Page 34 of Wolf Caged
I eyed the contract. “We’ll see about that.”
What I read as I went through it line by line three times seemed innocent enough, and more than a little tempting. He was offering me a chance to earn my freedom. Every task I completed for him would reduce my debt to him by a varying degree, the recompense determined by the level of task he assigned me. If I worked hard enough for him, I might be able to return home.
But I had taken Neve’s warning words to heart and I looked between the cracks—between the lines. This contract looked innocuous, but it gave the fae king far too much freedom to interpret the words of it in any way he wanted.
“I want to add a caveat.” A bold demand, and I braced myself as I waited for him to react, sure he would shoot me down. He was offering me a chance to pay him back and be free, and I was probably about to ruin it. If he didn’t rip up the contract in my face, I would be surprised.
He regally waved his free hand. “Speak it.”
“You can’t ask me for sex.” My voice trembled a little despite my efforts to keep it strong and steady as I issued an order right back at him. “This says I have to serve you as you please. I have to do as you order. I cannot agree to that when doing as you please could be anything from serving you drinks to serving in your bed or the beds of others. I’d rather remain here in this dungeon than sleep with you.”
I waited for him to laugh in my face or take this chance to earn my freedom away from me. It was more than I deserved, and I wasn’t sure why he was offering it, and I wanted to know but feared if I pushed him too hard, he would rip it up and leave me in the dungeon. I wanted to see that world Neve had told me about, to experience whatever waited up those stairs behind the fae king. A fae king I was sure was playing some kind of game with me. I didn’t care. Hope bloomed dangerously, barely tempered by common sense. If it was a game he was playing, I would play too, giving him as good as I got.
His silver eyes revealed nothing.
I knew he could do as he wanted and I wouldn’t really have a say in it, that sensible part of me whispering that this contract was likely just the first play in his game, a ploy to comfort and subdue me, a lie I would believe to calm my fear and leave myself open to him, but my breaths shortened as I waited, needing to hear him agree with my demands.
“Very well.” His roguish smile roused something inside me, stirring heat in my blood. “I will not ask you for sex.”
Suspicion tinkled warning bells in my mind as he smirked at me, so quick to agree to something I had believed he would rail against. Maybe he wasn’t attracted to me after all, or he hadn’t bought me for that purpose. I had been here days after all and he had only visited twice, or three times if I counted the one where I was sleeping. And he had talked to Neve about whether I reallywas essential and about vengeance. Maybe he hadn’t bought me for my virginity. Maybe I had another purpose, one I might discover if I signed this contract and played his game.
He held his free hand out and a black and gold feathered quill appeared on his rough palm, the contrast of its elegance against his calluses holding my focus. He wielded weapons as well as magic. Some of the protectors at my pack and the males who worked to keep the cabins sturdy and the fires burning had hands as rough and strong as his.
I looked from the quill to his face, trying to see the warrior within him. I didn’t need to look hard as his gaze gained a calculating edge and he pressed his hand towards me, a silent demand to take up the feathered weapon he offered me—one that might be my doom.
But my pack.
Lucas.
I needed to return to my world, to my family, and make my mate pay for what he had done to me.
The only way to do that was to gain my freedom.
I grabbed the quill and flinched, hissing as pain lanced my finger. The white stem of the feather darkened and I almost dropped it as I realised it was my blood filling the space and beading on the pointed gold tip.
A contract signed in blood.
My fingers shook as I stared at the parchment, at the dark crimson words inked on it, most likely in the fae king’s blood. This was more than a simple contract like the ones I was used to, typed up on a computer and printed out in triplicate.
How binding were the words he had written so carefully and elegantly in his own blood?
“Well?” He stared down at me, his handsome face bored, but that challenge shining in his eyes. “Sign it or do not sign it. I have matters more important that require my attention.”
Veiled words. I didn’t need to peer too hard between the cracks to know he was covering, acting bored and pretending he wasn’t on the edge of his proverbial seat waiting to see whether I was willing to cross this line—to subject myself to his mercy and play whatever game this was to him—in order to gain my freedom.
He went to pull the contract away.
I seized hold of it, stopping him, and read it one last time, my eyes widening as the words changed before me, as if my touching it had altered it. My caveat appeared on the page, close to the bottom, just above where my name had been printed.
Was I really going to do this?
Subject myself to the whims of a dark fae king in order to earn my freedom?
My revenge?
I sure as hell was.
I scribbled my signature on the parchment, gritting my teeth as the quill pulled on my blood with each letter I added.
