Page 65 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

SAPHIRA

T raining would take my mind off the things I had said to Kaeleron and the fact he hadn’t summoned me to dinner.

I had dined alone in my rooms, staring out at the city as the lights had slowly come on to drive back the darkness, mulling over what I had done.

I hadn’t been able to hold back the words, not when they had beat within me so fiercely, all the years I had spent at my pack, enduring my gilded cage, rolling into one furious roiling beast within me that had demanded freedom.

I regretted them now, even when I knew I had spoken true, that this court was suffering as I had back at my pack, the walls Kaeleron had constructed around it to keep it safe chafing at them.

Alphas had a right to protect their pack as they saw fit, to decide who had what freedom and what those within it did or didn’t do. A king had the same right, and gods, maybe I was just taking out my frustration over my own silence during the years at my pack on Kaeleron.

But I wasn’t projecting my own feelings on his people, not as he had believed the first time I had confronted him about it.

I would try to find him later and, not apologise for what I had said, but at least try to heal this breach between us.

Before I found myself living in a dungeon again.

I jogged into the clearing, eager to blow off some steam with Jenavyr.

And found Kaeleron standing in the centre of it, his hands in the pockets of his soft cotton trousers and his head tipped back, silver gaze on the sky.

I slowed to a walk, nerves rising as I realised I was about to face him right now, before I had time to prepare a pretty speech that would soothe his temper and maybe spare me from a downgrade to a prison cell.

“Was Jenavyr called away?” I tried to sound bright and not at all nervous as I approached him, and he continued to stare at the sky, as if I didn’t exist. My gut said the reason he was here wasn’t because his sister had been called away.

This was my punishment. He knew how much I enjoyed these sessions, and he was taking them away from me. “Is my training cancelled?”

His head slowly lowered, his gaze cold and unreadable as it landed on me, and his voice devoid of emotion as he said, “You will be sparring with me today. I want to see what you have learned.”

So this was my punishment for speaking out of turn with him.

Not a prison cell.

Not even a fight.

He was going to show me how weak I was, how I couldn’t compare with him and how I had merely been playing at being a warrior. He was going to show me how strong he was and how easily he could crush me—the strength and power of a king.

“Come, little wolf.” He unbuttoned his black tunic and shrugged it off, cast it aside on the grass and then tugged one boot off and then the other, leaving himself barefoot and bare chested, distracting me with all that honed muscle. “Show me your fangs.”

I remained where I was, heart pounding too fast, adrenaline surging in a way it never had before when I had sparred with Vyr. Because I knew Vyr went easy on me. I knew she pulled her punches.

And I knew Kaeleron wouldn’t.

“Why did you have me trained?” I asked, a tremble in my voice as I tried to buy myself time to mentally prepare myself for what was about to happen here in the glade, running through all the moves that Vyr had taught me in my mind and formulating a plan my gut said would fail dramatically.

I didn’t know how Kaeleron moved, which foot he led with, what his style was—whether he preferred to press the advantage and focus on attacking, or bided his time to wait for openings in which to punish his opponent.

I had no way of winning this, and that cold look in his eyes said he knew it.

He knew he was walking away from this glade the victor.

“Was it because I was attacked?” I didn’t want to think about that night, or the cold rage that had stolen over me the following day when I had discovered this male had taken my vengeance from me.

He shook his head as he tied his black hair back. “No. I had you trained because you believe yourself weaker than a lowly alpha wolf and I needed to open your eyes.”

“Open my eyes?” I blinked at him, at the answer I hadn’t expected.

“Everything I have done has been training, Saphira. A way of making you realise just how strong you really are and to shake off your doubts.” He twisted to face me and rolled his shoulders.

“You do not need an alpha, because you are one yourself. You care about your pack. You are willing to fight for them. I saw it in you the first time I set eyes on you. You are strong. Brave.”

And he had been luring that strength and courage out in me.

“Every teasing word… every temptation… it was all to make me see how strong I am. It was to free me.” I stared at him, unable to believe it, that someone in this world had seen something in me long before I had and that a male would go to such lengths to make me see it, to build up my courage and my strength, and mould me into the female he believed I could be.

