Page 40 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

Before I knew what I was doing, I was leaning in and stroking his ear, feathering my finger along the arch of it, across the silver hoops that adorned it, to the pointed tip.

Kaeleron’s head jerked towards me, his silver eyes wide before his lids grew heavy. “Leave us.”

For a moment, I thought he was talking to me, but then Elanaluvyr stumbled backwards, as if he had pushed her away.

She scoffed and muttered something as she stalked away from us.

Kaeleron’s eyes darkened by degrees as I stroked his ear again, a shiver wracking him as his lips parted and his breaths came quicker.

“Those are sensitive, little wolf,” he murmured, his voice drowsy, making me wonder how much pleasure he felt from such an innocent touch.

He trembled as I touched the pointed tip again and his teeth sank into his lower lip.

They were more than just sensitive. They were very sensitive.

He groaned, the sound shockingly masculine and divine as I bravely stroked my fingers down towards the lobe again.

“I wonder… are your delicate wolf ears sensitive too?”

His eyes opened, locking with mine.

“Would you tremble and quake if I stroked them?” His bewitching gaze slowly caressed the side of my face before sliding back to meet mine as he husked, “If I brushed my lips across them and took that delicate lobe between my teeth?”

I struggled to breathe, my lungs feeling too small, because I didn’t know.

And I wanted to.

I wanted him to stroke my ears.

My nape.

My breasts and the flat of my stomach.

To between my thighs.

I squeezed them together, shocked at how wet I was between them, and how clamping my muscles hard sent a shiver of pleasure dancing through me.

“Does it feel good, little wolf?” he purred, his eyes on my thighs. He patted his. “If you sit here, it will feel even better.”

Gods, I wanted to say yes and climb onto his lap.

Instead, I bit out, “No. No way.”

I cast a pointed look at his still-hard cock.

He sighed, leaned back and reached into his pants, adjusting it, which didn’t help matters at all or make me more inclined to sit on his lap because now I knew he had just touched himself and all I could think about was how easy it would be to straddle his lap and rub myself against his caged erection until I satisfied this unbearable heat within me.

He watched me. So close. So intense. Eyes sharp and focused wholly on me. Solely on me. As if I was everything he needed.

Everything he wanted.

“You definitely added something to the wine,” I muttered, glaring at it, desperate to blame it for the flames rising within me, an inferno that threatened to burn away my inhibitions just as it had with everyone else.

“I did not.” His answering smirk was all amusement as he leaned towards me and touched my flushed cheeks, his gaze growing hooded as I shivered at that brief caress.

That drugging feeling of his fingers on my flesh was gone in a flash as he murmured, “You are burning up. Perhaps you are hot with lust, little wolf?”

“Stop mocking me with that name.” I knocked his hand away—the hand he had just used to adjust himself—to touch himself—and scowled at him. “It’s the mead. I’m not used to such strong alcohol. My family never let me drink.”

It hadn’t stopped me indulging in it when I had been at Chase’s house with my friends though.

He muttered, “Your family never seemed to let you do anything. Your life has been so sheltered, my little lamb.”

Ugh. Maybe it was better to let him call me ‘little wolf’. It was certainly preferable to being called a lamb all the time and being made to feel right down to my bones how innocent I was in his eyes.

“No, it hasn’t. I’ve experienced plenty.” The denial sounded weak even to my own ears.

He turned a darkening look on me and demanded, “Tell me all the things you have experienced . I believe I paid for an untouched female.”

I hit him with my best scowl. “There’s nothing in our contract that says I have to divulge private and very personal information.”

“You must do all I ask,” he countered.

A brittle scoff burst from my lips. “No, not all you ask, and not this. I’m here at your celebration and that’s enough for tonight.”

He slid a look over me, scalding me from head to toe and back again. “Very well. I will let you keep your secrets—for now—and in exchange you will sit here.”

He tapped his lap with a single finger.

I actually debated it this time. Confess that my experience of the world was as limited as he believed it to be and admit I was just as sheltered as he had said, or sit on his lap.

Nestled close to the evidence of his arousal.

As embarrassing as it was, it was an easy choice.

I went to go to him, but he seized my arm and brutally tugged me to him, forcing me onto his lap and caging me with his strong arms. I fought his hold, unwilling to be made to do anything like this or let him think he could do as he pleased with me.

“Still, little wolf,” he hissed into my ear, his breath fanning my neck. “There are males watching you. Males I do not trust.”

I stiffened, my heart pounding, and then realised he was probably creating an excuse to make me sit on his lap without making a fuss. So I brought my right hand around in a fast arc aimed at his face.

