“Melchom,” I said.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“This one is to receive water but no food. Not until he’s ready to listen.”
The color drained from Rourke’s face. He finally broke his silence. “You can’t be serious.”
“What part of my expression makes you think I’m joking?” I countered.
Rourke had no response. The gravity of his situation seemed to hit him all at once and he flung himself forward, fingers digging into the chain link. “You can’t leave me here in a fucking cage for dogs!”
“And why not?” I asked mildly. “You’ve certainly been acting like one.”
“Fuck you!” Rourke spat.
“Charming.” I stepped away from the kennel and faced the dog keeper. “Inform me of his daily progress. I suspect it won’t be more than a few days until he breaks.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” Melchom said mildly.
I didn’t give Rourke the satisfaction of a last glance over my shoulder. I left the kennel without a single look back. Dismissing the knights, I returned to my room and spent the rest of the night doing everything in my power not to think about the taste of peaches on Rourke’s tongue.
16
Rourke
As the sound of clanging armor disappeared, the dogs in the kennel finally quieted down, leaving me alone in horrible silence. The entire kennel smelled heavily like dog and the metallic scent of steel. My knees shook. I slowly sat on the concrete floor.
How could things have gone so wrong so fast?
One minute, I was in Sebastian’s good graces after I’d saved him from not one buttwoassaults. And the next, I was thrown into a fucking dog cage. I could have laughed from the bitter irony. I’d avoided trouble in the alpha market so as not to get put in the Kennel as punishment, and now here I was in a kennel anyway.
My mind tried to make sense of it all. I had kissed him, and he’d kissed me back. That much was real. I hadn’t made it up. I also hadn’t made up the fact that he tasted like oranges, for whatever reason. What was it he’d said to me? That I tasted like peaches? Maybe the prince was crazier than I thought. That must be it. Normal people didn’t act like this.
I ran my hands over my face with a groan. A couple of bruises on my chest pulsed beneath my tunic. I recalled Sebastian’s makeshift leash-whip with a scowl. I never took him as the manhandling type, but in the end, he was a prince used to getting his way. Nobody ever saidnoto him. How else would he react except like the spoiled brat he was?
But the physical injuries were nothing compared to my pride. I would’ve taken a hundred whippings with the leash if it meant avoiding being stuck in a damn dog cage without food.
I shouldn’t have let my guard down around him. This all happened because I was too soft. Sebastian didn’t need my protection. What a joke. Let his hordes of paid knights and guards and servants help him instead. Maybe that omega Woods was right to try and attack him after all.
My stomach twisted, inherently repulsed by that idea.
I frowned. Even now, the idea of Sebastian being hurt infuriated and appalled me.
Why? After everything he’d done to me, I should’ve wanted to see Sebastian to get hurt, but my body had a negative physical reaction to it and my mind violently fought it off. Fuck, maybe I was messed up in the head, just like him.
With nothing to do but stew in my emotions, I sank against the wall with my head on my knees. My mind drifted back towards our kiss despite my best efforts at thinking about anything else. WhyhadSebastian tasted like oranges, my favorite fruit? Had I been hallucinating?
No, I didn’t think so. Sebastian’s reaction was ridiculous and over-the-top, sure, but I remembered the genuine confusion on his face. Something happened to him during our kiss, too.
Something… bizarre.
As I mulled over it, a strange feeling tingled in my blood, the same as when I’d kissed Sebastian the second time. I’d never felt anything like it. It reminded me of the urge to protect him, but stronger somehow. More intense. That should have been the last thing on my mind after he’d thrown me in here, but I couldn’t stop it. It was like a force of nature. One that electrified me from the base of my skull deep down into my balls.
I shivered, then blew out a heavy breath. There was no point in thinking it over. I was trapped here, with my only escape option being to suck up to Sebastian until he was satisfied, and who knew when the fuck that would be?
The door to the building creaked open. All the dogs sprung up and began barking their heads off until a small, familiar voice shushed them.
“Hurry, someone’s gonna see,” Elian muttered.
