Throne of the Horde King, page 31
I nodded.
Swallowing, I said quietly, “I haven’t taken the kana today.”
His gaze flashed. “Then I’ll bring you hot water with your meal.”
His arms slid around me.
“And then later, when I have you in my bed and you’re using my cock as I promised,” he murmured, “we’ll test out how well the kana works, lysi?”
If he noticed the way I stiffened, he didn’t comment on it. Hopefully he’d mistake it for desire.
In a flash, I pressed my lips to his when he bent down. As a way of distraction. But all too soon, I felt the familiar curl and sizzle of lust, spiraling in my belly.
The kiss turned hungry, fueled by the high emotions of the night.
A low growl rose from Arik’s throat, rumbling and dark.
He led me over to the edge of the sunken bath, pressing my front to the cool marble. Behind me, I felt the prod of his thick cock against my sex, and I pushed back, eager and desperate for him.
“I changed my mind. Our meal can wait,” he rasped. He hissed as my moan echoed around the washroom, as his cock sunk in deep. “Lysi, lift that pretty tail for me and get ready for your fucking, Kara. This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“Lysi,” I whispered, doing as he asked, moving my tail away. My lips parted when I felt his dakke—the hardened bump at the base of his cock—press into my sensitive, puckered flesh underneath my tail when he thrust forward. Wicked and wonderful. “Hanniva!”
For a moment, I wanted to forget. This was what I needed. What I craved.
“And when you come for me, rei kassiri,” came his velvety purr in my ear, and he slammed home, stretching me and filling me to the brim, “you’ll scream for me.”
“Lysi!”
“You’ll scream for me,” he huffed into my ear as water began to slosh from the sunken bath with his powerful, rough thrusts, “so all of Dothik knows that you’re mine.”
Chapter 44
Through the window in my sleeping room, a shaft of moonlight speared over Kara. She slumbered peacefully, her breaths rising and falling in a comforting rhythm as I stroked my fingers down her back and waist and hips.
I’d lit up another fire in the room, and so we’d kicked off the furs, which had tangled around our ankles with the ferocity of our fucking, which had gone on late into the night.
In the aftermath, she was passed out next to me, her cunt still filled with my come. I was sated, unbelievably satisfied. Yet I wanted her again.
She was curled toward me, her beautiful face relaxed, her lips parted. Looking at her filled me with supreme contentedness. It filled me with rightness. My chest warmed when she made a little sound in her throat as her tail flicked against my leg.
She dreamed. I wondered if she was dreaming about me.
Shifting on the bed, I drew her into my arms, curling them tightly around her. She was a deep sleeper, something she’d told me once but something I’d also come to realize on my own. Nothing could wake her…which was a weakness. One that worried me. I woke at the slightest sound, the slightest movement. It had saved my life more than once.
After our bath earlier, Kara had slowly seemed to return to her normal self. She’d chatted throughout our meal, asking me about the layout of the city and if she would be able to see more of it while we were here, even if it was during the nighttime.
We would need to gain access to the priestesses’ temple tomorrow, which posed an issue in itself. Ideally in the evening when that area of the city was mostly cleared out. It was near the market that Kara so desperately wanted to see, but as the sun began to set, the vendors packed up their stalls and the people of Dothik went in search of their local tavern or back to their homes.
The temple was still guarded by the Dothikkar’s soldiers, however. They wouldn’t allow us entry, especially if we were cloaked figures. They would demand to see our faces, and they would soon realize who I was…and who Kara was too.
We had to sneak inside, a feat that was nearly as impossible as breaking into the Dothikkar’s palace.
After our meal, we’d sat in the sitting room by the fire. Kara wanted to dry off her hair before we went to bed—my particular little female—and so I’d turned the chair toward the flames and pulled her into my lap. She’d snagged a book off the wall and had it opened in her lap the moment I’d pulled her down. She’d settled into me as if it was the most natural thing in the entire world. As if we’d passed our evenings just like that for decades: sitting by the sparking fire after our evening meal as she read to me, sliding her fingertips across the page as my gaze tracked the strange words.
