Page 28 of Wolf Caged
And my traitorous body responded to him, heat coursing through my veins to pool low in my belly.
My eyes drifted to the silver-covered pointed tips of his ears, and I wondered if beneath those adornments they were actually pointed. I wanted to brush my finger along one to feel the coolmetal and then gently ease it away from his flesh to reveal it to my eyes.
I had lifted my hand before I caught myself, locking it around the bars of my cage instead and gripping it tightly as I slammed the gates on my unruly feelings shut and pulled back control of myself.
He blinked, shattering whatever spell I had fallen under, and his gaze lowered to his boots, his scowl returning.
Had he felt that pull between us too?
I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to know the answer to that question. Of course, he had to find me attractive to a degree because he had bought me, or he found one aspect of me attractive. Maybe he just preferred virgins and once he had taken that from me, he would grow bored of me, or worse—change his mind and hire me out to those other males. As the darkness of the drug had devoured me in that cage, I had heard them appealing to him, offering money in exchange for time with me once he had claimed my virginity. I hadn’t been awake to hear his response.
He sank to his haunches, used the fork to stab a chunk of meat, and ate it, surprising me.
His eyes narrowed on me. “I demand to know your thoughts.”
“You eat food… like me.” Which sounded ridiculous now I said it aloud.
That eyebrow lifted again. “What did you expect me to eat?”
I shrugged, unsure now and feeling awkward, and a smidgen of stupid, as I weakly offered, “Blood?”
He laughed, but there was no humour in it. It was a cold, steel-sharp sound that rang through the dungeon, and where Neve’s laugh had warmed the chilly space, his only made it feel more frigid.
And then he was deadly serious as he stared at me, his gaze cutting, and said, “My kind are not monsters… nor vampires.”
“Could have fooled me on the monster part.” I knew I was pushing my luck when Neve looked at me, that warning back in her amber eyes.
Push him and find out why they called him ‘the wrathful’.
Sense said to dial it back, to apologise or at least back down, but I was hungry and tired, and hurting. That part of myself I was growing to hate still howled for Lucas, refusing to accept what he had done, and I wished I could take a dagger and cut out my soul.
“Eat. I need you strong if you are to be of use to me,” he growled, silver eyes flashing.
I didn’t particularly feel inclined to eat when he wanted me strong so I was useful to him. I would sooner starve myself if it meant I avoided my inevitable fate and his bed.
But then he slid a black look at Neve.
And demanded.
“You are sure she is necessary?”
Neve inclined her head. “To tread this path, you must not tread it alone.”
He huffed, sounding like a beast, and regarded me, gaze cold and calculating as it drilled into me. “Risking my court is sounding more appealing every moment I spend in the company of this wolf.”
“Why am I necessary? What path? Don’t tell me you’re looking for a virgin sacrifice, because I am not onboard with that.” I snapped my mouth shut when his eyes narrowed and he looked as if he might flay me alive if I uttered another word.
“Vengeance tastes delicious,” murmured Neve, her gaze glassy and fixed on the ceiling.
Kaeleron turned his frown on her.
Vengeance.
It sounded delicious to me.
That buried, dark part of me latched onto that word with a fervour I never knew I possessed. I clung to it, to the delicious fantasy building in my mind, a hunger so fierce it consumed me and bent my desire to take a dagger to my chest to carve out my soul to rid myself of the pain of Lucas rejecting me towards a terrible, tempting need to turn that dagger on him instead.
If he was dead, I would be free of this pain.
