Felicity Heaton's Blog - Posts Tagged "rejected-mate"

I'm sharing a first peek at my next book, Wolf Caged, today... if you haven't added it to your TBR yet, click here to add it to your TBR .

Chapter 2
Saphira
The barn in the centre of the communal green deep in the Hunt pack lands had been beautifully decorated with white lights that shimmered as dusk began to fall, making the compacted snow around the building twinkle like diamonds. I had thought we would celebrate the coming together of our two packs in the street that ran through the middle of the small town that served as an outpost for humans passing through the area. Lucas had mentioned it happening that way in the last message I had received from him. Maybe the lingering cold weather of early spring had forced a change of plans.

I relished it.

I had never felt comfortable visiting the Hunt pack, mostly because Lucas’s father had always held the gatherings in the heart of the town they had built, one filled with stores that catered to tourists and the few locals that lived out on remote properties in the area. None of my pack had failed to see his actions for what they had been.

A show of power and wealth.

My pack—the Harper pack—lived in a small community of cabins in the middle of the forest near Wells in Canada, far away from civilisation. We scraped by, growing food and hunting, living off the land as best we could. But for most of the supplies we needed, we had to travel to the nearby Hunt pack or make the journey to Quesnel.

We were few in numbers, and they were many.

Our two packs couldn’t have been more different, and the old Hunt alpha had loved pointing it out to us.

Even going as far as bringing up how easy it had been to defeat our former alpha and two of our pack’s protectors.

My gaze sought out Chase and Morden as I exited the SUV.

Chase pulled his black Jeep up behind us, looking deeply at ease as he chatted animatedly with Morden’s younger sister, Danica, who sat wedged between him and a very grave Morden. My former protector’s grey eyes shifted to me, as stormy as ever as they locked with mine. I sensed the movement of people towards me before his gaze snapped to my right and narrowed.

Lucas.

If I hadn’t been able to feel him closing the distance between us, hadn’t been able to recognise his earthy scent, that look in Morden’s eyes would have told me who it was.

While Morden had felt no love for his father, he had loved his brother deeply, and Lucas’s father had taken both of them from him that night Chase’s father had foolishly challenged him.

I gave Morden a look that warned him to be on his best behaviour.

Morden merely shoved the car door open in response and stepped out, unfurling all six-foot-five of his powerful body, and gripped the top of the door.

Lucas stopped beside me, his deep blue eyes fixed on Morden rather than me.

Where Lucas was light and elegant, with his neatly styled blond hair and pressed jeans and shirt, and charming as he smiled at my former protector, Morden was darkness incarnate, his black flannel shirt and jeans, and his dark brown hair making him blend into the falling night beyond him, and his lips were set in a grim line that made it perfectly clear he wasn’t happy to be here.

Before the two of them could ruin the night, I stepped in front of Lucas, capturing his attention.

His gaze dropped to mine, and then fell further, raking over me in a way that heated my blood and had my mind racing forwards to after the celebration, when we would finally be alone.

When we would mate.

“You look beautiful,” he murmured for my ears only and leaned down to brush his lips across my forehead in his usual greeting.

I lifted my head instead, tipping my chin up, and his smile was wicked as he shifted course and swept his lips across mine in the barest whisper of a kiss.

A shiver bolted down my spine and my wolf side urged me to growl, to claim this male as mine now rather than wait another few hours. My fingers trembled as I stood before him, as he gazed down at me, right into my eyes, the corners of his kissable lips still curved into a faint smile. Heat coloured his eyes, heat I could feel beating off him as he inched closer, as he trailed a hand down my arm beneath my shawl.

His fingers locked around my wrist rather than twining with mine.

“Come. Everyone is waiting.” He tugged on my arm and I stumbled after him, confusion flashing through me as I looked at his hand on my wrist. His grip was firm, and I could sense agitation in him as I focused on him.

He was probably just as nervous as I was, or maybe excited to see where this night would take us.

I walked faster to keep up with him and fell into step beside him. He angled his head towards me, his smile warm, no trace of unease in his eyes. That agitation I had sensed in him faded as he walked beside me, his grip on my wrist loosening as we reached the threshold of the barn. Warmth swept around me as I crossed it, and not only from the candles set in the centre of each wooden bench table.

A cheer went up as all eyes turned towards us, murmured greetings and hollered welcomes following it, together with a few remarks about how eager we probably were to get to the mating part of the evening. My cheeks heated despite my efforts to keep my embarrassment hidden.

They warmed for a different reason when Lucas looked at me, hunger I had never seen before shining in his eyes.

Fire that scalded me.

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from his as he led me through the room, towards the long table near the back wall. A smile lit up his face as he eased my chair out for me, as I sat in it and he took the seat beside me. It had been a long time since I had seen him this happy, and the thought that it was because of me warmed me right to my soul.

Lucas leaned towards me, draping his arm across the back of my seat, his earthy scent filling my senses as he poured me a glass of chilled white wine. His smile was easy and charming as always, a feat I always marvelled at. I had never met a male who smiled so easily, who could charm all around him as Lucas could, no matter how dire a situation might be. Even when he had been mourning his parents, he had been able to smile just a few short weeks after their deaths. If I lost my parents, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to smile for a full year.

