Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,101

are you talking about?”

His jaw was set. He was as steady as I’d ever seen him, his emotions stable and firm. That mating, as intense as it’d been, had seemed to calm him. It seemed unreal to me that earlier this evening, he’d been feeding me in his lap and then we’d gone out riding on Nillima, his deep voice in my ear as he told me one of his darker secrets.

“You are mine now, Vienne,” he murmured. My breath hitched. “Though I think we own one another.”

“What? Davik, I don’t—”

“You will be my Morakkari,” he said, that jaw tightening further in his decision. “My queen. My wife. My mate.”

I froze.

“I have decided. It is done,” he said. As if to himself, he said softly, “This is the only way to keep you safe.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“You’re insane,” I gasped out. “This is the first time I’ve actually thought you’re insane, Davik.”

His jaw flexed. “Nik. Actually, for the first time, I think I am completely sane. For the first time, I am thinking clearly when it comes to you.”

I tore away from his grip—nearly stumbling over the ripped trews encircling my ankles before I kicked them off. At the sudden movement, a rush of wetness flooded from my sex. His cock slipped from me as his seed trailed down my inner thighs.

Davik glanced at it, his eyes flaring hot and primal and satisfied, while I felt panic spiral within me.

“You will be my Morakkari, Vienne,” he said.

“You cannot simply make me your Morakkari, Davik,” I said, trying to rein in my disbelief, my bafflement.

I was still reeling from what had just happened between us—the intensity of the sex, the roughness of it and how I’d craved it, the realization that Davik was frightened for me, and the knowledge that I was dangerously close to…to loving him completely, with every part of myself.

I shook my head, pressing my fingers to my temple. I’d been angry at him, hadn’t I? Before he’d stalked into the voliki. So why was it so difficult to recall that anger?

“Lysi, I can,” he replied, stepping towards me, capturing my shoulder with his palm to keep me still when I began pacing again.

I froze, gasping because I realized I was still inside his mind.

No, no, no.

When I tried to release him, I felt resistance, as if he’d tethered me to stay. His brow furrowed, as if he felt me trying to retreat.

Then he snarled when I finally broke the connection, tearing from his mind almost violently, which made my breath come out quick as pain bloomed at my temple.

“Vok, leikavi,” Davik rasped, pinching the space between his eyes, as if it had pained him as well. “I felt that.”

“I—I don’t know what’s happening,” I said, my voice shaking. “You’re…you’re not thinking clearly, Davik.”

I didn’t need to be inside his mind to know that his determination was still a solid, unyielding thing. It shone from his glowing eyes. It was pressed into the hard line of his mouth, in the utter stillness of his tail behind him.

“As my Morakkari,” he continued, as if I hadn’t spoken at all, “you will have the protection of my horde. Of my darukkar, of their swords. And as a Morakkari of Dakkar,” he said, emphasizing the name of our planet, “you will have the protection of all Vorakkar who ride in the wild lands. You will have the protection of their swords. You will even have the Dothikkar’s protection.”

“Davik—”

“The Ghertun will never touch you again. They will not get close to you unless they wish for their own deaths.”

He didn’t understand. I would be tied to the Ghertun for the rest of my life, however short it may be. The vovic ensured that.

If he tried to prevent me from returning, he was killing me himself.

“That protection,” he said, his voice dropping low as he stepped towards me, “extends to your family.”

That made me pause.

Then more pain came, though it had nothing to do with my headache. For a brief moment, I remembered my daydream. Of my family, safe, here. Among his horde. They were happy in that dream, content with their lives. As for me, I had dreamed I was happy with him, in his furs, at his side…and he at mine.

In another reality, that may have even been possible. Now, that daydream only taunted me with what could have been.

“I will not rest until they are returned to you,” Davik murmured, reaching out to touch my cheek. My lips parted when I saw