Page 49 of The Vixen

Twenty-one.

Is he hurting her?

My brow furrows at the thought. Air bursts past my lips in something close to a laugh.

Who cares?

Twenty-four.

Twenty-five.

A door slams. I turn as someone stomps past my room.

Numbers trail as I turn back to the window, my count slowly fading. The soreness in my shoulder pauses my movements, and for a minute, I stand as steady as a ghost behind the glass. My ears perk for the silence that’s somehow even louder than the crash.

Fuck.

With a groan, I push off the bars and walk to the door. Stiff hinges sigh as I open it just enough to peek into the hall (as if there isn’t a camera watching me anyway).

No one.

I creep toward Luna’s room while each familiar step wrinkles my nose with the bitterness that curls at the back of my throat. The last time I stepped through this bleach-scented threshold, I was ‘rescuing’ Luna.

I press my ear to the door. Hear nothing.

My knuckles rap twice.

No answer.

My gaze drifts to the opposite end of the hall where a thin mattress waits for me, its center worn deep by the last body that occupied it.

I could still leave.

Instead, I blow out a breath and open the door.

Luna sits on the side of her bed stroking a familiar black cat nestled in her lap.Pepper,as I’ve been calling her since she first nuzzled my leg on the porch of the training house.

She jumps from Luna’s lap to greet me with a rub along my shin.

“Cinder!” Luna admonishes while I bend to pet the cat.

Cinder.

She purrs as I lift her into my arms and kick the door shut with my heel. I sit next to Luna, my hand stroking soft fur while the cat nuzzles her head in the crook of my elbow. Cinder’s purrvibrates through my arm, but it’s the flicker of discomfort across Luna’s face that pulls a dark smile from me.

“I should’ve known she was yours… She kept showing up outside the training house.”

Luna’s lips form a thin line as she forces Cinder out of my arms. The cat protests but relents when Luna smooths her hand over its back. She hugs the cat to her chest. “I suppose I’m lucky you didn’t let her inside then… She was supposed to stay with Raven.”

“I wouldn’t have let her inside.”

She’s been content to stare ahead, but now, she looks at me.

“The only source of comfort a captive can have must come from the captor.”

She just stares at me for a few moments, then, “Hmmm.”

“So…” I gesture to the thick shards of glass spilling over the nightstand, a million glittering fragments scattered on the floor. A drinking glass, I think—thrown at the wall. Too impulsive to have been Luna. “What the fuck was that about?”