I didn’t bother myself with rounding up the information, letting members of my pack do the running about and report back to me while I ate. If there was anything I took a particular interest in, they’d happily dig up as many details as Faely possible on the matter just to please me.
There wasn’t a whole lot going on today anyway. There had been some more scuffles over bunks in the Oscura cell block now that Sin had laid claim to a chunk of the top floor for himself, but he was keeping his word about not mixing it with my Wolves and I wasn’t really interested in the other Fae he was pissing off. A girl from Ethan’s pack had been hauled before the Warden for trying to smuggle a love potion into the prison from someone who came to see her in visitation. Not exactly the kinds of things that meant much to me.
Sonny had scraped his bowl clean and was leaning forward over the table as he eyed the remains of my meal. He reached out to steal a fry and I growled half-heartedly.
Sonny gave me his most pathetic whimper, widening his brown eyes in a plea and I snorted a laugh before picking up the fry and pushing it into his mouth.
He smirked triumphantly and I shoved the rest of my meal his way before the Wolves descended on it. They could fight him for my scraps if they wanted them that badly.
I got to my feet, tussling Sonny’s hair affectionately while he growled over my food and practically inhaled it. I walked away at a casual pace and felt the eyes of my pack on me as I headed away from them. They’d finally learned not to follow me around everywhere. But I’d had to tell them about fifty times that I only wanted them to follow me if I asked them to before it stuck. It wasn’t like I could make much headway with my subtle escape plans with an entourage following me about all the time.
Sook Min was sitting with a group of her friends and I caught her eye as I moved through the crowd in her direction, beckoning her over to join me. My little Mole seemed unimpressed with me taking ownership of her, but I was willing to bet she’d forgive me when we escaped this place. Her jaw tightened and I could tell she didn’t much like being bossed around and I smirked to myself as I turned towards Sin’s table.
He looked up as I approached, a broad smile lighting his features as I walked up to stand opposite him.
“Do you mind if I sit here?” I asked him in a sweet tone.
“That would make my day, kitten,” he purred.
“Thanks. You’re a doll.” I winked at him then moved to sit at the far end of his table, pointing at the seat opposite me for Sook to sit down too.
Sin laughed loudly as I abandoned him and I couldn’t help but smirk to myself as I waited for Sook to join me.
She fell still as she eyed Sin, pushing her tongue into her cheek as she considered what to do before lifting her chin and stalking forward to join me.
“Hi,” I said with a wide smile.
“Look at me, I’m building a harem,” Sin teased from the far end of the table.
I rolled my eyes and Sook cut him a look. “You’ve got a bit too much going on between your legs for my taste,” she said boldly and I snorted a laugh.
“I bet I could convince you otherwise,” Sin countered.
“Don’t mind him,” I said, waving a hand at Sin dismissively. “He’s just figuring out how to function amongst company again after spending so long alone. You may be able to tell he’s not doing so well at it.”
Sook’s eyes widened like she thought Sin might attack me and I turned to him with a taunting look, daring him to do his worst.
“My wild girl just wants to make sure you’re not tempted by me so that she can keep me all for herself,” he replied, his eyes dripping over me.
“Keep dreaming, sinner boy,” I replied dismissively before turning back to my newest friend.
“I know Ethan said that he wants me to be aligned with you now,” she said slowly. “But I don’t really understand why. I mean, making a deal with the Brotherhood can’t be something you do regularly. Which must mean you really want me for something. But I’m having trouble figuring out what.”
“Well at least you’re bright enough,” I said easily. “As for why I want you to be Oscura aligned, that’s simple: I want to have the strongest gang in here. Which doesn’t mean having just any member join. I want the best of the best. And you make the cut, Mole girl.”
“Bullshit,” she replied, arching a brow at me and I had to admit that made me like her a whole lot more.
“Okay then,” I said conspiratorially. “How about this? I have my own reasons and I don’t trust you enough to share them yet.”
Sook smirked. “Better. I guess I’ll have to wait and find out your motivations then.”
“In the meantime, I feel like we make a good pair. So why don’t we try out something simpler than trust? Friendship.”
She eyed me for a long moment then shrugged. “You seem cool enough. So I guess it wouldn’t kill me to give that a shot.”
I barked a laugh and leaned back in my seat. “Perfect. So how about the next time we head up to the Order Yard, you show me just what you can do in your shifted form.”
“And what do I get out of that?”
I grinned at her. She was ballsy and I liked that. “Have you ever ridden a Moon Wolf while they run beneath the stars?”
Her eyes lightened at the idea of that. Her Order form wasn’t exactly built for speed and fun was pretty hard to come by in here.
“Deal,” she said, offering me her hand.
“Deal,” I agreed, slapping my palm into hers.
“So, when you’re not leading one of the biggest packs in the prison, what else do you like to-”
A high pitched scream interrupted our conversation as a guy on the other side of the Mess Hall suddenly leapt out of his seat and raced across the room with his head bowed down like a charging bull.
My eyes widened as he swerved right towards us, still shrieking as he clawed at his face, drawing blood down his cheeks with his fingernails.