He grazed his fingers down my spine, sending a chill tumbling down it as he pushed the glass towards me.

I almost spilled the wine as I picked it up, fumbling with it as my hands continued to tremble.

He noticed, his focus shifting to my fingers, and then back to my face.

He eased closer, his breath tickling my ear as he whispered, “No need to be so nervous. It’s not as if we haven’t known this moment was coming for years. You really do look beautiful tonight, Saphira.”

He dropped a kiss on my neck and I growled, the rumbling sound slipping from my lips before I could stop it as my instincts roared to life, making me restless with an urge to push and goad him, to tempt him into biting my nape.

Binding us as mates.

His raspy chuckle tickled my senses and my skin, making the hairs on my nape stand on end, hyper-sensitive and aware of how close he was to where I needed him most.

That ache that had been building from the moment I left my pack lands reached a crescendo as I glanced at him, catching his gaze rooted on my nape. His eyes were unfocused, his pupils blown. Was he thinking about marking me too?

I squeezed my thighs together as all that wicked heat pooled there, the ache too strong now, almost overwhelming.

Lucas pulled back and clinked his glass against mine, a mischievous light in his eyes as he said, “Drink. It’ll help with the nerves… and the heat.”

He could sense it. Maybe even smell it on me. I died a little inside, cringing internally at the thought he was deeply aware of how badly I wanted him.

I gulped my wine and the moment I set the glass down, Lucas refilled it. I gulped that too, because it took a lot for a wolf shifter to feel even a mild buzz from alcohol.

I had experimented with it once, when Morden had brought a box of six whiskey bottles back from a trip to Vancouver and we had celebrated his birthday on a bitter November day when the snow had been falling so thickly that we had struggled to get out the door when it was time to head home. Chase had ended up staying over at his place, and I had stumbled back through the snow with Everlee. She had slept in my bed next to me, complaining it was too cold to trek the additional distance to her cabin.

Lucas kissed my shoulder, regaining my attention, and chuckled at something Braxton said to him. The big dark-haired beta rivalled Morden in his height and build, making me feel small as I looked up at him. He ran a hand over his shorn hair and smiled, but no trace of warmth touched his dark eyes. I wasn’t sure Braxton would ever approve of me, but I was determined not to give him any reason to dislike me. I knew how easily one wolf could turn others against a female, even the mate of an alpha, especially when they wielded power in the pack, like Braxton. Wolves listened to their betas as much as their alphas. Even an alpha listened to their beta.

I turned my gaze on Lucas.

Although I was sure he wouldn’t be easily swayed by his cousin.

“Sit. Have some wine with us.” I pinned Braxton with my best smile and gestured to the seat beside me.

Braxton grunted at it and moved on, drifting into the crowd.

“Don’t mind him,” Lucas breathed into the shell of my ear and nipped at my lobe. “He just thinks I’m rushing things.”

I looked at him. “And what do you think? Are you rushing things?”

He shifted closer. “No. I think this is the right time. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

I blushed, the colour climbing my face before I could stop it.

Lucas took my chin between his thumb and forefinger, his smile dazzling. “So innocent. So perfect. You could charm any male with a look… a reaction like that.”

I brushed his hand away. “I don’t want to charm any male.”

“Shame.” He refilled my glass. “Countless men would part with good money just to have a beautiful female blush for them like that.”

I scoffed. “Did you start drinking before I arrived? I’m not that pretty, nor that innocent.”

That last part tasted like ash on my tongue, a pitiful attempt to pretend I wasn’t as innocent as all my blushing and unconcealed eagerness declared I was.

His eyebrows lifted. “Really? Tell me, Saphira, who have you been not-so-innocent with?”

“Morden,” I blurted.

Lucas barked out a laugh, as if that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. “Morden Snow?”

Morden scowled over at us from his seat at Chase and Everlee’s table near the door.

Lucas suddenly stopped laughing when Morden’s grey gaze moved from him to me. His arm tightened around me, pinning me to his side, his fingers pressing in hard enough to hurt.

“You lie.” His voice pitched low, laced with a growl.

“I do not.” I dragged my focus from Morden and settled it back on Lucas, a smile curling the corners of my lips as my wolf rumbled in approval of the jealous look on Lucas’s face. I wanted more of that look, of that possessive hold he had on me, so I confessed, “He’s seen me naked.”

Lucas looked as if he might laugh again as he relaxed a notch, his grip loosening. “We’re shifters. We see each other naked all the time.”

I frowned at him. No, we didn’t. Males often stripped before a shift, not caring who was looking, and some even walked around nude afterwards, but pack females didn’t tend to do the same. At least, females at my pack didn’t. My gaze darted around the room, singling out all the females of the Hunt pack. How many of these females had Lucas seen naked?

How many had seen him naked?

Now I was the jealous one.

So, I snapped, “It wasn’t during a shift. We went skinny dipping at the lake.”

Lucas’s face darkened.

Claws pressed into my arm, threatening to break my skin.

“It was just once,” I stammered, my heart pounding as fear rose within me. I had taken this silly game of making each other jealous too far, pushing him too hard.

Fated males didn’t like others looking at their mate, especially before their bond was completed.

