into my hair. “You didn’t. It breaks my heart knowing you think that.”
“I want…I need to kill them again, kalles,” he rasped. “For hurting you.”
I stroked his hair, felt his tail wrap around my thigh. I knew that feeling wouldn’t go away for a long time.
However, his words made me remember something.
“Arokan, there’s something else,” I whispered.
“Neffar?”
“The leader,” I started, looking at him. “He said the Ghertun have a king. Did you know that?”
Arokan’s lips pressed together. “We heard reports, lysi.”
“They were going to take me to him,” I told him, eliciting a growl from my husband. “Apparently the scout that we found at the old camp…that was one of his sons. He wanted revenge. That’s why he took me because he knew it would hurt you. The leader said…he said that the king is planning to take all of Dakkar, that he has an army big enough to succeed.”
“It is a concern, lysi,” Arokan rasped, “but the Ghertun do not know how many Dakkari warriors we have. I can assure you, kalles, that any army he has is no match for us.”
I relaxed, nodding. After a moment, I whispered, “I was frightened, Arokan. I won’t deny that.” He tensed beside me. “But only because I feared for the baby. I feared that they would take me away before I ever saw you again.”
He blew out a long breath that ruffled my hair, his arm tightening around me.
“I was frightened too, Luna,” he confessed softly, his voice guttural and raw. “I have never been so frightened in my entire life.”
My chest squeezed because I heard the truth in his voice.
“Promise me you’ll stop thinking you failed me, Arokan,” I said, seeing his irises contract at my words. “Promise me.”
His jaw clenched as he said, “I will do my best, kalles. That I can promise you.”
It would have to be good enough. It would take time to move past this, to move on. It had both shaken us, I knew, but I knew that it would make us stronger. I didn’t doubt that.
I took his hand again. I leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips and then I pulled back and said, “I love you, Arokan. No matter what, I love you. I regret not telling you sooner.”
He leaned his forehead against mine. His voice deepened as he said, “I love you too, my Luna, rei kassikari, rei Morakkari. I think I have from the very first moment.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Two days later, when the sun sank just below the horizon, Hukan was standing before the raised dais, before Arokan and I.
Night was falling. Her judgment was coming. The horde was assembled, the mood somber, the air so thick with tension, with anger, with disbelief, that I felt it as tangible as a touch against my skin. It weighed heavy in my lungs as I sat beside Arokan.
I was dressed in gold, my shoulders and thighs bare. On my skin, for all the hordes’ eyes to see, was the Ghertun marking that had been burned into me. The healer had offered to cut it from my skin, so as not to be reminded.
However, I wore my burn like a badge now. I didn’t want to erase what had happened simply because it hurt me to think of it. It had happened. I accepted it. I moved on.
Just like Arokan’s scars, it had become a part of me the moment they’d burned it into my skin. I wore the marking of an enemy and it would forever be a reminder. I accepted that too.
But it also reminded me that I survived. I came out the other side, not the five Ghertun who had taken me.
And now, Hukan would answer for her betrayal. She was standing there, unchained, dressed in nothing but a white shift dress, her feet bare, her hair undone.
Arokan had just finished recounting her crimes for all the horde to hear. He had finished revealing her conspiracy with the Ghertun to take me to their king when he said to her, “You have betrayed us all, Hukan of Rath Kitala.”
I couldn’t help but flinch when he used her given name, a public disgrace. It pained Arokan, I knew it did. I wanted nothing more than to reach over and take his hand, but I was his queen and I had to be strong. I would sit beside him as he did his duties as Vorakkar.
“She is not Dakkari,” Hukan hissed. “I did this for you. It was always for