Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar, #1)

by Zoey Draven

It was eerie, spine-tingling to look into them. But a strange part of me had been fascinated. A strange part of me had thought them beautiful.

From that day on, if the lookouts saw evidence of a horde approaching, all women in the village donned cloaks and hoods to conceal our faces. Just in case.

“I will always protect you. Mother made me promise, remember? You have nothing to fear.”

Perhaps they would take me instead of taking my brother. It was a trade I was willing to offer.

Because that rich, dark voice belonged to the horde king. “Take off your hood, kalles,” the horde king ordered in the universal tongue, still looking straight at me. “Let me see the face of the female who dares to challenge the Dakkari.”

He will never do this again. I promise.” Even though we were only five years apart, sometimes I felt ten or twenty years older than Kivan. “Take me instead.”

Instead of pain, I felt cool air shift across my skin. He’d cut the front of my cloak, and he pulled the sides away for a better glimpse…of my body. Humiliation—or perhaps relief—made my cheeks hot as I realized what he was doing, even with my nonexistent experience with males.

“You wish to offer your life in exchange for your brother’s offense?” I was proud my voice didn’t tremble as I said, “I do.” “You are willing to die for him?” he asked next.

Goose bumps broke out over my flesh as I whispered, “Serve you?” “Lysi,” he rasped. He wanted me as his whore, wanted me to warm his bed, wanted to use my body for his pleasure…in exchange for my brother’s life.

“P-Please. I will go with you now. Please, just do not…do not hurt him.” His nostrils flared wide, but at least his attention was on me, not on my brother. “Please,” I begged—and I had never begged before in my life.

That hand pressed tighter into my belly. It was so large that I felt it span across my ribs. I knew it wouldn’t be the last time those hands were on me.

I’d sold myself to a horde king of Dakkar to save my brother’s life. I’d sold myself to a horde king to serve him…as his human whore. That knowledge sunk in. It sunk in deep and festered.

process. I had accepted my fate, had agreed to it, had promised that I would serve him. I intended to, but I felt my soul slowly begin to wither at the prospect of it.

And suddenly, I was alone and naked with the horde king.

“Stand,” he ordered. I froze. “What?” “You are clean now. Stand, kalles.”

“Put this on,” he commanded, dropping the transparent nightdress in my hands. My eyes bulged. “But…but it’s…” Not that it mattered. I was already naked in front of him. I had no dignity left, it seemed. “Sleep bare, then,” he said, with a shrug of his massive shoulders. “I would prefer it, kalles.”

Despite the situation, despite what happened that night and my pain and exhaustion from riding the pyroki…my heartbeat stuttered at the sensual sight of him.

“Can you blame me? I’d expected to be rutted on the floor the moment you came inside. That was what I’d agreed to, was it not?” I cursed myself once the words left my tongue. He made a sound in the back of his throat. “Do not give me tempting ideas, kalles.”

“I had intended to rut you on the floor this night, like a beast,” he murmured suddenly. “I thought of nothing else as we rode.” I inhaled a sharp breath. “I will wait until you heal,” he finally said.

My head went foggy as he continued his caress over my other nipple, but when I tried to squirm away, his tail wrapped around my waist, holding me fast and firm, surprising me with its strength.

“I will claim you in the old way, in the old Dakkari tradition,” he told me, which only confused me even more. “You will not be my whore, kalles. You will be my queen.”

His strength was undeniable, and I let out a small, surprised breath when he tilted my head back to look at him.

“I will never be part of the horde.” “You are!” he roared. “You will be my kassikari, I will fill your belly with my heirs, you will be my queen, and you will eat when I tell you to!” Sucking in a breath, anger pulsing through me, I hissed out, “Or else what?”

He was threatening me, using my brother’s life as leverage. However, he would lose me if he took that course, and for some reason…he wanted me. A horde king of the Dakkari wanted me, and I could use that to my advantage. Narrowing my eyes, I called his bluff.

