Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“What if I don’t want to stay down here?”
Cain lets out a languid yawn. “It would be best.”
I sit up, looking down at his handsome face. “And what if I want to leave anyway.”
“Stay down here for the moment, Kira.”
I see what is happening here. He has just finished telling me how he’s not worried about controlling me, he’s not afraid of my Russian blood. He’s not like the other pack members, etc., etc., but he is now confining me to the dungeons. I might still be his mate, but I am also his prisoner.
“What about Abel and Isabella?”
“What about them?”
“Look what they did to me. They drugged me. They tied me up.”
“They were overzealous,” he admits. “But the position you were in was an interrogation one. If you were a spy, it would be appropriate treatment.”
“I’m not a spy.”
“Sure. But they didn’t know that.”
“Isabella tried to tell you I’ve been recording you with that stupid pen!”
At the mention of the pen, his expression closes. I thought he was on my side, but suddenly I’m not so sure he actually believes me at all. There are doubts in his mind about me. He might say he loves me, but he’s treating me exactly the same way he’d probably treat a spy.
“It’s just for a few days,” he says. “Until we can get more information and things settle down.”
“What if I don’t settle down?”
He sits up next to me, wraps a hand around the back of my head, and kisses me firmly, obviously trying to drive all thoughts out of my head. It doesn’t work. I taste him. I feel him. I love him. But he doesn’t trust me, and that is in his kiss, too.
“I know how to handle unruly young wolves,” he says when he breaks the kiss. “And you are falling firmly into that category.”
“I thought I was your mate. I thought I was supposed to be the alpha female she-wolf of this pack. Here I am in a dungeon.”
“Don’t pout,” he says. “This is not because you have done anything wrong. It is because I must be seen to have done everything right. We will get to the bottom of this soon enough. You need to be patient.”
I don’t want to be patient. I was a prisoner, thanks to my aunt’s machinations, and now I’m a prisoner thanks to his. Fuck this. Fuck everything about this. I feel the darkness in me starting to rise. I feel a lifetime of being treated like I should be grateful to be allowed to draw breath coming to a head.
But I don’t argue with him. I force a smile, and I make all appearances of acquiescing.
He’ll regret this. They’ll all regret this.
CHAPTER 14
Kira
I am kept in the dungeons for several days. Each and every one of the days adds to the silent, seething anger I am holding inside myself. I am not being treated like a mate. I am being treated like a criminal. The difference between this place and the county jail in St. Infernus is the fact that nobody brings me takeaway here. Rude.
Cain comes to visit me every day and to assure me that things are proceeding. Investigations are underway. The pack is being consulted. On and on the excuses roll. Every day I find it harder to keep sweet and pretend that I am not on the verge of taking my animal form and hurling myself at his handsome throat.
He has just arrived on this particular day when all hell breaks out.
“You can’t do this!”
I could have said that myself, but it’s not my complaint. It’s a familiar voice coming from another cell. It’s loud, a shout of outrage, and it makes me freeze in place.
“Is that Colton? Why is he here?”
“I am hosting your family. Bardo located them, and I decided now would be a good time to see if they have any information about the White Wolf.”
It doesn’t sound like a hosting situation. It sounds like Colton is angry and afraid. It sounds like an interrogation. I never thought I’d feel sorry for my cousin, but right now, we are sharing a predicament, and I feel kinship in that.
A second later, I hear the unmistakable sound of wolves fighting. There is snarling and yelping. Cain leaves the room in a flash, the door locking behind him. I know that because when I rush forward to open it, the handle won’t work. I try it every time, but there’s no way out. These dungeons are made of actual dungeon. Big underground rocky walls and heavy metal doors. They’ve been modernized slightly with electricity and cameras, but at their core, they are terrifying subterranean cells, and they make me yearn for fresh air and freedom.
There is a brief increase in intensity in the yowling and thumping, as if the fight has worsened. Then it all suddenly stops. I hear footsteps out in the hall, and the door to my cell opens again.