I wanted to blame the buzz of the wine, opened my mouth to do just that, but then the darkness in his eyes faded, melting away as a breathtaking smile curved his lips, a charming mask falling into place but not convincing me his anger was gone.

“And never again.” Lucas swept his fingers down my cheek and took hold of my chin again, keeping my gaze on his. “You’re mine now.”

My breath hitched, lodging in my throat, and I nodded, my voice lost to me as I stared into his eyes and their wicked promise of things to come.

He brought his mouth to my ear again, his lips brushing it as he said, “Skinny dipping sounds good. Let’s do that.”

“Now?” My eyes widened. “It’s freezing out there and we’re in the middle of a celebration for us… which means we should probably be here.”

He shrugged. “We’ll shift and run to the lake. It’ll warm us up. And believe me, no one will care if we slip away. They’re probably all expecting it.”

My heart pounded, accelerating at the thought of Lucas chasing me through the dark forest in his wolf form. Instinct howled at me to agree, to make him chase me and fight to catch me. To make him work to win me.

Make him hunt me.

I nodded, and before I had come to my senses, still lost in that fantasy of running with him, he had me on my feet and was pulling me away with him.

The two packs jeered as they spotted us making a beeline for the exit. I glanced back at my parents, my gut twisting at the thought of leaving without saying goodbye to them, but I caught sight of their smiling faces. They waved me on, and I smiled shakily back at them before Lucas tugged me out into the crisp night.

I needed to say my farewells to Everlee, and Chase and Morden.

Lucas released my arm and pulled his shirt off, making me forget my need to say goodbye to my friends as my wolf howled in response to the delicious sight of his carved chest and abs. He toed off his boots and shucked his jeans, and that howl became a growl as I glimpsed all of him.

Only glimpsed.

He shifted into his dark wolf form before I could drink him in, robbing me of the pleasure of gazing upon his perfection.

The sight of him letting his wolf out beckoned me to do the same, instinct driving me to run with him, with my fated mate.

I wanted to take my time stripping, letting him see all of me, but he growled, impatience ringing through it, and it was so cold that I found myself rushing to ditch my shoes and dress, and my underwear.

I shifted the moment I was naked, payback for what he had done to me, and took off towards the nearest lake, the scent of water telling me where it was. It wasn’t a far run through the snowy forest, the distance short enough that it wouldn’t satisfy my need to be chased by Lucas, hunted by him.

My paws flew over the leaf litter, the cold lost on me as I raced through the night, the chill air kissing my fur.

Lucas broke off to my left and my sharp senses tracked him.

Curiosity rolled through me as he came across me, herding me towards my right, making me change course as he brushed against me. He pranced around me, yipping and nipping at my flank. I nipped back at him, nudged and rubbed against him as we ran, and then broke away from him, trying to run back towards the direction I could smell water.

He came up beside me again, loosing a growl this time, a command I felt all the way down to my soul. He wanted me to go somewhere else. I glanced at him, my heightened vision easily making him out despite the pitch darkness. He pointed his snout towards somewhere in the distance.

Towards his home.

Eagerness rolled through me, hunger sweeping me up in it and making me turn towards that direction. My paws pounded the dirt track as I picked it up, one that wound through the forest and was familiar to me.

Lucas nipped at my heels and I ran harder, streaking ahead of him, a thrill bolting down my spine as he gave chase.

My breaths fogged in the air as I put on another burst of speed, increasing the distance between us, and Lucas snarled and redoubled his effort to capture me. He closed the gap, narrowing it down to only a few lengths of my sleek body.

Each leap over a fallen branch, or dance around a tree in my path, heightened my awareness of him and that hunger that was close to shredding my restraint as I imagined him catching me, shifting back and pinning me beneath his powerful body on the ground and taking me.

Lucas used my distraction against me, closing the distance down to nothing and smacking my rump with his head. He nipped with his fangs, the sharp sting of them against my flesh sending heat skittering through my veins. So hot I almost tripped and face-planted into the dirt.

When he tried to nip me again, I dodged, leaping to one side, and he almost hit a tree that came between us.

His eyes flashed with irritation and amusement.

And then he took off past me.

Into a clearing.

I slowed to a trot.

I didn’t recognise this place or the ancient barn that stood in the centre of it.

Lucas didn’t slow until he was at the open door of the towering dark wooden building. He stopped and looked back at me, jerked his head and disappeared inside.

My breaths came faster, my heart pumping harder as I listened and focused my senses, stretching them as far and wide around me as I could manage. I couldn’t sense any movement nearby or hear anything above my heartbeat and rapid breaths.

We were alone.

Excitement coursed through me, making my head a little light as I eased towards the barn. My vision wobbled and I shook my head, clearing it. Heat prickled down my spine, and my limbs tingled. Maybe I should have listened to my mother when she had wanted to tell me what my first heat would be like, because this giddiness wasn’t at all what I had expected.

I trotted into the darkness, shaking off my nerves as the gloom embraced me and my eyes adjusted to it, revealing the enormous open space and a large box covered by a cloth.

Lucas stood near it, snagging my attention as he shifted back. I growled, hunger rushing through me at the sight of him in all his glory. My shift came over me without me even thinking about it, my bones elongating and fur receding as I straightened to my full height.

