Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,45

a nod. I followed him when he cut a path through the camp, heading in the direction where the celebration had taken place last night.

As we drew nearer and nearer to what I assumed were the training grounds, I heard the ringing clash of blades, of metal on metal, of male grunts, of bodies being flung to the earth.

Nothing prepared me for the sight of those sounds, however.

Nor the sight of Arokan fighting with a sword, sweaty, his muscles shifting and flexing, an intense look of savage concentration on his face, as he took on three Dakkari opponents.

Last night, when he’d been driving into my body, he’d worn a similar expression.

I swallowed, feeling a flutter of arousal at the memory of it, which I definitely didn’t need to be feeling.

The guard halted far enough away from the clearing, giving the males ample space for their training session and I froze next to him, watching the scene in front of me with morbid fascination.

Arokan quickly side-stepped when an opponent came at him, moving so fast that he was like a blur. He blocked another opponent’s blade before it took him in the side and with a bellow, he pushed him back before landing a kick in the center of his chest, making the male fly across the clearing.

Throwing out his arm in a graceful arc, he slapped the flat edge of his sword against the third opponent’s thigh before ramming his thick fists straight across his nose, making the male’s head whip to the side before he landed hard.

I’d never seen anything like it. Never seen something so physically brutal or intense. People in my village weren’t warriors, weren’t fighters. The majority of them had probably never held a blade in their lives. To see such skill and savagery up close…it was shocking. It reminded me of all the tales we’d been told of the Dakkari since we were young.

Arokan braced, still, eyeing the three males on the ground, waiting. After a moment, when none of them rose, he straightened, some of the tension leaving him, as he barked out something in Dakkari and helped the male nearest him up to a stand, clapping him across the shoulders.

He turned his head to say something to the male and that was when he caught my eyes. I watched him hesitate, his gaze narrowing ever so slightly, before he called out an order to the two dozen or so males that had also been watching the training session from the sidelines. Four more entered the clearing and began to spar with one another, while Arokan made his way towards me, sheathing his sword at his hip.

Arokan nodded at the guard, who seemed to melt away with Mirari and Lavi. Until it was just the two of us.

“Is something wrong, kalles?” he asked, his eyes focused on me.

My heart was still drumming in my chest from that training session. What disturbed me the most was that my eyes tracked over his flesh, seeing the sweat and dirt, remembering how efficiently he’d dispatched his opponents. What disturbed me the most was that my nipples were pebbled underneath my tunic and despite the soreness of my sex, I was remembering the exquisite feel of his length inside me.

“How long have you been fighting like that?” I found myself asking, trying to distance myself from my body’s treacherous demands.

“Since I was strong enough to hold a blade,” he answered, cocking his head to the side. “I was trained from a young age.”

It showed. I wondered if his father had taught him. If his mother had been a Morakkari, it meant that his father had been a Vorakkar.

“What is it that you need, kalles?” he murmured. That scent of him, his sweat, his musk fogged my brain, made my mouth water.

Blinking, I managed to remember why I’d sought him out.

“Is there anything I can do around camp?” I asked.

He wiped his forearm across his forehead, his fresh gold markings from that morning flashing. Unlike mine, they didn’t look reddened or irritated.

“There is no need.”

“I want to do something,” I amended.

He turned the full-force of his gaze onto me. “Why?”

I inhaled a short breath and said, “Look, I know how it works. I know that my life, at least for the immediate future is with you, here.” He frowned at that. “Maybe that will change in time, but for now, it would benefit me to learn about this place, about your people. About you. And I can’t do any