And then one day, months later, everything changed.
In the middle of the night, during the midnight shift change, a few young women ran into the cell block and began to unlock doors. “Get up,” the girl at the door shouted at me as she swung the door open. “If you want to be free.”
Some of the girls hesitated.
My new roommate and I didn’t.
Even though fear tightened my stomach, I left everything behind. I tried to get the other girls to come out of their cells, the ones who were reluctant.
“It’s the Freed,” I promised them. “It’s our chance.”
But some of them had packs that had promised to come for them, or end dates on their sentences, so not all of them came. In the end, I couldn’t hesitate.
I knew what I wanted.
Those of us who were leaving passed through the loading dock and clambered into the truck that waited there.
My roommate grabbed my hand and held it tight, her fingers laced around mine. The two of us traded a tentative smile, even though I was sure her heart was beating just as frantically as mine was.
The truck lurched off into what I hoped would be a new future.
Chapter Seven
We drove long enough that we knew we’d escaped the prison, at least.
When the doors were finally opened, we stepped out into dawn breaking. Frost seemed to cling to the air, making it hurt to breathe in. We were somewhere colder than I’d ever lived before.
“Welcome to the Freed.” The girl who had unlocked our door spread her hands out.
We were in the yard of a makeshift camp. There was a real house, but there were also tents spread out across the grass, as if the place had grown too fast for everyone that needed to find shelter here.
“Saoirse.” It was a familiar voice behind me, and I turned to find Reed. There was a tentative smile pulling across his lips, and he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Reed?” I asked uncertainly.
The other girl was still talking, and my roommate gave him a curious look, then squeezed my shoulder as she walked past. “I’ll make sure we get a room together…you’re stuck with me now.”
“Thanks,” I said. I had so many questions about the Freed, and yet now that we were here, they all died on my lips as I studied Reed. The abashed look on his face didn’t make sense. “How did you escape? Did they just rescue you too?”
“No,” he admitted. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Okay.” My voice came out harder than expected, given how overwhelmed I was to be here. “Go ahead.”
“I think it’s better if I show you,” he said. He held his hand out to me. “Come on?”
I gave him a skeptical glance, and yet I still reached out and took his hand. His strong fingers wrapped around mine.
He led me up the front steps to a wide front porch, then into the building. Inside, the place hummed with activity. Shifters were studying maps, working on laptops, charting plans on the boards that hung on the walls.
It looked like a command center for a war.
“What’s going on, Reed?” I asked.
“We can’t go on like this,” he said. “You know what the world out there is like. You’ve seen the worst of what the packs can be.”
“Yes… that doesn’t tell me what’s going on.”
“Welcome to the resistance, Saoirse. It’s time to remake our world.”
He paused, his back against a door, and then he pushed it open.
I followed him into what seemed like an office, full of maps on the walls and charts that showed prison staff—I knew some of those faces—and yet, what drew my eye wasn’t any of the stuff in the room.
It was the two men who leapt to their feet from the desks.
Blue.
Jude.
“What is this?” I demanded.
The three of them exchanged a look.
“Now it’s a rescue,” Jude admitted. “Before, it was a test. We took the rest of the girls, but we were really there for you…”
All of the puzzle pieces came together for me in a second. The knife. The key. Even the conversations I’d heard…
“Why?” I demanded.
“We just….moonlight as runners,” Blue admitted. “Our real job is here in the resistance.”
“Girls like you don’t belong in prison,” Reed said. “They belong here. In the fight.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me…” I trailed off. I understood why. They couldn’t risk having their missions uncovered. As runners, they could pick out anyone who should be here instead. I said, heat in my voice, “I hope you’re not giving every test case a knife. You’re going to get gutted.”
Blue’s lips tilted up at the corners. “This isn’t quite the reunion I’d hoped for.”
“You—“ I sputtered, staring up at him as he crossed the room to me. His smoldering gaze held mine. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Aaron,” he told me. He stuck out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Saoirse. Now that we can meet properly.”
I stared at him, debating how to respond, then took his hand in mine.
The second I did, a sudden tingling seemed to spread across my skin, and I gasped.
“Oh.” Aaron’s eyes widened. I studied him, trying to focus despite the way my head was suddenly swimming. His pupils dilated slightly, the bright blue of his eyes taking me over in a way that was magnetic. He gazed at me just as intensely as I stared at him.
I wanted to press myself into his arms.
My heat. I hadn’t realized it would come over me so suddenly when it came back, but there it was, a flood of desire and need washing through me.
The two of us were still gripping hands as if we were going to shake politely.
I used that hand to drag him toward me, pulling him down. I pressed my lips against his in a tentative kiss. I wasn’t used to kissing anyone, and yet I wanted him with a wild, desperate throbbing.
I expected him to resist.