After a dozen pages, however, and once Kara’s hair had dried, I’d grown impatient. My hands had begun to wander, squeezing and cupping flesh I wanted to kiss and lick and stroke. When she’d begun to stammer over her words, her gentle cadence giving way to breathy sighs, I plucked the book from her hands, placed it alongside the tray I’d brought up from the kitchens, and took her to my bed.
And now I watched over her even though I felt like I could sleep for years. I didn’t think I would sleep while we were in Dothik. Not when she was in bed next to me. I was too fearful that I’d wake to a shadowy figure looming over my bed, a blade gleaming as it whistled down toward her.
I couldn’t risk it.
Not when there were many people in this city that wanted me dead. That would use any weakness I had against me.
And Kara?
She was steadily becoming my biggest one.
A sound at my door had me freezing. Without another moment of hesitation, I slid soundly from the bed, disentangling my limbs from Kara’s as I drew my dagger from underneath my pillow. Making sure the sleeping room was secure and that the window was latched, I made my way out to the sitting room, peering into every darkened corner.
A rap at the door came. Three knocks, a long pause, followed by two rapid ones.
I relaxed, blowing out a sharp breath.
Bakkia.
I went to the door, pulling it wide. If he was surprised by my nakedness or the way Kara’s scent was all over me, he didn’t comment on it. The male I’d known all my life, who’d given my mother a chance at a new life, who’d given her a home when she’d had none, stood at the threshold of my private quarters.
“Lysi?” I asked quietly.
“We need to talk,” came his hushed voice. His tone made me straighten. Something about it sent a warning down my spine.
I inclined my head, gesturing for him to come inside. His bulk moved into the darkened room, and I said, “Wait here.”
I left him in the sitting room to return to my sleeping room. With a brief glance at Kara, I replaced my dagger under the pillow, smoothing a hand through her hair. Then I went to my chests, pulling on trews and lacing them lazily before I returned to Bakkia.
I left the door slightly ajar, though I knew that Kara wouldn’t wake. I knew I’d be back beside her long before she ever woke.
Bakkia was standing at the fire, staring down into the flames.
“Tell me,” I murmured, placing my hand on the back of his shoulder when I stepped up behind him.
When he turned, my hand fell away.
“I didn’t want to say anything during the meeting. I’m not even certain I saw what I did.”
“And what do you think you saw?” I asked, feeling myself slip back into my old skin like I’d never left it behind. It seemed strange to realize I was anything else but this. It seemed strange to realize that I was a Vorakkar. That I was responsible for a horde, which waited for me out on the wildlands.
Bakkia said, “I think I saw Kiro and Vala leaving a meeting with Nyonnia.”
A growl left my throat, physically feeling myself react to the name.
“The mercenary from the Eastern District?” I hissed softly. “The vokking bastard who gave up Bodin’s location to the guards at the palace?”
“Lysi,” Bakkia said.
I took in a calming breath, though I felt the tension prickle through my shoulders. All the contentedness and satisfaction I’d felt next to Kara vanished in a single instant.
“Where?” I asked.
“At the tavern off the Seventh Limb,” he responded. “Last week. Right after we heard from Nassik that you were returning to Dothik.”
“Why were you there?” I asked. “If anyone saw you in the Eastern District…”
“I know,” Bakkia said, blowing out a sharp breath. “But I needed to get supplies for the tavern. I made sure I wasn’t noticed.”
“Why not get the supplies from Suava?” I scowled. “Surely there’s more than enough gold in our stores to get you whatever you need from him, even if he marked up the prices again.”
“Suava died,” came his short reply.
“Neffar?” I asked, stilling.
“In his sleep,” Bakkia said, shrugging. “He was an old male. His time had come. But his son doesn’t have his head for business. And so I’ve been going to the Eastern District to get what I need.”
