Page 53 of Wolf Caged
The haughty one scoffed. “And she serves him how?”
Maybe they didn’t know I could understand them. They were being so open with their remarks. Or maybe they knew I could grasp their words and that was part of the fun for them.
Mock the little wolf.
The third female, this one as tall as the first, muttered, “Perhaps she is his mistress.”
The haughty one’s dark eyes widened and her face paled before crimson splotches coloured her cheeks and she scowled at me. “Impossible. Our king would not sully himself with such a lowborn female. I will speak with him about it at our next meeting. I am sure he will set our minds at ease. I canbarely tolerate her presence. Perhaps we should move away to somewhere that smells less like dog.”
I halted when rather than moving away, she led her little group right towards me, holding my ground and aware where this was going. Sense said to walk away, but my wolf side and my primal instincts told me to stand firm and not let them win by scaring me off.
This fae wanted me to run with my tail tucked between my legs and it wasn’t going to happen.
As she was passing, she dropped a handkerchief.
“Oh, how terrible. Be a dear and do your duty and pick that up for me.” She regally waved towards the piece of lace-trimmed white cloth.
I stared at it. “No.”
“It speaks back to me.” She fluttered her hand over the chest of her rich violet silk gown and looked at her two companions. “Did you hear how it spoke back to me?”
It.
“How terribly shocking,” the petite one said, but she didn’t look at all shocked. She looked as if she wanted no part in whatever her friend was planning as she went to pick up the handkerchief for her only to be stopped with a hand on her shoulder.
“Let the servant do that. It is the reason they exist.”
I looked around me. “I see no servant nearby that could assist you with your problem. How awful it must be to have to pick it up yourself. But don’t mind me. I won’t tell a soul that you stooped to pick up your own handkerchief from the ground.”
One of the guards behind me chuckled but it cut off when the female glared at him.
“Pick it up,” she said more firmly and pointed to it.
“No. Do it yourself. I don’t answer to you.” I folded my arms across my chest, weathering her glare as she turned it on me,refusing to do what she wanted even when that tang of magic filled the air around me.
Kaeleron had warned me to keep my fangs sharp, and now I was beginning to understand the reason why. Not all in his court were as accepting of my presence as him and Neve. This fae looked ready to gut me where I stood, and I felt sure that if I hadn’t been Kaeleron’s pet, she would have gone through with it.
“Elanaluvyr, let me pick it up for you,” the petite one hissed, a little desperate as she glanced from me to her friend and then the guards.
“Let the mutt pick it up. She is here to serve, is she not? Or is it only our king you serve on your knees?” The third one grinned at me as I tensed and my gaze shot to her, hearing her speak to me that way startling me enough that my guard slipped. “Oh, sheisa little whore. I am surprised he let you leave his bedroom.”
“I am not a whore,” I snapped at her, my fangs emerging as the way she was looking at me, as if I was filth and disgusting, unworthy of her king, set fire to my blood.
“Then what are you?” Elanaluvyr stepped closer to me, darkness marring the beauty of her fine features as she scowled down at me and almost snarled, “How did you come to be here, sullying the Shadow Court with your presence? Were you a gift to him? A servant? His mistress? Iwillknow.”
I wasn’t sure why she was so desperate to know how I had ended up in her precious Shadow Court, and I didn’t really care. All I wanted to do was leave, but I couldn’t now. Leaving would show weakness, and I had the feeling that if I showed any weakness around this particular female, that I might find myself in grave danger. She might seek to remove me from the court in a permanent, life-ending way, regardless of how Kaeleron would likely punish her.
Her eyes were wild as she waited for my reply, as if her sanity hinged on me easing her mind and denying I had anything to do with her king.
Especially anything involving the bedroom.
“If you want to know,” I countered her, stepping right up to her, almost nose to nose with her as I clenched my fists at my sides and stared her down, “he sullied your precious court when heboughtme at a black-market auction.”
Her dark eyes widened as her head inched back and then she burst out laughing.
“Why in the name of the goddess would our king buy you?” She laughed in my face, and then towards her friends, and the two of them joined in, the sound ringing in my ears, mocking me as fiercely as their words. She swiped a tear from her eyes. “How ridiculous. Our king has no need to buy females.”
I was beginning to get that impression, and that this female despised me so much not because I was an interloper and something other than a fae, but because she felt threatened by my presence.
