by Zoey Draven
“You did,” I agreed, before looking at his father. “He finally hit the target at least.”
His father laughed and the platters switched again. Another pile of meat came to us, though this was a marinated meat and thinly sliced.
I took another healthy sip of my wine, feeling a little looser and more relaxed because of it. More platters rotated and my table talked and laughed, though I only felt half present. The other half of me felt elsewhere, on the dais, held by piercing grey eyes.
Once most of the eating was finished and I was stuffed full, I noticed a beautiful, tall female in an icy blue dress approach Seerin, a goblet of wine in her grip.
Conversation from my table seemed to fall away as I straightened and watched the female climb the stairs towards him.
His attention turned to her as she bent low and placed the goblet on his table. Then they spoke, her smile brightening at whatever he said.
Something knotted in my stomach watching them. I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful they looked together. She was exactly the kind of female I’d always envisioned Seerin would prefer.
They only spoke for a few moments, but it seemed like it lasted a lifetime before she inclined her head and rejoined the feast.
As if her exit was a cue, another female approached the dais, one I recognized because she’d glared at me once when she’d delivered our evening meal. She placed her goblet of wine on the table.
I didn’t understand what was happening, but my belly tightened once more with something I didn’t like, especially when I saw this female reach out to touch Seerin’s bare shoulder.
“It is a custom,” Avuli said quietly to my left and I looked at her. She must’ve seen the distress on my face because her smile softened. “An old tradition for unmated Vorakkars.”
“What is it exactly?” I asked, not wanting to know, but needing to.
“Celebrations like this are not only for the horde, but also an opportunity for unmated females to put forward their interest to the Vorakkar.”
My gut sank even lower and I took another sip of wine as it did.
“If he had already taken a Morakkari, then the females would not dare approach,” Avuli said. “They bring him wine and if he takes a drink from their goblet, then it means he shares their interest. It could mean he has interest just for the night. Or for longer.”
It was even worse than I thought. I knew that Seerin could have his pick of the unmated females in the horde. I knew a male like him had most likely enjoyed the company of some of the females present. It didn’t make it any easier to stomach.
I stared at the goblets of wine that began to litter his table and watched one female after another approach him, speak with him, touch him.
He is mine, I thought suddenly, fierce and wanting.
He’d told me so himself.
With that thought, some of my jealousy sizzled away as I realized the truth of his words. Did it matter if other females wanted him after he’d told me he was mine? I relaxed slightly. After another female left his table, his eyes came to me again and I saw what was in them.
A challenge. An invitation.
Dancing had begun, the drums providing a heavy beat for swaying and gyrating bodies. My heart throbbed with the instruments and before I knew what I was doing, I was standing from my seat at the table, clasping my goblet.
I caught Avuli’s smile but I was already walking towards the dais, threading through warm bodies, weaving around barrel fires until he was in perfect view once more.
His expression was unreadable as he watched me emerge from the crowd. Behind me, I heard the noise had quieted, though the drums still beat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a group of unmated females, females who had already presented their goblets to him, looking at me, glaring.
A part of me felt like a fraud, carrying my goblet to a powerful horde king of Dakkar. Though I was dressed in a beautiful gown, I was nothing like those around me. A part of me knew I didn’t belong there.
Then I saw Seerin. And even if I didn’t belong there, at the very least I knew I belonged to him. He was my demon king, who already owned half my soul. That was all that mattered to me.
I climbed the steps of the dais, my heart thundering in my throat, knowing that whatever happened next would change me in a way I would never come back from.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My goblet never even reached his table.
When I was within arm’s reach, Seerin wrapped his hand around mine, clasping the goblet and guiding it to his lips, taking a healthy swallow.
The frost feast fell away behind me as my heart thudded in my chest and it was just the two of us. Like we were on Lokkas out on the plains. Those grey eyes regarded me as he drained the wine.
When he pulled the goblet away, my mouth was dry and my belly was fluttering.
“I’ll take your ‘maybe,’ demon king,” I said softly to him. “Because maybe you’ll realize you can’t let me go. And maybe I’ll realize that I don’t want you to.”
His eyes flared and then his hand was tugging me forward until I was standing between his thighs.
Even sitting down, his head was level with my breasts and his gaze burned up into mine. I hadn’t expected him to touch me like this, not in front of his entire horde, but the fact that he was filled me with pleasure.
“I already know I do not want to let you go, rei thissie,” he rasped.
“I’m not frightened, Seerin,” I whispered, remembering his question to me when we’d been out on the plains. “Not of this. But it’s alright if you are.”
His eyes sharpened on me.
I smiled, my body warm and tingling from the wine, as I teased, “I have courage enough for the both of us.”
He exhaled a sharp breath. I was relieved to see the corner of his lips quirk up because it had been so long since I’d seen his smile.
His hands tightened on my waist. They were so warm I could feel them through my dress.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he’d barely touched his food and I frowned. “Why haven’t you eaten?”
“Because I have been waiting for you,” he murmured and my breath hitched. “And trying not to challenge that warrior who dared to touch you.”
Jealous, indeed, I thought.
