Page 15 of Cage Me

She wants me to see what she’s feeling.

How she knew that Drake would be where he is defies logic, but maybe it’s just pure luck. Either way, I can’t deny what she’s forcing me to watch—it melts a layer of ice from around my heart.

Drake is kneeling on the ground where my father’s body was, and he’s using an old rag to scrub the blood from the hardwood floor. The six-and-a-half-foot-tall shifter, one who has lived in the shadows for who knows how many decades or possibly centuries, is on his hands and knees, cleaning up what I consider to be my mess.

He stops moving the brush over the ground and slowly, he looks up at me. I beg my wolf to duck, but she doesn’t budge. She allows us to be caught watching, seeming to be quite proud of herself, in fact, as she lifts her head farther up.

Drake sits back on his knees, and his hands fall casually to his thick thighs, but it’s his dark eyes that have me enraptured. Shadows swirl within their depths, calling me forward and begging me to allow him in, to trust him.

My wolf shivers and rumbles, thanks to the connection forming between us and this…stranger…beast of a man.

My mother’s words come rushing back to me: Don’t let the past dictate your future.

I don’t know that I’m capable of that, but being locked into Drake’s stare, I can almost admit that I want to try.

“Son of a biscuit!”

We hear Peter’s young voice shout, and whatever trance Drake had held us in is immediately broken. My wolf runs back to the other side of the house, and we see Peter standing in the yard with the shovel at his feet and holding his chin that is dripping blood through his fingers.

Mid-run, my wolf finally relinquishes control, and I shift back to my human form without missing a beat. “What happened?” I ask as I kneel in front of my brother and start to inspect his face.

Tears fill his eyes, and he stutters. “D-d-rake told me to wait, but I th-th-thought I could do it myself. I wanted to-to-to do it.”

My arms wrap around my baby brother, uncaring about the blood getting on me. “It’s okay, bubby. Come with me and we’ll get you all fixed up.”

Drake comes skidding to a stop as I start to guide Peter toward the house where I’ve left my box of potions and tinctures, one of which will heal him within seconds. “I’m sorry, Spencer. I didn’t realize…”

For the first time since sensing this man, I don’t snap at him, nor do I want to. It’s almost a relief.

“It’s okay,” I say to Drake. “I just need to get him inside and I can stop the bleeding.”

Without hesitating, he yanks his shirt off and bunches it up, replacing my hand with the soft material. “Here you go.”

Peter’s tears slow, and he smiles at the imposing shifter. “Thanks.”

Son of a—biscuit. I might be in even more trouble than I thought. At least, when it comes to Drake.

Chapter 6

DRAKE

Guiding Peter into the house, I can’t help from noticing how Spencer keeps side-eyeing me. At first, I thought it was because she doesn’t trust me with her brother, but as she stares, I realize it’s not me specifically that she’s focused on. It’s just my chest.

Maybe she’s intrigued by my tattoo that we didn’t get to talk about earlier, but as she bites the inside of her cheek, I don’t think so.

Spencer won’t be able to fight the bond forever. Not if she’s having any doubts about her previous rejection.

If there’s any attraction at all on her end, the bond will undoubtedly amplify those feelings. Based on her constant glances at my muscles, I can at least be thankful the curses Kel placed on me had me frozen in time and not left withering away all these years.

My body is still that of a strong twenty-eight-year-old shifter, who spent my days strengthening my physique in hopes of one day joining Caius’s guard so that I would stand a greater chance of escaping Tartarus.

“Oh, Petey,” Spencer’s mom calls out when we get in the house. “What did you do?”

“He was only trying to help,” I answer for him. I wouldn’t think after the day they’ve already had that the boy would get in trouble, but I’d rather be sure.

She rubs a hand over his mess of hair and takes him from Spencer. “Of course my boy was.”

“I’ll grab a healing tincture from the box I brought,” Spencer announces, then runs off quickly.

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