The Mad Horde King stared down at me. He was naked above me. I’d kicked off the furs during the dream. His thighs kept my hips pinned and his hand felt like a claim of possession on my throat, like he owned me, like he could do whatever he wished with me…
And gods, I didn’t think I’d stop him.
“Say it,” he rasped.
His Vorakkar command. One I couldn’t help but obey. That voice, dark and sinful, threaded up my spine, made my nipples tighten.
“I want to hear it from your lips,” he growled.
He wanted me to say his name.
“Say it!”
“Davik,” I whispered.
His fingers flexed on my throat. A shuddering sigh escaped him, his eyes falling closed. Like he couldn’t bear to hear it? Like it pained him?
“Say it.”
I swallowed. I was certain he could feel my heart beating in my throat.
Licking my lips, I murmured, “Davik.”
“Again,” he said quietly, his eyes opening, the red of his circular irises flaring.
“Davi—”
With an anguished, raw sound that tore from his throat, he silenced me with a rough kiss. His hand tightened, drawing me towards him. I could do nothing but gasp against his lips, my palms squeezing on his wrists.
It was a kiss meant to punish. Even in my inexperience, I recognized that. He was punishing me for daring to speak his name, when I knew that I shouldn’t know it. The Dakkari considered their given names sacred. I knew that.
So, a horde king of Dakkar would keep his especially close, wouldn’t he?
I wondered now if anyone outside his horde even knew it. If anyone inside his horde knew it.
His teeth hit mine, one of the sharper points cutting into my lip. I tasted the metallic bite of my blood and the whole world seemed to sway when he licked it away, when he stroked his tongue against mine afterwards.
I was completely at his mercy, pinned under his weight like he’d been by the ungira. When I felt his hips drop, when I felt him grind the length of his hard cock against me, my sex tingled, my belly warmed, my desire unfurling rapidly.
I was feeling aroused by this?
I didn’t understand it.
When he sucked on my tongue again, I swore I felt it in other places.
A whimper escaped me when his cock slid over my tunic, between my legs. When had I widened them for him? But there was no denying he’d sunk against me, was cradled between my thighs.
When he ground down again, the heat of him rubbed over that single spot that felt so good and I couldn’t conceal my moan.
His hair fell over us, curtaining us from the world. When I opened my eyes, he was watching me in the darkness. He thrust over me again even as he glared.
He tore his lips away from me, taking away his kiss. He bit at the fleshy part of my ear and rasped, “You could come from this, couldn’t you, leikavi? For the first time.”
My answer was a shuddering moan when he bucked his hips.
Yes. Something was happening. The pleasure kept building. The muscles in my legs were tightening on instinct, my hips lifting against his. A deep throbbing came from inside me, one that demanded to be satisfied.
His flesh was so hot against me. My hands were still wrapped around his wrists. The gold cuffs felt scalding.
His dark laugh made my neck tingle.
“Nik,” he purred. “Not tonight.”
Something was wrong. His tone was mocking.
He pulled away from me so fast. Whereas before I’d been overheated, now my skin felt chilled like ice.
Davik stood from the bed, his cock still hard, the tip weeping with his desire. He grabbed his trews from the floor, pulling them up quickly. His movements were jerky, rough, like he was furious.
I didn’t understand. Before I knew it, I’d built up the energy of my power…to try to understand. Building, building it between us, feeling the skin on my arms prickle into bumps. Pushing forward, I felt his need. Then I felt his anguish.
“Nik,” he bellowed sharply. “Stop.”
I was so shocked, so stunned that I dropped the small connection, leaving me dizzy.
“I do not know what it is you do, sorceress,” he spat, “but you will not get your claws any deeper into me. Do you understand?”
My chest clenched. The haze from my desire faded quickly, like I’d just plunged into icy water, though I still tasted him on my tongue.
Sorceress?
“You are dangerous,” he rasped, glaring at me.
Then he stormed from the voliki, though it was the dead of