“Is this how you deal with family, brother?” Kade barked from the bottom of the steps, his body quivered with tensed anger, skin aflame as his darkened eyes rapidly roamed the front shut house. He was partially naked, clothes scattered all about him in a heap.
Salem had dragged him out with fastidious viciousness, unallowing him a moment to fully comprehend what was occurring. And when he finally did, it was too late. The front door shut in finality, numerous locks ringing on the opposite end.
The fucking audacity.
Kade was suddenly hyper-aware as a cold wind brushed his torso, arousing each numbed sense and with it came a surge of wrath. He prowled around the mansion’s exterior, trying to peer through windows but Salem’s slave, he could not remember the other woman’s name, had dutifully drawn each curtain shut.
He tried the doors as well. Nothing.
Kade’s upper lip pulled back in a snarl, “Nice try, brother!” The final words spat out venomously, as though it held no meaning and perhaps it did not. “You cannot throw me out!”
Kade hammered a heavy fist on the wooden barrier then stepped back, far back, peering up at the manor’s window. Pressure rose in his mouth cauSalemg a muscle to jump in his left cheek.
Salem stood at the top floor, watching him stonily. Hands held behind his back in an orderly manner.
Kade’s chest rose and fell heavily, each rapid breath leaving and entering just as swiftly. Their gazes close a heated intimate circuit and in it, he sees the sliver of victory that flashes across Salem’s sapphire blue eyes. Satisfaction.
Kade considers climbing the tree or hauling a heavy stone at the window but decides otherwise. That would be what Salem expects - for him to lash out like a petulant child robbed of candy, and in a sense, he had been.
Inayah.
Kade grew rigid still, the frown that deepened his lips slowly lifts, pinching at the corner as he gazes up at his brother. He smirked, coy and inSalemcere, then pivoted on his heels, heading straight for the forest.
Salem watched from his study, studying his brother naked back which began to ripple restlessly, shallow tufts of midnight black fur surfacing, his shoulder blades distending outwards forcing him to hunch forward. Seconds later, just as he reaches the treeline, Kade drops on all fours and disappears in a blur of dark fur and wolfish resentful howls.
“Slave,” He says cooly, evidently startling Inayah who had been lingering by the doorway, peeking at him from behind. He heard her scramble upwards, then turned to find her standing straight, hands gripping the apron wrapped around her waist.
His gaze slowly drifts over her body, then settles on her face. She was watching him with an odd expression and though there was a flicker of fear - perhaps an assumption that she was yet to be punished, the curiosity was more.
He moves towards the glass table and plucks up a canter, pouring himself a small amount of whiskey. Dropping three cubs inside, Salem lifts the glass to his mouth and takes a long sip, allowing the aged alcohol to settle thickly on his tongue, burning the insides of his throat whilst it warms his belly.
“What happened?” He finally asked, now that he could think with enough clarity, he wondered what exactly occurred the night Kade took her.
Inayah’s tongue circles her dry lips, “Kade told me that you agreed and he took me out into the city.” She paused, “to a bar.”
Salem inhaled a shallow measured breath, his grip on the glass tightening, but said nothing. “What did he do?”
“He bought me a drink-”
“What drink?”
“Coke.”
He nodded, lowering himself on a velvet couch then gestured for her to continue. “What then?”
Inayah inhaled a low breath, “Well, we started playing pool and it was fine for some time,” her eyes seem to waver, struggling not to avert from him. “Then we were disrupted-”
“By whom?”
Inayah licked her teeth, evidently searching his face for anything off. There is only calmness, so deadly it unnerves her even more. Inayah exhaled, “Oscar.”
Salem’s silence urged her on, “My betrothed.”
He arched a sardonic eyebrow, “Scrawny dirt-haired boy?”
Inayah’s eyes narrowed in contempt but she quickly averted her gaze, “Him.”
“What happened?”
“He came to claim me with three other men, they got into an argument with Kade…. Then fought… Oscar grabbed my hand while he was distracted and pulled me out,” her voice grew light and she stuttered before clearing her throat, her hands wring, “...at first I was hesitant but it dawned on me that I was escaping… so I ran.”
The silence drew each other between them, suffocating and tensed, Inayah watched him from beneath her long lashes.
Salem turned the glass in his hand, ice tinkling softly against the walls; “Kade saved you.”
“More or less.”
“And the boy?”
His gaze seemed to grow distant past her shoulder, seeing something she clearly could not. “I see,” Salem muttered then faced her again, “Do you wish to leave this place?”
Inayah could not tell if it was simply a trap. One where she would be punished if she answered wrongly. It was hard to tell. She gnawed on her inner cheek contemplatively.
“Be honest.”
“I do,” she admitted and took a reflexive step back.
“Why?”
Was he joking? Her eyes searched his own. No, he really wasn’t. “Well,” she inhaled, “you’re… mean… abusive… cold… ruthless… indifferent to my state of living…” where had the confidence sourced itself from?
Inayah’s heart slammed within the walls of her ribcage, she could not stop even if she wanted, “you took me against my will… you shamed my father and Oscar and village… you’re proud and arrogant… you’re scary in an unattractive way… and just overall a terrible person.”
A pause; “If I’m being honest,” the words that follow next hold an effect that even she clearly underestimated-
“I prefer Kade over you.”