I stood before him, feeling a little dizzy as his gaze raked over me, scorching a trail down my bare body that made my blood thrum with need.

I had never been so aware of someone’s eyes on me.

He stalked towards me, a predator in human guise, and I bit back a groan that bubbled up my throat as his hungry gaze drank me in and his penis twitched, beginning to grow hard. My body hummed in response to the sight, heat pooling low between my thighs, and I squeezed them slightly, savouring the ache building there.

When he reached me, he ran his hand down my arm and took hold of my hand rather than my wrist. “Come with me.”

I eagerly followed him, my vision shifting again, and I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. This time, the haziness didn’t clear. I tried to focus on Lucas’s bare back, on the delicious globes of his bottom, and how his muscles shifted as he stalked forwards into the gloom. He swept his arm out, and I didn’t notice what he had revealed at first, his body a distraction that held me under its spell.

Until he pulled me forwards again.

My gaze leaped to my right.

A cage.

I took a step back, panic blaring like a warning horn in my mind, and instinct screamed at me to run, that this wasn’t right.

Lucas’s hand locked around my wrist before I could bolt and he yanked me forwards.

The scent of damp earth hit me, but it didn’t cover the other things I could smell. Blood. Urine. My eyes widened as I struggled against Lucas’s cruel grip, leaning away from him, a feeble attempt to gain some leverage and break free. My limbs trembled, turning rubbery as I spotted claw marks on the iron bars of the cage.

My chest tightened painfully.

I kicked at Lucas’s leg, slamming my heel down on it, and he growled and tugged so hard on my arm that I cried out as fire lashed at my shoulder, shooting outwards from the joint.

The look on his face.

I didn’t recognise this dark male before me, who was looking at me as if I was filth as he seized hold of me, pinning my arms between us as I fought him. I wasn’t strong enough. Not in this form.

I tried to shift.

And nothing happened.

That panic morphed to full blown fear, to crippling terror as it hit me that I wasn’t strong enough to escape whatever Lucas had planned for me, that something was wrong with me, inhibiting my ability to shift. My mind reeled, thoughts spinning and colliding.

“Lucas?” I blinked at him, at the cage, my eyes leaping between them as he manhandled me towards it. I managed to twist my hands around and pressed them to his bare chest. “Lucas… stop. I don’t know what this is, but I don’t like it. Please. Let’s go back to the celebration.”

He didn’t react.

Was he even listening to me?

His glacial blue eyes remained fixed on the cage, his face etched with grim purpose as he dragged me towards it.

Something in me snapped.

I twisted my head and bit down on his arm, sinking short fangs into it and gagging as blood flooded my mouth.

“Bitch.” Lucas released me and staggered back, his eyes darting to his bleeding arm.

The sight of it startled me too. My wolf side howled in rage and agony at the sight of my fated mate injured, even when I had been the one to inflict the wound. What had I done?

Before I could shut down my instincts and run, Lucas backhanded me, striking me hard across my temple, and my vision swam with stars. I sank to my knees, gripping the dirt with both hands as darkness loomed, threatening to pull me under. Bile rose up my throat.

Lucas seized me and dragged me across the floor, and hurled me into the cage before I could recover and fight him again. I grunted as I hit the wall of bars on the other side of the cage and fought to shake off the dizziness that was invading every molecule of my body.

The metallic sound of the door slamming closed felt like a death knell.

“Lucas.” I moved as quickly as I could manage to the door, grabbed it and rattled it. It didn’t give. My head spun, my stomach rebelling as a dull throbbing ache spider-webbed across my skull. “Lucas, what is this?”

Lucas acknowledged me at last as he crouched before me, still nude, and reached between the bars to seize my face in a vicious grip.

“Stay awake.” He shook my head so violently I wanted to vomit. When I blinked several times, trying to stave off the dizziness and the looming darkness, he muttered, “I told Braxton the dose was too high.”

Dose?

It hit me that it wasn’t the mating heat making me feel dizzy. It wasn’t the wine either.

Lucas had drugged my drink.

I looked at the lock, cold realisation sinking in. That was the reason I wasn’t strong enough to fight him or break the lock on the cage door. That was the reason I hadn’t been able to shift to my wolf form again.

My fated mate had drugged me.

“Lucas,” I whispered, my voice failing me as I took stock of my situation and realised the only way out of this was to appeal to the one man who looked happy about it.

He looked so much like his father. Cold. Callous. Cruel. Where was the man who had smiled so easily at me, who had been warm and kind to me, charming me into falling for him? Had it all been an act, a mask to conceal the truth of him—that he was as vicious and cold as his father, as seduced by power and with a heart only big enough to love himself?

“Good.” He almost smiled, satisfaction that I wasn’t about to pass out written all over his smug face.

I wasn’t sure why he was so pleased about it, until a female stepped into the room, one I recognised from the party.

“I wanted you to be awake for this moment.” He did smile now, a grin that held no hint of the affection he had shown me over the years. It was as cold and brutal as his next words. “I wouldn’t want you missing me rejecting you.”

I gasped and reeled backwards, that word like a slap in the face.

