Page 103 of Wolf Caged
Shifters couldn’t hold their animal form when they were in pain.
A lesson my parents had taught me the moment I had been old enough to manage my first shift and one of the most important ever bestowed upon me.
I had made the ultimate mistake—I had left it too late to fight back.
“Die,” Elanaluvyr growled.
“Fuck that,” I muttered and when she went to kick me again, I moved with all the speed I had left in me, my shoulder screaming in agony, and went to grab her foot to shove her off balance.
Only that kick never came.
I reached out with my senses but felt nothing through the pain. It eclipsed everything. And the scent of blood—my blood—masked all the smells around me.
Dreadful silence surrounded me and I blinked open gritty, burning eyes, lowering my hands a fraction, enough to see past them but not enough that I couldn’t bring them up to defend myself if this was a feint designed by Elanaluvyr to leave me vulnerable to a head attack.
Not only silence enshrouded me.
Shadows did too.
But it wasn’t Kaeleron who snarled.
“What in the Great Mother’s name are you doing?” Jenavyr. She sounded a lot like her brother when she was angry—commanding, intimidating, and just a little terrifying. “Have you lost your mind? Both of you?”
The shadows parted and Jenavyr’s eyes widened as they landed on me. I grimaced as I tried to uncurl, my arm screaming and every place Elanaluvyr had landed a blow aching and burning.
Maybe I had lost my mind, because I had been fighting over Kaeleron because I wanted him, and I wanted him to want me. To pick me.
“By the Great Mother.” Jenavyr crouched beside me, worry flashing across her eyes and her face as she reached for me and I flinched, anticipating how much it was going to hurt when she touched me. Her hand halted a short distance from my skin, her power caressing it, so much like Kaeleron’s when she was furious. “How badly are you injured?”
I shuffled up into a sitting position, trying not to give away that I felt as if I was falling apart, and failing when my shoulder burned and my hand flew to it, gripping it hard as pain throbbed down my arm and up my neck. Behind Jenavyr, Elanaluvyr smirked, sick pleasure glittering in her eyes.
All that adrenaline I had felt during the opening moments of the fight returned, narrowing my focus down to my opponent as I sought an opening, a way to take her down.
Jenavyr’s face darkened, wrath incarnate as she turned hard silver eyes on Elanaluvyr. “Guards. Take her away.”
Elanaluvyr’s eyes widened and she shook her head, her panicked gaze darting over her hands as if she had just come to her senses and wasn’t sure how my blood had gotten on them and her pretty silk slippers.
“No. Wait. I did not start this,” the fae female shrieked as two male guards grabbed her and began hauling her away. Her voice rose towards hysteria. “She started it. She is a rabid beast that needs to be put down!”
Vyr swept to her feet, every bit the commander as her cold gaze speared Elanaluvyr, silencing her.
Or maybe it was what she said.
“The fate of both of you is King Kaeleron’s to decide.”
Elanaluvyr blanched, as if she knew what her fate would be.
Death.
Some primal part of me snarled at that, at the injustice of it. This fae’s death was mine to deal. This fight was mine, not his. I tamped down that feral bloodthirsty part of me, trying to tame it,so startled by the force of the desire that I almost missed the look Vyr levelled on me.
I wasn’t sure my fate would be much better judging by that look that warned she was going to tell Kaeleron what had happened, and he would know the fight had been over him, and where did that leave me? Far too vulnerable, that was for sure.
Vyr helped me onto my feet and I gritted my teeth as I hobbled towards my room. She growled and pulled me against her, and darkness swirled around us, and then we were before my door. I sagged against her, silently thanking her for helping me by teleporting me here as some of the adrenaline waned to leave me tired and aching, and a little envious of that particular skill. If I had been in possession of it, I could have teleported away from the fae bitch before she had been able to attempt to puncture every organ in my body with her foot.
Which revealed a glaring hole in my plot to win that fight. Any moment I had come close to dealing a fatal blow, the fae could have teleported out of my reach. Not only that, but she had magic at her disposal and I still wasn’t sure what kind of things the unseelie highborn could do with that power. I needed to learn to pick my fights, and do my research before them if I stood any chance of winning and surviving life at this court. I had the feeling that now word was out about what had happened during the rite, that Elanaluvyr wouldn’t be the only one coming for me.
I needed to practice fighting and learn more about this world and its people.
