Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar #4) - Zoey Draven Page 0,65
when the tides were calm.
“Why hasn’t the Vorakkar taken a Morakkari yet?” came the soft question.
Her hand paused in my hair.
“I do not know,” Hinna replied, just as softly. “Females in our horde have made their interest clear. Females from strong lines. But beyond a single night, he does not seem to return their interest.”
A single night.
How many females in his horde had he bedded?
And why did that question send such searing, aching hurt through me?
“He has not taken a female in quite a long time. Since before the Dead Mountain,” Hinna said. “At least that is what the rumors have been. It is strange for a Vorakkar, lysi?”
I cleared my throat. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never lived in a horde. And our Sorakkar was always true to his queen.”
And tonight at the feast, I would no doubt have to witness dozens upon dozens of unmated, hopeful females presenting their goblets at his table.
Once, I’d been one of them. Hopeful. Confident.
A fool.
“Forget I asked,” I told her, shooting her a small, tight smile over my shoulder. “I just expected him to be mated by now.”
Her hesitation was palpable, her fingers sliding through my hair.
“Have you known the Vorakkar long?”
I made a sound in the back of my throat.
“Nearly my whole life,” I replied. “We were good friends.”
That sounded like a lie. We’d been great friends, the best of them. Once. And I’d always wanted more…though a part of me had perhaps always been aware of Kiran’s hesitation.
I blew out a breath. I had been unfair to him too. One couldn’t help who they loved, obviously. And one couldn’t help who they didn’t.
“I thought as much,” Hinna said softly.
A laugh bubbled from my throat. “Anyone who saw us now would think we were strangers.”
“Nik,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t believe that. It was apparent to me that you were connected in some way. It would be apparent to anyone.”
Sighing, I brought my hand up, clasping my mother’s pendant. My dress was cut low, exposing the valley between my breasts. The necklace was on full display and I squeezed it tight.
If Lomma was still alive, I wondered what she’d say. What she’d think of the male Kiran had become.
“You can ask me anything, mokkira,” Hinna told me when silence stretched between us. “I know you don’t wish it but I am your piki. It brings me great honor to hold such a title and as such, I am in your strictest confidence.”
I understood what she was saying.
“I can ask you to be my spy then?” I teased.
A small chuckle fell from her lips. “If you wish it, I can be. No one ever notices me, which is a useful trait for a spy.”
I frowned when I heard a tiny bite of bitterness in her tone. With a pang of guilt, I realized that I didn’t know much about my new friend. I had been so consumed with setting up my place as mokkira that I hadn’t asked anything of her life.
“Do you have a family?” I asked. “A mate?”
“My Lomma is a bikku,” Hinna told me. “I was working to deliver meals before the Vorakkar asked me to be your piki. My father was a darukkar—and a great one at that—but he died a long time ago.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, turning to meet her gaze, especially when I heard her sadness mingling with her pride. “I lost my mother. It was one of the worst things in the world to endure.”
Understanding went through her gaze and she nodded. “I still miss him terribly. Some days are worse than others.”
A wave of grief washed through me because I understood exactly what she meant. Sometimes, if I saw something that I thought my mother would like or find amusing, my first instinct was to run and tell her…only to remember. Even after all this time. Sometimes…it still stunned me that she was gone. Sometimes it still robbed me of my breath.
I blinked back the sudden blurriness in my vision and reached forward to squeeze Hinna’s hand.
She let out a shuddering breath, shifting her shoulders in a way that made me think she was trying to move past her words.
“No mate though,” she said. “Not yet.”
“You want one?”
“Oh lysi,” she said, finishing up with my hair. She’d managed to pin half of it back and knot it in an intricate braid I could never hope to replicate. “I want a horde of children too.”