Page 8 of Wolf Caged
He stalked towards me, a predator in human guise, and I bit back a groan that bubbled up my throat as his hungry gaze drank me in and his penis twitched, beginning to grow hard. My body hummed in response to the sight, heat pooling low between my thighs, and I squeezed them slightly, savouring the ache building there.
When he reached me, he ran his hand down my arm and took hold of my hand rather than my wrist. “Come with me.”
I eagerly followed him, my vision shifting again, and I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. This time, the haziness didn’t clear. I tried to focus on Lucas’s bare back, on the delicious globes of his bottom, and how his muscles shifted as he stalked forwards into the gloom. He swept his arm out, and I didn’t notice what he had revealed at first, his body a distraction that held me under its spell.
Until he pulled me forwards again.
My gaze leaped to my right.
A cage.
I took a step back, panic blaring like a warning horn in my mind, and instinct screamed at me to run, that this wasn’t right.
Lucas’s hand locked around my wrist before I could bolt and he yanked me forwards.
The scent of damp earth hit me, but it didn’t cover the other things I could smell. Blood. Urine. My eyes widened as I struggled against Lucas’s cruel grip, leaning away from him, a feeble attempt to gain some leverage and break free. My limbstrembled, turning rubbery as I spotted claw marks on the iron bars of the cage.
My chest tightened painfully.
I kicked at Lucas’s leg, slamming my heel down on it, and he growled and tugged so hard on my arm that I cried out as fire lashed at my shoulder, shooting outwards from the joint.
The look on his face.
I didn’t recognise this dark male before me, who was looking at me as if I was filth as he seized hold of me, pinning my arms between us as I fought him. I wasn’t strong enough. Not in this form.
I tried to shift.
And nothing happened.
That panic morphed to full blown fear, to crippling terror as it hit me that I wasn’t strong enough to escape whatever Lucas had planned for me, that something was wrong with me, inhibiting my ability to shift. My mind reeled, thoughts spinning and colliding.
“Lucas?” I blinked at him, at the cage, my eyes leaping between them as he manhandled me towards it. I managed to twist my hands around and pressed them to his bare chest. “Lucas…stop. I don’t know what this is, but I don’t like it. Please. Let’s go back to the celebration.”
He didn’t react.
Was he even listening to me?
His glacial blue eyes remained fixed on the cage, his face etched with grim purpose as he dragged me towards it.
Something in me snapped.
I twisted my head and bit down on his arm, sinking short fangs into it and gagging as blood flooded my mouth.
“Bitch.” Lucas released me and staggered back, his eyes darting to his bleeding arm.
The sight of it startled me too. My wolf side howled in rage and agony at the sight of my fated mate injured, even when I had been the one to inflict the wound. What had I done?
Before I could shut down my instincts and run, Lucas backhanded me, striking me hard across my temple, and my vision swam with stars. I sank to my knees, gripping the dirt with both hands as darkness loomed, threatening to pull me under. Bile rose up my throat.
Lucas seized me and dragged me across the floor, and hurled me into the cage before I could recover and fight him again. I grunted as I hit the wall of bars on the other side of the cage and fought to shake off the dizziness that was invading every molecule of my body.
The metallic sound of the door slamming closed felt like a death knell.
“Lucas.” I moved as quickly as I could manage to the door, grabbed it and rattled it. It didn’t give. My head spun, my stomach rebelling as a dull throbbing ache spider-webbed across my skull. “Lucas, what is this?”
Lucas acknowledged me at last as he crouched before me, still nude, and reached between the bars to seize my face in a vicious grip.
“Stay awake.” He shook my head so violently I wanted to vomit. When I blinked several times, trying to stave off the dizziness and the looming darkness, he muttered, “I told Braxton the dose was too high.”