I sprang to my feet as he closed in on me and Sook but before he could reach us, Roary suddenly appeared in front of me, slamming his fist straight into the guy’s face.
He howled as he was knocked to the ground and I exchanged a shocked glance with Roary before the lunatic leapt up and started charging down the aisle between the tables in the Mess Hall, running for the exit.
“They’re inside me!” he howled desperately as the guards took chase, releasing their batons from their belts and setting them to stun, electricity sparking along their lengths.
I shifted closer to Roary, gripping his arm to catch his attention. I glanced up at him and he gave me a tense look as the guy started tearing at his clothes in a desperate bid to rip them off.
Hastings was racing after him at the front of the guards, his jaw set with determination as he swung his baton straight for the guy’s back.
Electricity poured from the weapon and the crazy convict shrieked as his body jerked and spasmed and he fell to the floor with a crash.
Hastings stowed his weapon and dropped onto the guy’s back a second later, wrenching his arms behind him and securing his cuffs with a magical chain.
The convict thrashed and flailed, trying to fight off the effects of the baton and he suddenly threw his head back, catching Hastings straight in the face with a sickening crack as his nose broke. Blood pissed down over his mouth but he didn’t even flinch, driving his weight down on the convict’s back as he tightened the cuffs before wrenching him to his feet again.
Sin started laughing loudly at the far end of the table, pounding his fist on the wood as he shouted out for an encore.
A couple of the other guards congratulated Hastings on the take down and I smirked as he forced the crazed convict out of the room.
“Forse non è così innocente come sembra.” Maybe he is not as innocent as he seems.
“Tut, tut, tut, Rosa, are you trying to corrupt that guard?” Roary asked me in an undertone, his eyes sparkling with understanding.
“What makes you say
that?” I asked, batting my eyelashes at him.
“There isn’t a whole lot to do in here, little pup. You can take all kinds of courses once you’re in the correctional program, including conversational Faetalian.”
My smile widened and I leaned closer, tiptoeing up to his ear. “Quindi mi capirai ogni volta che sarò cattivo?” So you’ll understand me whenever I’m being bad?
“Non puoi nascondermi niente, Rosa,” he replied and I bit my lip at the sound of my language on his lips. You can’t hide anything from me, Rosa.
“Beh, dovrò solo provare ed essere bravo.” Well, I’ll just have to try and be good.
“Non credo che tu sappia come.” I don’t think you know how.
I smirked to myself and shrugged as I stepped back. “Probably not,” I agreed.
Roary laughed but his expression hardened as he looked towards the door. “There’s something unnatural about the way these people keep losing it,” he muttered.
“Like what?” I asked.
He glanced at the Guards who remained in the room and shrugged before he headed away from me again, clearly not wanting to voice any more in public.
Sook looked a bit unsettled as I turned back to her and I raised an eyebrow curiously. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she replied slowly. “I just used to work with that guy in laundry and he was so laid back…I can’t marry that up with the dude who just got dragged off to Psych.”
I pursed my lips as I glanced towards the door, wondering if there really was something to Roary’s suspicions about the crazies or not. But it wasn’t like I could do much about it if there was. We just needed to get out of here. Then whatever was sending people psycho could stay locked up in Darkmore Penitentiary with the rest of the criminals.
“Alpha?” Amira’s voice interrupted us and I turned to her with a sigh. Her less than thrilled attitude towards me hadn’t gone unnoticed and I was pretty close to having to beat her down to remind her who ran this pack again.
“What?” I asked, not bothering to hide my irritation with her.
“Sonny asked me to ask you to meet him in the library,” she said in a timid voice.
“Oh. Okay then. Thanks.”
She scurried away and I almost felt bad about being short with her. Almost.
“I’d better go and see what that’s about before we’re all herded back to our cells,” I said, offering Sook an easy smile. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Okay. See you in the Order Yard,” she said with a smirk, clearly meaning to hold me to my promise.
I nodded in agreement and headed away from her, waving goodbye to the members of my pack who still sat at our usual table.
There was only one guard on duty out in the hall after the group of them had headed off to escort the prisoner to Psych. I walked away from her and headed down the stairs to the library with my mind turning over the different parts of my plans.
I’d been looking for an excuse to head to the library anyway. I needed contingencies in place just in case things went wrong with my plans which meant I needed weapons stashed in various places. I was hoping to find somewhere suitable in the library before I created a shank with my earth magic. It was simple enough to create blades from wood and with enough magic I could even create metal, but I wouldn’t do it until I could be sure that I could hide it. If I was caught with a weapon then that was an automatic two weeks in the hole. Minimum. And I had no intention of wasting any time in there. I had things to do and plans to push forward.
The library was quiet as I entered it, the rows of wooden shelves filled with dog eared, dusty books which met the approved reading material list. As in, the no sex, no violence, no adventure, no fun kind of literature which drove me to tears.
“Sonny?” I called, frowning into the dim room.
He didn’t reply but the room was huge, the stacks sprawling away from me with various areas splitting them up and small tables for inmates to study at.
