Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham

51 hours until the FIB arrive…

 

Iwoke up in my Wolf form, snuggled against a big ass Nemean Lion shifter who had his paws resting over my stomach.

I yawned, stretching my spine out as I tried to wriggle out of Roary's hold on me, but he was one huge fucking golden Lion and it was damn hard to do.

I even tried barking at him, but he just rolled even closer to me and crushed me some more.

I gave up on being polite and shifted, falling against his fluffy chest in my Fae form before launching a tickle attack on his exposed belly.

He let out a roar as he woke suddenly, flipping us over so that I fell on my back on the dirt between his paws and found myself looking up into his snarling Lion face.

Roary growled at me, blinking sleepily as I got a good close up look at those teeth which were big enough to snap me in two with one bite.

I reached up and booped him on the end of his nose and he shifted back into his Fae form, growling with a little less intensity as he landed on top of me.

"We can't nap," I said with a pout, wishing I could steal a little more time with him, but we needed to regroup, form a decent plan to deal with this shit show and figure out how we were going to escape this place before it was too late.

We’d given ourselves a bit of a workout running around in our Order forms after our mating so I could replenish my magic, but we couldn’t just hide out in this moment of bliss.

"I know," he replied with a sigh, leaning down to press a kiss to my lips which was sweet and tender and said so many things I'd always dreamed he might say to me.

Roary pulled back before we could get carried away again and he headed off to grab his clothes, tugging them back on while I sat up and watched him.

Ugh, he was so freaking gorgeous I just couldn't get enough of looking at him. And though he clearly didn’t want to hear it, he looked hot with his hair short just like he had with it long.

I ran my fingers over the new mate mark on my wrist and bit down on my bottom lip as I smirked at him, my instincts humming happily at the knowledge that I'd finally claimed him for my own. That the moon had wanted him to be mine, just like she’d wanted Ethan to be. These moon marks were a gift just for us, linked to my Moon Wolf Order in some mystical way I wished I knew more about.

Roary Night had been my best kept fantasy for so long that I couldn't remember a time when I hadn't ached for him and now, I'd finally fulfilled the promise that my soul had always believed in. We were made for each other him and me. And now the stars had proved me right in that belief.

“I’ll fetch your clothes,” he said, taking off without a word and I smiled to myself as I waited for him to return. Roary Night. The guy I’d been in love with forever. My moon bound mate. Squee.

Roary returned with my clothes and handed them to me, noticing me staring at him. He ducked his head a little as he turned away again, scraping a hand over his roughly chopped hair like he wished he could hide it from me.

I pursed my lips, hating the pain that I saw reflected in his gaze in that brief moment. His incarceration here had stolen so much from him and the way he viewed himself as a Lion. His father and moms had turned their backs on him because of the supposed shame that him being caught had placed on the family. Ten years of his life had been stolen away to Darkmore Penitentiary. And now his mane had been hacked away by some deranged bitch and her psycho friend. Hadn’t he suffered enough? Were the stars really so merciless that they’d take so much from him?

I shoved myself to my feet, moving to stand before him and reaching up to push my fingers into the uneven strands of his hair.

A low growl escaped him as he forced himself to remain still and I brushed my fingers back and forth against his scalp.

"Do you want me to cut it more evenly for you?" I asked gently. "Just until we can make you a potion to regrow it?"

Roary closed his eyes like the thought of that pained him and his hands moved to clasp my wrists as he drew them back out of his butchered hair.

"I don't know if I can bear to have it cut any more than it already-"

"I'm the man for the job!" Sin's voice called to us excitedly and I turned to find him striding out of the bushes as he shifted into Edward freaking Scissorhands. "I've got a fantasy for all occasions locked away in this body of mine - and this one even has a scissorcock."

"Fuck no," Roary blanched, backed away from Sin who started snipping his scissor hands together aggressively.

"Don't worry, kitten. I'm a pro - just watch." Sin moved towards a little bush which had grown beneath the canopy of a large tree and began to prune it with flailing movements of his hands which sent leaves and branches flying everywhere.

