Page 67 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

KAELERON

L etting my darker side steal control of me had been a mistake, but surrendering to my urge to sink my fangs into her delicate flesh had been unforgivable.

I paced across the sitting area of my quarters, still barefoot and unclothed from the waist up, my steps silent on the black marble floor and ornate rug as I moved between the door to the bathroom and my armoury, passing the gold-framed black couches that glimmered in the combination of candlelight from the low wooden table and firelight.

My mind churned with disconnected thoughts.

Flashes of Saphira fighting, of her laughing, of her looking at me with heat in her eyes.

With something more than lust.

That look in her eyes when I had realised what I had done, when I had found the strength to drag my gaze from my marks on her throat, denying that primal howl of victory within me, had branded me as completely as I had marked her. Such hunger. Such ferocity.

The taste of her…

I closed my eyes and drew down a steadying breath, attempting to calm the raging need to find her, to pierce her delicate flesh with my fangs again and draw her essence into me, mingling it with mine to keep a piece of her with me.

Dangerous.

I exhaled hard, purging that need. Saphira was a tool. A weapon I would wield. Nothing more.

Yet I found myself glancing at the arched windows that punctuated the black stone walls on either side of my canopied bed, at the fading light, and worry gnawed at my insides, hollowing me out.

Had she returned safely from the glade? I drifted to the sheer blue gold-edged fabric that hung from the ceiling above my bed, sweeping through heavy rings affixed to the wooden beams towards gilded columns and draped around them to leave my bed visible to me, and frowned at the world outside the window as I rested my hand on one of those columns.

I should not have left her there.

I should not have let my shock get the better of me like that, leaving her unprotected.

I bit out a curse and stormed to the wardrobes that lined the wall near the door and pulled the doors open, gaze scanning the contents as I hastily formed a plan.

I grabbed a loose black shirt and tugged it on over my head, and teleported to the corridor outside her room.

I pressed my hand to the wooden door, my eyes slipping shut as I focused my senses, narrowing them to the room on the other side.

And relief swept through me as I sensed her there.

I turned to leave but the door before me opened, stopping me in my tracks, and her soft gasp teased my ears.

“Kaeleron,” she whispered, blinking startled blue eyes up at me, and fidgeted with something she held to her chest. “I was… I was just coming to return these.”

She looked down at the bundle of black blending with her robe.

My tunic and boots, I realised.

She shoved them at me, catching me off guard as her scent stole my focus. It grew stronger as I took the tunic and boots from her, and I frowned as I lifted the black jacket to my nose and inhaled.

Smelling her on it.

“This smells like you,” I purred, savouring the rose that climbed her cheeks and how she averted her gaze. “You wore this.”

She nodded. “It seemed better than parading naked through the castle.”

I barely leashed the growl that rumbled up my throat at the thought of her walking through my castle naked, for all to see. Her curves were mine alone to admire.

I caught myself breathing in her scent on my tunic again and frowned as I forced myself to lower it. Still, some part of me growled low, possessively this time, enjoying the thought of her wearing my clothes, rubbing my scent all over her supple body.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper.” She loosed a long sigh and shook her head. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“I do,” I countered. “You did not like feeling weak. You did not like that I was faster than you.”

“Fine, I do know what came over me,” she muttered. “I hate being weak.”

“You are not weak.” I shook my head when she lifted her eyes to meet mine and I could see the denial forming in them, on her lips. “You are strong, Saphira. Stronger than you believe—than your pack let you believe. That lack of belief in your strength is the reason I beat you.”

Her expression softened and warmed, a pretty little blush not born of desire but of gratitude touching her cheeks.

“That and you need to work on controlling your emotions. You are too easy to provoke. Your body is strong, but your mind is weak.”

Her face scrunched up and she smacked me on the chest.

“You are only proving my point.” I arched a brow at her.

“You’re lucky I don’t bite you again,” she shot back, looking ready to carry out that threat.

“Ah, little wolf.” I leaned closer to her as I lowered my voice to a purr. “If you bite me again, I shall bite you again.”

I trailed my fingers over the spot I had bitten, feeling her tremble beneath them.

“Did you like it?” I skimmed my fingers higher, grazing her fluttering pulse in her throat.