“He is my friend,” I told Seerin, “so you’ll do no such thing.”
His lips pressed together in discontent.
“Besides, considering your table is covered in goblets of wine, perhaps it is I that should be the jealous one here,” I informed him.
He frowned. “I drank from yours so the rest do not matter, thissie.”
“Then it would seem there is no reason for either of us to be jealous,” I pointed out, raising my brow.
He quieted at my words. Realization flashed through his gaze and I was relieved at his short nod.
“Will you eat now?” I asked. He looked tired and I knew he would start a long journey tomorrow. He needed the sustenance.
“Only if you feed me, kalles,” he rasped.
I sucked in a breath, that voice curling lower in my body.
“People are watching, Seerin,” I told him. And they were. I could feel their eyes on my turned back, though I heard laughter and chatter and cheers during the dancing.
He took mercy on me and reached out to grab some food, popping it into his mouth and chewing. I’d seen him eat so many times, yet I was still fascinated by his strong jaw and the corded column of his throat as he swallowed.
It didn’t take him long to polish off the tray. Then he stood. I sucked in a breath, looking up at him, and he murmured, “Come, Nelle.”
The frost feast was still lively behind us.
“Won’t they care if you leave now?” I asked.
“Nik. They will be here until the early hours,” he informed me. “I would not be surprised if they are still here in the morning.”
His gaze was fierce and knowing. I knew what would happen once we left. I knew what woul
d happen once we returned to his voliki.
And I wanted it.
He knew it and I knew it.
At my nod, his eyes flared and a growl tore from his chest. He pulled me from the dais, leading us through the throng of dancing Dakkari at its base. I tried to look for Avuli and when I spotted her, she was watching me. She smiled and I inclined my head to her. No doubt she would ask me about what happened when I saw her tomorrow.
I tried to ignore the other stares, however. No one met Seerin’s gaze directly, I noticed, but they certainly met mine.
When we were away from the crowd, I felt like I could breathe again. Seerin’s pace was quick and I noticed that he’d forgotten his pelt.
“Won’t you be cold?” I frowned, looking at his bared flesh.
“Nik, thissie, I am certainly not cold right now,” he rasped. That voice reached me in places I didn’t know existed.
My swallow was loud and audible, given the quietness of the rest of the camp. It was deserted, since everyone was at the feast. I was suddenly very happy I’d had the wine because it helped ease my nerves.
When we reached his voliki, he wasted no time in pulling me inside.
Not a second later, he had his hand around the nape of my neck and his lips were on mine. He kissed like he was starved for me and I could only clutch his broad, warm shoulders and surrender as he took what he needed with a ferocity that made me whimper.
“Vok,” he cursed, pulling away, nibbling his way down my jaw. I gasped when he suckled on the sensitive place just below my ear and growled, “You do not know how much I need you, rei thissie.”
“I-I have some idea,” I whispered, my fingers sinking into his shoulders as my eyes closed. A shiver raced down my spine and my scalp tingled from his kiss.
He dragged the pelt away from my shoulders, tossing it down onto the rugs, and I gasped when he pressed his lips down my neck, over the tops of my breasts.
His fingers tugged at the straps of the dress, pushing them down until my breasts sprung free of the silky material.
I hardly comprehended his roughened growl before I felt his lips on one pebbled, aching nipple.
“Ohh,” I breathed, eyes widening, my fingers digging deeper into his shoulders, shamelessly anchoring him to me. Because I never wanted him to stop kissing me there.
A small moan escaped me when he switched to my other breast, drawing it deep into his mouth and suckling hard. Warmth flooded between my thighs and the voliki spun as pleasure washed over me.
“Seerin,” I cried out softly between ragged breaths.
He released my breast, tugging me forward forcefully by the material of the dress and capturing my mouth once more. I met his tongue when it slipped between my lips, acting purely on instinct, and he groaned deep in his chest.
“Want you,” he growled into my mouth. “Need you, rei thissie.”
His grip tightened but I wasn’t afraid. Instead, I found I was eager and excited and curious…because I wanted to explore this potent, heady desire with him. It was desire I’d never felt before him and it made me feel…powerful.
Surprisingly so.
His fingers tugged at the laces of my dress, but they were tightened in a complicated pattern and my demon king was impatient with his need.
I gasped when his claws raked through them in one smooth, quick motion. The next moment, he pushed the dress from my body until it pooled at my feet—until I stood completely naked in front of him, looking up at him wide-eyed.
“That wasn’t mine,” I whispered.
He growled, “I am certain the seamstress will not mind.”
His eyes were rapt on my body, trailing over my bared breasts, my waist, my hips.
When his gaze reached my sex, his eyes sharpened and focused…as if that was exactly where he wanted to be.
He’d seen me naked before, but this felt different. This felt like how it should be…primal. He looked at me like a predator looked at its prey and I found that sensation erotic, not frightening.
I was up in his arms, my legs wrapped around his hips, before I took my next breath and he carried me over to the furs, lowering me onto them.
“I have dreamt of this,” he rasped against me. “Dreamt of you like this. I’d wake aching for you.”