I backed up, bumping against Roary and making him back away further too while Sin butchered the poor plant.

"Oh...maybe I need a little more practice," Sin said finally when the bush had been reduced to one brown stump.

"No. Fuck no. Keep the hell away from me with those things," Roary warned as he caught my hand and tugged me further away like he feared for the safety of my hair too.

"Oh come on, sex pot, just a little off the sides?" Sin offered with a pout, but I was firmly on team Roary with this.

"I said no," Roary barked. "And what were you doing lurking in the bushes anyway?"

Sin shifted back into his own form and grinned filthily at us. "Watching you two fuck of course. The lust was to die for might I add, and my magic reserves are as pumped up as my cock was at your little performance."

Roary snarled angrily but I slapped a palm against his chest to hold him back when he tried to advance.

"I can create some scissors with my earth magic," I said firmly. "And while I'm cutting your hair we can make a new plan."

Neither Sin nor Roary seemed to have any objections to that idea so I tipped my head back to the clouds and howled loudly to call Ethan to us before starting up a rocky incline to get a better view.

Roary took hold of my hand as we went and Sin strode forward to grab my other hand too. It was kinda silly, but it also felt all kinds of right, so I just kept hold of them as we walked.

“So…” Sin said as we walked, giving me a pointed look.

“What?” I asked.

“Are you going to tell me all about how Roary’s magic cock fucked you so good you decided to make him your second fancy little moon mate?” Sin’s grip on my fingers tightened painfully and I jerked them free.

“I didn’t choose it, Sin, the moon did,” I explained. “But yeah, me and Roary are mated now. Is there anything else you wanted to know about that?”

“Nope. Nothing. Nada,” he replied, looking away like he was pissed and I exchanged a look with Roary who only shrugged, clearly not caring.

“So you’re okay with it?” I pushed, feeling very much like he wasn’t.

“Who, me?” Sin asked dramatically. “Oh yeah, I’m peachy, dandy, happy as a goose flying upwind from a T-rex fart.”

I sighed, knowing that was bullshit but also not having any time for his nonsense right now.

“Okay, well, if you want to talk about it with me at some point then just let me know,” I offered.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just the Ringo of this band.”

I decided to leave that alone and let him process whatever way he was feeling about me and Roary being mated because he clearly wasn’t in the mood to talk about it rationally at the moment.

We made it up to a rocky outcrop with a view which stretched across most of the Order yard and Roary took a seat on the edge with his legs hanging over the side.

I used my magic to create a little seat out of a wooden stump behind him then created a pair of scissors as I sat down.

Roary tensed as I began to comb my fingers through the uneven strands of his dark hair, but I spoke to him in a low voice, reciting a little poem on fate in Faetalian which my aunt Bianca used to whisper to me when she tucked me into bed after she'd rescued me from my papa.

Roary relaxed a little as he listened to me and I continued to caress his hair until his shoulders dropped and I could feel his trust in me humming between us. The mark on my wrist for him hummed with contented energy and I reached down to take hold of his hand, raising it to my lips so that I could kiss it before I began.

Roary sighed, closing his eyes and kissing my mate mark in return, this one undeniably perfect thing calming the pain in him as he prepared for me to cut his hair.

I raised the scissors slowly, gently lifting a lock of his hair and cutting it to a length more even with the shorter strands. He flinched minutely as I did it and I took my time, working to retain as much of his rich brown hair as I could while making it presentable.

Sin sat a little way from us, watching quietly for once while Roary wrapped his arms around the backs of my calves and let his fingers trail back and forth over my ankles while I worked.

A soft growl escaped him as I continued to fix his hair and I could feel the mate bond that connected us pulling tight like a cord that physically bound us.

We all remained silent while I did it, Sin and I understanding how hard this was and allowing Roary to process it in his own time.

As I finished cutting the last dark strands, Ethan bounded up onto the bluff in his black Wolf form. He shifted back, dropping the clothes that had been bundled in his mouth and tugging them on before coming to take a seat beside us.

