Page 113 of Wolf Caged
But when I stepped through the door at the end of the gallery, one that led onto a broad balcony that overlooked a courtyard of sorts, I found the owners of the voices I had heard. I glanced back at the door behind me, debating slipping back through it before I was noticed, but their low murmurs drew my focus back to them. They were all looking at something below them.
I edged forwards, using all the stealth I could muster, sneaking to the edge of the stone balustrade to peer into the courtyard, curious about what they were looking at.
And froze.
Shock iced my limbs and stilled my heart as I stared unblinking into the crowded courtyard.
At Elanaluvyr where she hung from her wrists on a curved crossbeam of a black Y-shaped pillar that mimicked her pose.
Brutally clawed and bloodied.
Dead.
Sickness rolled through me as I reeled backwards, tensing as my back met the stone wall, and I struggled to breathe as a maelstrom of emotions rioted within me. I wanted to feel bad, I wanted to feel responsible, and I knew I should be horrified.
But as I stared at her broken body, a strange, dark sense of satisfaction rippled through me.
And then there was the feeling that shocked me most of all.
Rage.
Anger that I had been denied a chance to defeat the female myself in a rematch.
That someone else had taken that moment—my revenge—from me.
On a vicious growl, I pushed away from the wall, pivoting towards the cluster of fae gathered at the far end of the balcony who were all watching me now. I bared my fangs at them as I prowled towards them, on the hunt for the king.
Aware he was the one who had stolen my kill from me.
My wolf side snarled and snapped fangs at that, battering the cage of my human form, wild with a need to put him in his place, to punish him for daring to steal what had been my kill to make. The strength of my rage was overwhelming, startling even as it swept me up in it, as it stole control of me and had me stalking past the gawping fae, heading for the staircase in the vestibule.
I lifted my head and scented the air, trying to catch a trace of Kaeleron’s in it.
The smell of wild storm hit me hard.
The fae on the balcony were quick to disappear, leaving us alone as their king emerged from the doorway ahead of me.
“How dare you!” I snarled, curling my hands into tight fists at my side as my fury reached boiling point, my wolf blood running hot. “I wanted a rematch!”
“So bloodthirsty today, little lamb.” Kaeleron arched an eyebrow at me as he teased me, evidently unbothered by the threatening growl that tore from me as I stormed towards him.
I mentally rolled the sleeves of my blouse up, preparing to clobber him for mocking me with that nickname of his. I was not a lamb. I was a wolf, and I would show him just how sharp my fangs were.
“You will have plenty of opportunities to get your fangs bloody in my court. I am sure of that.” He remained where he was, shoulders relaxed, utterly calm in the face of my fury. “This will not be the last challenge you will face—or the biggest.”
A veiled warning to watch my back.
That knocked a little of the wind out of my sails and I slowed my steps, the ominous feeling that accompanied his words making me reconsider striking him and potentially making an enemy of him too.
I glanced at the dead female, hung on grim display for all to see.
“You didn’t have to kill her,” I muttered, unsure whether I would have shown her any mercy had I been able to fight her again. Even now, I wanted blood. Her blood. I wanted to taste it on my fangs.
Kaeleron stepped closer, halting mere inches from me, his power pressing down on me, dark and malevolent as he growled, “I did. Her death is a message.”
That disturbing ripple of satisfaction swept through me again, but I held my ground, refusing to let him see that some part of me was pleased he had killed her. I jerked my head towards the mutilated body. “It was a little extreme.”
He crowded me, glowering and dark as he looked down at me, silver eyes ringed with crimson, and murmured, “Extreme would be using her entrails as bunting. I was restrained.”
