell me that…” he trailed off, meeting my gaze. “Tell me that you forgive me, for taking you from your village the way I did.”

  My brow furrowed. I’d never known that he’d had doubts about that, about how we’d been brought together.

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” I told him truthfully, the water trickling as I shifted over his lap. “I didn’t understand it at the time, Arokan, but I realize now that it was blessing. You were a blessing. You gave me a more complete life. You help me enrich it every single day.”

  His shoulders loosened. His gaze softened. It was a look just for me.

  My heart fluttered in my chest. Leaning forward, I kissed him, slow and soft, memorizing him though I knew I had no need.

  And I knew, right then, that our future would be bright. That day, the past couple days, had been bittersweet. They had been difficult, emotionally, physically, for both of us, for all of us. I knew that there would be more difficult days ahead. With the uncertainty of the Ghertun threat, with the challenges of horde life, with the cold season approaching, the days ahead would be unpredictable.

  But I knew, without a doubt, that as long as Arokan was at my side, as long as I was at his, we could face anything. Together.

  When the baby came, when I brought our son or daughter into this world, we would be even stronger.

  “Although,” I said, pulling back slightly from his lips to tease him, wanting to made him smile, “I’m not sure I forgive you for that time you tried to force feed me bveri meat.”

  He made a surprised sound in the back of his throat and I was satisfied when I got a hint of a grin from him. “Stubborn kalles,” he murmured. “You fought me at every turn.”

  “You liked it,” I whispered.

  He gazed at me, brushing his fingers over my lips. His expression was serious when he said, “I would not have had you any other way, rei Morakkari.”

  Epilogue

  Two moon cycles later…

  My hands fisted into the furs, crying out when Arokan slammed deep into me, shaking my whole body, chattering my teeth together.

  I moaned, “More!”

  His fingers flexed at my hips, pleased.

  I was on my hands and knees before my horde king. I’d woken him that morning by slipping between his thighs and gently sucking on the head of his cock. Not a moment later, he’d flipped me over, ready to give me what I’d so nicely asked for.

  Beneath me, my growing breasts bobbed with every thrust and I felt one of Arokan’s hands cup them, felt him tweak my nipples in a way that made me groan.

  So good.

  My horde king knew every place to touch me, knew how much pressure to use, how to angle his hips just right to hit that perfect, sublime spot inside me. He knew when I was ready to cum, he knew when to hold me on the edge or just let me fall. He read me as easily as I read him. He knew when I needed soft and slow and he knew when I just needed to be fucked and he happily gave me whatever I wanted.

  “I love you I love you I love you,” I breathed, gasping, beyond thoughts and almost beyond words. I was right on the edge. “Arokan!”

  Arokan groaned behind me. He loved when I said that and I told him I loved him multiple times a day.

  Then I was orgasming around him, my breath catching in my throat. I couldn’t even scream. My mouth was wide in a silent cry as pulses of intense pleasure shot through my body.

  My arms shook and Arokan caught me before I fell facedown into the furs. He brought me up to my knees, my back pressed against his front, and he continued to piston his hips into my sex.

  In my ear, he rasped, “Rinavi leika, rei Morakkari. Lo kassiri tei. Lo kassiri tei.”

  You’re beautiful, my Queen. I love you. I love you.

  One of his arms banded just beneath my breasts. One came to rest over my large belly, where our baby grew.

  Then Arokan was bellowing out his release into me, as jets of his seed filled me, his hips rocking faster and harder.

  He sucked on the sensitive spot just below my ear, nibbling it with his sharp teeth, as he rode out his own orgasm, and then we both collapsed into our furs.

  Chest heaving, I cuddled into my husband’s arms, our naked bodies intertwined. After I caught my breath, I laughed, the sound husky and happy. I turned into him, peppering kisses over his jawline, his cheekbones, the bridge of his flat nose, running my hand over his hard, muscled, tattooed chest.

  “Insatiable,” he rasped, his eyes closing. “You will drain me of life before the child comes.”

  “You love it,” I whispered.

  But he was right. Pregnancy made me insatiable. Almost as insatiable as Arokan and he was a hot-blooded Dakkari horde king in his prime.

  The past couple days, however, I’d been particularly ravenous. Arokan had gone out on patrol for close to a week, tracking a pack of Ghertun—almost to the Dead Lands—that had proven themselves more cunning than the rest. He’d just returned and I was making up for lost time.

  “I do,” he agreed, though he groaned as he said it.

  “I’ll let you sleep tonight,” I promised.

  He opened one eye to peer at me, as if to say, ‘oh really?’

  I grinned. The worst of my need had passed and I was content to lie in my husband’s arms. I’d missed him terribly while he was gone. I’d worried about him every moment, lying awake at night praying to all the deities in the universe, to Kakkari and Drukkar, to keep him safe, to bring him back to me. Every patrol he went out on was like that. It never got any easier.

  But he was the Vorakkar. He had a duty to his horde to keep them safe, to keep me safe. So he went. He went out on long patrols and didn’t return until whatever threat they’d happened upon was eliminated.
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br />   Arokan looked at me, his eyes warming as they drifted over my features. I felt his love for me in that gaze. It was like sinking into a hot bath after a long day, warm, relaxing, satisfying.

  His hands reached down to cup the baby. We were lucky enough not to experience any complications, considering that he was Dakkari and I was human. But already I could tell that the child would be big. Rightly so, considering the size of the father.

  “Still two months to go,” I commented. The healer believed that I would carry for the full five months. Already, my back, my ankles were killing me. I was ready for the baby to come now. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to continue working with the pyroki. I would have to sit outside the enclosure with the mrikro and shout orders to Jriva.

  I smiled. That wouldn’t be so terrible. I could munch on hji fruit, just like the mrikro, as I did it.

  “They will pass slowly,” Arokan murmured, “because we anticipate her arrival every moment.”

  Her.

  Arokan believed it was a girl. A horde princess. I didn’t know why. He just told me Kakkari had showed him in a dream. He told me I would bear him a girl first, then three boys, before another girl.

  Five children. I’d told him that we should get through the first pregnancy before we thought about more, but somehow I knew that Arokan was telling the truth. We would have many, many more children together and the line of Rath Kitala would be strong again.

  Considering that Arokan had lost Hukan to the wild lands—no one had seen or heard reports of her—I was glad to give him many children.

  Outside, we heard a warrior call out to Arokan and my husband’s arms tensed. Immediately, we shared a look and then slid from our furs, our time together cut short. There was always something, some matter to deal with in the horde. It came with the territory. More often than not, our mornings were interrupted.

  I dressed with my husband, wanting to check on the pyrokis. We were on the cusp of the cold season and we’d begun to build nesting enclosures for the pregnant females, so they could give birth. I wanted to make sure the construction was continuing at a swift pace, since we were running out of time.