I finished Roary's hair and pressed a kiss to his cheek, stroking my fingers down his spine as he thanked me in an empty tone.

I moved to sit between him and Ethan, nuzzling against my Wolf in greeting as he reached out to take my arm and turned it over to reveal my new mate mark for Roary like he’d already known it was there. He hadn’t put his shirt back on and I chewed on my lip as my hungry gaze roamed over his bare chest and the ink that dripped over his arms.

"I can feel it too," Ethan said in a low voice, his gaze moving from my mark to Roary who was looking right back at him. "This connection between us. You're the centre of it, love, but it's more than just us and you. There's something between me and Roary now too."

"Yeah," Roary agreed in a low tone, his fingers reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear before caressing the mate mark I had for Ethan there. "I feel it too."

I bit down on a smile at those words as the two of them regarded each other with a new, keener kind of interest. They’d never seemed particularly fond of each other before now but the open, curiosity in their gazes as they looked at each other gave me hope for something I was afraid to voice. Because if my hopes were proved right then this was the start of something so much more than my mate bonds with the two of them. It was the start of our pack. A family all of our own. And the idea of that was just as terrifying as it was enrapturing.

I loved the Oscuras and I adored my pack mates, but the thought of forming a new pack of our own, one built on this kind of love with bonds as powerful as those I felt for these men was exhilarating. I guess I’d never really given much thought for claiming such a thing for myself because I’d always been so caught up on my unrequited love for Roary that I’d never even dreamed of another man capturing my heart in the same way. Let alone actually claiming the object of my obsession as my own too.

The clouds shifted overhead and I sighed as the light of the moon spilled over us, calling out to the celestial being which guided me in all things and asking her for some wisdom. Because shit, I was really in need of some wisdom right now.

We were up shit creek without a paddle and I was struggling to maintain my hope over us pulling this off. We'd lost almost an entire day of our three days leeway with the FIB and we were no closer to actually getting out of here. If I wanted any hope of this new pack becoming something so much bigger for all of us, then what we needed more than anything was to get the hell out of here.

As I looked off into the distance, the moonlight highlighted some movement beyond the glowing blue dome and my skin prickled with awareness as I looked towards the guard tower at the main entrance to the prison.

I raised a hand and quickly cast an enhancement spell so that I could see them better and I sucked in a sharp breath as I took in the huge group of guards who were gathered there, listening to Warden Pike who stood on a raised platform before them. There was no way for me to amplify the sound of her voice through the barrier of the dome, but I could tell from the way she was gesturing and how the guards were cheering enthusiastically that she was rallying the troops.

"I did try to warn you," Cain's voice came from behind us and I turned to find him standing there, his muscular arms folded across his broad chest as he looked out towards the assembled guards too. I’d been wondering if we’d even see him again after he reclaimed his Vampire gifts, but I guessed he wasn’t done with us yet.

"How long did you say we had before the guards would attempt to come down and subdue us?" I asked him.

"Forty-eight hours. Give or take. Which by my count means you've got about a day before hell descends on your little party down here and the whole thing goes to shit for you."

Roary snarled at Cain who just shrugged like he gave no fucks.

"I'm only telling you the truth. How do you expect to hold out against fifty guards with their magic flowing freely through their limbs and their Orders ready to pounce? There might be a hell of a lot of you down here, but between almost all of the prisoners not having access to their magic or Order forms and the fact that they're all down there right now partying and wasting energy on their little riot, it's obvious who will be victorious in that stand off."

I cursed as I looked away from him, my gaze sweeping over the assembled guards again as a prickle of doubt started making its way down my spine. But I couldn't give in to that feeling. I couldn't allow it to take root, because if it did then I was going to have serious trouble pulling this thing off. And I had to pull it off.

"We still need an explosive to get us into that elevator shaft," I said firmly. The Faesine might have been destroyed in our fight with the Belorian but that didn’t make my plan any less viable so long as we could use something else in its place.

"You still want to go that route despite all of those fucking guards waiting up there, love?" Ethan asked curiously, not seeming afraid but there was definitely a touch of doubt in his words.

