Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar #4) - Zoey Draven Page 0,26

would soon disappear. Slowly, my gaze dropped to her lips. The bottom one was red with her blood.

When I noticed her breath start to come quicker, I stood, discomfort threading through me as I tried to ignore the way my heart had begun to thunder anew, as I tried to ignore the heat in my own blood, and the way my trews had begun to tighten. Especially when I noticed her hard nipples pressed against her white bandeau, which clung to the fullness of her breasts.

This is Maeva, I reminded myself.

“Come,” I rasped, pulling her up, swallowing, shifting my gaze away. “The mokkira needs to tend to your wound.”

That brought her up short.

“Nik,” she breathed. “Don’t bring me to him, Kiran. Please, I couldn’t bear it. Especially since he just rejected me as his apprentice again.”

“This is your punishment,” I growled. “Your pride might be bruised but at least you’ll be healed.”

Her shoulders sagged.

“Very well,” she grumbled, letting me take her small hand as I led her to the steep, rocky path that would lead us back to the saruk.

And despite the circumstances, I felt my lips twitch.

Because these days, only Maeva ever made me smile.

Chapter Ten

The familiar soliki met me as I wound up a small alley from the main stretch of road. The road cut through my father’s saruk, running from the entrance gate all the way to the edge of the cliff, to the walls that protected the back buildings from the sea spray.

It was night. Late. There was a warm glow from inside the soliki, illuminating the windows. I heard her laughter—husky and achingly familiar—before I saw her appear in the front window, which I knew was next to a stretch of cabinets.

Maeva was smiling, but when she looked up and caught sight of me standing outside, shifting from one foot to the other, that smile slowly died. Her brow pulled down, her white little teeth disappearing from view.

She said something over her shoulder, unhooked her fur by the door, and came out to meet me. She tugged the door firmly shut behind her—though I thought I caught sight of a child, his tail shifting just out of view.

Maeva’s soliki was one of the few with stairs that led down to the road. The solikis that lay to the south were built into the cliff that abutted the saruk, so the stairs were necessary.

She came down those stairs now, her bare feet rasping over the stone, as she tugged her fur shawl tighter around her shoulders.

“What do you need?” she asked, her voice quiet.

Seeing the child had left me…surprisingly shaken. I peered at her now and forced myself to ask, “Whose child is that?”

Surprise flashed over her face. Discomfort threaded through me, an ache burning deep in my belly, as I waited for her answer. I had never envisioned Maeva with a mate. After everything, I had never given it any thought.

But why hadn’t I? Of course, it was a very likely possibility. It had been nine years since I last saw her. She wasn’t a girl anymore and I had known, even when we were younger, that there were males in the saruk whose gazes lingered on her. Back then, I’d done everything I could to scare them off, to protect her. After I left, however…

Vok.

“The child is Laru’s son,” Maeva finally said.

The relief I felt should have frightened me. The relief left me, perhaps, even more shaken than how I’d felt seeing the child.

I knew it wouldn’t show, however. All Maeva would see was an impassive, hardened expression.

Then again, this was Maeva. She’d always been able to read me better than anyone.

“She lives here?”

“Her mate is out hunting, in the same party as my father,” Maeva told me, her gaze sliding past me, her arms tightening around her body when a shiver racked through her. The days were warm, but the nights were beginning to bite, another sure sign the frost was approaching soon.

“I’ve come to pay my respects to your lomma,” I rasped, not liking the uncertainty that was threading through me…or the fact that she wouldn’t meet my eyes.

Her gaze flashed up to mine right then, however, the anger in it cutting and surprising.

Then that anger was gone. As quickly as it’d come. Her eyes dropped away again and she stepped down from the stairs onto the main road where I was standing.

“It’s a little late for that, Vorakkar,” she murmured. The way she said my title twisted in my belly. My