Page 121 of Wolf Caged
I picked up the decanter that had fallen on the floor, rescuing it before all of the vile contents stained the rug, and when Kaeleron offered his still-empty glass, I shot him down with a glare.
“I’m cutting you off.” I took the decanter to the side table instead, stoppering it and leaving it there as I returned to him. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“How did I get to be so very handsome? Genetics, I am afraid,” he drawled with a wicked smile.
I rolled my eyes. “Not that. Something else.”
“But you admit I am handsome.” He was fishing, and there was an edge to his eyes that left me feeling he needed to know what I thought of him, as if it was important to him.
“You’re stupidly beautiful. Now let me ask my questions.”
He regally waved his hand, earning another eye roll from me.
“Did you contact my pack?” I hadn’t realised how much hinged on the answer to that question, or how desperate I was to know it, until I uttered it aloud.
“I sent word to them that you are safe, together with a warning to keep their distance from the male wolf and his companions.”
My shoulders sagged as all the tension knotting them loosened and a sigh escaped me, but then I considered what he had said, and grimaced. “I should have mentioned the one who sold me was the alpha of the neighbouring pack.”
“I described the insidious prick rather well.” Kaeleron eyed what little liquid had made it into his glass and downed it in one.
“Insidious prick certainly suits him,” I muttered and then hesitated.
He looked up at me, a frown marring his brow. “Another question?”
“At Beltane…” I swallowed and forced myself to continue when my nerve wavered. “When that bitch approached you and you let her guide your hand towards her thighs… did you want to sleep with her?”
His right eyebrow arched and then lowered into a smouldering, mischievous sort of look that heated my blood ashe purred, “No. I wanted to provoke you, little wolf. I wanted to see if you would bare your fangs and drive away any female I showed interest in.”
My jaw clenched as it hit me and I had to hold myself back so I didn’t box his ears.
He had wanted to make me jealous so I would reveal I wanted him, and I had done just that, stepping in to steal back his attention, exposing the truth of me to him—I desired him. I wanted him. And I wanted him to be all mine.
“Prick,” I muttered and he smirked at me. “For that, you owe me. I want access to your library. I want to learn more about this world and the courts, and the powers you all have.”
“Why?” He canted his head, his gaze piercing.
“Because I just do. I figure I need to know what I’m up against if I’m to remain here, and then that thing Neve said has been bothering me. That I’m necessary to you and something about treading a path and not being able to do it alone. She had a vision and I was in it, didn’t she?” I had been so focused on surviving in the Shadow Court and nursing my own wounds that I had forgotten all about that moment in the cells until a few days ago, and since then I had been trying to figure out a way to bring it up when I next saw Kaeleron.
He nodded. “It is vital that you are here, but we do not yet know the reason why. I am working to uncover it.”
“You didn’t buy me for my virginity.” My heart thundered as I put that out there.
He smirked.
Bastard.
“I’m going to bed.” I pivoted on my heel, but shadows snaked around me, holding me in place as they twisted me back around to face him. I fought them, but my hands passed straight through them, the black threads of them dissipating like smoke only to reform the second my hand had passed them.
“Not yet,” Kaeleron growled.
I huffed. “I cut you off, remember? No more liquor. Why did you summon me here this evening anyway? You’ve been moody all night, perfecting the silent brooding type, barely even looking at me. Was it just that you’ve forgotten how to pour your own drinks?”
His expression turned deadly serious as he pulled me towards him with his shadows, so serious my nerves returned, rising swiftly as he stared at me.
“Kneel,” he commanded.
I swallowed as I obeyed, easing to my knees before him on the crimson rug as he sat up, no trace of warmth in his features now, and trembled as he placed his hand on the left side of my chest, the weight and warmth of his palm rekindling my arousal.