"Yeah, I do," I replied firmly. Aside from anything else, there wasn't any other way out that I could think of now. Not with those fucking worm things waiting in the soil surrounding the prison to devour us and the forcefield Cain had mentioned was at the surface. "So we need a new explosive. The Faesine would have been great, but it's not the only explosive in this prison that we could use to blow shit up."

"The maintenance level was practically destroyed," Cain drawled behind me. "There's nothing left down there."

"I'm not talking about anything in maintenance. I'm talking about the lerinon gas which I know the prison has been taking regular deliveries of. I spent enough time running about on the maintenance level with you to know it wasn't down there. So are you going to tell me what they've been doing with it?" I turned to look at Cain again and he pursed his lips, a scowl moving over the men sitting either side of me as he looked inclined to try and push them over the precipice we sat on.

Eventually, my surly guard shrugged. "All I know is that it goes to Psych. And as that place is locked down even tighter than the elevator shaft which leads to the surface, it seems like you're going to need another plan."

I refused to balk at that, letting my mind drink the information in as the clouds parted completely overhead and we were all bathed in the pure silver rays of the moonlight.

I moaned slightly at the kiss of my favourite celestial being against my skin and tipped my head back, trying to think of a way to make this work.

The last time I'd been in Psych, I'd been gifted more than enough reasons to want to stay as far away from that fucking place as physically possible for the rest of time. Hell, I'd only managed to escape from there at all because the moon had decided to offer out one of its gifts to me and allowed me to become invisible somehow.

I closed my eyes as I remembered how it had felt to wield that strange power, the gifts of my rare Order flowing through my veins like the sweetest taste of bliss. Like moonlight given life beneath my skin.

I'd felt it there and I'd called out to it, begging it to save me, hide me.

"Holy shit on a rice cake," Sin gasped. "Where'd she go?"

"Rosa?" Roary asked in concern, jerking up straight as he looked all around for me, his gaze passing right through me.

I looked down at my body and found it absent, just like it had been that time in Psych.

"Per la luce della luna," I murmured, making Sin leap up as he looked all around us.

"I heard her. Maybe she fell down a hole?" he suggested frantically, starting to hunt for holes I might have fit down.

I laughed as I asked the moon to release me from my gifts before materialising between Roary and Ethan again.

"How the hell did you do that?" Ethan asked, reaching out to clasp my face in his big hand like he was worried I might disappear on him again.

"It's a gift from the moon," I replied, grinning at him as I used the power again and his eyes widened as I disappeared from view while his hold on my face hardened.

"You're still there. But you're not there either," he murmured in disbelief as Roary managed to find my hand and take hold of it too.

I released my grasp on the gift and turned back to look at Cain again.

"I'm going to find a way to get that gas from Psych," I said to him firmly. "And I think you can help me."

"How do you figure that?" he asked dryly.

"Because you knew all about the secret way to get up here," I pointed out. "Which means there must be more secret routes around this place which I'm willing to bet you know all about too."

"Let's say I do," Cain replied in a measured tone, his gaze moving over the others again. "Why would I help you exactly?"

I pushed to my feet and moved towards him with the power of the moon humming through my veins. I could feel my gifts more clearly than I ever had before. And though I still didn't understand them, I felt more in touch with them than ever. I could feel the curse which bound me to Cain buzzing inside my flesh like a rope which tied us together. It was like flexing my power over the gifts beneath the light of the moon had awakened some deeper connection to them within me. Or maybe I was just paying more attention to them now than I ever had before. But whatever it was, with the light of the moon on my flesh and the power I could draw from it, everything around me suddenly seemed so much clearer.

"Maledetto dalla luna," I purred, stepping right up to him and reaching out to brush my fingers over his arm as I pushed power into that magic which bound us to one another.

The rose vine which crept up his arm began to glow silver against his skin, brightening as I skimmed my fingers over it and drawing a low growl from Cain's lips as his other hand reached out to brush against my waist for the briefest of moments like he was desperate to feel more of my touch.

