right on the edge. “Arokan!”
Arokan groaned behind me. He loved when I said that and I told him I loved him multiple times a day.
Then I was orgasming around him, my breath catching in my throat. I couldn’t even scream. My mouth was wide in a silent cry as pulses of intense pleasure shot through my body.
My arms shook and Arokan caught me before I fell facedown into the furs. He brought me up to my knees, my back pressed against his front, and he continued to piston his hips into my sex.
In my ear, he rasped, “Rinavi leika, rei Morakkari. Lo kassiri tei. Lo kassiri tei.”
You’re beautiful, my Queen. I love you. I love you.
One of his arms banded just beneath my breasts. One came to rest over my large belly, where our baby grew.
Then Arokan was bellowing out his release into me, as jets of his seed filled me, his hips rocking faster and harder.
He sucked on the sensitive spot just below my ear, nibbling it with his sharp teeth, as he rode out his own orgasm, and then we both collapsed into our furs.
Chest heaving, I cuddled into my husband’s arms, our naked bodies intertwined. After I caught my breath, I laughed, the sound husky and happy. I turned into him, peppering kisses over his jawline, his cheekbones, the bridge of his flat nose, running my hand over his hard, muscled, tattooed chest.
“Insatiable,” he rasped, his eyes closing. “You will drain me of life before the child comes.”
“You love it,” I whispered.
But he was right. Pregnancy made me insatiable. Almost as insatiable as Arokan and he was a hot-blooded Dakkari horde king in his prime.
The past couple days, however, I’d been particularly ravenous. Arokan had gone out on patrol for close to a week, tracking a pack of Ghertun—almost to the Dead Lands—that had proven themselves more cunning than the rest. He’d just returned and I was making up for lost time.
“I do,” he agreed, though he groaned as he said it.
“I’ll let you sleep tonight,” I promised.
He opened one eye to peer at me, as if to say, ‘oh really?’
I grinned. The worst of my need had passed and I was content to lie in my husband’s arms. I’d missed him terribly while he was gone. I’d worried about him every moment, lying awake at night praying to all the deities in the universe, to Kakkari and Drukkar, to keep him safe, to bring him back to me. Every patrol he went out on was like that. It never got any easier.
But he was the Vorakkar. He had a duty to his horde to keep them safe, to keep me safe. So he went. He went out on long patrols and didn’t return until whatever threat they’d happened upon was eliminated.
Arokan looked at me, his eyes warming as they drifted over my features. I felt his love for me in that gaze. It was like sinking into a hot bath after a long day, warm, relaxing, satisfying.
His hands reached down to cup the baby. We were lucky enough not to experience any complications, considering that he was Dakkari and I was human. But already I could tell that the child would be big. Rightly so, considering the size of the father.
“Still two months to go,” I commented. The healer believed that I would carry for the full five months. Already, my back, my ankles were killing me. I was ready for the baby to come now. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to continue working with the pyroki. I would have to sit outside the enclosure with the mrikro and shout orders to Jriva.
I smiled. That wouldn’t be so terrible. I could munch on hji fruit, just like the mrikro, as I did it.
“They will pass slowly,” Arokan murmured, “because we anticipate her arrival every moment.”
Her.
Arokan believed it was a girl. A horde princess. I didn’t know why. He just told me Kakkari had showed him in a dream. He told me I would bear him a girl first, then three boys, before another girl.
Five children. I’d told him that we should get through the first pregnancy before we thought about more, but somehow I knew that Arokan was telling the truth. We would have many, many more children together and the line of Rath Kitala would be strong again.
Considering that Arokan had lost Hukan to the wild lands—no one had seen or heard reports of her—I was glad to give him many children.
Outside, we heard a