Page 13 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

“Between what cracks?” I stilled as the hairs on my nape rose.

Chilling darkness swept along the corridor and then it receded and he was there, a towering wall of graceful wickedness.

His sensual lips curved into a parody of a smile, practiced to perfection, with no warm emotion behind it, only a dark brand of amusement. “Little lamb.”

I stood on trembling legs, denying him the pleasure of looming over me and making me feel small.

Weak.

Although, the son of a bitch had to be bordering on seven foot tall, because my eye level was the broad expanse of his chest. I wasn’t the only one who had been given a change of clothes.

Rather than the black armour he had been clad in when we had met, he wore a fitted black tunic decorated with silver thread that hugged his honed physique, soft black leather trousers, and knee-high boots.

“King Kaeleron the Wrathful.” I mocked him with a curtsy.

He slid an unimpressed look at my neighbour.

Neve just gave him a blank look in return, completely unruffled by his glare, as if she didn’t fear his wrath, and started reading her book, as if he wasn’t there.

Either the dragon was crazy, or she had no reason to fear the fae king.

His power wrapped around me, dark and crushing, making my wolf side shrink back, but I still felt nothing from Neve. Was she stronger than Kaeleron?

The fae king swept his right arm around with a flourish and a silver tray appeared on his upturned palm, filled with a grey metal pitcher and cup and a plate of what looked suspiciously normal food.

What a neat trick. I might have been impressed if the sharp tang of magic hadn’t hit me and his power hadn’t increased to the point of it pressing down on my bones.

I grimaced.

“It is not poisoned.” He eyed the food and then me.

“Wouldn’t matter if it was since I’m being squashed like a bug and will likely be a splatter on the floor any moment now,” I bit out from between clenched teeth and braced myself, upper body slowly inching forwards towards my buckling knees despite my effort to remain upright.

He arched a fine black eyebrow at me.

“Your majesty is not taking into account that the little wolf is delicate.” Neve didn’t even look up from her book as she flipped a page.

Great. Now Neve thought I was weak too.

Both of his eyebrows hiked up.

And then the weight of his presence lifted, as if he pulled all that terrible power into himself, and I could breathe again.

I drew down great gulps of air into my aching lungs and sagged a little, bracing my hands against my trembling legs as I slowly recovered my strength.

He placed the tray down and toed it towards me. “Eat.”

I pulled a face at the meat and vegetables laced with a thick gravy. “It might be poisoned.”

“I said it was not poisoned.”

I was aware of that, and it was the reason I had said it, so I could see that irritated flash in his silver eyes and for a brief moment feel I had some power in this arrangement even if it was only the power to annoy him.

“That sounds like something someone who poisoned my food and wanted me to eat it would say.” I smiled brightly up at him.

“I have no desired to kill you right now.”

Right now .

“Well, that’s comforting.” I toed the tray right back to him. “Not poisoned then. Drugged, so you can get what you paid for.”

Rather than his face darkening with delicious irritation, he smirked.

And it was salacious.

And far too cocky.

“If I wanted that, little lamb, I would not need to resort to drugging you.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Did he mean he would simply overpower me, which he could easily do, or something that felt far more unsettling and dangerous?

Like seducing me into wanting him.

I wanted to say I wouldn’t fall for it, that I could never want this male, but my pulse picked up as he stood mere inches from me, his dark presence wrapped around me and that scent of wild winter storm teasing me as those stunning silver eyes locked with mine, holding me immobile.

That tug I had felt towards him when I had first set eyes on him returned, pulling me closer despite my fears, making my gaze chart his handsome face and wicked smile, and more.

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 cool metal 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.

“The little lamb bleeds darkness,” Kaeleron murmured, curiosity ringing in his deep voice, the sound of it pulling me further into that wicked fantasy.

His gaze was heavy on me, that shadowy power curling around me, invading my every pore, building that fantasy in my mind, as if he had power over it and me.

His breath fanned my face as he whispered, “Do you crave vengeance on the wolf, little one?”

My breath hitched.

By the gods, did I.

I craved it with all my being, was near mad with a need of it, lost in the awakening of this side of myself I never knew existed, one that responded so sweetly to the dark fae king before me and his gentle coaxing.

“What if you could have it?” His power brushed my limbs, making me tremble. “What if it was yours to take? Would you take it, no matter the cost?”

I was ready to nod, so eager for it, but no matter the cost?

“No,” I whispered, the fires of my blood cooling in an instant as my mind filled with all the things I could lose. I shook my head and focused on the fae king, catching the flicker of disappointment in his eyes before his cold mask descended once again. “Some things are not worth risking.”

“Wise words,” Neve said, earning a vicious scowl from him too. “Some things are not worth risking, my king.”

He looked ready to devour us both, shadows caressing his shoulders and black hair, darkness radiating from him to press against me as I stood my ground.

I needed to learn to hold my tongue around him, but it had been impossible. The thought that he might want vengeance too, that he burned with the same fire as I did, had me wanting to press him more on the subject, to make him help me.

“Eat.” He shoved the food towards me again, spilling some of the water in the pitcher. “I will not order you to do so again. Disobey me and you will be punished.”

I bit my tongue as he pivoted away from me, but it didn’t stop the words from escaping. “You’re sounding more like a monster with each passing second.”

He turned on me, shadows dancing around him, his silver eyes as bright as the moon but as cold as the stars.

My body locked up tight as he stepped right up to the bars, as he reached through them and seized my throat in a grip that was both hard and soft, rough and sensuous, and a little alarming.

“A monster . I am no more a monster than you, little lamb.” His thumb pressed to the underside of my chin, forcing my head up, and our gazes collided.

“The unseelie feast, fight and fuck very much the same as your breed. In fact, we do one of those things better than those in your world. I will let you decide which.”

I got stuck on the word ‘fuck’ and how his regal accent only made it sound dirtier, more wicked, and I couldn’t help wondering which one he believed the fae did better.

My cheeks burned up as my mind supplied that word again.

Fuck .

His smirk was pure dark amusement as he turned from me and disappeared into the shadows, his parting words lingering in the air between us to torment me.

“If you wish to find out, you only need to ask.”