I picked up a book for the sake of the CCTV and wandered further through the stacks before returning it to a shelf. I continued to do that as I cast surreptitious glances at the cameras and figured out the blind spots.
Because of the tall shelves, there were plenty of them and I headed down a long aisle as I began to hunt for a good hiding place for a weapon while shouting out for Sonny again. It wasn’t like him to call on me and then mess me about.
The library door opened and closed again in the distance and I stilled as a prickle of apprehension ran down my spine. My Moon Wolf instincts never failed me and I wasn’t about to ignore them now.
I fell still, straining my ears as I listened for the sound of someone approaching and heard several sets of footsteps moving towards me.
My instincts sent a shiver along my skin and I bared my teeth as my inner Wolf raised her hackles.
Those same instincts had saved my life more than once.
Instead of heading back the way I’d come, I slipped to the end of the aisle and crept around the shelf, heading deeper into the library as the footsteps drew closer.
I wet my lips as I kept going, wanting to see if I was right about this being an enemy before I showed myself. I was always more than ready for a fight, but I liked to know what I was going up against before I stepped into the ring.
I tiptoed to the end of the next row and carefully leaned out into the aisle to get a look back toward the door. My heart fell as I spotted The Watchers and I quickly ducked back out of sight again. Gustard’s cowardly followers would no doubt come at me in a group again and I had no intention of letting them. I’d happily take them out one by one like real Fae, but I wasn’t fool enough to think I could do it if they all attacked me as one.
Bunch of un-Fae stronzos.
I cursed them beneath my breath and darted away down the aisle to escape them. I’d find Sonny then get my pack and teach them exactly who they were messing with. They might not want to fight like a Fae, but I had the numbers to force them to.
I sprinted to the far end of the aisle, gripped the edge of the shelf and swung myself around it.
“Running, pup?” Gustard mocked as I damn near crashed into him.
I only gave surprise a moment to freeze me before I lunged forward with my hand curled into fist. I punched him square in the jaw and he staggered back with a snarl of fury as I chased him with a strike to his temple and a solid kick to his chest.
He crashed back to the floor with blood spilling from a cut to his brow but as I leapt forward to finish the job, strong arms locked around me from behind.
I released a stream of Faetalian curses as I kicked and fought to free myself, gouging my nails into the arm of the big bastardo who was holding me and tearing his flesh open.
He threw me to the floor between the stacks and I rolled over twice before slamming into the bookshelf.
I snarled as I leapt to my feet, ripping books off of the shelf closest to me and throwing them at the gang as they surrounded me.
A hardback caught a Sphinx right between her eyes and she dropped like a sack of shit.
They got too close for me to throw things at and I started swinging the fattest book I could grab at them, using the only weapon available to me as they swarmed forward to overwhelm me once more.
“You’re a fucking coward, Gustard!” I shrieked as I was knocked to the floor again.
Boots slammed into me left, right and centre and I was forced to wrap my arms around my head and take it as I felt bones crack and flesh split.
Pain consumed me while inside I was screaming, promising vengeance in any and every way that I could dish it out.
When they finally stopped, I couldn’t even move. My heart was racing and the taste of blood overwhelmed my senses.
A foot shoved me roughly and I rolled onto my back, my swollen eyes cracking open just enough for the fluorescent light of the library to burn into my brain. I coughed out a breath, blood slipping from the edge of my mouth as I lay beneath them.
&nb
sp; Gustard’s face swam into focus as he leaned over me and he smirked like he thought he’d won something with this pathetic display.
The bell rang to tell us all to head back to our cell blocks, but the sound of it was off and it took me a moment to realise I couldn’t hear out of my left ear at all.
“Let’s hope the second time’s the charm,” Gustard mocked. “But if not, I can happily teach you this lesson again.”
A breath wheezed between my lips as I forced my swollen tongue to bend around the words I wanted to spit at him. He moved out of sight and all of The Watchers’ footsteps rattled through the floorboards beneath me as I struggled to get them out.
“Your face looks…like a toddler took a sharpie…to it. You…ass munching…stronzo,” I hissed as the library door fell shut and silence enveloped me.
The second bell rang as I listened to my pulse hammering unevenly and I tried to force my broken body to move. I had five minutes to get back down to the cell block for the count. And if I wasn’t there then they’d lock the doors without me. And I’d be stuck out here when they set the Belorian loose for the night.
I cursed as I tried to roll over and my vision darkened. The pain only grew sharper as I tried to move and the shadows surrounding my vision thickened.
I drew in a breath as I gave up on trying to keep my eyes open.
Maybe the Belorian wouldn’t find me in here. Or maybe I was about to find out exactly what it looked like.
Fear skittered through me as I remembered the last time I’d lain crippled in agony, my body betraying me as a monster stalked closer. But this wasn’t like that. The last monster who’d hunted me had craved my pain. At least this one would only require my death.
The agony in my body was all consuming and a whimper escaped my lips as it devoured me.
I couldn’t count the amount of people I’d be letting down if I died. But the thought of them grieving me tore me in two.
Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1) Page 33