"I can feel this connection between us," I said slowly, moving my fingertips over his skin and watching as his pupils dilated with the tension that crackled between us. "I can feel it...and I think if I worked on that feeling, I might be able to figure out how to sever it. How to break the curse."

Cain's brow dipped at my words and I could see the mistrust in his eyes. But as he glanced over my shoulder towards the others again, his jaw ticked and a darkness seemed to shift within him too.

"Make a star bond with me," Cain growled, reaching out to take my hand in his. "Promise you'll try to figure out how to break this curse if I help you."

I tilted my head, regarding him for a long moment. He wanted me to try and figure it out and I could promise that. It wasn't like he was binding me into an agreement to actually fix it, because I had zero clues on how to do that even if I wanted to.

"Okay," I agreed. "I promise to try and figure it out if you help me."

Magic flared between our hands and Cain glanced beyond me again before speaking. "I can get a pass to Psych from the Warden's office," he said slowly.

"You can get up to the guards' quarters?" I asked in surprise and he jerked a nod.

"I'll take you up there if you can use that moon mumbo jumbo to stay invisible. But only you. I'm not trusting the safety of the other guards to anyone else." His gaze flicked to the others as a sneer touched his features.

"No fucking way," Roary cut in as Ethan leapt to his feet with a snarl on his lips.

"We're not trusting you to look after her," Sin said firmly but I just scowled at them.

"This isn't a dick measuring contest, stronzos. We need to get into Psych and I'm the only one who can turn invisible. Besides, I'll just curse Cain even harder if he tries to fuck me over. Okay?" I grinned widely, though none of them seemed inclined to smile back.

They were still grumbling like it wasn't okay at all, but Cain had clearly had enough of waiting around.

"You heard her. So just wait here like good psychos and try not to die while we're gone." Cain shot towards me, yanking me off of my feet and making me squeal in surprise as we raced away at Vampire speed towards the hidden exit.

I'd barely even blinked before I found us back on the top floor of the prison with the dead bodies of the girls who had taken Roary's hair sprawled out beneath us and Cain stumbled to a halt.

"Fucking suppressant gas," he cursed, setting me down on my feet as the connection to my Wolf was stolen away from me again. "Remind me to take an antidote shot while we're back in the guards' quarters."

"Oh, good plan," I agreed. "I'll get one for all of us."

Cain scowled at me, clearly not having wanted that and I just gave him my biggest smile before taking off down the stairs.

He moved up close behind me as we jogged down flight after flight, listening to the sounds of the other inmates still rioting and causing mayhem throughout the prison, but we managed to avoid seeing many of them.

Cain still wore the orange jumpsuit and whenever we did pass another inmate, he just dropped his gaze to the ground, keeping close behind me and luckily none of them gave him a close enough look to recognise him.

We somehow made it all the way down to the maintenance level without anyone bothering us and Cain dragged me through the wreckage we'd caused and past lumps of the Belorian's corpse before jerking me to a halt.

"Promise me you won't hurt any of the guards up there," he growled, looking me dead in the eyes and waiting on my answer like he planned on breaking our deal if he wasn't satisfied by it.

"I just want to be free, Mason," I said to him honestly. "I didn't come here to hurt anybody. All I want is to get out of here. I promise I'm not looking to attack any of the guards."

He stared into my eyes before releasing a slow breath and nodding.

"Come on then.”

I followed him to a corner of the room, watching as he revealed a hidden magical sensor before using it to unlock a hatch in the ceiling. I chewed on my bottom lip as a ladder descended for us and Cain beckoned me forward to climb up behind him.

I did as instructed, keeping close as we headed up into the dark space above us and started climbing up another ladder.

We headed higher and higher, the sound of the hatch beneath us closing again echoing loudly through the confined space as dim blue lighting guided us further.

Once we'd climbed a few levels, Cain stepped off of the ladder and into a crawl space, leading the way on again.

