Page 9 of Wolf Tamer

Tasha’s in trouble.

ChapterFour

Tasha

The door to the cell opens, and I quickly bring my hand to my chest like I actually have something to hide. Adrenaline rises inside me in a rush of sensation that has my skin going hot and my limbs cold.

“What do you want?” I begin.

Mae narrows her eyes at me, her moon-colored hair in a long braid down past her breasts. She looks like a woman, but I know better. She’s actually a snake wearing a woman’s suit, with her own viperous goals and ambitions that she hid from me under a guise of helplessness. A viper indeed, and one who played on my trauma like I’m nothing but a fucking piano.

She’d asked for me, acted all maternal and shit.

As the head of the Buson Coven, she’s the one responsible for my captivity and for the she-burns-at-dawn bullshit the rest of her Kool-Aid drinkers lapped up.

And she’d almost caught me using magic.

I’m going to have to be a little more careful if I want to make it out of here.

“What’s the matter, darling? Had to get another look at me?” I ask her with a wide, savage grin. It’s easy to dive right back into my favorite coping mechanism: sarcasm—especially when I know Mae hates anyone talking back to her. There’s a term for a person like her, and it’sdrunk with power. “Take a good look before I’m nothing but a crispy critter. Unless you’re here to tell me you’ve changed your mind about the whole thing. I mean, a girl can hope.”

I play my awkward weirdness off as nothing and hide between a load of derision.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asks.

I shrug. “Contemplating the meaning of life. You’ve given me a lot of time to sit and contemplate the error of my ways.”

A muscle twitches near her eye.Gotcha. Now I’ve got to keep going.

“Do you want me to list them out?” I continue. “First of all, I kill people for a living, and I make money doing it. But you already know all about that. I had sex with a wolf—there’s that, too. And I thoroughly enjoyed sucking his—”

“You know these cells are warded,” Mae interrupts. “No magic is able to work within these walls. Do you understand?”

“Now, why would you ask me something like that?” I blink innocently at her, but inside, I’m freaking out just a little bit. How can she know?

I mean, I didn’t even know about my magic. Does this old witch have some kind of magic detector built into her or what?

If she’s saying these things, then she suspects me. And here I am like I’ve got a target painted on my back. If she decides to kill me earlier than sunrise, she definitely can, and she’s got the upper hand.

“Whatever it is you think you’re doing, Tasha, think again,” Mae retorts. She stands there staring at me with her head cocked to the side and her jaw clenched.

It’s such a different picture than the one she presented to me when we first met—a woman in need, a coven in danger, and a big bad enemy lurking in the shadows.

Those are dynamics I can understand.

The reality of the situation, not so much.

I shake my head before saying, “I’m not thinking about anything. Saying my last prayers, more like, since you seem content to burn me at the stake with the rising sun. Maybe I just have a lot to remember before it all ends.”

She sets me with another inscrutable look, and suddenly all the anger I’ve pressed down rises to the surface, directed at her.

“What?” I bark. “Whatare you looking at?”

“I’m looking at a witch who can’t keep her word, apparently.” Mae crosses her arms over her chest with a look fairly close to disappointment. “A witch who would rather sleep with the enemy than do her job. One who is having a hard time accepting the consequences for such failings.”

Wow. She needs to take those sentiments and shove them right up her ass because they’re nothing but gasoline on my frustration.

I might have broken our contract, but at least I never pretended to be anything other than what I am.

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