Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

The back streets of Kalia reminded me far too sharply of those I’d lived in while growing up in Benjamin Acrux’s care. The memories of my friend Merrick were closer than ever, haunting me and reminding me why I had found a twisted kind of solace in dedicating myself to my job at Darkmore Penitentiary. There, I had found a purpose, and in that place, I had found nothing familiar to ring the bells of the past. When I’d been awake at least. Sleep was a different matter. The dead of night was where demons thrived and regrets evolved into beasts with sharp claws. Perhaps they were why I had been so doggedly determined to see Rosalie escape the clutches of that hell.

My heart hadn’t attached itself to anyone since Merrick, and yet now she held it in a way no one ever had. But where had following that insanity-draped path gotten me? Cursed and hunted for by the FIB. Though it seemed they currently believed Jack and I had been kidnapped, a simple Cyclops interrogation would set the record straight if we were caught. So it seemed my life was on track for self-destruction with one potential option of redemption left to me.

I looked to Sin Wilder who was walking a few steps ahead of me, swaggering along at Rosalie’s side, a silencing bubble around us all keeping our approach quiet. On her left flank, Ethan Shadowbrook stalked along, muscles primed for any attack that came our way, the mate mark behind his ear glinting faintly silver as the moonlight touched it. He was off limits because of his bond to Rosalie. But Sin…he was fair game. If I managed to chain him and return him to the FIB, I might just be pardoned and escape Cyclops interrogation for the act of clear loyalty.

Hastings had remained back in the safe house, given instruction by Rosalie to guard it for us, though as we crept through the dark like a stalking shadow, I had to think she’d really left him behind so that he wouldn’t be implicated in whatever happened once we found Pike. She’d offered to leave me with him too but I hadn’t graced that with a response and she’d only smirked at my silence, taken my hand and drawn me out the door. I hated the jolt my heart had given at the touch of her hand, hated the way my eyes remained pinned on her even though she’d long since released me, hated the truth of what she’d become to me because I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her while knowing she wasn’t mine to lose.

“Old long Johnson had a farm,” Sin whisper-sung under this breath. “E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a Cain.” He tossed a glance over his shoulder at me, a wicked glint in his eyes. “E-I-E-I-O. With a bitch-bitch here, and a bitch-bitch there. Here a bitch, there a bitch, everywhere a little bitch.”

“Shut it,” I snarled, and he sniggered. Yeah, handing him back to the authorities wouldn’t cause me any remorse. But as Rosalie turned an amused smile his way, the curse itched under my skin, warning me that she might not feel so forgiving if I took her crazy boyfriend away.

I was caught between a rock and a hard place, but still my feet kept following Rosalie wherever she went. Tonight was testing the limits of my loyalty to her. If Warden Pike saw me among her group, then tomorrow, the news would report it and out me as the true traitor I was.

Somehow, despite that knowledge clawing at me, I didn’t slow my pace, didn’t even think about turning back. I was a damn fool, following a woman I knew would never choose me, but my devotion to her ran deeper than I’d ever let myself acknowledge aloud.

“Here,” Rosalie announced, turning down a narrow alley between two high rise buildings that stretched away towards the glittering night sky.

The three of us followed her into the shadows and Sin hung back a little to rub shoulders with me.

“She’ll know your face, that Pikey Pike,” he whispered, offering me a twisted kind of grin. “Or will she know your ass better from all the whipping she did on it to keep you in line? Bet she got you to pull down your knickers and bend over like a naughty school girl every time you fucked up. Tut tut, what will she do when she sees her little school girl playing with the local bad boys?”

“Shut your mouth,” I hissed.

“You’re a two-trick pony, all you can do is say shut up and growl like a grunty bear. Don’t you do anything else? You’re pretty, but I’m thinking my sex pot needs more than pretty to let you join the main gang. So maybe she just took your D to buy your loyalty to help her fly free from her cage. Guess it worked if that was the case.” He smacked me on the bicep and I lunged, my fangs aimed for his throat as I shoved him against the brick wall.

Before I could bite him, his fist connected with my jaw, but I was fully feral, throwing my weight against him and shoving my forearm to his chest to pin him there. He leaned forward, his might forcing my arm to give before he placed a firm kiss to my lips. I reared back in anger and he skipped off down the alley with a bark of manic laughter. I was left with Rosalie cocking an eyebrow at me while Ethan continued on down the alley after Sin.

“Problem?” she questioned.

“He goaded me,” I muttered, feeling like a fool under her scrutiny.

“He goads everyone,” she said, stepping closer to me.

We hadn’t spent a moment alone since the escape and I felt the tension between us shivering through the atmosphere. All I wanted to do was grab her and pull her against me, tell her I wanted her in any way I could have her. But my pride wouldn’t let the words out, and they were a fool’s hope anyway. She had two moon mates and a feral Incubus to keep her satisfied. I hardly brought anything more to that situation and I didn’t exactly see how I could ever accept that three other men had a claim on her. We weren’t destined for each other, and what Sin had said was a truth that left me raw. I was Rosalie’s key to escape, nothing more. But here I was, still trailing along in her wake like a stray dog hoping for scraps. It was pathetic.

