It was expected that she bear my heirs. Many, many heirs.
And so I told myself I was duty bound to bed her. Only that excuse was laughable to me now.
I wanted her. Desperately. I had since the first moment I’d seen her. This small, frightened creature, who held the future of my horde in her hands.
“What did you tell them?” she whispered to me now.
Drums started behind us, the beat primal. If she felt my thickened cock at her back, she didn’t comment on it.
“I told them the truth,” I rasped, swinging off Okan, themrikro, thepyrokimaster, approaching to lead my loyal beast away. Reaching for her, I heard her gasp when my hands settled around her slim waist and pulled her down. Her hands scrambled for the tops of my shoulders, steadying herself on them, as if she was afraid I’d let her fall.
I let her slide down my body. A ragged gasp flew from her throat when the heavy necklace covering her breasts slid up too. I felt the pebbled tips of her nipples drag down my chest and I barely hid my muffled groan.
The night would be long, I decided, watching as her face flamed and she hurriedly righted the necklace.
As my horde began to walk towards the feasting area, down the lined pathway we’d just traveled, I too led Mina forward.
Instead of going to the tables, however, I led us towards the dais.
“Am…am I expected to stand?” she asked, as I pulled her up the steps.
“Nik,” I murmured, taking my seat at the single throne made ofungirabone, one of the most dangerous beasts on Dakkar. Pulling her down onto my lap, I felt her freeze.
“I-I can’t sit like this all night,” she said quietly. Though her voice sounded frightened, her eyes were steady as they met my own.
“You have been in my lap before. Wearing much less, remember?” I growled in her ear.
“With your hands tied behind your back,” she responded. “You were no danger to me then.”
My grin was slow. Her lips parted when my hand slid up her bare spine, and when I reached the bones of her shoulder blades, I slid my touch around her front.
Her heavy breasts heaved when I brushed the undersides with the back of my fingers. The jewels on her necklace flashed as she moved.
“Afraid of this,rei Morakkari?”
Her heat seeped into me, licking at me like flames from a fire.
Licking her lips, she said, “I am not yourMorakkariyet.”
“You are,” I replied.
She blinked. “What? I thought there was a ceremony. Or…”
“I announced you to the horde. We rode the path. My horde made their offerings to Kakkari and gave us their blessings. It is done.”
“That’s it?” she asked, surprised.
Amusement bloomed within me.
“Well, all that’s left to appease Kakkari will take place tonight,” I informed her. “Though there will be no audience for that.”
Her cheeks burned a tantalizing red. Her chin lifted and I watched her throat bob as she swallowed.
Abikkuapproached the dais and Mina tried to turn her attention towards her, as if desperate for any distraction. I wouldn’t let her though. I tilted her chin back towards me, as I beckoned thebikkuforward with a curl of my claws.
Those green eyes were rapt on me as thebikkudeposited a heavy tray on the wide arm of the throne.
I watched Mina’s expression shift the longer we looked at one another. For a moment, I remembered the girl who’d come to me in the nights, while everyone else slept. I remembered the risks she took, even as I cursed her very name.
