Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,12
his voice deepening. I gasped, my body going tight, when he brushed his fingertips over my pebbled nipple before thumbing it back and forth in a way that made my hands shake, the sensation foreign and new. “Nik, you will be my kassikari. You will be my Morakkari.”
My head went foggy as he continued his caress over my other nipple but when I tried to squirm away, his tail wrapped around my waist, holding me fast and firm, surprising me with its strength.
“What…what is that?” I asked, trying to focus.
“I will claim you in the old way, in the old Dakkari tradition,” he told me, which only confused me even more. “You will not be my whore, kalles. You will be my queen.”
Chapter Five
When I woke up the next morning, the horde king was gone.
Emerging from a restless sleep, I felt even more exhausted than I had the night before. And when I shifted my legs, turning over in the wide bed, I hissed. The pain was even more severe as well.
I sat up gingerly, looking around the empty, dark, domed tent. I already knew he was gone, had woken briefly when he’d roused from bed in the early hours of morning, but it didn’t prevent me from scanning the quiet space warily.
When I was convinced I was truly alone, I blew out a small breath, pushing my wild, still-damp hair away from my eyes, my mind replaying the events of last night.
I picked at the fur blanket covering my thinly dressed body.
He’d told me I would be his queen.
His queen.
Not his whore.
Though truthfully, perhaps to the Dakkari, they were one and the same. He still expected access to my body, as evidenced by his admission last night. But he’d also said something about claiming me in the old Dakkari tradition, whatever that meant.
And he hadn’t allowed me to question him afterwards.
After he’d told me I’d be his ‘kassikari,’ he’d brought me to his bed, covered our bodies with the furs, and told me to sleep. I’d been tense, wanting answers, but he remained mute on the subject, had simply laid next to me, his long, bare side touching mine. Then he slept, his breathing evening out in a slow rhythm. Awake one moment and dead to the world in the next.
Now, he was gone.
I had no knowledge of what a horde king of the Dakkar did during the day. Was he gone on another ‘patrol?’ Was he somewhere in camp? Was he raiding another innocent settlement, taking treasures like the ones he had stored in his chests? Was he with one of his other whores?
Questions and more questions piled up in my mind until I thought I would scream. The events of yesterday were finally catching up with me and in the light of day, on the first day of my new life…I felt despair. I felt hopelessness. I longed to see my brother, to walk the quiet road of my village to the head seamstress’ home where I worked, to see the familiar hills just beyond the village gates.
Yet, I was there. Alone, in a domed tent of a horde king, among a people I knew almost nothing about.
Pushing off the furs, I looked down between my thighs and saw they were even redder than the night before, the sensitive skin chaffed and rubbed raw. When I touched the flesh, it stung and I prayed to all the gods and goddesses in the universe that I wouldn’t have to ride one of those beasts again.
It was a blessing in disguise, perhaps, I admitted to myself. After all, the horde king said he wouldn’t demand my body until I healed.
I didn’t know how to take his unexpected reprieve. Begrudgingly, I was thankful for it, though I knew it was only a matter of time before he expected my repayment in full.
I jumped when the tent flap pushed open, my head snapping up.
A female appeared, the one from last night, the one who’d spoken to me. She was followed by the other, the one who had not spoken to me. Both were still dressed in their gray shift dresses, their hair neatly plaited down their backs. One of them balanced a white bone tray, inlaid with gold, filled with small, steaming bowls of fresh meat and broth.
My mouth watered, my stomach growling. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning, before Kivan had set our crop field on fire.
Had that only been yesterday? It seemed like weeks ago.