My heart pounded as I followed him, wondering if I was losing my mind to be trusting the stronzo who had locked me up in the hole for months after I'd saved his freaking life. But I was fresh out of ideas and luck was clearly partying with someone else tonight, so I had no choice but to keep moving. Because if this plan didn't come together, I wasn't sure I had another one up my sleeve.

At the end of the crawl space, Cain opened another hatch that led out into an elevator shaft which I guessed was the one the guards used inside the prison.

We started climbing again. Up and up and up until my arms were burning with the strain of it and my muscles were trembling. I sent a little healing magic into my limbs to help me out and we finally made it to the top where Cain took my hand and pulled me up onto a narrow walkway.

He lingered there for a moment, his hand on mine, our chests almost touching and a question in his eyes which he clearly decided against asking before he turned and strode away into the dim space once more.

I kept close to him as we walked down the narrow space, and it felt like we must have walked across the entire breadth of the prison by the time we stopped at yet another ladder.

"This is it," Cain murmured, glancing up at the ladder before looking to me again. "I'm going to try and remain undetected up there too so that I don't have to answer too many questions about what's going on in the prison or justify myself for heading back down there again."

"You're coming back down?" I asked him, surprise filling me as he gave me an unreadable look. I’d figured his version of helping me to satisfy our deal would be ending after this, but it seemed like he hadn’t intended for us to go our separate ways yet.

"Yeah...well I have to make sure you don't die before you break this curse. Now do your invisible thing so we can get on with this."

I nodded obediently. "Yes, boss man."

Cain's eyes flared with pleasure at the submissive lilt to my voice and I smirked at him as I called on my gifts and felt them washing over me, hiding me and filling me with the peaceful energy of the moon.

The moment he was satisfied that he couldn't see me anymore, Cain started climbing, leading the way up to the final hatch before pushing it wide and climbing out at the top.

I scrambled out behind him, moving close to him and brushing my fingers along his arm to let him know I was out before he closed the hatch again.

We'd emerged in Warden Pike's office and I looked around it curiously as Cain strolled straight towards a large cabinet which stood beside the wall and began rummaging through it for a pass to Psych.

I crept towards the door while he looked, peeking out through the glass and flinching as I spotted Officer Lyle striding past quickly like he had a fire up his ass.

"Got it," Cain hissed, drawing my attention back to him as he shoved the pass into his pocket.

"Let's go get some antidote for the Order suppressant then," I said, pushing the door open before he could think about stopping me and he cursed as he hurried out behind me.

I remembered where the dispenser was thanks to me and Roary coming up here to steal some before and I was glad to find the corridor that held it empty as I jogged across the dark carpet and jammed my thumb down on the button to release one.

A shot of antidote rattled down the shoot and I quickly hit the button again and again, grabbing a handful of the shots and dropping them in my pocket just as Cain caught up to me.

He grabbed me roughly, finding my back first and quickly locating my arm as he took hold of my invisible body.

"For fuck's sake, Twelve," he growled.

"Oh, I missed you calling me by my number," I purred, teasing him as he quickly hit the button on the dispenser and grabbed an antidote for himself. He promptly flipped the cap off and stuck the needle into his thigh through his jumpsuit and I smirked at him even though he couldn't see me. "Do you miss being the big bad guard who was breaking the rules with me?"

"Shut up," he hissed, glancing around in concern before dragging me back towards the Warden's office. "We've got what we came for so we should just-"

A guard's voice carried from the corridor ahead of us and the sound of footsteps sounded our way too.

Cain cursed, grabbing me and slinging me over his shoulder as he shot away from the approaching man, darting down corridors so fast that I couldn't keep track of where we were until he was slamming a door closed behind me and dropping me down onto my feet again.

Cain locked the door, throwing a silencing bubble up around us for good measure and I looked around at the room he'd brought me to with interest.

"Oh shit, did you just bring me into your room, Mason?" I asked, taking in the bed at the far side of the space and the perfectly organised shelves surrounding it.

"We just need to stay in here until the guards out there are gone," he said, staying by the door while I moved deeper into his bedroom.

