Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,63

groom still, Morakkari, before the sun falls!”

I sighed, set my sights on the next pyroki—one that seemed more docile and quiet than the rest—and slowly made my approach.

It was going to be a long day.

I was squirming in the bathing tub as my husband petted my body at his leisure.

For once, he’d finished with his duties around camp early and had come to wait for me at the pyroki enclosure around dusk, seemingly content to watch me interact with the creatures. Afterwards, he’d led me to our tent, where a hot bath and a hot meal had already been waiting.

I’d scarfed down the dinner in record time, ravenous after my long afternoon with the pyroki, and then he’d promptly stripped me and carried me into the tub with him.

And after a thorough washing of us both, Arokan now seemed content to simply run his clawed fingers up and down my body, touching me in places that made my sex quiver, but doing nothing more.

Though he was hard and aching against my backside, he simply caressed me. Teased me.

And I bit my lip through it all, not wanting to give into him, not wanting him to know that I wanted something more.

Frustration and my arousal grew hand-in-hand and I made a small sound in my throat when he threaded his fingers through my hair, my eyelids fluttering at how good it felt, at how gentle he was being.

But I kept still, though he was slowly driving me to madness. A part of me was wondering why he hadn’t wedged himself inside me already, right there in the bathing tub. I was wet for him, aroused, though I would never admit it.

I felt him take a deep breath, his chest rising against my back, and his wandering hand slowed to a stop, resting on my hip.

My eyes flew open, waiting. But he did nothing and I swallowed the frustrated sound rising in my throat.

“I am told you visited the injured warrior and his kassikari. That you returned a second time and brought them a meal while I was gone,” Arokan said softly.

I stiffened. He’d told me I couldn’t see the warrior, but I’d done it anyways. Was he angry?

“I needed to see him for myself. To apologize for what happened,” I replied.

“A Morakkari does not apologize.”

“This one does,” I told him.

Arokan huffed out a sharp breath. “And why did you go to the stalls for hji?”

I turned to look at him over my shoulder. “You’re keeping tabs on me?”

“Your guards report to me.”

I pressed my lips together and said, “Because the warrior said that the pyroki master enjoys hji. And since I’m sure my guards already told you, I did not want to shovel pyroki shit for the rest of my life, which I did yesterday.”

Arokan grunted, but didn’t reply.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have,” I mused. “I think I liked yesterday better, shit and all.”

“You did well today,” Arokan rasped. “It will get easier.”

I didn’t know if that would happen.

But what he said next made me still.

“Tell me what happened, kalles. How your mother got attacked by a pyroki.”

Even though my mother was dead, some part of me still feared for her. She’d been trying to hunt, after all, outside the village walls. If a Dakkari had come upon her then, she would’ve been killed on sight.

“Tell me, Luna,” he said softly, as though sensing my hesitation.

“It was during the cold season,” I said. “Our rations were low. The Uranian Federation couldn’t get a supply drop to us because of the weather. We were all hungry.”

His hand tensed at my hip.

“My mother was desperate. My brother was barely ten at the time, a child, and he cried and cried all day and all night. She went beyond the walls. She took a blade and I was scared that a Dakkari might find her. So I followed after her.

“I don’t know what she was trying to do. She’d never killed anything before in her life. But like I said, she was desperate. She would do anything for us. So, she ventured into the ice forest nearest our village. I trailed behind her because, even though I was afraid for her, I was also hungry. I kept hoping that maybe she would find something. Anything, so that we could eat. I should have stopped her.”

That fact hurt most of all. That my own selfishness and my own desperation got her killed.

“I remember seeing red eyes through the trees and before I knew it, she was