“Vok,” I said quietly, rolling my neck before rubbing at the back of it. “I didn’t know.”
“Obviously,” Bakkia chuffed.
It was strange to feel disconnected from the city, from the people I knew so well like this. Kara had spoken of a network of power over Dakkar. And while it still gave me chills thinking about what she’d said about that level of connection, I understood what she meant. Because there was a network like it in Dothik, the one we’d created, and it ran on knowledge, on secrets, on trust, and on gold.
That was powerful in itself.
But I’d been gone from this place for over a year now. I hadn’t returned in all that time, and while it felt effortless to slip back into who I’d been all my life, things had obviously changed in my absence.
“So you saw them leaving the tavern with Nyonnia?” I asked quietly, meeting his eyes.
“I saw Kiro certainly,” Bakkia told me in a low tone. “Vala had his cloak drawn up, but I recognized his gait. The limp. I’m fairly certain it was him. And they said nothing about a meeting. They know your feelings for Nyonnia. They know all our feelings about that sack of shit.”
Kiro and Vala had been at the meeting tonight because I considered the two of them some of my closest allies. And they hadn’t said a word.
The network was built on trust. The moment that crumbled it would all fall away.
“You think they’ll try for their assassination attempt?” I asked.
Bakkia breathed in deeply. “I can see no other reason for why they would meet with him. They know Nyonnia has connections to the palace. They’ve made it clear they want the Dothikkar dead. But considering how he turned on Bodin, I don’t understand how they think they can trust him.”
“Have you told Kalik?” I asked. “Or Errana?”
He shook his head. “I wanted to tell you first. I wanted to let you decide what you want to do with the information.”
“Vok,” I cursed softly, running my hand through my hair.
“Welcome home, Serok,” Bakkia said wryly.
I thought over the options quickly, weighing each one.
“We’ll wait until after we’ve secured the heartstone from the priestesses,” I told Bakkia. “We might need them if we have to gain access to the temple. But afterward…”
“You’ll put them on trial,” Bakkia finished for me.
“Lysi.”
Bakkia inclined his head. “And what if something happens before then? What if they put something into motion and it’s too late to stop it?”
My nostrils flared.
“It’s the risk I’ll take,” I said quietly. “And it’ll be on me to deal with the consequences if they actually succeed.”
Kiro and Vala had been the most outspoken members of our core group about wanting the Dothikkar assassinated. They believed it would solve everything. They believed it would clear a certain path to the throne for me. With our supporters not just in the Southern District but in the Eastern, Western, and Northern Districts, it would be easy to take it. If not by blood right, then because I was a Vorakkar.
Yet they couldn’t be more wrong. The Dothikkar hadn’t recognized me as his son. He had no proven heirs. If he died without securing a successor—a legitimate successor—it would leave Dothik in turmoil and unrest. It would leave Dothik vulnerable.
It would be up to his council and the priestesses to secure Dothik in the aftermath of his death, and both groups were perhaps even more dangerous than he was.
“If the Seta Kalliri and the Vorakkar step in on your behalf,” Bakkia murmured quietly, “your legitimacy will be recognized. Perhaps this is not a terrible thing, Arik. Perhaps this is—”
I cut him a sharp look.
He knew my thoughts on assassination attempts. Him more than anyone. He knew my hatred for my father. Just as he knew I would not pave the way to the throne in his blood.
“We do this the right way, or we don’t do it all,” I growled low.
“To Kiro and Vala, this is the right way,” Bakkia said. “So you mean we do this your way, or we don’t do this at all.”
I closed my eyes, blowing out a sharp breath through my nostrils.
“Do you want Dothik?” Bakkia asked.
A loaded question. One that Nassik had recently asked me, though he’d phrased it differently. But the meaning had been the same.
Guilt mingled with longing. Responsibility warred with selfishness.
“Lysi.”
My answer was a guttural rasp.