“No,” she bit out.

The heat of her cheeks as I feathered my fingers across their scarlet surface betrayed her.

“This pretty blush says otherwise,” I murmured.

She slapped my hand away from her face. “It’s anger making them flushed.”

I chuckled, watching that colour deepen in response to it. “I will freely admit that I rather enjoyed you claiming my neck with your fangs.”

“I wasn’t claiming anything,” she snapped, heat darkening her eyes as she turned her cheek to me.

I caught her other one and turned her face back towards me, my gaze clashing with hers. “You were not? You bit and clawed me—marked me—and then you wore my clothing, mingling our scents on your tight little body.”

She hit me with a murderous glare.

“Stop twisting what happened.” Her anger and frustration deflated as she glanced at my shoulder. “How is it? I’m sorry I did that.”

I feathered my fingers down to her throat, to the bite mark she was hiding beneath her dark robe. “I am not.”

“Gods, you’re annoying,” she muttered, planted her hands against my chest and shoved me backwards, over the threshold of her room. “Go away.”

She did not mean it. I knew it the moment she lingered, her palms searing my chest through my shirt, her heart thundering in my ears as she stared at her hands. And swallowed.

Her fingers flexed the tiniest amount, but I noticed.

Just as I had noticed how she had stood her ground when faced with my other side, my true nature, rather than fleeing.

The strength she denied having had shone so brightly in that moment that I could not comprehend how she still did not see it.

I had seen it the moment I set eyes on her in that cage, and I had been convinced that strength would be crushed under the weight of her new situation once she had awakened in my world, sold into service.

But instead, she had risen to every challenge.

She was bold.

Brave.

Even when faced with people far stronger, and infinitely more dangerous, than she was.

I lingered with her, a war brewing within me as I breathed in her scent and gazed at her, drinking in her beauty. I should not be here. I knew it. This obsession with her was dangerous, and this path I was treading was deadly. I had a plan, and I had to stick to it, no matter the cost.

Vengeance was everything.

Something I doubted such a beautiful, tender soul could understand.

I went to step back but her fingers tightened in my shirt, clutching the material and holding me in place. I could have teleported if I had wanted, leaving her empty handed, but I found myself lingering again, filled with a profound need to remain here with her.

Doubts clouded her blue eyes, the soft lines of her face hardening as she struggled with something, making me realise I was not the only one who waged an internal battle this night.

When she grew increasingly tense, her war becoming more intense under the oppressing silence, I could not hold my tongue. I broke the silence for her, shattering its hold on her.

“When you shifted, you caught me off guard. Something no one has managed in a long time.” I kept my voice even, steady even as nerves rose within me, stripping me of my strength.

A foolish response. I had no reason to be nervous.

I had only confessed the truth. Yet I felt oddly vulnerable as I stood before her, enduring her scrutiny as she studied me.

I saw her wolf before me, her pure white fur as bright as the full moon, her eyes as blue as the ones peering into my soul now. “Your wolf is beautiful.”

Those soft words left my lips unbidden.

A confession that stripped me bare.

And the blush that darkened her cheeks was the most bewitching one yet.

I wanted to touch it and feel the heat of it as she struggled to hold my gaze, as a need to look at anything but me filled her, as if she could avoid what I had said by simply looking away. Or maybe she did not know how to react, maybe no one had ever told her she was beautiful.

Or if they had, they had not really meant it.

So I held her gaze, framed her face with my palms to keep it locked on me, and stared deep into her soul to ensure she heard me.

“You are beautiful, Saphira, and I find your beauty is not only on the surface. Your inner beauty outshines the external. I am not sure how it is possible, but it is true. You are a rare, and wonderful thing to behold, and to know.”

“Shut up,” she muttered and lowered her gaze.

“Tell me you believe me and I will shut up,” I husked.

She sighed and her features shifted, that war erupting again, born of my request and my words this time.

And then she mumbled, “I believe you.”

“Good…” I released her, took hold of the hand I had gifted with a band of moonlight, and pressed a kiss to the back of it, making her jump, “…night.”

She gripped my hand when I went to leave and I glanced at her, waiting to see if she had finally found her voice.

“Do all unseelie have it?” she whispered.

And there it was.