Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar, #4)

by Zoey Draven

That was what it felt like, falling in love. Frightening and dangerous but wonderful, all at the same time.

The words…hurt. Oddly enough. But it was a dull kind of ache. I’d learned to live without Kiran. It was obvious to me that he hadn’t loved me, not even in a familial way. If he had loved me, if he had cared for me, he might’ve still broken my heart, but he wouldn’t have shattered me so completely.

“I’ve worked so hard for all these years because that title was to be mine. Then you returned. And in a few moments, you took everything.” Again.

I could forgive him for breaking my heart. But I couldn’t forgive him for all the rest. He had shown me just how little he truly cared for me.

Because the years have felt endlessly long without you.

“But I wonder if you have the openness to love anyone anymore…the way you loved him.”

“Fine,” she snapped. “If you want her to be my piki, then that is what she’ll be. But it will be you who will look like a fool once I leave after the frost. Not me. Not again.”

For a moment—for the briefest and most wonderful of moments—her guard dropped. The walls melted away and I caught sight of the girl I’d loved a thousand different ways.

And Maeva? Well, she wasn’t a something. She was everything.

That I would claim her in the old way. That she would be my kassikari, my love, my mate, my queen.

“You belong with me, seffi. In my furs. It is there that you will sleep from now on.”

My words sounded like an oath, even to my own ears. A promise. They filled me with peace. They filled me with rightness, as if Kakkari had always meant for this. And, perhaps, she had. She had shown me the dream after all.

And finally, I brought my female to our bed.

“Because for nine years, when I lay in my bed, I would think of you. The years passed and all I could think of was you, seffi. It has always been unfinished between us.”

All I knew was that you were away from me. Away from home.” Which were one and the same,

“In case it wasn’t obvious, Maeva,” he continued, “you have my vokking heart in your hands. Lo kassiri tei.” I love you.

“When I found you in that forest, I knew that you were a gift from Kakkari herself, Maeva,”