Page 19 of Wolf Caged
They were siblings.
Silence, and then light boots on hard stone and the weight of his gaze on me, searing through the blanket to leave me feeling exposed as she moved away from us.
“See to it.” His voice was darker than midnight as he issued that order.
The steps halted and then she responded.
A muttered, almost sarcastic, “Yes, my king.”
I drew down a steadying breath as the sound of her steps drifted into the distance, the weight of his gaze on me unbearable, making me squirm and struggle to keep still.
The scent hit me again. A wild storm.
This male.
It was his scent, one that filled my lungs and some hollow spot inside me, speaking to me on a primal level, where my animal soul met my human heart.
He huffed, the sound beast-like, and snarled, “You can open your eyes now, little lamb. You are not fooling anyone.”
I cracked my eyes open and rolled towards him. Only I couldn’t see anyone. Just darkness on the other side of the bars, as if someone had snuffed out the torches. I held the blanket to my chest, and brushed my fingers over the soft material, and dread accompanied each stroke of them as it dawned on me. This was the blanket that had covered that terrible cage before Lucas had lifted it to reveal me to all those greedy, wretched eyes.
Eyes like the ones watching me now, drilling into me.
I wanted to throw it away from me, but doing so would expose me to this male.
So I clung to it instead, just as I clung to my courage.
I straightened my spine, refusing to let him see my fear as I clamped muscle down onto bone to stop myself from trembling. He hadn’t cowed the female who had confronted him, and he wouldn’t intimidate me.
“I’m not a lamb. I’m a wolf.” My voice came out surprisingly strong, and a bit loud in the musty dungeon, as I bared my fangs at the shadows before me.
“You are a lamb in wolf’s clothing. There is a difference, little lamb.”
Weak.
He was calling me weak.
Bastard.
I growled low, keeping my fangs bared, despising how that word made me feel and how right he was. I was weak. Coddled. Nothing in my life had prepared me for not only being rejected by my fated mate but being thrust into this dark situation I now found myself in. The primal instincts of my wolf side warned I was going to have to fight if I wanted to live, and I was woefully underprepared in that department.
Female wolves didn’t train.
We didn’t fight.
“Where am I?” That question echoed as it bounced off the cold stone walls. Maybe if I knew where he had taken me, I could start planning my way out of this mess.
“The answer to that is simple.” He paused and my breath halted as I waited, sure he had done it for dramatic effect. His deep voice rumbled through the darkness. “Lucia.”
The way he said that, drawing out that name, and the way he stilled in the shadows, waiting for a reaction, told me I was somewhere I should fear.
But I was tired of being afraid. Too tired to care or participate in whatever game he was playing. I couldn’t keep up with everything that had happened and deep inside me, my soul washowling, raging, grieving… still unable to believe my fated mate had betrayed me.
This male couldn’t do anything worse to me than Lucas had in rejecting me.
I shrugged. “Never heard of it.”
He scoffed. “So uneducated. I expected as much.”
