44. Chapter Forty-Four
~Felix~
Tarron hadn’t been kidding when he said my new cell would be harder to break out of than the previous one. Not that the other one had been particularly easy either; without Evalina’s help, I never would have found a way out on my own. But this time, he had me brought into his own bedroom, a spacious, vaulted space with display cabinets lining each wall and a massive bed with intricately carved posts that took up most of the centre of the room. Next to it sat a cage lined with silver, where the fae guards who grunted and groaned the whole way dumped me when we finally reached our destination. The faint, acrid tang of the silver burned my nose the moment I hit the floor of the cage.
The men stood guard over me until Tarron returned, no sign of the elf with him. They must have gotten the payment issue sorted out, unfortunately. Entering the room with his head held high, he dismissed the guards so only the two of us remained. Others would be stationed outside the door, I was sure, and the view of the treetops out the window told me we were at least one story up. Escaping out the window wouldn’t be an option, especially if they were filled with that weird fae rubber like the one I bounced off earlier.
First, though, I had to get out of this cage and past Tarron. It seemed like he literally wasn’t going to let me out of his sight.
My stomach growled as I tried to sit up, the silver chains still wrapped around my limbs. The cage had enough space for me to sit but not to stand and they hadn’t provided me with any clothes or a cushion to sit on, nor was there anywhere for me to relieve myself when I needed to.
“Your hospitality could use some work,” I grumbled.
Tarron took a seat at a piece of furniture that looked like a cross between a desk and an easel. Documents were displayed on the top and boxes of items filled the drawers that I got a glimpse of when he opened one of the doors, pulled something out, and closed it again.
“You won’t be staying here for long. You’ll survive, at least as long as I need you to.”
He didn’t even glance at me as he spoke, his tone as cold as the silver in my chains. That chilled me far more than any words spoken in anger would have.
“What do you want with Evalina?” I demanded. My voice cracked on her name despite my effort to control it.
Tarron raised an unimpressed eyebrow in my direction. “I’m doing you a favour by not gagging you. Don’t make me change my mind.”
“What’s the point of dragging me to your room if you’re not going to talk, Tarrass?”
Even with the distance between us, I saw his nostrils flare as I mangled his name. Good , Kai encouraged me, his voice weaker than usual in my head thanks to the silver, but still there. He’s more likely to let things slip when he’s angry. Keep needling him.
“No one ever said werewolves were so annoying,” he muttered as he returned to the papers in front of him.
“Who told you anything about us?”
When he didn’t answer, I kept going.
“In our world, we have fairy tales. Literally. They don’t all have fairies in them. Sometimes they’re kings or queens. Or witches, or trolls, or mermaids. Anything not human, really. Usually, the fairies are really small. Like, fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand tiny. I wonder if that’s a reference to the size of your dick.”
His palm slammed down on the top of his desk. If he were capable of growling, he would have done it then. “Stop. Talking.”
“I would if you would keep up your end of the conversation. It’s not polite to ignore someone when they ask you a question. I just want to get to know you.”
“You want to know who you’re dealing with?” His lips curled into a snarl as he left the desk and went to one of the display cabinets against the wall on the far side of the room and flung open the door. From inside, he pulled out a couple of items, the force in his movements stronger than necessary, betraying his agitation. “This is the last werewolf I met.”
The items clattered onto the floor in front of me and my empty stomach heaved. Two large, white fangs stood out against the dark floor. A paw, preserved like a rabbit’s paw, still had its claws extended. It took a moment to realize what the third item was, but when I did, I had to swallow down my nausea. What looked like a withered, thin scrap of paper was actually a dried piece of skin, displaying the wolf’s mate mark.
I swallowed hard, forcing my expression to stay neutral. No way was I giving him the satisfaction of seeing my disgust. What kind of psychopath went around collecting pieces of other species? When that psychopath had already expressed a strong interest in my mate, it concerned me even more. “What did she do to you?”
“I thought she’d be the one to help me,” he said, stooping down to collect the items again and return them to their case. They’d served their purpose. “Unfortunately, I miscalculated. This time, there won’t be any mistakes.”
“Help you do what?”
“Fulfill my destiny,” was the only answer he gave me, the words dripping with self-importance but ultimately cryptic and unhelpful. “Now, I suggest you shut your mouth unless you want Evalina to end up in another one of my cases.”
He could have threatened my life until he was blue in the face and I wouldn’t have cared but the second he uttered Evalina’s name, I pressed my lips together. He seemed certain she would come for me, but I hoped he was wrong. The portal to their land had been disabled, the elves through the portal on our pack land were obviously bastards, and even if they found another way in, Vaughan would be smarter than to allow Evalina to come back anyway. If someone tried to rescue me, it wouldn’t be her. It couldn’t be.
In the meantime, I’d have to do my best to figure out how to get the hell out of there before I ended up as one more trophy on his wall.