claws pricking into my flesh. Using his grip, he brought me down harder as I rocked over him, rolling my hips desperately.
“Ahhh! Kiran,” I breathed, my hands spanning his broad chest, curling into the scars there.
“Come for me, seffi,” he ordered, snapping his hips up, perspiration dotting his flesh, his brow furrowed in concentration and pleasure.
So, so close, I knew. Right there!
“Lysi,” I gasped. “Lysi!”
A sound came from outside but I paid it no mind. Kiran’s gaze flickered away from me, towards the voliki’s entrance, but he groaned when I snapped my hips down hard over him.
Then I heard a voice and I froze.
“Mokkira.”
For a moment, I was confused, my mind muddled with sex and pleasure and the enticing scent of Kiran. Usually when we were interrupted, it was because the Vorakkar was needed. Not me.
“Mokkira, you are needed at your voliki,” came the hesitant voice again, no doubt knowing what Kiran and I were doing.
Vok.
I gasped out, “I’ll be right there!”
Hearing my words, Kiran’s hands gripped my buttocks tighter. As the footsteps hurried away, Kiran growled, “Nik, it can wait.”
A breathless laugh rose from my throat even as disappointment crashed down on me. I slid off Kiran’s cock, making him exhale sharply, his body slumping against the furs.
“You know it can’t,” I told him. “I have to go.”
On trembling legs, I rose from the bed. My arm twinged from my healing wound when I tugged on my tunic. I’d put too much pressure on it, I knew. But with Kiran, I always forgot myself.
“Maeva.”
As I dressed hurriedly, I looked back at Kiran, my heart doubling its already rapid speed when I saw him there.
Magnificent male, I thought.
He was watching me, those golden eyes molten and smoldering in his lust. He was on his back, one hand cradling his head, the other moving towards his cock. His cock, which was still so hard and swollen, glistening with my own arousal and the beginnings of his seed.
I pulled on my trews just as he began to stroke his cock, his arm flexing.
For a moment I froze, regret curling in my belly. I wanted to watch him pleasure himself. I wanted to watch him finish himself. Between my own legs, I was throbbing, wet. I felt heavy with the ache of wanting him, of being denied my own orgasm when I’d been so close.
But I couldn’t.
I had a duty to the horde, just as Kiran did.
Biting my lip, I hurriedly wrapped my furs around my shoulders and tugged on my boots. And because I couldn’t help it, I rushed back to the bed where Kiran lay. Leaning over him, I kissed him, pouring my frustration and want into that kiss, and he licked at my tongue greedily. I heard his hand quicken over his cock.
“I’ll be back later,” I whispered, pulling away, catching his dark eyes.
Then I rushed out of the voliki, leaving him groaning behind me.
The slap of the icy air helped clear the fog in my mind and I hurried through the encampment, running to make up for lost time.
Kiran had to leave in the morning for the east lands. Selfishly, I wished I could be back in bed with him, in his warm voliki and furs, because a part of me missed him already…and he hadn’t even gone yet.
When my voliki came into view, my stomach dropped. Because Gabe was pacing outside it. And just like that, my desire was replaced by determination, mingled with a little bit of trepidation.
“Is it Addie?” I asked quickly, rushing past him.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Where’s Essir?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice pinched with panic.
“Go find him for me. Quickly. Hanniva!”
Gabe nodded and took off as I ducked inside the voliki.
Addie was hunched over and trying to walk around the voliki. Jurin, her mate, was hovering at her side, a hand on her arm. My heart broke a little at the helplessness on his face but he looked relieved when he saw me.
“What’s wrong, Addie?” I asked quietly, approaching them both.
“I—I think the baby is coming,” she gasped out, her teeth gritted in pain.
My lips pressed together, my eyes immediately flickering to the drying adiri still on the workbench. It had been two days since I went to retrieve it in the forest, since the polkunu had attacked us.
The adiri wasn’t ready. It would be another couple days before it could be powdered. But we were out of time.
“Let me look at you, lysi?” I murmured. With Jurin’s help, we steered her