Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Before the door could open any further, Lash pressed his pointer finger to my lips, his sharp-as-steel gaze warning me, “Keep your mouth shut.”
No kidding.
He was delusional if he thought I’d talk about our dream.
Nelissa could skewer me with those claws of hers all day if she wanted, but that was one secret I was taking with me to the grave.
That must have been how Sophia felt.
The realization hit me in a flash. No wonder she hadn’t told me what she’d been going through. She must have been carrying this same sense of confusion and shame around for weeks. Maybe months.
Poor thing. It must have been unbearable.
But if Sophia had succeeded in keeping her shit together for months, then surely I could manage it for the next couple of hours.
Lash waited until I nodded in understanding. Then he pushed himself back across the narrow cave, resting his shoulders casually against the wall.
In a snap, his whole demeanor changed. With his arms loosely crossed and his legs folded beneath him, he looked relaxed. Utterly unbothered—by me, by the deafening sound of stone grating against stone, by the blinding light flooding the dark space.
By all of it.
Even his expression changed. I can’t say it softened. With features as stark and hard as Lash’s, that’s one word I’d never use to describe him, but the worst of the hardness faded away.
“There you are, Lash.” Nelissa’s voice echoed through the cave once the door had been fully rolled back.
Her face and form were obscured by the bright sun behind her, but the displeasure in her voice was loud and clear.
“I almost didn’t believe Silvan when he said you insisted on spending the night inside the hold with the kirre. ”
“I wanted to make sure she was still alive when you arrived.” He lifted his hand, showing the leather strap that still bound us together as proof. Despite his casual attitude, I still felt the underlying buzz of tension racing along the cord.
“Yet another considerate act,” Nelissa mused, sounding even more skeptical than the night before. “It appears you’ve returned to us a changed alpha.”
Lash let out a long, breathy sigh. The conversation was only three sentences deep, and he already sounded bored with it.
“Not really,” he said. “I just know better than to underestimate this kirre. She’s craftier than she looks. You should understand that better than anyone, Lykaon.”
By this point, my eyes had adjusted to the bright sunlight, so I was able to catch Nelissa’s shoulders pulling back sharply in response to Lash’s comment. Hell, the temperature in the whole cave seemed to plummet as her body stiffened.
Damn. He’d really hit a nerve.
I wonder what that’s about.
The strained silence lasted another couple of seconds. Then Nelissa smiled.
“Now that sounds more like the Lash we all know,” she said, before stepping back from the hold. “Bring out the prisoner.”
Lash’s pitch-black eyes flashed one more silent warning my way before tugging at my leash.
My legs, cramped and sore from being tucked in tight all night, protested at the sudden movement. But that discomfort was nothing compared to the stabbing pain of the revolver jabbing into the cracked and broken skin around my ankle.
Once outside, I struggled to stand, flinching so hard at the sting of unforgiving metal digging into raw flesh that Lash’s jacket fell from my shoulders.
Without thinking, he bent over, ready to lift it off the ground and drape it back over me, but Nelissa stopped him.
“No,” she barked. “Leave her like that. I want you both to see just how pathetic these kirre women actually are.”
Standing in the cold mist of the redwood morning, with only a thin bra covering my breasts, goosebumps instantly sprang up over my belly and arms. Even though I was only shirtless and wearing more than I typically did during a day at the beach, I’d never felt more exposed in my life.
Nelissa sneered at the sight of the large, dark bruises dotting my arms and chest. The ones I’d picked up during my tumble down the hillside. Interspersed among them were a network of scrapes and scratches, some of them minor and shallow, and others still open and weeping.
“Look at her—weak and disgustingly frail,” she continued, scorn dripping from every word as she turned toward the alphas.
“This is what one of these rats looks like after just one night in the Wilds. She’s barely strong enough to hold herself upright.
Yet Calindra and our enemies believe that their pitiful blood is worthy of being mixed with ours.
I shudder to think of the generation of cowardly mutts her kind would whelp. ”
“For fuck’s sake!” I snapped. “Please, do me a favor, and just kill me already. I’d rather be dead than listen to another second of your bullshit.”
Oh, she didn’t like that.
Nelissa’s eyes blazed with furious fire as her long, perfect fingers balled into fists at her side. The edges of her mouth pulled down in a grotesque mask of a scowl. Just like any bully, she liked being the one hurling the insults, but couldn’t take being on the receiving end for even a second.
