Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar #4) - Zoey Draven Page 0,133

praise down to her, words that made tears well up in her eyes.

“You’ll hold our child soon, kassi,” Jurin murmured, stroking his wide palm down her small face. “Lysi?”

“Lysi,” Addie whispered, tears falling down her cheeks. Then her body tensed. Jurin’s face drew tight and I saw helplessness on it. A loud, pained cry fell from her lips.

“Again,” I murmured.

Addie pushed, a silent scream on her lips. Then she fell limp, her breath ragged.

“I—I c-can’t,” she breathed. She closed her eyes. “I need to rest. I need…”

“Addie,” I called out, my tone sharp. “Addie, you need to stay awake.”

Jurin murmured something down to her, something I didn’t hear. He roused her and she blinked up at him, her lids heavy. She was too pale. She’d already lost a lot of blood and I feared she’d lose much more by the end of this.

“I’m so dizzy,” she whispered, shivering even though it was blazing hot in the voliki and she was sweating.

Her next contraction came swiftly and without mercy.

“Push!”

Addie bore down again, teeth gritting together, a low scream emerging from her throat.

Relief pierced me when the baby’s head pushed forward and I worked quickly, guiding the head through, reaching inside, stretching Addie further to gently guide the shoulders out.

“One more,” I urged, my eyes flashing up to meet hers. “Quickly!”

With one last cry, she gave the last of her strength. And it was enough.

The baby slid out easily with my pull. Into my waiting hands.

Addie was crying and exhausted. The little thing in my hands looked like any other Dakkari child I’d ever delivered. Wrinkly and dark, with a scrunched up face, and a budding tail. But there was a softness in the features. More human than Dakkari.

Gently, I patted the baby’s chest, rubbing.

After a few breathless moments, I heard the baby gasp.

Then a strong cry filled the voliki, bright and relieving.

“You did it, Addie,” I told her, tears pricking my eyes. “And she’s beautiful.”

“A girl,” Addie breathed, head lolling though she tried to hold it up. “Let me see her.”

I nodded. Motioning to Essir, I watched as he cut the cord leading from the baby’s abdomen and then I placed her in her mother’s arms.

It was one of my favorite things in the world. Watching a mother hold her child for the first time. Jurin pressed his lips to Addie’s forehead, his expression awed as he looked down at his daughter. As for Addie, her eyes never left her child.

I spied movement near the entrance and to my surprise, I saw Kiran there, standing on the outskirts of the voliki. My lips parted, wondering how long he’d been there. He listened to the baby’s cry—the newest child of his horde—but his eyes never left me. And with that gaze, I felt my own strength return to me. Though it was early, he was here. And I knew it was for me.

“Mokkira,” came Essir’s quiet voice.

Something in his tone made me break Kiran’s gaze and look down.

My belly pinched. Swallowing, I saw the blood. I saw the afterbirth push out. Addie was so wrapped up in her baby that I doubted she even felt it. But it was the continued flow of blood that worried me. It was the excess of it that was abnormal, and it was everything that I’d feared.

Rising from my place, I hurried over to my cabinet and pulled it open. My eyes landed on the begalia extract, my fingers curling around it.

But then I hesitated. She was too weak. She could barely keep her eyes open, could barely hold herself up. The labor had cost her much. The begalia would only take more. And this time, it might take her life. She might not have the strength to fight the poison, even if it helped stop the bleeding.

But if I didn’t use it…I risked her bleeding out.

My eyes landed on the adiri, the mashed fungus still in the process of drying.

“What’s wrong?” Jurin’s voice came, sensing something that his mate didn’t. In the corner, I saw Kiran straighten.

At her mate’s voice, Addie looked at me. “Maeva?” she asked, her voice trembling.

I unstoppered the begalia but my hand hesitated before pouring it over a clean cloth.

“Vok,” I whispered.

Nik, I thought. This isn’t right.

My gut was telling me that this wasn’t right.

Perhaps Kakkari was.

And I needed to trust my instincts. I needed to trust her.

With a soft, frustrated growl of my own, I flung the begalia back into the cabinet and went to the adiri. It wasn’t ready