“Mason…” Her voice softened, her brow furrowing as she moved closer, her hand extending towards me. “Why are you still following me into chaos? You know what this will mean for you tonight.”

Her thoughts were clearly aligned with mine. She saw my stupidity for what it was and there was no hiding from it now.

“I can’t leave your side until you break this curse.” Stupid fucking answer. The coward’s one. I touched my wrist where the rose vine curled around it, the mark of the moon curse promising my death. I didn’t know when or how, but I doubted I had much longer left. Somehow that didn’t seem like the most pressing matter of my soul anymore. Her needs and desires were instead and treading this path to help her fulfil them was the only one I wanted to walk.

Her eyes darkened and she was suddenly cold, shutting me out. “Mm.” She turned her back on me, heading after the others and I swore beneath my breath.

I stood there for two long seconds before following on, my decision already made. I wasn’t backing out on this.

Ethan was waiting at the bottom of a fire escape ladder, but Sin had started up it, singing his farm song again and swaying his ass side to side as he climbed. The silencing bubble was keeping his insane bullshit from being heard by anyone outside our group, but I was unfortunate enough to be inside it.

“- and on that farm he had an Ethan, E-I-E-I-O. With an ass stash here and an ass stash there. Here’s a grape, there’s a grape, everywhere a bum grape.”

“Will you be quiet and focus?” Ethan called up to him, pursing his lips.

Rosalie stepped onto the ladder, brushing past Ethan and giving him a seductive look as she went. He placed his hands on her hips as if helping her onto the ladder even though she clearly didn’t need any assistance and his fingers roamed down to her ass, cupping before he let go and smirked as she climbed away from him. He went next and I followed, scaling the building all the way until we made it to the penthouse at the summit.

Sin already had a window popped open and was disappearing inside with Rosalie close behind him. When Ethan made it in, I swung myself after him off the ladder, landing in a dark hallway, the only sound between us the distant hum of a refrigerator.

Sin was silent at last, a violent look about him as he cocked his head and prowled down the hallway. “Come out, come out little warden.”

This was the moment when I should have been concealing my face, working on spells to mask myself from being recognised. But as Rosalie met my gaze, a dark kind of protectiveness wrapped around my soul and I found I wanted to be seen here with her. Insane as that thought was, it stayed my hand from concealing myself and I stepped close to her instead in a show of unity.

Her eyes trailed over me curiously before she headed after Sin, and Ethan’s shoulder touched mine as we followed as one.

I glanced at him and a silent understanding passed between us. She was our priority. Whatever happened here tonight, no wicked fate would befall her.

Sin pushed doors open, peeking into rooms and I couldn’t help but notice the luxury home Pike had claimed for herself. The Darkmore Warden’s salary had to be good, but this good? Doubtful. Rosalie had told me about the paper trail of money that Jerome had found coming straight from Drav Enterprises to Pike’s bank account and I had to admit that being a ruthless bitch who mercilessly sacrificed Fae to a fate worse than death clearly paid well. The more I thought about it, the further it riled an aggression in me which begged to be let out.

People like her were leeches, just like the man who had raised me. They thrived when they were in control and only managed to taste greatness in life through the achievements of others. They had no integrity, no real talent of their own, yet here Pike was, standing on the backs of those who got in her path to build her pretty little empire. My hand curled into a fist at my side and Ethan noted the change, strangely attuned to me in that moment.

“What did she do to you?” he murmured.

“Not me,” I said quietly. “But others.”

“You’ve got an actual heart under that iron exterior, haven’t you Cain?” he said, a slight taunt to his voice, but it seemed to be in friendly jest instead of a nasty jibe.

“Not much of one.”

“I think it’s the kind layered in scars. That’s what makes you fit in with us. We’re all broken on the inside.” He moved on at a quicker pace, giving me no time to respond to that and a frown creased my brow as I hurried after him. Did he really think I fit with them? I was one of the officers who had kept them all in line, that kind of shit didn’t just get forgotten. And hell, why was I even thinking about the hope that he might want to?

I ground my teeth, pushing out the errant idea and focusing on the reason we were here.

Sin sprang into another room with an ‘ah-ha!” and Rosalie darted after him. A commotion broke out and I started running, chasing Ethan into the room and finding Sin standing over Pike in her bed, holding her down with his air magic while he set her pillows on fire and made them beat her round the head.

“Enough,” Rosalie said calmly and Sin extinguished the flames, though he let the pillows whack Pike a couple more times before they fell still beside her. Her usually perfect ice-blonde hair was singed from the attack and she had lost half an eyebrow to the blaze, but she was pretty much unharmed apart from that. I noticed her mouth was open in a scream, but Sin had cast a silencing bubble around her to keep it quiet.

Rosalie took charge, stepping to the side of the bed and gazing down at my old boss. I didn’t think she could see me from this shadowy corner of her room, but there was time for her to notice yet. The Incubus extended our silencing bubble over her, releasing the one that had contained her scream.