He shifted his body until his head was hovering just between my thighs. His nostrils flared, his gaze still intensely focused on me, and then he was lowering his head.
My lips parted in realization when he pushed my legs wide open for him.
A strangled cry tore from my throat, my mouth dropping open as I watched his warm, wet, dark tongue lap at my clitoris.
Wicked demon, I thought in disbelief, my toes curling of their own accord as foreign sensations rushed through my body.
A rough groan rumbled from his throat. “Need more of you, kalles,” he growled.
Why did we wait so long to do this? I thought in awe. Everything was so new to me and so sublime.
His tongue returned with vigor. With the tip, he flicked my aching bud mercilessly, transitioning from quick, vibrating movements to slow and languid and soft.
It drove me insane.
My back arched from the furs, sweat beginning to bead on my forehead and chest. Outside, as though through a thick haze, I heard the steady beats of the drums from the frost feast and felt the intense throbbing between my legs match their frantic rhythm.
It was building within me, that unfamiliar pleasure I’d felt only a handful of times in my life. It seemed strange to me now, but I’d only ever orgasmed in sleep. I would wake to piercing pleasure, my limbs thrashing, and afterwards, I would be desperate and frightened to feel it again—that overwhelming, overpowering sensation. I’d only learned exactly what I’d experienced in sleep when I’d overheard a group of women talking in my village years later.
“Are you going to come for me, rei thissie?” Seerin rasped, looking up me, rubbing his lips lightly over the top of my clitoris.
I’d never heard that word before, but I didn’t need to. I knew what he wanted with that word, as delicious and wicked as it was. How could it mean anything else?
“Yes,” I croaked. “I will.”
“Vok,” he whispered. He pressed a long kiss to my clit, making my breath hitch and a surprised moan tumble from me. “So sensitive, lysi?”
“Yes,” I breathed, feeling Blue’s feathers flutter over my nipples. I hadn’t taken off the pendant since he’d given it to me. “Please, Seerin.”
“I need to get you ready for me.”
I watched as he brought his hand up and from his third finger, he tore the end of his sharp claw off with his teeth, blunting it. So he wouldn’t hurt me?
That finger circled my opening and Seerin wet it with the arousal that dripped from me.
When he pushed inside me slowly, I gasped, my core muscles tensing. Then his tongue and lips returned to my clit, distracting me from the sudden sensation, and I whimpered, my hips rolling of their own accord against him.
My hips shot up when he gave my sensitive bud a soft suckle and it was enough. To my disbelief, that familiar feeling zipped up my spine and I hung, balanced, just on the edge of mindless pleasure…
That thick finger curled inside me. He suckled my clit again. A single, strangled cry was wrenched from my throat and then I was orgasming. Coming.
His groan vibrated my flesh and his finger slid inside and out as I came apart completely—until I was writhing on his tongue and fisting the furs underneath me and crying out his name.
My breathing was ragged and deep when my muscles finally relaxed. Between my thighs, Seerin stood, looking down at me with a possessive and dark gaze.
Even though I’d just orgasmed, I felt my clit tingle at the look in his eyes.
As if reading my thoughts, he rasped as he unlaced his pants, “We are only beginning, rei thissie.”
I may have whimpered at his words. I couldn’t recall. Because just then, his cock sprang forward as he kicked his pants away, l
eaving him as naked as I, save for the thick gold cuffs around his wrists.
His cock seemed even larger than it had before, bobbing with his desire against his hard abdomen. The broad head was swollen and glistening, his shaft engorged. The markings I’d asked him about before were flickering with the fire’s light.
Magnificent demon, I thought, my own possessive streak rearing its head.
I’d never felt sensual or desired in my lifetime. I’d never felt this sexual, consuming awareness and pull to another being before Seerin. The way he looked down at me was enough to have me aching again.
He murmured something under his breath in Dakkari as he brushed his palm over the head of his cock. His eyes ran from my swollen sex up to my eyes and I heard the awe, the roughened reverence in his words, though I didn’t know their exact meaning.
“I cannot wait any longer, kalles,” he growled, his hands coming around my waist, pushing me higher on the bed of furs until he could kneel between my splayed thighs. “Too long already.”
“I want to feel everything, demon king,” I said, though my voice didn’t sound like my own. This female’s voice, whoever she was, was throaty and lush and wanting.
“My thissie is still so curious,” he rumbled, his calloused, warm palm sliding up my thigh.
In answer, I let my legs fall even wider, baring everything to him, not entirely sure what to expect…but I felt like my body knew this. My body knew what to do. It was instinct. It was Seerin.
He hissed, grabbing the base of his shaft and squeezing hard. “Vok, the sight of you will make me come, Nelle.”
I wanted to see that. Something in my expression must’ve told him so because he squeezed his cock harder, his abdomen clenching, as he tried to gain control.
“Not like this,” he growled, and I gasped when he tugged me forward by my hips, until his thick cock was poised just at the entrance of my sex. It was so hot I could feel it, mere inches from my flesh. His voice was rich and deep and sinful as he said, “When I release my seed, it will be deep inside your cunt, rei thissie. I will demand nothing less.”