settling over my buttocks and squeezing, making my breath hitch. “I will be as docile as a newborn bveri.”
I grinned.
“What else have your sources said about me?” he asked.
Damn.
“Not much,” I said.
“Tell me,” he murmured.
I bit my lip but then said, “I know that Hukan was your mother’s sister.”
He grunted again. “Lysi.”
“I know that you and Hukan are the last of your line,” I said, watching him.
“Until you gift me young, we are,” he murmured. “But Rath Kitala will flourish once more. I know it.”
My breath hitched. Until, not if. As if it was a certain thing. And perhaps after tonight, if my cycle was correctly aligned…it was a certain thing.
That should frighten me, shouldn’t it?
“How do you know we’re even…compatible in that way?” I whispered.
His tail twitched. “You think I am the first Dakkari to take a human as a mate?”
I thought of Mithelda, of what Arokan said about her capture from my village.
But what he was implying made me pay attention. “There are children already?” I asked, my heart speeding up in my chest. “Dakkari-human children?”
“Lysi,” he confirmed.
Disbelief went through me.
“Not in my horde, obviously,” he continued. “In others.”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “You’ve seen them?” I asked in awe.
He nodded. “They are young. Healthy. Strong. So, lysi, kalles, I know you will bear me children.”
I blew out a breath then nibbled on my lip as I felt more of his seed leak from my body.
He tilted my chin up so I met his eyes. “What do you think of, kalles?”
Softly, I confessed, “Truthfully, I’ve never given much thought to children. It never seemed possible for me.”
“Do you desire them?” he questioned, his eyes rapt.
The answer came to me easily, which was surprising in itself.
“Yes,” I whispered.
The knowledge pleased my husband. I could see that plainly. He leaned forward to capture my lips and I let out a small sigh, his kiss fogging my mind.
“We will make it so,” he murmured against me. “If we have not already.”
I blushed, despite everything that had happened that night, and he pulled back to study me, seemingly amused.
My eyes strayed to his shoulder where I saw one of his scars curve around from his back. I reached forward to trace the raised line. Though I could not see his back, I knew that the majority of his flesh was covered in scars, as if he’d been whipped.
Before, I’d never been courageous enough to ask, but right then, I felt the question tumble out before I could stop it. “What happened?”
He caught my hand, pressing his lips to the center of my palm before they trailed over my wrist, kissing my golden markings.
He took his time answering me, but finally he said, “A Vorakkar must be strong for his horde. He must be able to withstand pain and suffering in order to lead them best and he must not let pain and suffering break him.”
My brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“All Vorakkars wear these scars, kalles,” he told me. “It is the final test, the test chosen and carried out by the Dothikkar.”
My eyes widened in realization. “He…your king did this?”
The pain he must have withstood. The agony. How long had he been whipped? Shock and disbelief and horror rolled through me.
“I chose this,” he corrected, taking my face in his hands. “I have always known my purpose is this. I have always known I would be a Vorakkar. It was inevitable. It was but a fleeting moment in my life, a necessary step in order to achieve something more. I would do it again without hesitation.”
I understood what he was saying. One sacrifice to achieve everything he’d wanted.
But…
“It’s barbaric,” I protested.
“It is the old way, the old tradition.”
There seemed to be a lot of those, I couldn’t help but think.
“How many tests did you have to go through?” I asked.
“As many as was necessary,” he told me. Something told me he didn’t want me to know the exact number and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know.
I blew out a breath. “We’d been told that there are six horde kings across Dakkar, which includes you. Is that true? There are five other Vorakkars?”
“Six,” he corrected. “And the Dothikkar is currently in the process of selecting a seventh.”
“So many,” I commented softly.
Arokan ran his hand back up my bare spine until he cupped the nape of my neck, holding me still as he said, “The Ghertun grow bold. We simply need more horde warriors to patrol the wild lands, to