Page 127 of Wolf Caged
Everyone looked at her.
I arched an eyebrow at her, adding another male to the list of ones I needed to watch more closely around the little wolf.
Riordan howled with laughter.
She shot him a confused look, a mulish twist to her lips as she found herself under scrutiny, and then glared at me, as if I had been the one to laugh at her.
“Oberon is notnice,” I said as I rounded the map to her side, closing the distance between us so the vampire would stop stealing her attention. “Only the side of him you have seen is nice. The other side… I would not cross him.”
She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “He seemed so charming.”
“Charming, eh?” I looked at her, watching the colour climb her cheeks. “More charming than I am?”
She laughed this time. “Good gods. No. When have you ever been charming? It goes Oberon, Riordan, and then you’re somewhere down here.”
She held her hand at head height for Oberon, lowered it to level with her breasts for Riordan, and then bent over and waved her hand close to her ankles for me.
Vyr stifled a snicker.
I silenced her with a look.
“Most charming male in the Shadow Court. I’ll take that.” Riordan grinned.
“I have met lich with more charm than you,” my sister shot back.
And the two of them were in each other’s faces again, exchanging verbal salvos.
I tuned them out as I returned to studying the latest troop movements in the other courts, comparing their positions to the reports I had received from the people I had concealed within them and shifting the markers if they had been moved to another location. Saphira watched my every move, but I had the feeling her attention was elsewhere and she was only pretending to be interested in what I was doing.
Jenavyr stormed out of the room, Riordan hot on her heels, and Saphira watched them go, her gaze lingering on the door long after they had exited through it.
I studied the closed door and then glanced down at her, seeking any trace of desire in her eyes or in her scent, the darkness that prowled in my veins whispering that she wanted the vampire and that was the reason she was gazing after him.
And growled at her.
“What is wrong?”
Chapter 34
KAELERON
Saphira angled her head towards me, the globes of magic light that bobbed in the air above the map in the war room casting a warm glow over her beautiful face. “Have they ever… I mean… I can’t help but wonder if they have a thing for each other.”
I scoffed at the very idea of my sister with Riordan. “Great Mother, no. I have spent most of my years trying to keep them from killing each other. There is no love there, little lamb.”
She shrugged. “Vyr denies it too, but the way they act around each other. I’m not buying the hate. I’ve seen enough wolves cover their feelings with aggression.”
My gaze strayed to the fortified wooden door again, Saphira’s words echoing in my mind as I thought about my sister and the vampire, about how they had acted around each other from the moment Riordan had joined us, and unease grew within me.
They did hate each other, did they not? Things had not changed.
Saphira’s words were so quiet I barely heard her as she whispered, “She said she’s to marry.”
My focus darted down to her, shock rippling through me. How close were Saphira and my sister? Vyr never spoke of her impending nuptials to anyone, and only brought them up rarely around me. Neither of us wanted to contemplate what fate awaited her.
“Tradition dictates that she must marry. Relations between the courts depend upon the females in the ruling line marrying into another to strengthen the bonds between them. It is not something I wish upon her, so do not give me that look, little wolf.” The anger and disappointment that shone in her eyes was immeasurable, and vicious. I stared after my sister, a heaviness growing within me as I thought about her and the choices we faced. “I will do all in my power to ensure it never happens. This is my burden to bear.”
Saphira’s look softened, warmth blooming in her eyes as she gazed at me, as if I was some gentle, worthy male. I looked away from her, pinning my gaze to the map, because she did not know me. She did not know the things I was capable of or how cruel I could be, or the lengths I would go to in order to protect my sister.