But after a second, his hand cupped my cheek, as he kissed me back. His lips were firm and commanding as he caressed mine open. My lips parted as the tip of his tongue danced across my upper lip, and I tilted my face up to him as my body swayed against his, giving in.
Even through our clothes, I could feel the press of his cock against my thigh, as his body responded to mine.
“I didn’t think the heat came on this fast—” Jude said, a frown in his voice.
“Maybe Aaron is her true love and fated mate and something beautiful,” Reed said, amusement in his voice.
That sparked the memory of that day in the car, but it also sparked something else. Something else that was half-memory of that day, and half here in the present, in the desire that burnt me up like fire from the inside out, a raging sense of longing.
I broke away from Aaron long enough to say, “I don’t think he’s my only fated mate.”
Aaron cleared the desk with one sweep of his arm, quick and decisive.
“That’s fine,” Jude said to no one in particular. “You’re the one who’s going to have to fix the filing later, Aaron.”
Aaron lifted me easily onto the edge of the long desk. His blue eyes smoldered as he gazed into mine, stepping between my legs. “Shut up, Jude, and make yourself useful, if the girl wants you.”
“The girl does,” I said mockingly, feeling my lips arch up in a smile. My thighs wrapped around Aaron’s hips.
I let myself fall backward on the hard wood of the desk, as the three of them came to me, covering me with kisses and caresses.
It was just what I’d dreamt about every night in prison.
But now, it was real.
Now, I was Freed.
The End
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About the Author
After traveling to all seven continents—including a research station in the Antarctic and an extended sojourn in Baghdad, Iraq—May Dawson settled in Virginia to raise her two children and a bevy of rescue cats. She is the author of several paranormal reverse harem series, including Their Shifter Princess, Their Shifter Academy, the Wild Angels and the True and the Crown series.
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Read More of May Dawson’s Books
The Shifter Princess trilogy (complete, available in audio)
The Shifter Academy series (available in audio)
The True and the Crown series (complete)
God Fire Reform School series
The Wild Angels series (complete, available in Audio)
Dead Girls Club
The Academy of the Supernatural trilogy (complete)
Freak
A Highborn Asylum Prequel
Elizabeth Dunlap
About Freak
Deep within the walls of Highborn Asylum, Letty has been told she’s crazy, insane, and magic isn’t real. All of that is disrupted with ‘that boy,’ another patient named Olivander who refuses to leave Letty alone.
There’s something about him that draws her in, but while he seems to know her, she has no memory of him.
What else has the Asylum stolen from her?
Discover the mysteries, and dangers, of Highborn Asylum, in Letty’s epic journey.
1. That Boy
I don’t tell them when the walls are humming. They stopped caring a long time ago.
“The walls aren’t humming,” the doctors would say.
“But they are,” I would insist. “Can’t you hear them?”
Except no one else could. Only me, the freak.
How long had I been here? Who knew? Not me.
Perhaps forever.
Where was here? Highborn Asylum. The same four walls and the same rooms, the same things, the same everything. Sometimes I stared at the sign in the hallway for so long, the letters stopped looking like letters. Highborn Asylum started to look more like a made-up word. Maybe it was made up. Maybe everything was. Maybe there wasn’t anything outside this place. Maybe the entire world was this building, and nothing else.
Stop fantasizing, you know they told you to stop it. You know what they’ll do if they know you’re daydreaming.
Where are my pills? I need my pills. The walls are humming again. Shut up, walls. I can’t hear you. I’ll just be louder than you.
BZZZZZZZZZZ!
“Violet?”
I looked up and realized I was making the sound out loud as I stood at the counter for my little white cup of pills. The worker has a cautious expression as he jiggled my cup to get my attention. My hand shot out and took the cup, and I resisted the urge to tell him the walls wouldn’t shut up.
I told them to shut up and they are still being loud. Rude.
Tapping my fingernail against my cup, I tipped it over my mouth and dry swallowed my pills, feeling their gross flavor as they went down, and then presented my empty tongue to the worker to approve of so I could leave. A few steps away from the line, someone came up beside me.
“Walls being noisy again?” that boy asked me. That boy. The only one here who actually listened to me. He was also the only one who knew I could hear the walls, which meant talking to him was dangerous. I didn’t want them to hurt me again. They couldn’t find out.
Ignoring him, I shuffled past that boy, my long hair over my face, and my shoulders hunched to make myself as small as possible. The freezing cold hallway made every sound echo along the bare structure, including that boy’s footfalls behind me as he followed me out of the lounge.
“Go ‘way,” I mumbled, lifting my hands and connecting my sleeves to keep my fingers warm. My hands felt weird. Empty. Dead.
“Did you forget my name again?”
I could barely remember my room number and my name, there was no capacity inside my damaged head to retain more than that.
“It’s Olivander, but the way. I should probably get a name tag so you’ll stop forgetting.”
He’ll go away. Just ignore him.
