I was mad and frustrated. And even still, underneath those hot emotions, I was worried. For him. I was still reeling from what he’d confided in me earlier. I felt compassion for him while also feeling burning rage.
My heart and my head were a tangled mess. This was why I should’ve kept my distance. Developing feelings for a horde king of Dakkar had never been a good idea in the first place.
I heardhisvoice outside, no doubt dismissing the guard. Davik entered thevolikiand I almost gasped at what I saw. Green blood—Ghertun blood, I knew—was splattered across his bare chest, dried down and dark. He was scowling, his jaw tight.
But it was his eyes that made me still in my pacing.
He was furious too.
He’d been…unhinged.
That look reminded me so much of when I’d first met him. When he’d purposefully tried to frighten me inDothik, when he’d purposefully tried to put me on edge around him, as if he got off on my fear or at leastenjoyedit.
But I knew better now.
His eyes were cruel and hard, like chips of ice. But I’d studied him long enough to see that underneath that furious exterior…something was wrong. Something hadunsettledhim.
“Rothi kiv,” he rasped to the guard, who immediately inclined his head and left, leaving me and an enraged horde king alone.
My belly burned.
“You hadno rightto brush me aside like that,” I said through a clenched jaw, though my voice was soft. “I needed to speak to them.”
I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. This wasus. I trusted that I could give him my anger and he wouldn’t hurt me for it.
Davik stalked towards me, his heavy booted feet falling hard on the rugs.
“Cease speaking,kalles,” he growled, invading my space, his hand curling around the back of my neck, as it always did.
I glared at him. He was running hot, his temper rising.
What had his sister said in that memory? That he needed a female patient, kind, and forgiving because he had a nasty temper?
No, Devina, I thought.He needs a female that will give his anger right back to him, to challenge him with it.
His palm was hot at my nape and the metallic tang of Ghertun blood rose between us. He backed me up until the pole stabilizing thevoliki’sceiling was pressing hard into my spine. Davik seemed to grow in size, his muscles shifting and rippling in his anger.
“You willneverget near another one again,” he growled, his eyes practically daring me to argue. And if I did? There would be consequences. “I ordered mypujerakto burn them. They are nothing but ash now.”
“No,” I whispered, aghast, shocked.
Gone.
Any chance that they’d hadvovicon them was lost now. Disbelief made my spine straighten. I felt like I was burning. Like my chest was on fire with my anger.
“I’m glad I didn’t make that promise to you,” I told him. I pushed at the solid bulk of his chest, though it flaked off some of the Ghertun blood. “I’d glad I didn’t because—”
He flipped me until the pole was pressed between my breasts, my cheek against the strong black metal. I felt him rip my trews open, splitting the seam down the back until the ruined material pooled around my ankles.
“I am not right tonight, Vienne,” he rasped. “Vok, I am not.”
I gasped, stilling against him. He pressed his hips forward, keeping me pinned. He was hard at my back, his cock thick and ready. His teeth came to my neck and I shivered when I felt his bite, when I felt him hold it…like a beast forcing its mate to remain still.
“Come into my mind,” he taunted, though I heard an edge to his voice. Like aplea. Desperate with despair. After what he had shared with me earlier, I knew that this was different. This moment was different. “Come into my mind and make me stop…or take your fucking,leikavi.Your choice.”
My heart was hammering in my chest, twinging with what I heard in his voice. My anger and frustration were morphing intoneed.
They werefeedingit.