“How dare you?” she growled, lifting her hands so I could watch her sharp claws sliding out. “Just for that, I’m going to slice off your tongue.”
“Before the interrogation?” I laughed. “I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, lady, but you might want to rethink that order of operations.”
Nelissa seethed. Her shining eyes narrowed, and her glassy pale skin flushed red. I watched as rage filled her up from top to bottom, straightening her back and stiffening her shoulders.
For a second, she didn’t say a thing; she simply seethed. Then, like a coiled spring, she popped, lunging toward me, arm raised high, and ready to slash a deadly backhand across my throat.
But a split second before she could land the blow, Lash yanked the tether around my wrists, snapping me toward him. I crashed into his side just in time to feel the wind from Nelissa’s swipe brush past my cheek.
Damn, that was close.
But I wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Before I could blink, Lash wrapped his free hand around my neck. Power pulsed through his long fingers. One squeeze and he’d turn my spine into dust.
But he didn’t do it.
Instead, he stared down at me. Eyes burning with dark fire and lips curled back in a snarl, his face was a savage mask reminding me of the silent warning he’d given just moments ago.
Keep your mouth shut.
Apparently, that shushing finger across my lips had been for more than talk of dreams.
Well, that was too damn bad. He wanted complete silence, and I wanted to be back in SoCal, sipping an iced pistachio latte on the Santa Monica pier. It seemed like neither one of us would be getting what we wanted.
“Lash!” Nelissa’s frustrated screech cut through the air like a dagger.
The alpha’s eyes stayed locked with mine as he spat out a reply. “What?”
“That’s the second time you’ve denied me the pleasure of spilling this maggot’s blood.” Her angelic voice shook with rage. “Explain yourself.”
“It isn’t my intention to deny you anything, Lykaon.” His words might have been conciliatory, but his tone definitely was not. It was as sharp and hard as ever…and undeniably directed toward me. “But this kirre must learn that words have consequences.”
“A lesson she will learn while she watches her blood seep into the ground,” Nelissa hissed. “Now tie her to that tree.”
I couldn’t break my gaze away from Lash’s to see which towering trunk she was pointing at. Even in the face of imminent death, his eyes were too magnetic. Too intense. They held me fast—tighter and stronger than his powerful hands ever could.
I was so spellbound by the sight that it took me a few more silent seconds to realize that Lash was staring at me the same way. His expressive black eyes didn’t blink. They didn’t flicker. Every ounce of his overwhelming attention was glued to my face.
“Lash,” Nelissa prodded him, realizing he still hadn’t moved. “Lash!”
His only answer was a deep, resounding growl that shook the air around us.
Nelissa muttered a curse before snapping at the other alpha. “Silvan, take the girl, and secure her. Lash, go back to camp and wait in my tent. I’ll deal with your defiance after I’m done with the kirre.”
Silvan stepped forward, ready to carry out the woman’s orders, but Lash didn’t move. Not even an inch. His eyes didn’t slide to the side. His hand didn’t fall away from my throat. For the moment, he stayed as still and unmovable as the stony cliffside behind us.
“Brother,” Silvan tried, his tone careful.
No doubt, the other alpha could sense the promise of violence radiating out from Lash’s tightly coiled muscles.
Like anyone with half a brain, he was hoping not to become the target of his rage.
“I get it. You want to kill the kirre yourself. I don’t blame you, but you need to listen to reason. ”
“Back off, Silvan,” Lash snarled. “You’re not my brother, and you don’t get a damned thing.”
The second alpha stopped short for a split-second, offense registering as a grimace on his weathered face. A second later, his conciliatory tone was gone.
“I know all I need to, you insufferable bastard,” Silvan spat. “Nelissa ordered you to stand down. Now do it, or I’ll not only rip this little bitch’s throat out; I’ll tear yours out as well.”
Lash’s growl grew louder. The sound was so terrifying that even Nelissa shuffled back a step.
“Touch her, and it will be the last thing you ever do,” Lash warned.
I couldn’t help but wince at the ferocity dripping from his tongue. Was he actually protecting me?
No.
He couldn’t be.
That would be ridiculous.
Lash was a ferus. An alpha. My kidnapper.
The man who had marched me through the forest until I’d collapsed from exhaustion.
There was no way that one dream could have changed the way he viewed me so completely. Could it?
“Oh, for Fates’ sake,” Nelissa cursed. “Silvan, just grab the damned kirre already.”