Chapter 29 The Cage with Windows
Rhea POV
I was losing my damn mind.
Three days locked in the Alpha’s castle, and I was ready to torch something just for entertainment. Rhett had given strict orders, stay inside, rest, “adjust.” Adjust to what, exactly? Having four heartbeats, and a wolf who thought control was the same thing as care?
The walls weren’t keeping me safe. They were closing in.
So I did what any sane, newly resurrected woman with a divine to-do list would do. I ignored him.
The guards didn’t stop me, not that they’d dare. The bond between me and their Alpha rolled through the hallways like thunder, and they kept their eyes down as I passed.
The castle was… breathtaking, I’ll give him that. Built from dark stone and ironwood, it stretched into the cliffs like a beast crouched above its prey. Sunlight filtered through narrow windows, catching on tapestries of hunts, moonlight wars, and wolves crowned in silver.
I trailed my hand along the cool stone as I walked. The air smelled of pine, rain, and the faintest hint of smoke, the scent that clung to Rhett’s skin. My stomach turned at how easily it drew me in.
The hall opened into a vast glass corridor overlooking the Wildlands. And gods, what a sight. Endless forests, rivers like silver threads, and mist curling over jagged peaks. Wild, dangerous, and unbroken. It was everything the rebellion had fought for and never won.
For a second, I almost forgot I was technically a prisoner.
Then I saw the door at the end of the corridor. Unlocked. Sunlight spilled through it, warm and tempting.
I stepped outside.
The air hit me like freedom. The garden stretched out in tiers of green and gold, ringed by white stone arches and towering willows. Flowers I didn’t recognize shimmered with a faint magical hum. Somewhere, water trickled from a hidden spring.
I breathed deep and smiled for the first time in days. “Finally. Not a cage.”
“Depends who you ask.”
The voice was smooth, precise, and female. I turned.
She was beautiful in that cold, aristocratic way that made beauty feel like a weapon. Pale-blonde hair braided with small wolf teeth, and ice blue eyes that could freeze a summer storm. Her gown was silver, the color of the moon before it kills the night.
“Lady Vane,” she said before I could ask. “You must be the new… acquisition.”
“Rhea,” I said flatly. “Not an acquisition. Not a pet.”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Of course not. The Alpha has such… unusual taste these days.”
There it was, the venom under the silk. I’d met women like her before, back in the rebellion camps. Pretty faces that hid knives.
“I didn’t realize the Alpha took visitors,” I said, folding my arms.
“Only those with history,” she replied smoothly. “I was once promised to him.”
I raised a brow. “And now you’re not.”
Her expression flickered. Just for a second.
“Circumstances change. He has always been loyal, to the pack, and to duty. But now…” She let her gaze rake over me, slow and cutting. “He’s distracted. By you.”
I took a step closer, smiling without warmth. “If that bothers you, maybe you should take it up with him.”
“Oh, I intend to.” She tilted her head, studying me like a scientist dissecting a specimen. “Tell me, what are you, exactly? You don’t smell like a wolf. You don’t move like prey.”
I shrugged. “Maybe I’m both.”
That earned me a laugh, light, sharp, brittle. “Careful. The Wildlands aren’t kind to outsiders who forget their place.”
“Then it’s a good thing I don’t have one,” I shot back.
Her smile thinned. “You will. When the council hears about this little… arrangement, they’ll demand proof of your loyalty. The wolves don’t trust magic. And you...” her gaze lingered on my hands, where faint golden veins still pulsed under my skin “.. .reek of it.”
“Good,” I said. “Let them be afraid.”
She blinked, as if she hadn’t expected defiance.
“You’re amusing. I see what he likes in you. For now.”
Before I could answer, she stepped closer, her metallic perfume curling around me like frost. “A word of advice, dear. Wolves are creatures of instinct. They bite what they can’t control.”
I leaned in until our eyes met. “Then he better learn not to put his hand in the fire.”
The smile she gave me could’ve slit throats. “We’ll see.”
She turned and glided toward the garden gate, every step deliberate, like she was leaving poison behind her footprints.
When she was gone, I exhaled, tension unwinding from my shoulders. My skin still buzzed with heat. The fire in my chest, the one that wasn’t mine, growled in warning.
“She’s trouble,” I muttered to no one.
My reflection in the fountain shimmered faintly, golden light rippling through the water. I stared at it, at the four heartbeats drumming inside me like a war drum.
And right now, all of them agreed on one thing.
Lady Vane needed watching.
Because a woman who smiled like that didn’t just want Rhett back...she would spill blood to get it.
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Lira Vane POV
The moment I left the garden, I wanted to claw something.
Her. Preferably her.
That smug little smirk, the way she stood there like she belonged in my pack, in his castle. The Ghost, the miracle, the bitch who somehow made Rhett forget the years I spent earning my place beside him.
I stalked through the corridor, my silver heels striking stone. Every guard I passed lowered his gaze, pretending not to notice the frost trailing behind me. Cowards.
“She thinks she’s clever,” I muttered under my breath. “Doesn’t even understand the power she’s sitting on.”
“Talking to yourself again, my lady?” one of my spies murmured from the shadows. Rynic, one of Aryan’s lapdogs, disguised as a servant.
I didn’t look at him. “Report.”
“The Alpha hasn’t left his office all morning,” he said. “The Ghost is being treated like Luna. Five maids assigned, special meals, private guards.”
I smiled thinly. “He moves fast.”
“Do you want us to intervene?”
“Not yet.” I turned a corner, catching my reflection in the mirror, cold perfection wrapped in silver and spite. “Let the pack see how soft he’s become. It’ll make the council easy to sway.”
Rynic hesitated. “And the Ghost?”
“She won’t last,” I said. “Rhett always breaks his toys.”
That wasn’t true, of course. Rhett didn’t break things, he protected them. Even me, once. Before he decided his Alpha’s duty outweighed our bond. Before he looked at a corpse that wouldn’t stay dead and forgot my name.
I pressed my fingers against the wall, feeling the faint pulse of wards humming beneath the stone. “He’s hiding her for a reason,” I whispered. “Something he doesn’t want the rest of us to know.”
Rynic leaned in. “Aryan says the dragons are moving. If they come for her...”
“Then the Alpha’s reign ends before it begins,” I said, smiling like ice cracking on a lake. “And when they drag her out in chains, I’ll be standing beside him again, exactly where I belong.”
He bowed and vanished down the hall.
I straightened my gown and smoothed my braid, forcing my fury into poise. “Enjoy your little fairytale, Ghost,” I whispered, walking toward Rhett’s office wing.
“Because when it burns, I’ll be the one holding the match.”