“Hello, Warden,” Rosalie purred. “Remember us? The creatures you kept in cages, believing they would never find a way out and come creeping into your room at night like a living nightmare. But that’s the thing about arrogant stronzos in their ivory towers, they never expect the dogs they kick to bite back.” She nodded to Sin as Pike started answering her.

“Y-you have no idea what’s going to happen to you if you kill me,” Pike stammered, looking ruffled for the first time since I’d met her. This was not the control freak woman who had taken pleasure in keeping both guards and prisoners alike under her thumb. This was a frightened wretch in her bed who had finally realised she couldn’t outrun karma forever.

“You can keep breathing if you tell me where Roary Night is being held,” Rosalie offered. “I know he’s not in Darkmore. The news is reporting that he escaped. But I saw him being dragged into a helicopter marked with the emblem of Drav Enterprises. So where has he been taken?”

Pike’s throat bobbed at her words, like the name of that company was her undoing in so many ways. If the press got their hands on that information, she would likely end up in Darkmore herself with the hellions who she had ruled over for so many years. Their welcome would not be warm.

“How do you know about Drav Enterprises?” Pike asked in terror.

Sin pillow whipped her again using his air magic. “You don’t ask the questions here, fish bitch!”

She cowered from him with a whimper. “A-alright. I’ll tell you what I know. I think he’s been taken to Grimolda Isle. I got an invite to the smugglers ball – it’s like a black market where off record deals are made between the types of organisations which don’t exactly conform to the law. Drav Enterprises are going to be showcasing their latest projects. It’s in my nightstand.”

“And why did they take him at all?” Rosalie snarled, making Pike cower.

“I don’t know what they do with the prisoners they take to Psych. I just get paid to turn a blind eye, or to do the necessary cover ups.”

“She’s singing like a baby blue tit,” Sin said excitedly.

“Yeah, this was damn easy actually,” Rosalie commented as she reached into her nightstand drawer and took out a glittering silver invitation, glancing back at us.

“Ready to leave then, love?” Ethan asked.

She nodded and led the way out of the room. I moved for the door, but a gasp sounded from Pike and my name spilled from her lips. “Mason?” she balked, making my pulse thump erratically. “What…what are you doing with them?”

I turned to her as Ethan stilled, glancing from me to Pike with his eyebrows raised. Sin jumped off the bed, thumbing through some jewellery on Pike’s dressing table and pocketing pieces of it while starting to hum his farm song again.

I raised my chin, accepting the fate being delivered to me by the stars and staring Pike in the eyes. I knew what this would mean. Knew the weight of what would happen if she went to the FIB with the news of my whereabouts.

“What do you want to do about this?” Ethan murmured, giving me a look that said he would back me if I decided on her death, but I didn’t know why this asshole was so keen to make me his little buddy all of a sudden.

I didn’t know if it was insanity or mercy that made my decision, but I strode from the room, leaving Pike to do as she would about seeing me here. Ethan kept glancing at me, but I said nothing on the subject, my choice perhaps earning some sort of feelings from him. Trust? Doubtful. Maybe he was just curious why I continued to make foolish choices.

As we made it to the window where Rosalie was climbing onto the sill, Sin came skipping down the hall, covered in blood with his song tumbling from his lips. “With a stab-stab here and a stab-stab there, here a stab, there a stab, everywhere a stab-stab.” He clapped me on the cheek, marking me with his bloody palm print, and I stepped back from him in shock. “She’s a goner.”

“Sin,” Rosalie gasped. “You killed her?”

“Was I not supposed to?” He looked to her innocently. “She’d tell everyone we got out of Darkmore.”

“But everyone knows we escaped Darkmore,” Ethan said in confusion.

“Riiight.” Sin looked at me, his gaze intense and unwavering. “Well either way, dead little fishes don’t whisper to the sharks.” He turned abruptly away from me but left me with the baffling sense that he had killed Pike to cover for me. “Anyway, I put her head in a plant pot. She’ll grow back. Given time and water and the right amount of sunshine. She’ll be as good as new!” He threw himself at Rosalie and a cry left her as he knocked her out the window.

“Rosa!” Ethan bellowed, lunging to the edge and I did the same, my pulse climbing into my ears as I gazed out, finding Sin wrapped around her, guiding them down to the ground with his air magic.

“Fucking psycho,” I exhaled, relieved she was fine, but by the stars, did he have to be so unpredictable?

“He kind of grows on you after a while,” Ethan said, offering me a smile but I only frowned in return, confused by his behaviour.

As he swung his leg over the sill and started climbing down the ladder, I found my feet tracking back towards the bedroom where Sin had murdered Warden Pike. I glimpsed in at the carnage, her body torn to pieces and her head sitting snuggly in a plant pot, the fern dug out to make room for it. He had done this in less than a minute, and the thought made adrenaline puncture my veins. But as I stared at the horrified look in Pike’s lifeless eyes, I felt something toward the rogue Incubus that I never thought I’d feel. Gratitude.