I woke up in acage.
The cold bite of metal pressed against my skin. The space was barely tall enough for me to sit up. A thick metal collar encircled my neck, fastened to the bars with a heavy chain that rattled ominously with my every movement. My wrists were manacled in front of me with heavy iron cuffs.
I deeply regretted my scant sleepwear now I was on the cold, hard ground.
The air smelled of hay, damp stone, and the lingering musk of tygers. After the last weeks, I knew that scent well. I was in a tyger stall, the walls of which were reinforced, but smaller than the royal tyger stables. Built not for a full ambush of tygers, but for a select few.
And now, apparently, for me.
“Get on all fours for me, won’t you?” I recognized the voice and turned, searching for its source. My chain rattled against my cage.
Ire. He leaned against the wall, his eyes dark with hunger as they roamed over my breasts, my nipples peaked against the thin cotton of my nightdress from the cold. Then he moved to my legs, my barely covered sex, drinking in the sight like he had all the time in the world.
I met his gaze with cold defiance, refusing to shrink beneath it. “Is kidnapping the only way you can get a woman?”
“That smart mouth of yours”—he sneered, stepping closer—“has been a problem since day one. And since no one else is going to bring you to heel—”
“Burn and die,” I snapped.
He leaned over the stall door with a tsk. “Careful, Azure. We don’t want the tygress queen to wake.”
My stomach dropped at the clear threat in his words, his tone. The stall beside the cage I was in wasn’t empty.Flame.
Ripping myself up off the ground, I jolted toward the wall of the cage, fingers gripping the metal. She lay still, her powerful body shackled in chains thick enough to hold even her strength. Unconscious, her sleek fur glistened with sweat, her chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths.
We’d both been drugged.
“This is your plan?” I laughed, desperate to hide the fear in my voice. “How long do you think you can possibly keep us here?”
Ire sneered, his voice thick with satisfaction. “Long enough.”
The blood in my veins turned to ice. Long enough for what? What did he have planned? My fingers curled into fists against the rough metal of my cage.
Flame, wake up!I called in my mind, but again the thought felt like it dropped into darkness. She didn’t stir. How much of that drug had they put in her?
I called and called, my mental voice desperate.Wake up, wake up.But she didn’t move. Her great form remained still, the rise and fall of her breathing steady but unnervingly slow. The chains around her glowed faintly with runes I didn’t recognize, and my stomach twisted. Something in addition to the drugs was keeping her under.
Ire started a slow, deliberate walk around me, dragging his fingertips along the bars, each metallic clink sending a shudder of revulsion through me.
“She’s going to stay unconscious. We’ve made sure of that.”His voice was full of smug satisfaction. “You know, someone different—a Tyger Warriorworthyof our tygress queen—wouldn’t have allowed this to happen. What shame you bring on her. Upon all of us.”
He bent to unlock my cage, the sheer size of him filling the space, oppressive and inescapable.
The leash at my neck jerked suddenly, yanking me out of the cage, pulling the metal against my skin in a way that made me gasp.
This was no ordinary collar. I could feel it pulse with dark magic, like pinpricks against my skin where it touched. Ire crouched in front of me, so close I could see the smug curve of his lips.
“Useless, weak yin,” he purred. His free hand skimmed over my bare shoulder, tracing my collarbone. “Blake’s whore, hmm? Is that why he’s kept you around?”
I clenched my jaw, forcing myself not to flinch. I stayed still, breathing shallowly. The chain pulled again, and I staggered forward, catching myself on my palms. His fingers tangled in my hair and yanked my head back, forcing my eyes up to meet his.
“That defiance in you?” He laughed, pulling me to stand by my hair. “We’ll burn it out. Slowly.”
My restraint snapped and I spat in his face. He reared back, striking me across the cheek. My head snapped sideways, but I didn’t cry out, biting my lip until I tasted blood.
“That all you’ve got?” I sneered. I deliberately flicked my eyes downward, a parody of the way his eyes roamed over my body. “I guess I should’ve known, considering yourunimpressiveperformance.”
“Try me again and see how your tygress likes my blade.”
