Chapter 21
KAELERON
My claws sliced deep and slow into the bark of the tree I perched in as I watched Saphira attempt to stop the idiot wolf from getting himself killed.
Shadows banded around the thick trunk and burrowed into the earth, anchoring me to it as that vile insidious prick of an alpha dared to threaten her, tightly gripping her nape as he wrenched her to her feet.
Desperation leached from her as she looked between Morden and Braxton, and the fear painted across her face only grew as the bodyguard retaliated, slamming his booted foot into the side of the big black wolf.
Morden’s yelp echoed around the forest, and Saphira’s shrill plea in response was loud enough that it reached me.
Stirring darkness in my veins.
Shadows that whispered and goaded, pushing me to go to her.
The fragile bond between us pulled taut as fear gripped her and she turned on Lucas, saying something to him with desperate hope written plainly across every beautiful line of her face.
Whatever she asked of him, it reached him. The brute backed down and hauled Morden away to the barn.
Saphira remained tense beside Lucas, his hand still holding her nape.
He twisted her towards him and his head dipped.
The brand. It was visible near the strap of her flimsy dress, on display as if she had wanted to show it to the world—or perhaps she had not been given a choice.
I growled low as the wolf dared to touch it and her shoulders stiffened, hiking up towards her neck as she weathered his fingers on her flesh.
I could not bear it as easily as she managed.
To my right and my left, branches snapped as my shadows tightened abruptly at the sight of another male touching her.
Not just any male either.
Her fated mate.
A man she had confessed she had fallen for and had intended to mate with, who had wooed her and tricked her into loving him, blinding her to the truth of him until the night they were to be mated, when he had rejected her.
I slid my crimson gaze to that male as he finally pushed her down into her seat and released her as he took the one beside her. I saw myself sitting there, no better than the wolf who had lied and pretended, who had been playing a game with her to suit his own ends and needs.
A male who was still playing that game with her.
She was quiet and still as she sat beside him, growing withdrawn and distant as the wolf leaned towards her.
Her shoulders went rigid again as he said something, and she tilted her head away from him before she caught herself and shifted her gaze towards him instead.
If I had not known her so well, I might have believed she was happy to be there, seated beside that male who paid so much attention to her and gazed at her with desire.
But rather than the accepting mate and obedient wolf that she was expected to be, I saw the truth of her.
She despised his attention.
She wanted him dead.
But her hands were bound.
By the Great Mother, seeing her like that, all her fire and spirit doused and her shoulders turned inwards, cowed by the male beside her and fear of what he might do to her family, killed me.
When the prick dared to touch her shoulder, his fingers gliding over exposed skin as if he had the right to touch her and do as he pleased with her, I had to dig my claws deeper into the tree to stop myself from exploding from the forest to shatter him.
My breaths came hard, heart pounding like a war drum as I stared at him from the shadows, as I let my imagination run wild with the things I could not do yet.
I would break every bone in his body, starting with those fingers, until his mind cracked and he begged me for death.
Her shoulders hunched as Lucas feathered his fingers lower and said something to her, his lips dangerously close to her cheek. Her sharp intake of breath that betrayed her fear and told me she was bracing herself for what he might dare to do next was too much.
I could not take it.
I would not take it.
And I would not let her take it either.
I dropped from the tree, landing in a silent crouch on the dirt.
I pressed down with my right boot, intending to launch at the bastard.
But then he released her and she looked right at me, as if she could see me despite the vast distance between us and the night shadows that had devoured me.
And subtly—oh-so-subtly—my brave little wolf shook her head, as if she knew the dangerous path of my thoughts and my need to slaughter her fated mate and his entire pack.
Rather than launching from the shadows, I somehow found the strength to ease back into them, wrapping myself in their comforting embrace and watching her.
Watching only her.
She casually inspected the knife beside her that glinted in the firelight as the wolf beside her laughed and raised his glass while another of his pack manhandled a female, one who had been serving him food, kissing her despite her protests and attempts to shove him away.
There was quiet danger in that look on Saphira’s face, a glimmer of satisfaction and hope, a wicked blend of darkness and light as she twisted that knife towards her and reflected light beamed up at her face, gilding it with gold.
And in that moment, I knew she would do it.
She would thrust that blunt blade to the hilt in her mate’s chest given the chance.
And the thought of her bloodying her hands left me cold.
I knew what committing that act would do. That first drop of blood staining her fingers. I knew how it would impact her life forever. Changing her.
Staining her soul.
I could not bear it.
Glittering darkness engulfed me.
When it dissipated, I was standing in the middle of the green, staring down at Saphira as her blue gaze whipped to me.
Every male in the vicinity rocketed to his feet, tipping chairs and knocking tables, and startling the females. The one who had been pawed scurried away, seizing her chance to flee.
The only one who did not move was the alpha.
He affected a wonderful cold and calm air as his gaze slowly shifted to me and narrowed.
As if he were a match for me.
I casually flexed my fingers, subtly drawing his attention to my inch-long black claws that itched to sink into him and slowly carve him to pieces. My shadows writhed around my feet, muted by something in the air. Something that dampened my magic.
A ward.
A trap.
One I was not sure had been set with me in mind.
Great magic had been expended to weave this trap that weakened me, holding my magic from me, and I was not sure I would be able to teleport out of it if I tried.
But I did not care.
Even with my power restricted, this wolf was no match for me.
“What do you want?” Lucas casually toyed with the stem of his wine glass, and I barely held back my grin as I imagined snapping it and burying it like a blade in his throat.
Oh, how the blood would spurt like a fountain from such a wound.
Delicious. Tempting.
Instead of surrendering to that dark desire, I slid my gaze to the left.
To Saphira.
And without a shred of the dark emotions churning inside me coating my voice, said, “I have come to reclaim what I paid for.”
The twinkle in her eyes, a glimmer of fire and relief, and maybe a hint of anger at my arrogance and the interruption, told me she knew what I really meant by those words.
The alpha leaned back in his chair. “She’s no longer yours. She’s to be my mate. I’ll repay you of course or maybe you could take your pick of my other offerings.”
I heard nothing beyond the word ‘mate’.
Shadows poured from beneath my boots as the fragile tether holding my darker emotions at bay snapped, unleashing the rage that poured like molten lava in my veins to burn away any shred of control.
Mate.
Ashy black streamed from my shoulders, forming great wings as talons flickered over my fingers.
I looked at Saphira, seeing in her eyes that the alpha spoke the truth and meant to mate her, and that she had no say in what he intended to do to her. He intended to strip her freedom from her, to force her into servitude, abusing her when he had already done her great harm by rejecting her.
I would die before I allowed it.
And I would take this world with me.
All that was dark, that was violent and cruel within me, rose to the fore as tendrils of night snaked across the ground from me and I stalked towards the alpha, the embodiment of cold and ruthless darkness, of everything the humans feared about my kind.
My skin paled to moonlight, my jagged fangs stinging my blackened lips as I stared him down, as hunger to bathe my onyx claws with his blood howled within me.
I tilted my head up, looking down my nose at him, every bit the arrogant fae king I was expected to be as he dared to take something precious from me.
My shadow wings flared, opening to span the glade, and I kicked off as the need to reach her became too great, as the possessive part of me stole control and demanded I take her back now, before this alpha could steal her from me forever.
I crossed the distance between me and the wolf in an instant as I roared.
“She is mine!”