Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,52

he given to females, just like this one? Did this necklace belong to another?

Arokan frowned as he studied me but then grunted, turning away, going to dress. Instead of pants, he wore the small furred cloth that covered his genitals, that exposed his thick, muscular thighs. He wrapped his golden belt around his waist and sheathed a dagger and his golden sword into it.

“It is time,” he said. “Come.”

I followed him out of the tent into the sunlight. It was another beautiful day, though the air felt more chilled than it had yesterday. The cold season was approaching, crawling over the wild lands, and I wondered what the Dakkari did when it came. Did they return to Dothik, where they would be more sheltered from the bitter and harsh landscape?

The thoughts were welcome, anything to distract me from the heavy chain around my neck.

Most of the camp was empty though I heard a low murmur of restless noise coming from the front of the camp, near where the tassimara had taken place and where I’d seen Arokan training the day before. Instead of riding his pyroki—whose name I now knew as Kailon—Arokan led me through on foot, winding his way around tents I couldn’t see around, towards our destination.

We came to where we’d celebrated our tassimara, except the only thing that remained was the raised dais. Though instead of one throne, there were now two. Where the tables and the dancing area had been was now cleared of everything but the earth of Dakkar.

The horde was there—males, females, children. They were all kneeling on the earth paces back from the raised dais and they went silent the moment that Arokan and I appeared. Among the crowd, I saw Hukan in the front row, though her eyes narrowed when she saw me. A few rows back, I spotted Mirari and Lavi, who was kneeling next to the horde warrior male I’d seen her with.

But what made my spine straighten, what made my breath hitch, and my belly drop was the being that was kneeling directly in front of the dais, surrounded by four standing guards, each with their swords pointed at him.

The Ghertun scout.

He was bloody and beaten and had a collar around his throat, which was attached to a chain, carried by one of the guards.

“Luna,” Arokan said, his voice hard but quiet enough that no one would hear him, when I froze.

Jolting, I remembered that the hordes’ eyes were on us and I followed him up the dais, sitting in the throne he’d gestured for me to take. My throne. Still, I felt like an imposter sitting in it.

Then my eyes went to the Ghertun, since I’d never seen one before.

I thought his skin was a dark gray until I realized it wasn’t flesh, but scales. Hard plates of scales that made a whisper-like sound whenever he moved. His eyes were dark, black vertical slits. When he blinked, his eyelids closed from the sides, instead of from top-to-bottom. His nose was curved, almost like a beak, and his slim lips concealed razor-sharp yellow teeth.

He was watching me too, studying me with his strange, eerie gaze, before Arokan suddenly growled, in the universal tongue, “Remove your eyes from my queen before I remove them from your skull, Ghertun.”

In a flash, the Ghertun looked down, his shoulders sagging. He made a pitiful sight and my belly tugged, dread beginning to churn in my stomach when I saw how swollen his face was, when I saw his torn clothes, and a gash that separated his scales across his shoulder.

I glanced over at Arokan, my brow furrowed, my lips pulled down into a frown.

“Was he beaten?” I hissed softly.

The horde king—my alien husband—ignored me, though his jaw tightened just enough to reveal he’d heard my question and disapproved of it.

Back to this again, I thought, a flash of hurt tearing through me. Ignoring me in front of the horde.

My spine straightened in my throne, that blood red pendant shifting on my bosom. Looking down, I saw the markings of my tattoos and they flashed in the sunlight when I clenched my fists.

“I will ask you for the last time, in front of my horde,” Arokan said. “Where is your pack?”

“We do not mean you or your queen harm, horde king,” the Ghertun suddenly said, his voice like a slither down my spine. “As I have said.”

“You think I believe that?” Arokan asked, his tone so quiet that it was chilling. He sounded every