Rejecting.

“Y-you’re re-re-rejecting me?” I stammered, my ears ringing as I felt as if I was losing my mind. My wolf side howled in agony as fiercely as my heart screamed in pain. “I don’t understand.”

I wasn’t sure I ever would.

I stared at him, struggling to make sense of the world and Lucas now, unable to recognise any shred of the male who had smiled and called me beautiful, who had lifted me up and was now tearing me down in the worst of ways.

“My stupid father made me wait—made me loyal to you—some female I’ve never known and never wanted.” Each word that left his lips was like a knife in my chest, cleaving away another piece of my heart, bringing another memory of him into my mind to shatter together with my reality. “I’ve waited almost half a century for this moment, wasting my maturity. I should have killed the bastard sooner.”

Shock knocked me on my backside. “You killed your own parents?”

Their deaths had been an accident, a fatal error while they had been running in the mountains.

The cold edge to his eyes and the satisfied twist of his lips chilled my blood.

It hadn’t been an accident.

It had been planned, by their own son.

Who was this male before me? Had I ever really known him?

I had been wrong. He wasn’t as cold and cruel as his father. He was worse. So much worse.

I couldn’t bear to look at him as the fragile pieces of my heart broke, as my instincts and my wolf side grieved, and everything I had known shattered before my eyes, revealing bleak reality that I had been blind to, and a future that was going to be far different from everything I had dreamed. The chairs spaced around the barn, all facing the cage, and the grim scent of bodily fluids, told me my future would now be a nightmare.

People gathered here. To watch what?

“Don’t worry. You’ll fetch a nice price. One last big sale. Maybe you’ll even bring in enough to get my pack out of this hellhole.” Lucas reached through the bars and patted my cheek, the action condescending, as if I was just a pet to him now.

An animal he intended to sell at auction.

Just as he had sold others.

Tears welled, even though I fought them back, not wanting him to see how easily he had broken me as dread pooled inside me, so bleak and black that I was sinking into it, drowning as my mind filled with images straight out of a nightmare. My throat closed as numbness swept through me, as some part of me receded into the darkness, curling inwards to protect itself. This wasn’t happening. This was all just some terrible dream. Not reality.

Not reality.

Lucas loved me. He was my fated mate. He loved me.

No matter how many times I told myself that, the broken part of me refused to believe it, and something dark stirred within me in response, held back and muted by the drugs that blurred my vision and stole strength from my limbs.

“But we’re fated.” My words were weak even to my own ears, a foolish and desperate attempt to make him change his mind or maybe to make him wake up and realise what he was doing.

Part of me wanted to tell him this wasn’t funny, that he had taken this joke too far—the part of me that couldn’t comprehend that he was serious, that he was rejecting me, and that the love he had shown me was a lie.

“We’re fated,” I whispered, my voice strained as my brow furrowed and my throat closed. Tears streamed down my face. “We’re destined for each other. I’m meant to be your mate.”

“Fuck fate. I don’t want a mate.” He scoffed and pushed to his feet, coming to tower over me. “I reject you, Saphira Harper. You are not my mate and you never will be.”

Something inside me broke and I screamed out the pain, the fiery agony that had that scream coming out as a howl as my wolf side pushed to the surface, as instinct tore me apart.

He bent down and for a moment, I thought he would open the cage, but instead he seized my arm and ripped the bracelet from it. “You won’t be needing this anymore. Not where you’re going. It’s not like you’ll be travelling much. You’ll be lucky if you even leave the bed of whoever buys you.”

Bile rose again but I swallowed it, refusing to let Lucas see my terror as that dark, malevolent thing buried deep in the layers of numbness bared fangs at him.

“You can keep this though.” He tapped the pendant he had given me.

A token of his love.

A lie.

I wanted to rip it off, but I didn’t have the strength to lift my arms now. I didn’t have the strength to move. Numbing darkness slowly rolled up on me, and I wasn’t sure whether it was the drugs or the pain of rejection, but I welcomed it as Lucas clicked his fingers and the female approached him.

He stood and seized hold of her by her nape and pushed her over, bending her towards me. His eyes held mine as he moved behind her, filled with hatred and anger, and so much heat as he took her. The female moaned and gripped the bars of my cage as he pounded into her.

I tore my gaze away and slumped over, squeezing my eyes shut and pleading with fate to end this, to stop my suffering.

Every thrust my fated mate made into the female broke the ties that bound us a little more, stretching and snapping them, leaving me raw inside, howling in pain and clawing at my bare skin as I sobbed and rocked.

Lucas grunted and stilled, and the last thread twisted and snapped.

The female moaned and something heavy hit the dirt near me. I cracked my eyes open and stared at her as she lay on the ground, breathing heavily, her gaze glazed. Blood smeared on her trembling thighs.

Lucas crouched before me, grabbed my hair and jerked my head up, forcing my eyes to meet his as he smirked.

“Pray the male who buys you treats you half as nicely.”

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I'm sharing a first peek at my next book, Wolf Caged, today... if you haven't added it to your TBR yet, click here to add it to your TBR .

Let's meet the hero...

Chapter 3
Kaeleron

It was a dance I had executed countless times.

