Page 35 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

SAPHIRA

I didn’t resist Kaeleron as he ushered me through the quiet castle, heading down corridors I had never seen before. His presence was a constant pressure against me, his scent and his power buffeting me together with awareness of his half-dressed state.

He looked even more the wild king now, a force of nature with his glistening pale skin stretched taut over honed muscles and his black hair no longer neatly pulled back into a half-ponytail.

Strands had fallen down, caressing the silver tips he wore on his pointed ears, luring my gaze to them again.

He kept his noble profile to me, his striking silver eyes fixed ahead of us as he guided me towards this creature he had said I could meet.

It was hard to focus on the thought of finally seeing one up close—and the king’s personal elkyn out of all of them—when Kaeleron was beside me, his presence consuming my focus, demanding and alluring.

His fingers stroked a steady, teasing rhythm on my arm, as if he wanted to keep me aware of him, keep my eyes on him. Like there was any danger of my focus drifting elsewhere.

“Where is everyone?” I didn’t take my eyes from his profile as I asked that, growing increasingly aware that the castle was too quiet.

Too empty.

“All around us.” His deep voice rolled over me like a wave, sweeping me up in it, and I looked for the people I couldn’t sense.

And gasped.

We weren’t travelling along a corridor as I had thought.

We were travelling along an avenue of black mist, completely embraced by the shadows.

Fear threatened to shake me, but fascination overruled it, my eyes darting around as I struggled to take in that I was travelling through the shadows, cloaked in them and concealed from everyone.

More alone with Kaeleron than I had ever been.

I went to reach my hand out to brush through those shadows.

Kaeleron’s grip on my arm tightened, his other hand clamping down over it as he rumbled, “Do not let go.”

I leaned closer to him instead, my pulse jacking up as the shadows thinned in places and I peered through them at the ghostly world beyond them. It looked like the castle corridors and rooms, but it was a mere phantom of them, intangible and shimmering like smoke.

I gasped as we passed straight through a wall and into the garden, mouth going dry as my mind raced to imagine what might happen if I let go of Kaeleron when he was performing such a manoeuvre. Would I be stuck in a wall? Doomed to die trapped within the heavy stones of this castle?

Kaeleron chuckled as I pressed closer to him. “Afraid, little lamb?”

“No.” A lie. A pathetic one at that.

He saw right through it, the rich timbre of his laugh warming my bones, and startled me by sliding his arm around my shoulders, tugging me closer still.

“I will not let you go,” he husked.

And part of me knew he meant something different by those words. They were a confession rather than a statement. A warning.

A confirmation of the feeling that had been growing within me from the moment I had signed that contract, blindly believing it meant what it said, interpreting it in the way I wanted it.

Kaeleron didn’t intend to set me free.

At least, he didn’t intend to let me leave his lands.

His version of setting me free was far less innocent.

I felt it as his hand glided down to settle on the curve of my waist, as he pulled me closer still, until our bodies pressed together and I knew only him.

He intended to set me free of the invisible bonds that bound me, from the pain of what Lucas had done, and the shackles my family and my duty had placed on me.

And by the gods, some part of me wanted that.

Wanted him.

I didn’t struggle as he held me. No. I leaned closer still, savouring the feel of his muscled body against mine and that bewitching scent of his filling my lungs.

Willing to drown in his presence and his power, to bravely shut out the voice that screamed at me about my mate and my duty, about my pack and what was expected of me.

And listened to the instinct that howled at me to embrace this strange new world.

And everything offered by its dark king.

I raised my eyes to his face, on the verge of surrendering in the safety of his shadows, hidden from the world.

But they evaporated, revealing a pasture surrounded by trees that slowly went from ghostly to solid, and I staggered a little as my boots hit the grass, the sudden change from drifting on air to walking on hard earth jarring me.

Kaeleron chuckled at my terrible landing and didn’t stop even as I glared at him.

Being so close to him like this felt too intimate and he seemed too different today. As if he was too tired to keep his mask in place and it kept slipping, revealing enthralling glimpses of the male behind it.

“Perhaps we can work on your dismount. I am willing to give you lessons on dismounting.” His throaty chuckle and that sparkle in his silver eyes as he teased me… too much.

