Page 200 of Wolf Caged
I hadn’t underestimated his feelings at all. I hadn’t been wrong about them.
They were the reason he was sending me away.
That kiss had been a goodbye, but also a message to Morden that I was his.
War was at his borders, at the very borders he had closed with a magical barrier when he had lost his parents and brother, sealing them in the same way he had closed off his heart. To protect it. I had been wounded in the Wastes, beyond the safety of that magical barrier, and it had changed something within him.
And I was now a liability.
Or something to be protected.
I looked him right in the eyes, staring deep into them, trying to penetrate the cold mask of indifference.
A shimmer of regret crossed his silver gaze, there and gone in the blink of an eye, a flicker of unspoken things that echoed inside me too and made me want to stand up to him, because I knew he was pushing me away on purpose, deliberately being a cold bastard so I would leave his court and return to my world, far from the danger of the war brewing here. He knew if he shoved me away, if he rejected me and prodded that lingering wound that still pained me, that I would run.
Just as he wanted.
And maybe the old Saphira would have fled with her tail tucked between her legs, with her head bowed and tears in her eyes, pitying herself and withdrawing from the fight. I would have broken down, and might have even begged or pleaded,desperately hoping I could convince him to change his mind or come with me to help me.
But I wasn’t that weak little lamb anymore.
He had made me strong. He had made me a fighter.
And that strength he had seen in me rose to the fore as I stared him down, unflinching as his cold gaze penetrated my heart.
A heart that beat strong and steady, defiant and ready to go to war for what I wanted.
Him.
When I had first found myself in the Shadow Court, I had wanted my freedom.
But now?
I wasn’t the winner in this game we had been playing from the moment he had bought me. Gaining my freedom didn’t feel like a victory. It felt like a punishment.
One I was going to return to him tenfold.
“Send me away all you want,” I growled as I stormed towards him. “But know that we’re not done.”
I strode up the steps of the dais to him.
Grabbed him by his nape and looked him right in the eye.
“This isn’t over. We’re not over. We’re only just beginning and once I’ve dealt with my asshole fated mate, once I’ve saved my pack, I’m coming back here and it’s going to take a lot more than a ring and a dagger to win me back.”
I kissed him. Hard.
With all my fury.
With all my growing love for him.
And just as he softened and began to kiss me back, I broke contact and stepped back from him, satisfied this moment would torment him and keep me in his mind while we were apart.
“When I return, and Iwillreturn,” I growled, holding his silver gaze, catching the glimmer of shock in it, and need, “you’regoing to have to do some real grovelling to win me back. On your knees.”
I backed away from him, not hiding how angry I was about what he was doing. I stared at him the whole time, making him see it.
Making sure that he knew.
