I Am Only One {Mature Vampire Romance}

Book 1|20. The Truth

Photo above is Raine in her ballgown.

Chapter 20 – The Truth

Raine

Felaern guided me to a table set with refreshments. Cage was by my side immediately, his arm around my waist. Felaern gave Cage a quick nod before kissing the back of my hand as he winked, "Thank you for the dance. I think I noticed a few others who seemed to be interested."

"Undoubtedly," I mumbled to myself, remembering the many women who watched him when he came in. He grinned widely, spun around and walked into the throng of bodies.

The moment Felaern was gone; Cage pulled me out of the main ballroom into a smaller empty room. "What the fuck was that?"

I looked at him in surprise. "You watched me the entire time. You saw everything that happened. What do you mean?"

His eyebrows pulled in as he recounted the things he found odd, "Felaern bows to no one! The only other woman he ever bowed to was Brialle. Armand was not particularly fond of his affection toward Brialle, but he knew better than to provoke Felaern."

Oh! Now I understood Armand's shock when Felaern bowed as he requested my dance.

Cage continued animatedly, "Also, he knew who you were without an introduction and your heart rate spiked repeatedly while you were dancing!"

I could tell he really didn't like that last part. To soothe him, I pointed out gently, "I was exerted from the dancing and as you can attest, he is a bit of an intimidating man. But during any of those heart rate spikes, did you smell the scent of my arousal?"

His eyes widened as he realized I spoke the truth, and then his features relaxed. He glanced down, obviously remembering Felaern's inspection of my shoulder, and noticed even the last little bit of bruising was gone. He breathed, "Did he heal you?"

Shit! Was that was unusual behavior for Felaern as well? I couldn't very well deny it, so admitted reluctantly, "Um, yes."

Cage shook his head in amazement. "His behavior toward you was so strange. Did he say anything unusual to you? Any hint toward what you may be or where you came from?"

I stared without saying anything. I wasn't sure I could lie without him knowing something was wrong. He must have assumed my silence meant 'no'. More likely, he was already convinced Felaern didn't, because he heard every word that Felaern spoke – out loud, that is.

Cage mused, "Armand is going to try to convince him to stay the night so that he could meet with the High Council tomorrow. Maybe we will get our answers then."

Anxiety rolled through me. Felaern made it fairly clear that answers were going to be very detrimental to well-being, if not my life. I urgently needed to discuss anything other than me. I glanced around the room, looking for a topic of interest, my eyes resting on Armand's familiar family crest. I studied the already familiar pattern.