“A dangerous thing to do, but one that I found enjoyable.” He smirked.

“Drawing out your strength I could see flashing in your eyes whenever you fired back at me, whenever I pushed you and you were brave enough to push back, I was well aware how dramatically it could backfire on me, but I could not help myself. However you view me, Saphira, I am not your oppressor. I am not an alpha seeking to hold you back or pin you down into a life of misery—a half life. You wanted freedom, and I gave you the power to take it. Just as I did with my sister. I believe a female can be as strong—even stronger—than any male.”

And I believed it too, but I hadn’t before I had come to this place. I had always believed males were stronger, that their strength was the reason they were raised to fight, to take the most powerful positions within the wolf packs and lead them.

But now, now my eyes had been opened, and I could see clearly. I could see that Kaeleron was right. A female could be as powerful as a male, as fearsome and brave, and could lead her people and protect them.

And Kaeleron had seen that strength in me, long before I even knew it existed, and he had drawn it into the light so I could see it.

“Begin,” he said and when I reached for the dagger sheathed at my hip, he shook his head. “No weapons. I would not want to scar that pretty face of yours.”

I shrugged and removed the belt that held my dagger in place, discarding it on the grass as I held his gaze and smiled sweetly. “You’re right. I wouldn’t want to scar that pretty face of yours.”

He smirked, but his silver eyes smouldered, the heat in them cranking up the fire that simmered in my veins whenever I was near him. “I did not realise you found me so handsome.”

“Liar,” I muttered and his smirk became a wide smile filled with pure male satisfaction and pride. “I didn’t realise you found me so beautiful.”

“Liar,” he shot back. “There is no wolf more beautiful in my court.”

I huffed and unlaced my boots, evening things out between us. “I’m fully aware I’m the only wolf in your court, you know. You need a lot of training in the compliments department.”

I kicked my boots away from me. The dewy grass was cold against my bare soles, but it felt good as I scrunched my toes in it, feeling that direct connection between my body and nature that spoke to my inner wolf, drawing it to the fore.

“Then allow me to try again.” He mock bowed, his forearm grazing his stomach as he lowered his head, and then lifted it to look right at me, a wicked light in his eyes as he purred, “I have never met a wolf more fuckable than you, my little lamb.”

I scowled at him even as I blushed, my entire body flushing with heat. “Fuckable and beautiful are not interchangeable. And might I remind you, you turned down the chance to fuck me, so I can’t be that fuckable.”

Oh my gods, had I really said that?

His sly grin scorched my blood. “Oh, Saphira, I am going to fuck you. There is no doubt about that. I am going to fuck you so hard, so thoroughly, you will be irrevocably marked as mine.”

“Because you paid for me.” I needed to shut up, but some pathetic, needy part of me needed to hear him say this combustible heat between us was real.

He prowled towards me, gaze dark and hungry. “Because I want you.”

My breath lodged in my throat together with my heart, and I struggled for air as I lost myself in his eyes, in that look that devoured me and awakened me at the same time, rousing heat in my veins that demanded we forget the fighting and just jump straight to the other thing.

“Begin,” he purred and my wolf howled in agreement, jumping right to the other thing as my blood caught aflame.

I was so caught up in the hunger swirling inside me that I almost missed the fact his fist was flying towards my face. I barely dodged the blow, ducking to my right, my mind racing to catch up with what was happening.

Fighting. Not fucking. Fighting.

Heart pounding, I drew on all my training, every routine that Vyr had drilled into me coming to the fore. I stepped into him, closing the distance between us, my left fist flying for his kidneys. Only I hit nothing but air. I blinked. He was gone.

Not gone, I realised as he kicked me in the back of my leg and it crumpled, sending me into a very ungainly sprawl on the damp grass.

Just too fast for me to track.

I shoved to my feet and whirled towards him, bringing my fist around with me, using momentum to my advantage in a blow aimed at his chest. He dodged back a step and smacked my arm with the flat of his hand, knocking my blow off course.

“I had thought Vyr would have done a better job than this,” he muttered as he easily blocked another fumbled attempt to hit him, bracing his forearm against mine as he sidestepped and then shoved me in the chest, knocking me back.

I growled, frustration beginning to get the better of me.