I paced away from him, needing some space and some air, some time to get my unruly desires in check.

The stroll through the castle with him had been far too pleasant, far too normal feeling, and how pleased I had been to see him return, it all rolled up on me now I was out of his arms. I shouldn’t be feeling any of these things for him, shouldn’t find his company enjoyable.

He was my captor. My owner.

I needed to remember that, even when part of me wanted to forget.

To embrace this wildness within me.

To be brave.

I looked over my shoulder at Kaeleron, watching him as he strode towards a wooden fence that surrounded a paddock, unsure I could ever be brave enough to reach out and take what I wanted, not when the consequences seemed so great.

If I had a taste of him, I would want more.

That part of me that craved a connection with someone was seeking a way of filling that void within me as it mourned the loss of my mate and suffered the stinging pain of my rejection.

Kaeleron could so easily be just that.

A beautiful, dark distraction.

But what happened when he grew bored of me?

When he rejected me too?

I wasn’t sure I could bear another male rejecting me, and I certainly wasn’t looking for someone to love, not again, so I tore my gaze from him and looked for a better distraction, something safer.

One trotted towards me from the other end of the paddock.

In the twilight-sun, the great silver stag’s fur shimmered a lustrous pale blue, and the thicker hair that covered the front of its neck and chest shone with purest silver.

His large antlers dripped with fine pale vines and delicate lilac flowers, and threads of white moss, as if he were some powerful ancient spirit of nature given form.

Intelligent aquamarine eyes that glowed around their pupils landed on me and he snorted and scratched at the grass with his right hoof.

And then regally lowered his head.

I felt a bit like a fool as I did the same and Kaeleron chuckled.

I glowered at him.

He held his hand up. “I was not mocking. I am merely surprised he is so accepting of your presence. It often takes him time to grow accustomed to others.”

“What’s his name?” Would it be rude to reach out and pet the nose of such a fine, noble beast, treating him as a pet?

“I do not know.”

I frowned at Kaeleron. “How do you not know? You’re his owner, aren’t you?”

“Because I do not speak his tongue, and I am not his owner.” He held his hand out and the stag—elkyn—came to him, and the size of him struck me.

He was far larger than the ones I had seen before.

His shoulders came close to the height of Kaeleron’s head, a beast more than large enough for such a towering male to ride.

“So he doesn’t have a name?” I cocked my head, looking at the elkyn as it looked right back at me, as if it was assessing me too. “Have you tried naming him?”

“I feel it would be disrespectful.” Kaeleron patted the elkyn’s neck, the action filled with the affection that was reflected on his face as he smiled at the beast. Actually smiled.

The sight of it was startling, warming me right down to my marrow and rousing a shocking heat in my traitorous body.

His long fingers danced through the thicker fur at the elkyn’s throat.

“I do not wish to disrespect him and become to first unseelie to tame and ride an elkyn and also the first unseelie to lose such a privilege.”

I leaned my arms on the top bar of the worn wooden fence. “But I see them pulling carts all the time. Many have been tamed.”

Although this one was far larger than the others I had seen in town, standing more than a head taller, and would easily dwarf them if they were stood side by side.

He chuckled again as he lovingly stroked the elkyn’s neck, long brushes of his hand that the beast seemed to enjoy as he leaned into them. “No. You see the elkyn he watches over. This beast is different to them. A guardian of their kind.”

“Like a god?”

The elkyn was beautiful enough to be one, his fur shining with not just blue as he turned his head towards me but a whole rainbow of colours, as iridescent as a beetle shell. He bobbed his head and snorted, as if agreeing with me.

“He is ancient and steeped with magic.” Kaeleron’s hand stilled on the elkyn’s nape as he gazed at it, fond warmth in his eyes.

“I tamed him when I was young, the Great Mother smiling upon me and gracing me with this spirit as my mount. His kind are rare, spread throughout the lands of Lucia, and never had one submitted to being captured, let alone ridden. Many who have tried have paid with their lives.”

“You didn’t tame him.” That feeling stirred deep within me, powerful and profound as something dawned on me. “He chose you.”