“But if you do, I swear on your goddess that I will never eat again. I will die here and be reunited with my brother and mother in the afterlife. Nothing would make me happier.”

“If you will not eat,” he rasped, “then I will make you, kalles.”

“Stubborn kalles,” he growled. “I will break you like a wild pyroki if I must.” You can try, I goaded in my mind but kept my teeth firmly clenched.

“Lysi,” he hissed, “you are making me ache, kalles.”

In my ear, he rasped, “You are growing hot for me, kalles.” A dark chortle came next, and I felt my cheeks heat with humiliation, with shame. “Vok, you need this. I need this too, kassikari.”

“Go hungry, then, kalles. It is your choice,” he rasped. “Rest today. Because when I return tonight, I will have what you promised to me. It is obvious you have recovered your strength, and I will not wait another night to claim your cunt.”

It didn’t matter that I worried he would tear me in two or that he would be rough. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin, inexperienced with males and sex.

I’d been right. For some strange reason, the horde king wanted me. I didn’t know why.

The scent of his musk reached my nostrils, rising from his skin after his long day. He smelled like the earth, heady and warm. I smelled his sweat. Instead of repulsing me, it made my head swim.

It felt good. And I hated that. I hated it and liked it so much that to my mortification, I felt tears well in my eyes.

He stopped, I thought in disbelief. He could have taken my body just now, but he’d stopped. Why?

blinked at the intimate embrace, torn between wanting to pull away and wanting to accept it. I’d never been held this way before by anyone.

“I will offer you my given name on two conditions.” Curiosity and wariness made me ask, “What are they?” “You never speak it where it can be overheard by my horde,” he said. “And the other?” I asked. “You will eat once you wake.”

“Stubborn kalles,” he murmured. But he let out a deep sigh. “You will eat the entire portion I give you?” “Yes,” I whispered. “I promise.”

“Arokan,” he rasped softly, sending goose bumps over my arms. “My given name is Arokan of Rath Kitala. Now, sleep, kalles.” Arokan.

Disbelief made my head swim. He wanted to take my identity away, my past. He wanted my only purpose to be him, his people. “Go to hell, Arokan,” I whispered, deliberately using his name.

“I agreed to be your whore, not your queen and certainly not your obedient little slave.”

I own you, kalles. And when the black moon comes, I will show you just how much. In three nights, you will truly be mine.”

I was still his pawn, his plaything. For a reason I hadn’t yet discovered, he’d chosen me to be his obedient little wife. He wanted me tamed, he wanted me quiet. I could be neither. I refused to be.

“Kakkari is the earth—solid, nurturing. She gives us life. Drukkar is everything that supports her, a foundation for her to stand on. Rains, seasons, storms, heat. He can be violent and merciless at times, but she always opens for him, accepts him. Because of that, he loves her, he cares for her, and he punishes all that harm her.”

I felt more like myself than I’d had since I’d arrived to the Dakkari camp. It was simply ironic, then, that later that night, I would never be the same again. I knew what was coming. Arokan had told me himself. After that night, I would be his wife, his queen. He would own my body, and my life would be tied to his from that night forward. Husband.

Remembering that perhaps the horde king needed warmth most of all, considering the crusted and cold blood that decorated his flesh, remembering that he had the power to help my village, if I gave him reason to.

“Helping you,” I replied, disturbed by how much I liked his voice. It was rich and dark and deep. Sinful and decadent. “You need to bathe.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” I asked softly. His eyes opened and he regarded me carefully. “Would you have cared?”

“I don’t know. We just…cover ourselves around other people.” I gave him a pointed look. “It’s polite.” Arokan made a sound like a snort. “I am not ‘other people,’ as you call it. You will know my flesh like it is your own soon enough.”

“Humans are strange about mating too, it seems,” Arokan commented next, eyeing my expression. “Why? It is natural.”