Page 15 of Bosse
“I trust no one.” His words came out dead and unyielding.
Her heart plunged at his brutal declaration. “I understand why you would not, but we both want to escape this place. You can’t do it alone. Eat the rest of the meat as soon as they are distracted by pulling me out.” To end any further conversation, she stood and called out, “Guards!”
The card game stopped amidst curses.
She whispered, “Lay back down like you’re unconscious.”
“Why?”
“Seriously? Just. Lay. Down.” She put a growl into her words.
He smirked and relaxed his body, turning his back to her again.
The bigger guard who carried the woman upstairs came over. “What are you doing in there?”
She now stood near the cage exit and let her voice tremble. A tear escaped to run down her cheek. She sounded pitiful and tiny when she said, “That other guard made me come in here. The wolf never woke up. I don’t know how to fix his cuts and bruises.”
She caught her breath but couldn’t risk turning around to be sure Bosse looked asleep. She begged, “Please let me out. Please. I have more tasks to do.”
He cursed and unlocked the cage, then shut it quickly once she was out, relocking it behind her.
Sniffling, she hurried past the next cage, where Beast growled and slammed the bars.
Wasn’t he asleep? Had he heard her words?
The spell should have muffled her conversation with Bosse. Plus, she’d never heard of Beast speaking. She ran to the steps and rushed up to the main floor where she paused.
Behind her, Cyrano asked where the hell she had come from.
The guard who had let her out of Bosse’s cage replied, “She said you made her go into the wolf’s cage.”
“The hell I did.”
“Then how could she have been in there? Only you and I have the key right now. I was gone carrying that other sack of sniveling crap upstairs.”
She waited to see if either guard figured out what had happened.
Cyrano ordered in a low voice, “Do not mention this to Krol. I don’t know how she got in there, but you were here, too. Keep it between us.”
“Agreed.”
She let out a breath of relief. Now, if she could only make sure that wolf shifter won tonight’s second battle, but she did not have that kind of power. She’d had a dream of him helping her save Rez, the leader of her people as well as her mother’s best friend since childhood.
Once Alifair’s mother died, Rez became a ruling tyrant around her. None of the clan realized what they had asked of her mother and now expected her to do, but Rez should have. She had to have known what Alifair had lost and the mourning she’d gone through.
Alifair would find the clan’s leader and return her to the clan, but she would not accept criticism from Rez again.
Rescuing Rez was the whole reason Alifair had allowed herself to be captured. One dream after another had pointed to this castle as Rez’s location. Once Alifair was captured and became another servant, she realized Krol had to be the one who kidnapped Rez or paid for her capture when Alifair and Rez were separated in Romania while visiting families of their clan.
Rez might be nothing more than someone special to add to his menagerie of unusual beings. But where had he hidden her in this castle? No dream had answered that question yet.
Thankfully, Krol had no idea that Alifair possessed any abilities.
If Bosse died tonight or even ended up injured too severely to heal quickly, she’d fail at the sole reason for being in this hideous situation. She’d also be destroyed at watching Bosse die, which surprised her. He was not the mindless animal attacking everything she’d been taught to fear. He hadn’t said thank you for the food and cookies, but he’d wanted to punish the guard who had hit her.
The last time she felt safe was when she’d been protected as a child.
Men who had shown an interest in her would never have put themselves in harm’s way to protect her.
