keep them in line.”
Concern touched my brow. “It’s that worrisome?”
“Lysi, I will not lie to you,” he confessed. “They reproduce very quickly, which means their numbers grow quickly.”
“Is that what you were meeting about tonight?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Partly,” he answered. “Mostly, the bveri are beginning to migrate south. Soon, it will be time to leave this area, to follow them. We will journey for a new encampment during the next moon cycle.”
The knowledge sent a thread of panic through me. South. Further away from my brother. Would I ever see him again?
Not only that, but I’d just felt like I’d begun to settle there. Now, he was telling me we were to pack up and leave, to start fresh elsewhere.
This is the horde life, I told myself. The Dakkari way.
“How do you feel about that, kalles?” he asked me softly, studying me.
“It seems overwhelming,” I said honestly. Then I sighed, touching the solid muscles of his chest, tracing the golden markings of his skin. “But I’ll enjoy seeing more of Dakkar. Though I was born here, I’ve seen very little of my home planet.”
He made a sound deep in his throat and his arms came around me, pulling me more tightly into his body.
I felt warm and safe in his arms. And I knew, without a doubt, that I’d given up yet another piece of my heart to him that night. How much more would he take before there was nothing left?
“I will show it all to you, Luna,” he murmured. “I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Are you frustrated, kalles?” Arokan growled, his voice rough and wild, spurring on my emotion.
I was frustrated and tired and sore beyond belief.
“Yes,” I hissed back, the weight of the dagger still unfamiliar in my hand. It was perfectly balanced. The handle was made of bveri bone, strong and solid, and the blade was of light yet lethal Dakkari steel. Expertly crafted, or so Arokan had told me.
Arokan rushed me out of nowhere and I was unprepared, distracted by his words. I gasped and he grabbed my throat, to tell me that I’d let my guard down, that if he was an enemy, that would have been a kill shot. I would be dead.
The Dakkari didn’t mess around. Not with training. They’d been raised warriors, even the females, and everything that Arokan taught me demonstrated that.
He was hard on me because he wanted me to learn quickly. He wanted to make me stronger.
My husband squeezed my throat lightly, not enough to hurt, but enough to get my attention. My breathing went tight because I remembered when he’d done something similar between the furs, when he’d pinned me down and mounted me from behind.
Great. Now I was frustrated, tired, sore, and aroused.
“Get angry,” he growled, his body pressed against mine. “Feel that emotion and then let it go. Emotion will get you killed if you let it.”
My eyes narrowed and I pushed him away, my muscles straining.
“Again,” I said, panting with exertion.
His mouth tightened but he jerked his head in a nod.
It was a calm, peaceful night, though it was late. Arokan had finished with his duties later than usual, but he’d asked if I still wanted to train that night once he returned.
I’d wanted to, but instead of going to the training ground, he’d led me into the forest, much to my confusion.
I’d been nervous, considering the last time I’d been there, the Ghertun scout had most likely been watching my every move. But I trusted Arokan. He wouldn’t bring me there unless he believed it was safe.
“Use the environment,” he’d told me. “Anything can be a weapon if you use it correctly.”
With that in mind, I rushed him first that time. I’d been frightened to accidentally cut him with the blade or injure him in some way, but quickly, my fears had been alleviated. Arokan was much too skilled as a warrior to be seriously harmed by a novice like me. And when I had managed a shallow cut earlier on, he’d simply looked down at it and grunted, “Good. Very good, kalles.”
I’d been much too pleased by his praise to admit I’d cut him on accident.
He quickly side-stepped my rush, his arm swiping out to disarm me of my blade. It thudded softly onto the forest floor, but there was no time to reach for it.
Before I knew it, he dove for me and I hit the ground hard, the air in my lungs whooshing out of me. He straddled his thighs around