Page 178 of Wolf Caged
Malachi looked at me, as tense as I was.
A bad sign.
Millennia ago, a traveller had come to an unseelie court in a summer storm, seeking shelter. That traveller had ended up murdering the king who had offered him refuge.
And now a traveller had entered my court unnoticed, crossing the border into my kingdom unseen and had managed to reach my door.
Dread trickled down my spine beneath my black armour.
“Send him away,” I growled.
The guard hesitated.
“What?” I barked and rested my hand on the hilt of my sword, the unease rippling through me becoming waves that rocked me as he refused to carry out my order.
“My king, the visitor… is wolven.”
My breath left my lungs as they constricted.
As the need to send the male away only increased a hundredfold and I strode for the guard, ready to seize hold of him and shake him until he did as I ordered.
Was it the one who had sold her to me, come to take her back?
Two guards appeared beyond him, a soaked and bedraggled male held between them, his dark checked shirt and black jeansplastered to his muscled frame. Stormy grey eyes locked onto me, narrowing fiercely as his lips compressed.
Grey eyes. Brown hair.
I growled through emerging fangs as I realised who this male was.
Morden.
Saphira’s protector.
The one she had spoken of with light in her eyes and a bright smile, who she had grown angry with me over when I had used past tense for their relationship, accusing me of making it sound as if they would never see each other again. I held the male’s fierce gaze, unflinching as he broke free of my guards and stormed towards me, his heavy leather boots loud on the marble floor. It would have been better had it been the wolf who had sold her come to try to take her back.
Then I could have slaughtered him without restraint.
This traveller visiting me in the midst of a summer storm felt more like the blade of fate, come to cut her away from me.
“Where is she?” Morden snarled, baring short fangs, no trace of fear in his scent as he approached me, ignoring the guards’ attempts to block his path.
He shoved them aside, knocking them away from him, snapping fangs in their faces before his unwavering gaze landed back on me.
“Where is she?” he bit out, harder this time, his eyes taking on a hard edge, one laced with disgust as he looked me over, his lip curling. “What have you done to her?”
This male thought me a beast, a monster who would take her against her will and hurt her.
“She is safe, no thanks to you,” I growled back at him, my aim true as the male flinched at the reminder of what had happened to her on his watch and how he had failed to protect her.
I had felt very few things in recent years that were as satisfying as taking this overbearing wolf down a peg or two.
Morden halted a few metres from me, gaze dark and promising death, as if that paltry distance would be any sort of hindrance if I wished to disembowel him. The wolf had come to a world of monsters without preparing himself, had no doubt rushed in to save his little pack princess without sparing a single moment to discover what kind of creatures lived in this world he now found himself in.
My world.
My court.
“How did you pass through my court unseen?” I growled at him, staring him down as I studied him. I sensed no magic on him, no method of concealing himself, meaning he had traversed my kingdom in the open.
