“Here,rei Morakkari,” Wrune said, drawing my attention away from the humans. “Eat.”
When I reached forward to take some braised meat from the tray, he snagged my hand gently.
“I feed you tonight,” he murmured. My eyes widened. “And you will feed me as well.”
Another custom of thistassimara? Or was it…for always?
With that, Wrune took some braised meat from the dish and raised it to my lips. The flavor of it exploded on my tongue. Rich and slightly smoky. The fat was like silk and the meat practically melted, it was so tender.
I swore I caught a hint of a smile on Wrune’s face as he pulled his fingers away, briefly sucking the juice that ran down his thumb. My breath hitched at the sight. Swallowing hard, I watched as he selected another dish, something green and hard.
“Open for me, Mina,” he murmured, bringing it to my lips. His words made another shiver race down my back, one I couldn’t hide from him, and this time, I was certain of his smile.
I opened my mouth and he fed me the small morsel, keeping my eyes all the while. Why was something like this so incredibly intimate? I felt the panic rising, just as surely as the flush that was threatening to flood over my cheeks.
“Only aMorakkariis allowed to feed aVorakkar,” came his voice, surprisingly soft. “And only aVorakkaris allowed to feed hisMorakkari.”
Given the intimacy of this, I understood why that was.
The green thing he’d just fed me was tart and sharp, though the next moment, it dissolved into sweetness. It made my mouth water as I pondered his words and then I noted quietly, “I fed you before.”
“Lysi, you did.”
“I—I should not have done that then,” I remarked next.
“Given that you became myMorakkari,” he commented, his eyes fixed on my lips, “there was no harm in it.”
“The humans,” I murmured quickly when I saw him lean towards me, as if he would steal another kiss. My hand was shaking slightly when I reached out for the food tray, to snag a piece of the meat. “How did they come to be here in your horde?”
Wrune knew exactly what I was doing but he allowed it. He relaxed into his throne. The muscles of his thighs released underneath me, though his cock was still pressing hard against my hip. His arousal was nearly impossible to ignore, especially in his loincloth.
“Remember when I spoke to you about heartstones?” he said. Tentatively, I nodded, and then before I lost my nerve, I offered him the meat.
He leaned forward to take it, his eyes flashing as his lips brushed my fingers. Transfixed, I watched the way his jaw worked as he ate. Thiswasfamiliar. As if we’d done it a thousand times before, and that was almost as frightening as the thing between his thighs, aching and needful.
“The human queen of Rath Drokka used the heartstone underneath the Dead Mountain and in the panicked aftermath, the Dakkari that accompanied her helped free the Ghertuns’ slaves,” Wrune told me. He nodded his head towards the humans on the far end of the feasting tables. “They were among them.”
Sympathy went through me. For everything I’d endured in this life, from loss and grief to derision and abuse, I’d at least never been a slave of the Ghertun. I’d heard horrible, horrible things.
“You will meet them soon enough,” Wrune said after a brief moment of quiet.
“Since you mean to release me from my prison,” I murmured, “and let your pet roam freely around your horde?”
Wrune made an impatient huff. I was only half-jesting, the wine slowly loosening my tongue. There was a gentle rush in my ears. My body was beginning to warm.
All my bravado faded, however, when his thick, hot palm landed on my knee and slowly slid its way up my thigh. The back of my neck pricked and my heart pounded in its cage.
“You are a queen now,” he murmured in my ear. “You are free to do as you please. However, you always have to submit to me when I wish it, though you know how much I enjoy your claws,rei sarkia.”
Oh, this maddening male, I thought, my spine straightening even as my flesh tingled from his bold touch.
“And in private, I will take them gladly.”
My eyes connected with his and held. I understood what he was telling me. I understood what he was trying to make me realize.
That I might be his queen but this washishorde. And if I did anything to undermine his authority among his horde, he would not be happy about it.
I was, however, free to argue with him in private. Without the eyes and the ears of his horde watching.
