Page 54 of Alice and Her Shifters (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 2)

But I would miss the men too. So much it broke my heart. It was probably better this way. They had lives to live of their own. So did I, and I was anxious to get back to mine. I took the first step forward. Shouts echoed through the air. Heels clicked on the sidewalk behind me.

“You must be the new Alice,” a woman’s voice said, dripping with honey laced with poison.

I spun around and faced her. Man, she was beautiful. I sucked in a breath, shocked by her beauty and how young she looked. Suddenly it didn’t seem so far-fetched that three men would fall for her tricks. Though I realized looks could be deceiving, she had the deadliest of all.

She was young. If I didn’t know any better, I would say she was in her early twenties at the oldest, but that didn’t sound right. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a bun settled on the top of her head. Ringlets framed her face. She had deep brown eyes that saw more than they let on. Her skin was smooth, supple ivory. And her lips were as bright as the roses that covered the hedges.

She smiled at my appraisal. Then her eyes fell onto my amulet. “Color me surprised. That blasted cat didn’t mislead me… for once.”

I took a step back, watching her every move. It took me half a second longer to realize that she was talking about Milo. My lips parted. He did betray us.

She laughed. “Oh, come now. Just hand over the amulet and this will all be over with. You’ll be home, in bed, like this was all a bad dream.”

“So, Calvin was right,” I said. “Milo betrayed us.”

“Don’t take it too harshly. He’s a Cheshire,” she said. “And indebted to me.”

“So, I keep getting told,” I muttered.

She cocked her head to the side with a questioning glance.

“The Cheshire part. Not the deal part,” I said.

“Well, hand it over,” she said holding a perfectly manicured hand out toward me. “I won’t ask twice.”

I shook my head. “Never.”

She sighed. “Very well.”

She nodded at someone behind me. I turned in time to see Milo wrapping me in another one of his illusions. Black filled my vision. My hands and feet were bound. Someone hoisted me up over their shoulder and started walking.

“I’ll kill you for this,” I muttered. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”

No one responded, which was perfectly fine by me. Milo’s words were worthless to me. I felt so… raw. My heart shattered into fragments and tears burned my eyes.

Minutes later, I was tossed onto something rough. My bounds were released, and the illusion was removed. After my eyes had several seconds to adjust, I took in my surroundings. I didn’t have to guess where I was at. There weren’t too many places that held bars.

I glared at Milo from the other side of them. “I hate you.”

Camelia stood next to him and laughed. “Oh my, you broke the poor thing’s heart.”

I glared at her. “Hardly.”

I wasn’t going to admit to any feelings in front of the person responsible for tearing them apart.

She shrugged. “No matter. You can rest here until you change your mind. I’ll be back to revisit my bargain with you. Maybe a day or two with no food or water would change your mind.”

I made a face at her to mock her smiling mask and flipped her off.

“Let her be, Camelia,” Milo said. “She’s all bark. No bite.”

I glared at him. He knew that wasn’t true. I wasn’t sure if I was madder at myself for falling for him… or him for lying to me.

“Come,” she said with a smile. “There’s a reward to be had.”

She dragged her nails along the length of Milo’s torso. Rage and jealousy burned within me. I wanted to rip her hands from her arms. Instead, I played it off and rolled my eyes. As the two faded from my view, I let out a sigh and started taking in the smaller details of my cell. There had to be a weak spot.

Though I couldn’t understand to what end Milo had betrayed us for, I couldn’t reconcile his motives with his insistence on training me.

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