Page 153 of Caged

Something inside of me hardens.

“You’re right.” My voice cracks. I ignore how the words taste like ash in my mouth. “She’s guilty. She lured him in, gave him to her father, and now…” I swallow. It feels like swallowing glass. “She did this to him.”

Daxen’s eyes soften. “Yes. She did.”

He sounds relieved. Like he’s been afraid—really afraid—for me until this moment. It pisses me off.

“I know you don’t want to believe a female who looks like that could be capable of such brutality, but we have to look at the facts.”

“I know. I know what the facts say.”

Still, something is swirling in my gut even as I feel my heart hardening in real time toward the Omega. It’s a nagging feeling. A persistent pull deep down that keeps whispering that something’s wrong. That we’re missing something. That the pieces don’t totally line up.

I shove the feeling down.

“I told you all that she was going to be a problem, and now look.” Dax waves a hand toward Caelan’s still body.

I flinch.

“Not all Omegas are manipulative bitches,” I mutter, exhausted by this same old argument.

“You’re right,” he agrees solemnly. Then he points in the direction of the interrogation rooms down the hall. His eyes harden, turning to ice. “Not all Omegas are manipulative bitches. But that one is.”

I stand abruptly. The legs of my chair scrape across the floor, and the noise startles Silas, who’s been quietly brooding.

“Where are you going?” He asks, frowning.

“Outside.” I run a hand across my brow. “I just need some air. Need to think.” I leave without waiting for acknowledgment.

The air in the hall feels stifling, like it’s pressing in around me. I pick up my pace, eager to get the fuck out of this compound. I can’t breathe.

As soon as I’m close enough, I slam against the metal bar of the door, stumbling through the exit that leads to the outside training yard.

The cool air hits my fevered skin. I take a deep breath, inhaling lungful after lungful of crisp spring air until I finally feel like I can take a full breath without choking. I collapse against the wall, exhaustion weighing down every limb.

I have to get over these feelings. I’ve barely even seen the girl. It doesn’t matter that I can’t get her out of my mind. Doesn’t matter that I can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that I’m missing something.

I don’t know how long I stand here, but when I feel the first rays of early morning light hit my skin, I finally blink open my tired eyes.

Immediately, my gaze catches on something bright yellow, flashing in the tree line of the forest. The shadows stir and shift, but even from two-hundred yards away, I can see unnatural movement between the trees. I can hear the crisp snap of twigs breaking under the tread of something larger and heavier than a normal forest animal.

As my eyesight adjusts, the shadows come into focus.

No.

No fucking way. Is that…?

I blink.

Yellow eyes catch the sunlight and flash before focusing directly on me. I watch a huge maw open in a yawn, canines the size of my finger catching the subtle rays of the sun. An irritated yowl has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

Those flashing yellow eyes glare without blinking, full of judgment and disgust. The shadow turns and disappears into the forest, giving me its back, making sure I know I’m no longer the largest fucking predator on this land.

Pitch black fur, sleek rippling muscle, graceful movements.

The cat from the Varenthrall estate—the one that looks like a cross between a house cat and Satan’s steed—has somehow, someway, found its way here.

And if I’ve not totally lost my fucking mind, I’m pretty sure it just looked at me like it knows something I don’t.