Page 90 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

“I think they’re fine. They were fine when I left, anyway…

but I’m worried about them. I don’t know what’s happened to them since…

Lucas…” Morden shook his head and his expression darkened, his words coming out more as a growl as he continued, “That son of a bitch. I never should have trusted him with you. We didn’t hear from you for weeks and Lucas kept acting like you were fine and you didn’t want to see us.

Something about it all just didn’t sit right with me. I know you.”

He dared to brush his fingers across her cheek, his look sincere as some of the shadows in his eyes lifted for a moment.

“I knew you’d never turn your back on your pack…

your family.” His stormy gaze shifted to me, darkening by degrees before it dropped back to Saphira.

“I went to the Hunt Pack and demanded he let me see you, and he pretended to take me to you and then Braxton jumped me. Bastard hits like a truck, but I managed to beat him, and then I went after Lucas. I caught him at his house, beat the shit out of him and made him tell me where you were. When he couldn’t, I made him tell me who took you. ”

His fierce gaze slid back to me, narrowing and darkening again, and remaining that way as it lowered back to her.

“I saw your bracelet, and I grabbed it when I left. I went straight to Quesnel, to that witch, and I made her craft me enchanted tokens so I could use the portals and then I went to the nearest underground fae town in Whistler and hunted down information on him .” Morden snarled that word, all the anger and hatred that burned in it blazing in his eyes as he glared at me.

“Turns out it’s not hard to find this fancy fae world when you ask in the right places.

Some blond guy was heading to this world and helped me get to his court, and then he gave me directions over a mountain pass to this court. ”

I growled low in response to the male’s admission that he had travelled with a seelie.

Saphira stiffened and stepped back towards me, her hands coming up protectively in front of her chest. “My family. Our pack. Do you think they’re in danger?”

Morden nodded. “You know they are deep in your heart. You know Lucas. Or you do now. He’ll target them as revenge for what I did.

I need to get back there as soon as possible.

We need to get back there. I’m not sure what might have happened to them, but I know it’s probably not good. We have to go now.”

Something dark stirred within me as I studied the male, as I recognised the desperation in his gaze, poorly concealed beneath the layers of concern and hope, and relief.

He wanted to take Saphira back to his world as quickly as possible, and I did not believe that need stemmed purely from a desire to protect his pack. It ran deeper. Was more personal.

Did he have someone in particular at the pack he wanted to save?

How far was he willing to go to ensure their safety?

I did not trust this wolf.

And I was not sure Saphira did either as she hesitated despite what he had told her.

Morden produced the charm bracelet from his pocket, showing it to her, his gaze grave.

“Lucas has… What if Lucas has our pack locked down, Saphi? I never should have left without warning them. Gods, I was an idiot. Chase and the others can fight, but you’ve seen the Hunt Pack.

We wouldn’t stand a chance against them, and Lucas knows that.

I’m sure he’s there now. We have to get back.

You know what Lucas will do if he takes command of our pack. ”

She shook her head, her hands moving to her mouth as horror danced in her eyes. “No. My parents?—”

“They’re alive.” He gripped her shoulders again, palming them gently, and I glared at him, silently deciding I would begin with removing those hands he touched the little wolf with so easily, as if it was nothing.

“They’re alive. I’m sure of it. But… if we don’t get help, I don’t know what will happen.

I don’t know what will happen to your parents…

to my sister. She’s the only family I have, Saphi.

I can’t lose her. I can’t let that bastard?—”

Morden cut himself off with a growl, a snarl that relayed the anger and raw fury I could sense in him as his face darkened. His sister. This was the person he wanted to save, and every instinct I possessed said her safety was paramount, that he would do anything to ensure it.

Saphira looked as if she might crumple to the floor. She glanced over her shoulder at me, her eyes watery, tears glistening on her cheeks. That look nearly felled me.

“I can’t,” she whispered as she looked back at Morden. “I… I can’t.”

“Why not?” Morden bit out and his fingers tightened against her shoulders. “This isn’t a choice you get to make, Saphi. You can’t decide not to do this. Your parents… my sister… everyone will die if we don’t get help and get back to our pack.”

She wrenched free of his hold. “You don’t understand. I have a debt. The cost to Kaeleron when he?—”

“Fuck that bastard,” Morden snarled, flashing fangs as he scowled down at Saphira, and she flinched.

I slowly rose to my feet, gaining the male’s attention, my shadows spreading down the steps of the dais like a creeping black mist. “I would caution you to watch your tongue, wolf.”

I shifted my gaze from the male to Saphira.

“Come, little lamb.”

She obediently backed away from the wolf, and shock rippled across his face, morphing to anger as he looked from her to me.

“You’d let her family die?” he barked.

No. I would not.

Because I was not a monster.

She turned to face me, tears shining in her reddened eyes, together with conflict and pain I could recognise, one I had felt once, long ago.

I went to her, lifted my right hand and brushed those tears away, skimming my thumb lightly along her lashes to capture them.

She had almost died. I had failed to protect her.

With war brewing in the Wastes, my world was about to get too violent for her, and keeping her with me would only result in her death.

And she had her own battle to face, one I could not keep her from.

She needed to protect her people. She needed to save her parents.

That desire was something I could understand, and I could not keep her with me knowing her family might die because I had failed to act and do what was right.

I lowered my head and pressed a kiss to her lips, savouring her scent and her taste, putting it to memory as I gathered my courage and built walls around my heart, layer upon layer of them that blocked out her light.

And then I released her and stepped back.

Because the thought of watching her die was more painful than the thought of her living without me, safe and free.

I sensed my sister’s eyes on me and looked off to my left at her where she stood near the side entrance, concern in her gaze as she watched me with Saphira.

“You are needed in the war room,” Jenavyr said.

I nodded, a heavy feeling settling inside me, one that seeped through the cracks in the shields I had constructed. “I will be right there.”

Her tone was soft, and questioning. “And Saphira?”

I looked at the bastard wolf who looked as if he wanted to wrench Saphira from me and then at her, at her beautiful tear-streaked face and the pain in her eyes, and those lips I wanted to kiss just one more time, trying to crush the voice within me that screamed at me to keep her here, to keep her with me, that my vengeance was not done.

That Saphira was a tool I needed, a weapon in my arsenal that would give me my revenge.

I would find another way.

“I am done using her.”