Page 37 of Wolf Caged
I didn’t protest as the servants slipped the shoes on my feet and led me from the room, down a series of fine black marble corridors lit by strangely glowing lanterns. When we entered a grand vestibule with an elegant curving stone staircase that swept downwards, following the walls of what I felt was another tower illuminated by a large crystal chandelier, the female behind me lifted the skirt of my dress and I hitched up the front.
Not a chandelier, I noted as I descended the gold-threaded black marble stairs.
The glowing crystals weren’t attached to anything, and a similar one hung higher up the circular structure.
They bobbed and hung in the air, the crystals moving slightly and changing colour as I followed the staircase down and the angle between us altered.
Magic, I presumed.
Fascination gripped me as I watched the muted hues of a rainbow chase across their facets.
Incredible.
Perhaps Neve was right about this world I had found myself in, one so far from my home. Itwasbeyond my imagination, and the part of me that longed for adventure wanted to bravely step out into it and discover all it had to offer.
While the part of me that longed for my pack wanted to beg the fae king to let me return to my world.
I settled on asking him to let me tell them that I was fine and about what had happened. He didn’t owe me anything, but I had to believe that beneath all those shadows he wore so well, there was some remnant of a heart.
I had to believe there was some shred of kindness within him that I could appeal to, some part of him that felt a bond with his own family and might understand my pain and fear over what might have happened to mine.
I was stuck with him after all.
The servant left the curving staircases at the second floor and led me along another fine corridor of black stone walls and a black marble floor. Warm light glowed from the lamps set between the inset columns that supported the wooden ceiling, punching back the darkness and gloom. I was so caught up in trying to discern if the lamps were magic too that I almost walked right into the servant as she stopped before a set of black wooden doors beautifully carved with vines and roses. She looked from them to me as she pushed them open, revealing a long wooden table in an elegant marble-walled gothic dining room.
And Kaeleron.
Light from the large onyx fireplace on the left of the room warmed one side of his face and threw the other into shadow, making him look like light and dark melded into one far-too-handsome male.
Being stuck with him wasn’t difficult when he wasn’t a chore to look at and when I was teasing him, like I wanted to now as I stepped into the room, the sole object of his attention as the door closed behind me and I faced him.
For some reason, this fae made me feel confident and bold, even when I knew I should fear him and that he might hurt me.
Some reckless part of me believed he wouldn’t.
Even now, when his expression took on a dark edge and his lips thinned, as if the sight of me displeased him and he would rather I hadn’t interrupted whatever he had been looking for in the bottom of the glass he held in one hand.
He looked me over as he eased back to lounge in his high-backed chair, a sweep of his shrewd silver gaze from my head to my toes and back again.
“You look as if you don’t approve of my appearance,” I sniped, the way he was studying me raising my hackles and making me want to storm right out of the room regardless of how angry he might be with me for disobeying his order to dine with him.
Or shift and sink my fangs into him.
Just moments ago, I had felt more beautiful than I had in all my life, even when Lucas had called me it. I had felt a strange kind of lightness and warmth unfurling within me when I had looked at my reflection. And now Kaeleron was looking at me as if I was far from that, and gods, it rankled, even when I knew it shouldn’t because I didn’t want his approval or compliments. I didn’t want him to find me beautiful and didn’t care if he did or didn’t.
“It was not what I was expecting,” he muttered and lowered his glass to dangle from his fingers at the end of the armrest.
My eyebrows lifted. “It wasn’t what I was expecting either, but it was on the bed in my room, waiting for me. You didn’t order it for me?”
His grin was feline. Wicked. A little thrilling. “Oh, I did. I am just surprised you chose to wear it.”
I huffed. “Chose? Whatchoicedid I have?”
“The choice not to wear it.” He gestured to the seat closest to him. “Sit.”
I picked the seat at the opposite end of the long table to him, keeping my distance, and his eyebrows pitched low as I made a big show of sitting in it, delicately arranging my dress he had apparently ordered for me but hadn’t expected me to wear.
“If I could have chosen to dress differently, could I have ignored your demand that I dine with you?” I needed to know the rules of this game we were playing, so I could avoid any potential pitfalls as I chipped away at my debt. There were things I wasn’t willing to do, things that had only come to me after I had signed the contract, so I wanted to know whether I could refuse if he asked me to kill someone, or commit any other terrible act like it.
