46. Chapter Forty-Six
~Felix~
My stomach rumbled as I sat in Tarron’s cage, time dragging by in excruciating silence. Hours must have passed, but I ignored the ache of hunger gnawing at my insides. No one had offered me food, and even if they did, I couldn’t eat it. Being stuck in the fae world forever while my mate waited for me back in my pack sounded like the worst kind of torture I could imagine. Death by starvation would be preferable, and I wasn’t dying quite yet anyway.
Tarron still hunched over his desk, his quill scratching against a piece of parchment, his face a mask of cold concentration. I studied him from my cage, hoping for a clue to his plans, but the distance and my growing exhaustion kept everything maddeningly out of reach. I also hadn’t gotten any closer to figuring out a way to break out of the cage. Even touching the bars burned my fingers, and the silver chains around my limbs continued to weaken me. I definitely wouldn’t be bursting out through sheer force.
I would need some help and a bit of luck, and with Tarron sitting there keeping guard over me, neither seemed likely.
A sharp knock at the door jolted me upright, hope flickering despite my growing despair. If Tarron got called away and assigned someone else to watch me, I could try to work my charm on that person instead. There had to be some way to talk myself out of this.
However, the man didn’t ask Tarron to leave. He bowed low to his prince, keeping his head down while he delivered his message. “We have her, Your Highness. She went to the pens and collapsed, just as you predicted.”
“Excellent. Her companions?”
“Captured, as you requested.”
“Good. Bring her here.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The man bowed even lower before retreating from the room, and I couldn’t keep silent any longer. “Who’s ‘she’?”
“Who do you think?” came his smug reply.
Cold panic crawled through my veins but I tried to stay calm. He had to be bluffing. There was no way he had Evalina. She wouldn’t have come here. She couldn’t have.
“I knew she worked some kind of magic to break you out of the prison before,” he continued, unable to resist an opportunity to gloat. “I don’t know exactly what her power is, but I placed a spell of my own on the pens. As soon as anyone tried to use magic on it, their power would be sapped. My men were standing guard as a decoy so any potential rescuers would think you were inside. It all worked out exactly as I planned.”
Common sense told me to stay quiet but my heart compelled me to speak. “She wouldn’t have come alone. She probably has an army of werewolves with her.”
“Only six of them, actually,” he sneered. “I have plans for them too, don’t worry.
That couldn’t be right. My Alpha wouldn’t allow my mate to walk into a trap without a backup plan. Tarron had to be missing something, assuming anything he said was true.
I got my first confirmation that he wasn’t completely bluffing ten minutes later, when two men walked into the room with a nearly unconscious Evalina held between them. The growl that burst out of me made the crystals in the chandelier vibrate.
“What did you do to her?”
At the sound of my voice, Evalina’s head jerked weakly, only to slump back down, her body hanging like a broken doll in the guards’ grasp.
Tarron ignored me, speaking to the guards instead. “Put her down over there.”
He gestured towards his bed, drawing another deep growl from my throat. Even in Kai’s weakened state, he could still make his displeasure known.
Still wearing the dress she’d put on at the pack house that morning, what felt like days ago rather than hours, Evalina was placed on the bed in front of me. Her head lolled to the side to face me, and when her eyes cracked open just a sliver, I smiled at her, doing my best to reassure her even in the middle of the undesirable predicament we found ourselves in.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
Her lips twitched, but her eyebrows drew together in concern as she opened her eyes more fully. Her voice came out weakened and rough. “Are you alright?”
How could she be worried about me ? Sure, I was naked and chained in silver in a cage, but she was the one Tarron wanted, for reasons I still didn’t understand. “I’m fine, my little fairy. You shouldn’t have come.”
“I had to. You were taken because of me.”
She tried to sit up, but her arms failed her and she fell back onto the bed with a frustrated grunt. At least the mattress softened her landing, but when Tarron walked over, having dismissed the guards with further instructions, any small comfort I took in that died.
“Chew on this,” he instructed, holding out a glossy, emerald-green leaf that gleamed faintly in the dim light. “It will counteract the effects of the spell.”
“She’s not taking anything from you,” I growled, even as I knew there might be no other choice.
Tarron snorted, his amusement only fueling my anger. “I won’t harm her. If I wanted to kill her, I’ve had thousands of chances over the years. That’s never been what I wanted.”
As much as his words worried and disgusted me, I saw his point. Obviously, he had something else in mind for her, so the remedy he offered her was probably harmless. When Evalina looked to me for guidance, I gave her a nod confirming that I believed it would be safe.
After chewing on the plant for thirty seconds, she sat up fully, her strength returning as quickly as the prince had promised.
“Where are the others?” she demanded of her prince, glancing around the room as if looking for other cages. “Calista and the men, where are they?”
Oh, fuck. Tarron had Calista too? Vaughan was not going to be happy about that. Where the hell was he?
“They’re being held in the pens, but they’re all safe. I have no interest in keeping them here. As long as the two of you cooperate with me, no one has to get hurt.”
That sounded pretty unlikely. He was laying a trap, and I needed to figure it out before we walked right into it.
“Cooperate with you?” I snarled. “What the hell do you want, Tarron?”
Tarron, for once, didn’t brush off the question. Instead, he sat next to Evalina with a calm confidence that set my teeth on edge.
“Let me tell you exactly what’s going to happen next.”