I slipped through the shadows, twining with them one moment and releasing them the next as I closed the distance between myself and my prey unseen. The full moon shone down on the frozen forest, glittering on patches of snow, turning them to diamonds beneath my silent feet.

The stench of the hooded males ahead of me strengthened, choking my lungs, pulling a smile onto my lips. It would be so easy, so very easy, to slip among them unnoticed.

To slip a claw across a throat or two.

To watch pandemonium erupt in a flash of fear.

And taste it on my tongue.

My grin stretched wider, the intoxicating urge to unleash on the unwitting shifters, demons, and other breeds who made their way towards the solitary barn almost pulling me under its spell. I tugged back on the reins as my claws emerged, black and sharp.

Now, now.

I flashed jagged teeth at the moon as my shadows faltered and reached a hand towards it, a fistful of claws that closed around the orb.

But I held little sway over it here.

So I wrapped shadows tighter around me and stepped back into the kiss of gloom beneath the trees, savouring their inky welcoming embrace.

There would be no crossing the expanse of open ground between the forest and the barn without someone noticing.

The muttered comments of the males ahead of me revealed this was the right place.

My key was right where Neve had told me it would be.

My grin returned, wider now as I sensed impending victory. No moon could snatch it from me.

“Lucia,” I murmured to the stunning orb, “By thy great goddess’s heart, grant me silence and stealth. Seal shut your eyes. Breathe darkness before me.”

I stretched my hand to the sky again, blotting out the moon, and the earth grew still and the air trembled. The males fell silent, the scent of their fear swirling around me as they stiffened. When I lowered my hand, darkness so thick even I could barely see through it descended around me. I tilted my head back, raising my face to the heavy blanket of night, and slowly smiled as weak pinpricks of light gently bloomed into sparkling waves of stars that coated the sky.

One of the males stepped back, his fear striking me, speaking to me. “No. I am leaving. Nothing is worth this. I suggest you do the same.”

He twisted this way and that, wild eyes scanning the shadows.

Seeking me.

Fae filth.

Traitorous heathen.

Two of the men chuckled, as if the male had lost his mind and was overreacting.

If only they knew.

“He who turns his back on his beloved goddess deserves nothing less than my wrath.” I stroked my claws over the rough bark of the tree beside me, contemplating all the delicious ways I would carve this male up for daring to live beyond the lands of Lucia. Beyond the sphere of his goddess’s grace.

The male swung towards me, golden eyes bright, and his hood fell back to reveal hair as gold.

A hiss ripped from me.

“Seelie,” I snarled.

Recognition flashed across his face and then he was gone, only glittering air remaining where he had been standing.

My claws cleaved deep into the tree.

Foul wretch.

Neve had failed to warn me I would find one of his ilk in my path. For that, the dragon would pay.

The remaining five men hurried towards the barn, granting me silence and stealth.

I stepped out from beneath the tree, and a moment later, I stepped out of the shadows, the pointed tip of my right boot emerging first, cleaving through the darkness like a blade. The shadows slipped away, lovingly clinging as they went, caressing with tendrils that fell away to writhe like snakes across the frozen ground.

At my shoulders, they clasped me tightly, pressing into the plates of my black pauldrons to form a cloak behind me.

A sigh escaped my lips as I tilted my head towards the night again, as endless starlight seared my eyes and bathed my skin. I breathed it in, savouring the calm as my claws retracted and the earth stilled again, time seemingly suspended around me. But my mind continued to race, my thoughts drawn to the barn, to what awaited within it.

What form would my revenge take?

A flicker of excitement dared to dance in my veins, tempered by ironclad calm.

Patience.

I had waited too long for this to rush now. Such a tactic had not worked in the past and was the reason I was here now. I could not risk war, and war is what I would have if I disobeyed my high king.

My revenge needed to be swift and silent.

And merciless.

To do that and not break the pact between my breed and the seelie, I needed to find a more subtle approach. Success must be assured before I made my move or the high king’s retribution would be swift and merciless in return.

My seer had foreseen that silent vengeance could be mine, without consequence, as long as I possessed the key. Without the key, I would fail.

For decades, I had waited and watched, had tested the boundaries of the pact and learned patience, tethered to my kingdom and my sanity by her vision, awaiting the next one that would bring me the information I needed to secure my key.

Each night I had asked Neve what she had seen.

And each night she had told me the same thing.

My key would take the shape of a babe with an animal’s heart.

It had not made sense until close to ten years ago when Neve had experienced a clearer vision.

It was a wolf with a human heart.

A shifter.

My eyes slipped shut and I drew in a breath, drawing in the night and power with it. Strength to remain patient, to remain still and calm, in control as I neared my vengeance.

I had searched my kingdom, and then beyond its boundaries, and when Neve had a vision that the wolf was female, I had searched even harder. Every clue she had given me, I had used. Landscape. Buildings. Even faces. I had scoured fae towns and far-flung places, beginning to feel as if my vengeance would slip through my fingers forever.

Until that fateful day when she had awoken me with a roar that had shaken my castle.

