Page 59 of Wolf Caged
“I don’t know what I’ve done to piss you off this time. Apparently, something. Maybe you should have stayed out by Wraith Wood and let me handle things here. Better yet, step down as second in command and go play princess.”
The skin around Jenavyr’s eyes darkened as her silver irises brightened, and her shadow grew restless on the ground, growing tendrils that writhed and even snapped at the cobbles.
“The only one who should step down is you. I believe I have proven myself more capable than you on…all… occasions.” She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword.
“Want to test out that theory in the ring, Vyr?” He reached for his own weapon and stepped up to her, using the few inches difference in their height to look down on her. “Or are you still too afraid to face me in a fair fight?”
She wrapped her fingers around the grip of her sword and sneered. “I do not need to prove myself to you, vampire. Now step out of my way. You are hindering official castle business.”
He scoffed. “How low you have fallen if your official castle duties now include babysitting a wolf.”
Jenavyr’s shadows snapped at his polished riding boots and he was quick to leap back a step, moving so fast I could barely track him.
He scowled at her.
She scowled right back at him.
I fidgeted with the sleeves of my blouse, doing my best to fade into the background as they silently fought a battle of wills, each second that ticked past cranking the tension in the air higher.
And changing the atmosphere between them.
The sharpness of their glares slowly faded, something akin to heat beginning to flicker in their eyes as their breaths came faster.
And just when I wasn’t sure whether they were going to fight or do something far more embarrassing for me, Jenavyr grabbed my hand and dragged me away from him, pulling me at a clip down the road towards the docks.
I looked at the building the vampire had exited as we passed it, peering through the open door at the revellers inside, and the buxom females who sat on the laps of a few of them.
“What is that place?” I craned my neck to see more as she swiftly pulled me away from it and the vampire.
“It is not a place for you.” Her voice was as sharp as a sword as she bit those words out, her grip on my arm growing firmer as she scowled at the building and her shadows raced towards it only to halt as she grimaced, her jaw flexing. “It is a tavern that has a reputation with men looking for a good, easy lay.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t drag my eyes away from it, even as my cheeks heated and her grip on my arm became bruising, anger rolling off her in powerful waves that had my instincts warning me away from her. When I lost sight of it, I looked at her, at thefierce lines of her hard expression, no trace of light or warmth in her beautiful face now. Catching the vampire in that place had angered her, and I wasn’t sure it was because she didn’t like him. “Perhaps he had court business there.”
A weak attempt to soften her mood.
I wasn’t even sure why I was making excuses for him, but I felt compelled to say something, to ease her mind and her anger. It was probably that part of me that still felt it was my duty to help anyone who was struggling in my pack, seeing what I could do to lessen their load, even if it was just letting them talk and get things off their chest.
She huffed. “Perhaps he did, but I doubt there is any court business that would require him to visit such a place.”
“Maybe he was hungry.” Another weak excuse, but this one had her grip on my arm loosening a touch, enough that it no longer hurt.
“Perhaps.” She glanced back in the direction we had come, a look in her eyes that was far from the hatred she had shown towards the vampire. In fact, it seemed quite the opposite emotion.
“Do you like him?” I whispered that question, sure she would be angry with me for asking it, but I had seen wolves in my pack act in such a manner with each other, always fighting and acting cold towards the other, and more often than not it turned out they liked each other but were battling it for some reason.
“No,” she snapped, quick to deny it, and then fell silent for a full minute before she quietly added, “I am to marry some court prince. Which one, I do not know yet, but it will happen.”
“Whether you like it or not?” I shifted closer to her, compelled to be nearer her so she would know I was there with her—for her.
She hesitated and it was answer enough for me.
“I know how that feels,” I admitted and sorrow welled up in me as I thought about my pack and Lucas, that ache to know my family were safe returning to cloud my mind and my heart. “I was essentially betrothed from the moment I was born. My pack did something terrible. My uncle challenged the alpha of the neighbouring pack, hungry for more power, and was defeated. That pack wanted to retaliate by taking over our pack, but my father convinced their alpha to look among our pack for potential fated mates of his people instead… a way of strengthening the bond between our two packs. Fated mates are… sacred… to wolves. Or at least they should be. The alpha agreed and used witchcraft to seek out mates among the immature wolves in my pack. And one of the mates they found was me… and I was fated to his son. That was enough to halt any trouble between our packs. So I grew up knowing who my mate was, and that I would be his once I matured, and dreaming of that day… but what really awaited me was a nightmare and Lucas?—”
I cut myself off as my throat tightened and my eyes burned, my soul crying out for the other half of it as my wolf side loosed a mournful howl within me that made me want to scream in rage and frustration. Would I ever be free of this feeling? I hated Lucas. I wanted nothing to do with him. But my instincts weren’t getting the message.
Jenavyr’s steady gaze bore into me, reminding me I wasn’t alone and who I had just opened myself to, telling the king’s sister of all people about my past.
Panic had my muscles clamping down onto my bones.