He easily caught my wrist, and his thumb stroked the sensitive skin there as he purred, “Relax. I am only trying to protect you.”

“I highly doubt that.” The venom left my words as he looked off to his right and then left, and I looked there too.

And got an eyeful of males watching me as they were being sucked off or ridden, their gazes hot on me.

Predatory.

An inferno rather than heat exploded within me, coursing through every inch of me, morphing into arousal as Kaeleron wrapped his arms around my waist and murmured against my skin.

“This way you are safe.”

I didn’t feel safe as I looked at him, my lips dangerously close to his, his breath caressing my mouth.

I felt as if I was burning up.

On fire with need I couldn’t control, that felt as if it was shredding me apart from the inside out, a living thing that wanted to escape the cage of my body.

“I need to go. Now,” I breathed as that fire built.

I was too hot. Burning up. I writhed on his lap, unable to get comfortable, each shift of my body against his only making things worse as my need grew, as that terrible urge to position myself astride him and rub against him became near overwhelming.

Hijacking control of me.

I looked at all the males, gaze darting from one to the next, the inferno within me building with every one I watched for a heartbeat, with every rigid shaft I set eyes on. I couldn’t breathe. I clawed at my chest, at my throat, needing air.

Needing to cool down.

My dress felt too tight.

My skin was on fire.

I clawed at it, desperate to get out of it, my dress or my skin I didn’t know.

My short claws sliced through the delicate fabric of my dress, shearing one of the straps. It fell away, cooler air kissing my skin above my right breast, but it wasn’t enough.

I stared at the males, aware of the hard body beneath mine, the heady wild storm scent of him filling my nostrils and drawing all of my focus to him. I wriggled on his lap, desperate to rub myself against him, to feel that hard masculine body against mine, a growl slipping from my lips.

A demand to touch me.

My back arched as I kicked my legs and the dress fell between them, exposing my thighs, a moan escaping me as my nipples beaded, the fabric abrading them. Teasing them.

Kaeleron’s gaze was like fire on me, branding me, making me burn hotter.

I couldn’t take it.

I desperately clawed at my dress, at him, needing to hold him and needing to break free of his arms, torn in so many directions that something within me was threatening to break.

“I can’t,” I bit out as another wave of desire rolled over me, dark and delicious, pulling me deeper under its spell, and I realised what was happening.

Why I felt sick.

Shaking violently.

So desperate for a release from all this pain.

My bones ached, muscles clamping down onto them as I reached for a hint of pleasure, squeezing my thighs tight together.

My arousal reached fever pitch.

“Saphira?”

My name was a drug on his lips.

I shivered and burned, desperate for him to speak it again.

To free me of these chains that bound me.

The night closed in and I wanted to howl at that full moon, wanted to strip off this dress and dance among the males, tempting this fae king until he submitted to me.

No.

I pushed from his arms, stumbling as I hit the ground, my head foggy and the need pounding in my veins demanding I return to him. He had what I needed. Was what I wanted.

No.

I kicked off my slippers and ran barefoot through the grass, hitching my dress up so I didn’t trip as I sprinted as hard as I could, the cool dewy touch of nature beneath my feet soothing some of the heat that had grown unbearable.

I was going to burn up.

Crumble to ashes.

I ran hard. Fast. Until the sounds of the feast disappeared into the night. Until silence surrounded me.

And I didn’t stop running until I reached my room.

I threw all the windows open, letting cold night air roll into the room. It wasn’t enough. It didn’t cool me as I needed. I burned. It didn’t stop my thoughts from spinning out of control, all centred around a certain dark fae king and the way he had looked at me.

I burned for him.

My primal instincts snarled and demanded I return to the feast.

To him.

I had taken three steps towards the door before I caught myself, steeling myself against my instincts as they pushed me to find Kaeleron, to give in to every wicked need he roused in me. He would gladly pleasure me until I was out of my mind, high on the mating heat and him.

All I had to do was give in and ask him.

I gritted my teeth and curled my hands into tight fists, fighting that urge to find him. To fuck him. It wasn’t going to happen. I would probably die of embarrassment if he knew the state I was in, how my sanity was slowly being stripped from me by my primal instincts to mate.

I buried my head in my hands and shook it.

Not going to happen.

I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, and when that didn’t work, I lifted the bowl and doused myself, spilling water all over the stone floor.

But still the fire within me grew hotter.

I clawed at my sodden dress as it stuck to my skin, frantic and wild, my heart thundering and limbs shaking as need became pain, as that pain threatened to steal my sanity from me.

I was burning up.

A growl pealed from my lips.

And only a male could quell this heat threatening to destroy me.

My wolf side howled for Kaeleron.