Phantom cold sweat rolled down my spine beneath my onyx armour, my heart galloping as it had that morning when I had run to her, when she had told me the wolf would die if I did not act now. That I had to secure my future now. She had been pale, shaking, her eyes glazed as the vision held her captive, as she had frantically babbled what she had seen, details that had finally led me to this place.

I stalked towards the dark wooden barn, a wraith in the night, my senses on high alert, pinpointing the five males who had remained, and three others within the building. One heartbeat was more frantic than excited and I singled it out, unsure what to expect as I wrapped concealing shadows around me and entered the auction house.

The males gathered before me, huddled around a velvet-covered cage, obscuring it. Snarls and growls emanated from it, interspersed with flesh and bone striking iron. The scent of fear was strong in the room as I made my way to a vacant seat and I held my curiosity at bay as I casually relaxed into it, allowing my shadows to fall enough that others might see me.

But not the occupant of the iron cage.

The blond male who reeked of wolf glanced my way and then back again, a wary look crossing his face. He leaned back and to his left, and glanced at the other wolf, this one a larger, dark-haired male I supposed was meant to be intimidating.

I inspected my nails.

Neither male were a threat to me.

Little in this world was.

Magic rose within me, tendrils of it spreading outwards, leaping in jagged motions towards the cage, unseen by the uncouth males.

And met with a powerful ward.

I held the ringleader’s gaze. He feared someone would snatch his prize and make off with it before they parted with their gold. The occupant of the cage rallied and attacked again, rattling it. Or he feared she might escape and he would meet with her fangs.

The spell also rendered her struggles useless.

Even I would need more time than she had to unravel the ward and break out of such an infernal cage.

Yet she continued to try, banging against the bars and snarling.

Admirable.

“Everyone, take your seats.” The blond clapped his hands and the males broke apart and filtered away into the shadows, each taking a seat and leaving several empty between them.

The largest gap remained between myself and what appeared to be a vampire. At least I smelled blood on him. No trace of red in his eyes as he glanced at me several times, revealing his nerves.

I kept my expression bored as I studied my opponents, adding more details to my mental catalogue of them, discerning their breeds and strength, in case one of them decided not to take defeat lying down.

Spotlights fell on the cage, all very dramatic and apparently impressive to the eager males who leaned forwards in their seats. A murmur of anticipation ran through the room, but I remained where I was, still and calm, revealing an unaffected fae king who had seen this kind of thing countless times in my long life, even when it was new to me.

That mask almost slipped as someone pulled on the thick rope attached to the velvet cloth and it lifted to reveal my prize.

My blood thrummed as my eyes landed on the frantic little female and I found myself leaning forwards, pulled towards her as she bashed the cage with her fists and snarled, flashing fangs at the males groping her bare curves with their lustful eyes.

And when she lifted her head, chin tipping up in defiance…

By the Great Mother, the sight of her hit me like a punch in the chest.

This was no mere wolf shifter.

She was beyond beautiful, and had I not known her breed, I could easily have believed she was fae, with her long silver hair and unearthly blue eyes.

I could not tear my gaze from her, but I somehow managed to conceal my shock, carefully schooling my expression into one of indifference as my shadows kept her blind to me.

Her bare breasts swung as she pivoted on a male who had dared to stand and flashed her fangs, hatred burning in her eyes. Such ferocity. Such beauty. Such defiance even when she was on her knees, the cage too small to allow her to stand.

She roused my body and captured my attention as no other had before.

I hid my grimace as I eased back into my seat and lifted one leg to rest my ankle on my knee, concealing her effect on me so the other males would not see it.

Her vicious gaze snapped to me, as if she could see me through the cloak of shadows, the feel of her eyes on me a danger I had not been prepared to face. It threatened to rip at my control. I clamped down on my unruly desires, chaining them and shattering them, and coolly stared at her, revealing nothing to the males now watching me.

Not a shred of interest.

I was not here for what they were.

This female was not destined to warm my bed.

She was a tool, a key that would unlock my vengeance.

And that was all.

She continued to peer at me, the stillest she had been since I had entered the room, but that quiet fierceness remained, bewitching me. I had never imagined such a delicate creature could be so ferocious. So fae like. That glow in her eyes spoke of terrible thoughts.

Dark desires.

If I were to unlock her cage, I had no doubt that she would rip out the throat of the other wolf with her fangs and then she would turn on everyone else.

Even me.

“One hundred thousand.” The possible-vampire raised his hand, gaining the attention of the ringleader of this auction, his bodyguard and the female in the cage.

A paltry sum for what this despicable wolf was selling—the virginity of such a charming creature.

“One fifty.” This from the male who had kept his hood up, concealing his face. He carried the scent of magic.

“Two.” The vampire apparently did not want to be outdone.

“Four hundred thousand.” A third bidder made things interesting, gaining the attention of the other two and a sour look from both.

Was it not the done thing to double the bid so quickly?

I was not sure of the etiquette involved. I had imagined that the point was to win the bid, not play a game of chase.

The fourth male, this one definitely another shifter judging by his scent and the claws he was digging into the wooden arms of his chair, barked, “Five.”

“Six.” The fifth male glared at him. A demon. His horns grew, curling around from behind his pointed ears, a sign of aggression in his breed.

One to watch.

Demons were notoriously stubborn and did not like losing.

I knew that from experience.