I beat my fists together inside my sleeves and lowered my chin to my chest as another worker passed me in the hallway. Don’t look, don’t see me. I promise I can’t hear the walls.
“Olivander,” the worker said, making me jump and hug the wall. “Are you bothering Violet again?”
Yes. He is absolutely bothering me.
“No, sir,” that boy answered with no shame. “I’m just walking her to her room. You know how she gets lost.”
I do not get lost. I like walking around. It helps me clear my head.
“See that that’s all that you do, okay?” The worker left, his white shoes making a muffled squeak on the polished floor. I focused on the sound so intently, I didn’t notice that boy sneaking up on me until he spoke next to my ear.
“Stupid staff here,” he said, and I sprang away, slamming my shoulder into the wall. “They’re always acting like I’m two seconds away from kissing you.”
Would he do that? Why was my heart beating so fast with him next to me? Stop it, heart! You’re as bad as the walls.
Hummmmmmmmmmmmm.
Gritting my teeth, I turned my nose to the wall and lifted a warning finger to it. “Be quiet, you stupid wall!”
“Letty,” that boy said as he stepped beside me and splayed himself against the wall, his long blonde ponytail letting loose a few strands that he tucked behind his ear. “You know that you hearing the walls isn’t a bad thing, right?”
I scoffed so hard spit fell from my lips. “Goes to show what you know. Do you see anyone else in this nuthouse listening to the walls? No, of course you don’t. Only me, the freak.” I put my ear to the wall, my eyes facing that boy. A smile worked its way up his mouth, and he stared at me in a way I didn’t understand. We hardly knew each other, but he always gave me these looks. Looks like there was a time when I used to remember his name. “Why do you call me Letty?” I asked him in a mumble, picking at some of the cement cracks on the wall. “No one else calls me that. My name is Violet.”
His gaze dropped and he stared at my hands before he answered. “You said it. I don’t remember when.”
I pushed off from the wall and squinted at him. “I never said that.”
“You don’t even remember my name, how would you know what you’ve said to me?”
I grumbled under my breath, because he was partially correct. Plus it wasn’t that I didn’t like being called Letty. It actually felt right to me, especially the way it rolled off that boy’s tongue, like he was praying. Violet always made me feel like I was in trouble. I just didn’t want him assuming we were friends, because we weren’t.
“Say my name. Just once, and I’ll leave you alone, I promise.”
I’ll admit, while I didn’t really know that boy, something inside me was certain that that was a promise he wouldn’t keep.
“Ol…” The word stuck in my throat like the dry pills. My fingers twitched inside my sleeves. I wanted… I wanted to touch him. To run my fingers through his hair. To kiss him.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Swallowing, I looked down at the polished floor. “Olivander.”
Saying it out loud, it felt familiar, almost like I’d heard it before. When was the question.
Olivander’s hair fell over his eyes again, almost hiding his hopeful expression, until he tucked it behind his ear again. “Do you remember me, Letty?”
I wanted to cry. Of course I didn’t remember him, I had no memories outside of this place, and the fact that he expected me to know him was overwhelming me. Freeing
them from my sleeves, I brought my fists up and started banging them against my skull.
Worthless brain, worthless girl. Not good for anything. Can only forget where things are and hear the walls hummmmmmmmmm.
SHUT UP!!
Beat my brain in, beat it until it stops being useless.
“Letty, no! Stop.” Olivander grabbed my arms and fought with me to lower my fists, pulling me into his arms so I’d stop hurting myself. His arms closed around me, and something about it started to calm me down. It was nice, being so close to him. I scraped at my knuckles with my teeth, my fists pinned between us. “Letty,” he soothed, his large hand sliding up my cheek and running through my hair.
HUMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
The walls were shouting at me, demanding to be noticed above Olivander’s soothing words in my ear. I shoved him away and brought my leg up to kick against the wall.
“SHUT UUUUUP!” I shouted, the air crackling around me, and then an explosion took me with it.
I sat on my bed, bandages on my arms, hazy and uncertain how I’d gotten there. I’d taken my pills, and then… I guess I’d gone to my room? But how had the bandages gotten there?
“Hey,” someone said in my doorway, and I looked up to see a blonde-haired boy in the doorway, his long hair pulled back into a ponytail. He also had bandages on his arms, and a few on his neck and face. Why was he talking to me? I’d never seen him before in my life.
“Hi,” I said awkwardly, tugging on my bandages. I didn’t feel like talking, I just wanted him to go away. “You new here? Hope you’re not as batshit crazy as the rest of us. But then again, you wouldn’t be in here if you weren’t.” I stood and he watched every movement I made like the way cats study their prey. “I’m Violet.”
His face fell, almost as if I’d punched him in the stomach. “I’m Olivander. Nice to meet you, Violet.” He turned, standing there for a few seconds clenching his fists, and he was off down the hall, his shoes echoing on the tile.
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