Page 79 of Wolf Caged
Disappointment rolled through me, bitter and dark, dampening my mood. For a glorious moment, I had felt hope, had seen an end to my misery. If I had been able to find a new fated mate, the pain that was my wolf side’s constant companion would be soothed and healed. I could be happy again.
Kaeleron pulled out two seats at the table and gestured to one of them.
I hurried to take it, wanting to lose myself in the glorious food that had been laid out on the table and maybe more of the mead. If I drank enough of it, perhaps I would forget my sorrows. I swayed with the music as I loaded up my plate, narrowing my world down to it, hiding in it in a way as Kaeleron spoke to his people, his voice distant to my ears.
My wolf side bayed, making me want to throw my head back and loose a mournful howl as rather than making me forget, the mead stripped me of my barriers, allowing everything to flood into my soul. Why couldn’t I have been given a fated mate who loved me? Who wanted me? Why did Kali get two males who looked as if they adored her, while mine had rejected me?
What had I done wrong in life to receive such cruelty from fate?
Kaeleron’s gaze drilled into the side of my face, but I didn’t have the energy to look at him as I played with my food, my appetite gone. Even the meat from the roast pig that was delivered to my table wasn’t tempting, but Kaeleron pushed it my way anyway, his eyes still on me.
He took my goblet from me when I refilled it. “You are not a happy drunk.”
He was right about that.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been drunk enough to find out whether I would be a happy one or a morose one.” I reachedfor my goblet, my fingers brushing his, sending an electric jolt coursing up my arm that only increased my awareness of him. “Let’s find out which I am.”
“I think you already know.” He held firm, refusing to release the goblet, even as he signalled to one of the servants. “Bring wine for my little lamb.”
The same female hurried to him, curtseyed and then left to carry out his order. Odd. Normally he was served by males. I looked around, noticing that all the servants were female tonight, and that several of the attendees were smiling and chatting to them, some even brushing a hand up their hip, and none of the attention was unwanted. The females smiled and blushed for them, even leaned into their touches.
The female returning with a bottle of dark red wine for me pulled my focus away from the servants and guests, and I watched as Kaeleron found a fresh goblet and filled it for me.
“There.” He pushed it towards me and I released the one I had a death grip on, letting him take it away.
I sipped the wine, and it tasted incredibly weak compared with the mead, but it was probably better than getting flat out drunk and making a fool of myself, and possibly Kaeleron.
“Eat. It will help.” He pushed the roasted meat my way and growled, “That is an order.”
I rolled my eyes at him but tucked into the meat anyway, savouring the juiciness of it and the hint of mead that laced it, together with herbs. Delicious. My wolf side growled in approval, ravenous for more. I’m sure I had never been so hungry. I couldn’t seem to get enough of it.
Laughter and conversation rang around me, Kaeleron presiding over it all in silence, and part of me felt I should probably strike up a conversation between us but I couldn’t stop placing forkful after forkful of meat into my mouth. No matter how much I ate, I wasn’t satisfied.
The night air seemed to be getting warmer as the festivities rolled on, the bonfire blazing at the other end of the glade showering golden sparks up into the sky that twinkled and danced like the stars. I tilted my head back, soaking up the beauty of the sky as aurora chased across the full moon. That tang that laced the air grew stronger, invading my lungs, my pores, clouding my head.
By the gods, it was beautiful here.
I lowered my head to tell Kaeleron that and locked up tight.
By the gods!
Chapter 19
SAPHIRA
Iblinked and rubbed my eyes, sure the wine had gone to my head and I was imagining the scene playing out before me, that I had gotten lost in my imagination and that flicker of desire Kaeleron had ignited in me.
Because the tables were being moved to the edges of the glade and the music had changed, growing darker as heavy drumbeats pounded in my ears and bows slid over strings in a jarring, tumultuous way.
And in the centre of the glade, the males and the females moved to it in a carnal symphony, stripping each other bare, hands sliding over naked flesh and moans ringing out, blending with the melody.
I stared.
Heat scalding my cheeks.
I couldn’t drag my eyes away as two men lifted a female between them and began taking her, their rigid cocks sliding into her as she clung to them, her high moans echoing among the others as she threw her head back in ecstasy. Near them, a man had bent a female over one of the tables, his chest plastered toher back as he thrust into her and the male behind him thrust into him, gripping his backside hard.
Kali had one of her mates on his back on another table, riding him as her second mate pounded into her backside.