“Seven fifty.” The bloodsucker had found his voice again, much to the sickening glee of the ringleader wolf, who looked as if he might drool at any moment.

What poor breeding.

I checked my nails again, inspecting the rounded clear tips that concealed any hint of what I was, and sensed the ringleader staring my way. I lifted bored eyes to meet his. He wanted me to bid too. I would. When the time was right. Now was not the time. Things were only just getting interesting.

How much would they pay to secure the female?

“Eight.” The demon looked ready to snap fangs at anyone who went higher and grinned at the little wolf in the cage, his gaze filled with hunger as if she was already his and he was already planning the ways he would take her.

The female snarled at him, flashing fangs as she bristled.

Perhaps it was the thought of breaking her that had so many of the males willing to pay so much for her.

“Nine,” the vampire put in.

Just as the magic user said, “A million.”

Everyone glared at him.

Except me. I was too busy watching the female as she stilled, as her skin paled and her striking eyes widened, as if the reality of her situation had just hit her and only now was she aware that this was happening. One of her own kind was selling her to slavering males with wicked intentions.

Her shock was fleeting, quickly morphing back into rage as the vampire countered, and the demon followed suit, and her price rose to close to one point five million dollars.

“One point nine.” The vampire shirked all civility, jumping the price up by half a million, much to the irritation of two other males.

The ringleader looked to the three no longer bidding. All shook their heads.

“Two million,” the demon growled.

The blond wolf male almost grinned, satisfaction flickering in his eyes as he lowered them to the female.

She spat in his direction.

“Two point two.” The vampire would not be outdone.

“Two five.” The demon proved him wrong.

I waited, watching the two males as they engaged in a silent battle. Would the vampire bid again?

His now-crimson gaze shifted to the cage and I could almost sense the moment he decided she was not worth the outlay.

Which was my signal.

I lazily raised my right hand, snaring everyone’s attention, because the vampire and demon were not the only ones unwilling to let another win her.

“One million,” I drawled, my bid met with laughter from some and a muttered comment from the demon that questioned my intelligence as the bid had already surpassed that figure, and calmly finished, “gold coins.”

The room hushed.

Incredulous stares all aimed at me.

Even the female fell silent halfway through a particularly vicious series of growls and snarls.

“That has to be worth a hundred million dollars at least,” the vampire said, his gaze questioning my sanity as much as the demon had questioned my intellect.

The magic user lifted a hand, and a skinny male dressed in tight-fitting black clothing appeared behind him.

The servant dutifully bent towards his master.

“Who is he? He was not on your list.” Displeasure rang in the master’s voice, threaded with an unspoken spell that had the servant twitching as he struggled to answer.

“I do not know. My deepest apologies for my failure, my grace.” The servant was a spymaster then.

Perhaps I should have employed my own spymaster to investigate the auction and the attendees, but then it would have alerted my sister to my intentions and nothing good could have come from that.

The bodyguard showed something in his palm to the ringleader. I presumed it revealed the dollar equivalent of my bid judging by his reaction.

“Sold!” The disgusting wolf’s eyes lit up, so grossly eager to take my coin.

Perhaps I would kill him once I had secured my prize.

I lowered my gaze to that prize.

She sat in the centre of her cage, peering in my direction, squinting to see through the glare of the harsh spotlight, as if it would allow her gaze to pierce the shadows.

Fear radiated from her, but it was tinged with the curiosity that glimmered in her eyes as she tried to glimpse me.

And then the bodyguard hit her in the back with a feathered dart.

She flinched and her luminous eyes widened, edging towards her shoulder. Before she could even spy the dart, she swayed and slumped, hitting the ground hard, out cold.

I barely held back the snarl that rose up my throat, and the claws that wanted to punch from the tips of my fingers. The urge to let them out, to give in to the darkness and rip apart the male for treating her with so little respect, was strong.

I wanted him to bleed. To beg for mercy.

Just as I wanted to utterly destroy those males who dared to approach me as I stood, vilely offering coin in exchange for time with the wolf female once I had claimed my prize—her virginity.

I stared them all down, silencing them with only a look as I straightened to my full height. Impudent wretches.

I stalked to the cage, gaze fixed on the unconscious female in the centre of it, and summoned the chests I had prepared, pulling them to me through the void.

They slammed down with a rattle of coins between myself and the blond wolf as he thought to approach me, forming a wall between us and halting him in his tracks.

“If you’re ever in the market for another, you know where to find me,” he said, already flipping the lid of one wooden chest open to inspect his fortune.

“This one will suffice.” I kept my tone emotionless and measured as I held his gaze and reached for the cage door.

The iron was cold beneath my touch, the ward fighting me as I reached into it, pouring my shadows down the corridors between each word of it, but it surrendered easily enough. I yanked the door open in one brutal movement, shattering the hinges and the lock, and tossed it away from me, savouring the startled gasp of the male wolf.

My shadows tore it to shreds and the wolf swallowed as he watched them destroy it before his gaze shakily met mine again.

I grinned, flashing my jagged fangs as my darker side rose to the fore. “But yes, I know where to find you.”

I reached into the cage with clawed, black-tipped fingers.

And took what was now mine.


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