“It would be easier to turn my back on it,” I continued quietly. “It would be easier to stay out on the wildlands and make a kingdom of our own. But this is my home. Every foul, rotten, greed-filled corner of this city is what I know best. And I want to build it up again. I want to make it new. I want to create the city that Bekkar always meant for it to be. And it will be the hardest thing I will ever do in my lifetime, but I know now it is what I must do.”
Satisfaction gleamed in Bakkia’s eyes.
“Then we will get it for you,” came his simple answer. “You have hundreds—nik, thousands—behind you already. With the hordes at your back and the priestesses at your side, you will have even more support. Dothik is already yours, Arik. We just have to take it from within.”
Swallowing, my gaze flitted to the flames. All my life, we’d waited. We’d built up a network, we’d built up support, and we’d waited some more. With a single murmured word, thousands could storm the Dothikkar’s palace. They could flood the streets and charge at his gilded gates.
I only needed to give the word. But that could only happen when the palace was at its weakest.
Soon, I thought.
We were close. So close.
And it couldn’t have come at a worse time with the fog in the East Lands.
“And I know you do not like the thought,” Bakkia continued, “but his death is inevitable. It is the only way to move forward. It is the only way to cut the disease from this city. And after his death, we occupy the palace, we remove his council, and we have the priestesses confirm your bloodline. All of Dothik saw you in the Vorakkar Trials. They cheered for you when the Dothikkar placed the cuffs on your wrists. They will follow you because you have already proven yourself to them.”
As if sparked by the words, the scars on my back seemed to heat. Sometimes I could still feel the lash of the whip.
“Is that all we have to do?” I murmured, flashing Bakkia a grim smile. “If I’d known it would be that easy, we’d have done it years ago.”
Nothing ever went to plan, however. Not once. And I still had a horde to think about. I still had Kara’s safety to think about.
Bakkia chuffed out a long sigh.
“And what about the female?” Bakkia asked, gesturing toward the ajar door to my sleeping room.
“What about her?” I murmured, quirking a brow.
He leveled me a dry look. “Who is she? Really?”
I’d never lied to Bakkia once, and I didn’t see the point of starting now. “She’s the Seta Kalliri’s daughter.”
His eyes widened.
“Not by blood,” I added, as if it wasn’t obvious. “But her daughter all the same.”
“She’s a priestess?” Bakkia hissed softly.
“Nik,” I said. “But she believes she can secure the heartstone for us from the temple. She’s the reason I have the heartstone from the orala sa’kilan. And why the Sorakkar of Rath Hidri will bring his to the East Lands. She is…not to be underestimated.”
“High praise coming from you,” Bakkia commented, though his tone was edged in wariness. Though he’d been warm to Kara, I knew that Bakkia did not trust easily. We were alike in that way.
“Trust me on this, lysi?” I asked Bakkia, reaching out to clasp his shoulder. “And trust me on Kiro and Vala too.”
“Have I ever not trusted you?” came Bakkia’s pointed question.
“Only because I’ve never given you a choice,” I returned. “But I’m giving you one now.”
The male I loved like a true father swallowed, meeting my gaze, his eyes darting between mine.
“The wildlands have changed you, Arik,” came his soft observation. His gaze strayed past my shoulder. “Or perhaps the pretty hybrid female in your furs has.”
“Changed me for the better? Or for the worse?” I wondered. I wondered what he saw in me that had changed.
His grin was soft. “That remains to be seen. But I hope it is for the better.”
“Get back to the tavern,” I told him after a long silence had passed, as the fire crackled between us. “We will meet at dawn about the priestesses. The fog takes precedence right now. Afterward, we’ll decide on the throne. Together.”
Bakkia inclined his head. “With Kiro and Vala?”
“Lysi, even with them. Act as if you did not see them. Say nothing about it. This will play out as it is intended to,” I murmured to him, thinking about Kara’s words to me in the washroom. “We are right where we are meant to be.”
Chapter 45
