Page 1 of Caged Love

Prologue

A smile falls from my lips when my eyes land on August.

My fated mate.

My enemy.

What is he doing here?

He’s a handsome fae warrior, built exactly to my tastes, with curly brown hair, warm chocolate-brown eyes, and a smile that could bring a woman to her knees. Unfortunately for us, the fates set us up for failure.

I glance around, wondering if he’s alone. Is he going to try and take me captive again?

When Saylor let me out of my prison slash bedroom, I returned directly to our compound two hours north of Chaos, the capital of the Incubus Kingdom.

“Can we talk?” he asks, sliding his hands into his pants pockets.

My eyes roam over his round ears—unlike the pointed ones of the highborn fae—and I’m reminded that my mate is a common fae. He might not be as powerful magically as some, but I can feel a strength within him.

He’s not a bad male—I know that—but it makes everything harder, especially when he never once hurt me while he had me, always making sure I ate and had everything I wanted.

Everything except my freedom.

He had tried to talk to me, to get to know me. But how do you look your enemy in the eye and give him a piece of you? The person who helped murder my father.

Is he the one who did it? How did he die? What were his last words? These are all the questions I don’t have any answers to. All I know is that Declan, the man who raised me alone, the first person who loved me, is gone.

I’ve always been Daddy’s little girl. My father loved and protected me my entire life, and I’m lost without him.

He was my anchor, and now I’m afloat in a tide of sorrow.

That type of grief doesn’t just go away. No, it clings to your soul and tries to drag you down with it.

I might not have had the perfect upbringing, I might have come second to his ambitions to take down the royal line, and maybe even raised to be married as a bargaining chip, but I never once felt like I wasn’t loved by him.

“As long as you don’t try to kidnap me and lock me up again,” I reply, scowling.

“I won’t,” he promises, his eyes flickering with…regret?

“Okay,” I agree, leaving the inn with him to step outside. I know what I must do, but that doesn’t mean I want to do it. This is my fated mate and the only one I’ll get. He is the male who will amplify my magic, making me even more powerful.

“I want to say I’m sorry,” he starts, shifting on his feet. My long hair blows in the wind and tangles around his arms.. My whole body wants him—the draw to him is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

“Me too,” I reply, swallowing hard.

Pulling the needle out of my pocket, I stab him in the shoulder. It wasn’t meant to be him we were taking today, but since the option has presented itself, I’d be a fool to let him leave. Besides, this saves Astrid from this fate, the captive we had originally planned on taking.

I stare at him as he falls to his knees. In another realm, he’d be doing that for a different reason.

“You shouldn’t have come looking for me, August.”

“Milana…”

I can’t look him in the eye. It hurts.

I zip him away into the dungeons, locking the heavy metal cell door while he watches. The loud creak is uncomfortable, but not as much as the thought of leaving my mate down here.

“Let’s see how you like it…mate,” I whisper, swallowing hard. “Welcome to what’s left of the rebellion.”

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