Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar #4) - Zoey Draven Page 0,136

when they saw me approach. I saw the gates open.

Urging Roon into a gentle run, we made for the horde.

Only, just as I reached the entrance, I saw the Vorakkar of Rath Kitala and the Vorakkar of Rath Drokka step out to meet me.

At Rath Drokka’s side was a small human female with white hair, carrying a bundle of something in her arms.

The white-haired sorceress, I knew. The one who had nearly brought the Dead Mountain down with her rumored power. And Rath Drokka’s, the Mad Horde King’s, wife and queen. The one I had last seen in Dothik, when the Dothikkar’s guards had captured her after she’d broken into the capital.

I pulled Roon up short when the three of them stepped out to meet me.

“Okkili,” Rath Kitala murmured, inclining his head but never breaking my gaze. “Any troubles on the journey?”

“Nik,” I replied, quieting Roon when he began to stomp. “What in Kakkari’s name has happened here? The frost covers the rest of Dakkar and yet there is not a single indication of it here.”

“That is what Rath Drokka said,” Kitala murmured, cutting his gaze to the male at his side.

When I met Rath Drokka’s eyes, his reddened gaze was mistrustful and hardened. And I couldn’t help but notice that when I looked to his female, a low growl built up in his throat, his arm curling around her waist.

“Don’t worry, Drokka,” I rasped, stilling Roon again, who was no doubt sensing the sudden tension between us. It was always like this when Vorakkars came together. “I have already chosen a queen for myself. I am merely curious about yours, for I have heard the stories.”

Drokka’s jaw tightened and pulsed. However, whatever he heard in my voice made his grip loosen on his female. The large bundle in her arms began to struggle and my gaze sharpened on it.

A cry filled the air, strong and robust.

I’d known the queen was pregnant with Drokka’s child but what I hadn’t expected was for her to already have given birth. Though, it made sense, I realized. It had been nearly half a year since the events of the Dead Mountain. I’d just…lost track of time.

“My congratulations on your offspring, Morakkari,” I murmured to her in the universal tongue, catching sight of not one but two hybrid children squirming and kicking in her arms.

Twins were rare on Dakkar. Extremely rare.

The human queen was a lithe thing and the half-Dakkari children were strong…but she was stronger than she looked and calmed them with ease.

“Kakkira vor, Vorakkar,” she replied. Rath Drokka took the bundled twins from her and the children immediately settled in their father’s arms. “We don’t have much time this evening if you wish to see the mist. The sun seems to set quicker here in the east.”

They wanted to take me to see it now?

“Leave your pyroki here,” Rath Kitala rasped.

“Why?” I asked. “Surely it would be a faster journey than on foot.”

“Trust me,” he murmured. “I’ll have my mrikro see that he is well cared for.”

“Very well,” I murmured, dismounting from Roon. Kitala motioned for a darukkar hovering nearby, who took the reins from my grip, and I watched a reluctant Roon being led away, though he craned his neck to look at me until he couldn’t anymore.

The human queen’s lips were quirked as she watched the exchange. “Even still, I am always amazed by a pyroki’s loyalty and love.”

“He was born of my mother’s pyroki. I have raised him since,” I told her. Raised him with Maeva. We were both there when he was born.

She smiled, nodding. “Shall we go?”

“Nik, leikavi,” Drokka growled. “You will stay.”

“I will go,” she said calmly, reaching out to touch his forearm. “I need to feel how much it has grown. You know that, my love.”

My brow furrowed.

How much it has grown?

“Where are Rath Tuviri and the others?”

“On their way,” Kitala replied and I watched as Drokka handed his offspring off begrudgingly to a waiting piki, watched as the human queen pressed a kiss to her children’s round faces. “Rath Rowin arrived this morning but he is resting. He has been traveling mercilessly the past week, has hardly slept.”

I nodded and fell into step with the Vorakkar. Rath Drokka and his wife trailed behind us as we began to head east of the horde on foot.

“I know you probably wish to rest as well,” Kitala added. “But I wanted you to see what we face.”

“The sooner I can return to my horde, the better,” I