At the very least, I didn’t stammer in their language. Only in my own.
Though I’d realized in the last two days, I hadn’t stammeredonce. Not since the fog. Not since that damnpain.
It was as if the pain had reset something inside me. Or unleashed something inside me. I couldn’t be certain which.
“Remember,” she whispered, touching my cheek. “You have nothing to fear from him.”
I fear everything from him, I thought silently.
Rustling came at the entrance—the sound of hide hitting hide—and I sensed his dominating presence before I ever saw him. Hukri’s eyes darted towards the entrance and then her head was bowing and she was stepping away from me.
Before he said a word, Hukri departed and I turned to watch her go, catching sight of Rowin standing tall at the entrance.
The fire in the basin sparked loudly when I met his eyes. Suddenly, it felt as if all the air in thevolikiwas sucked out, especially when his gaze dropped, when his nostrils flared, and his feet brought him closer towards me as if he couldn’t help himself.
Seeing him made my mouth go dry. And I cursed the way my belly flipped and my heart skipped a beat.
But there was no denying that he was the most handsome male I’d ever seen in my lifetime. Harsh and cold, the severe lines of his face should have been terrifying and yet, they made him seem all the more powerful. He stood bare-chested and in a fur loincloth, this one black in color. The golden tattoos that traced and swirled across his chest seemed to glow. His dark nipples were wide and tight. His shoulder was no longer bandaged and except for a raised scar, I would have thought that the sword wound had never been.
His black hair swayed down his back as he approached. Clasped in his palm, there was a solid gold cuff, glittering and ominous, though not unlike the ones he wore around his wrists. Like mine, his eyes were lined with dark powder, making the red appear devilish and dangerous.
When he drew close, so close that his wide, solid chest brushed the metal of my necklace that draped over my breasts, his hand lifted.
“Leika,” he rasped. Hunger burned in his gaze. I gasped softly, not expecting to see it, and I mentally made a note to ask Hukri about that word.Leika. He’d said it to me before. “Rei leika Morakkari.”
I knewreimeantmy.
My Morakkari.
“Not yours yet,” I corrected him.
“Are you still angry with me?” he murmured in that deep, spine-tingling voice. He drew even closer. My eyelids closed briefly when he stroked his fingers through my hair.
“Yes,” I whispered in answer.
I hated that he affected me like this. I didn’t like him one bit. I thought he was overbearing and unkind. He’d lied to me. Threatened me. Manipulated me.
So why did my body respond to his touch?
Why did my body respond to him like it hadknownhim before, like itrememberedhim?
His head dipped. When his kiss came, I didn’t fight it. He would be my husband after this night and I would be his wife. When the heat of his tongue stroked mine, I made a small sound in the back of my throat. A sharp sigh huffed through his nostrils and I thought that maybe I’d had too much of the wine again because the world swayed beneath my eyelids.
Rowin pulled back quickly and he had to snag my waist to keep me steady, to keep me from stumbling. Belatedly, I realized I’d placed my hands on the wide berth of his chest and I snatched them back swiftly. When I tried to step away, his grip tightened.
He held up the gold cuff. My eyes flicked to it, swallowing.
“Are you going to chain me again?” I asked, raising a brow.
“Not chain you,” he corrected. “Claimyou.”
With that, he clasped the cuff around myneck. I heard it snap tight.
“What…what is this?” I asked, suddenly nervous, bringing my fingers up to touch the warm metal.
“AVorakkar’sclaim.Your Vorakkar’sclaim,” he told me. “You only need to wear it this night. And whenever I wish.”
A gasp of outrage whistled through my nostrils. The Ghertun had cuffed their slaves like this. Or so I had heard.