I dropped down onto his bed, leaning back on my elbows and moaning as I released my hold on my gifts so that I became visible again.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Cain demanded as his gaze fell on me and I grinned as I dropped to my back, the mattress like the best hug I'd ever gotten.

"Do you know how long it's been since I laid on a real bed?" I asked, kicking my boots off and wriggling backwards to enjoy this better.

"You have a bed in your cell."

"Not like this and you know it," I replied firmly.

The sound of someone shouting beyond the door drew both of our attention to it as we listened in.

"We need to come up with a solid plan," Lyle called out. "Because there is a jellybean thief amongst us and if we don't stick to fair distribution of the food then this entire lockdown could become a whole lot more serious!"

A bunch more guards started calling back to him angrily and Cain cursed them as he moved away from the door.

"They're holding a fucking meeting in the rec room right opposite here," he explained. "We'll have to stay put until they fuck off again."

I shrugged, glancing around the sparsely decorated space before noticing the remote for the cuff keys sitting on his nightstand.

"There's no point in you looking at that thing like you might use it in your hairbrained schemes," Cain warned as he moved to stand over me.

"Oh?" I asked innocently.

"It will only work in response to my magical signature, and there's no fucking way I'm returning magic to any of the other psychopaths down there."

I pouted at him in disappointment, but it seemed clear there was no point in me pushing that right now.

He snatched my wrist suddenly, holding it under his nose as he spotted the full moon mark on it that bound me to Roary.

“What’s this?” he demanded, a growl to his voice as I yanked my hand back.

“The moon mated me to Roary.”

“No,” he said in refusal of those words.

“Yes,” I shot back.

“Two mates?” he snarled and if I wasn’t totally delusional, jealousy gleamed in his eyes.

“What’s the matter? You wanna trade in that curse for one of these?” I waved the moon mark at him teasingly and his fangs snapped out in anger.

“Never,” he said coolly.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“There isn’t one,” he muttered and silence fell between us once more.

After a while, I got to my feet, standing right in front of him and stealing all of his attention.

"What's going on in that angry mind of yours?" I asked him curiously, tipping my head to one side.

"I'm just figuring out how best to deal with this situation," he lied, his gaze roaming all over me before landing on my neck for a little too long.

"Mmm. Well I guess you could just open that door, drag me out there, show the guards how you caught yourself one of the most powerful prisoners in the whole of Darkmore... but you're not doing that. You're hiding me in your room like a dirty little secret."

"Don't flatter yourself, Twelve. I'm only helping you because I don't want to die from this curse you've placed on me," he said firmly, his throat bobbing as he eyed my neck again.

"So you think if you get me out, the curse might break?" I asked curiously.

Cain held his tongue for several seconds before grabbing me suddenly and pushing me back against the wall beside his bed.

"I can get you out of here," he said in a low voice, his eyes bouncing between mine as he tried to read something in my expression which I wasn't sure was there. "In two days, the FIB will break in here and return the prison to order again. They'll rescue all of the guards who are still down here, take us back up to the surface. You could just come with me. Use this invisibility power or whatever the fuck it is and stay by my side. No one will ever even know. They'll just assume you died in the riot and-"

"But that won't get the others out," I said, catching onto what he was getting at and balking against it as I tried to push him back, my hands landing flat against his chest.

"Just forget about them," Cain growled. "They're criminals who deserve this fate. But you...maybe if I help you get out of here the curse will break and-"

"Is that the only reason you even want me to be free?" I asked, arching a brow at him as he refused to move out of my personal space. "Because you think it might break the curse?"

Cain flinched the barest amount at the acid in my tone but he set his gaze firmly as he nodded. "Of course it is. What other reason would I have for wanting to help a criminal escape this place?"

Rage flared inside me as hurt carved though my chest at his words and Cain swore as he stumbled away from me, clutching his arm where I could feel the power of the curse mark throbbing with power.

I made a move to push past him but he caught my arm, grunting against the pain of the curse and looking at me like he was trying to figure me out.

“I shouldn’t have locked you in the hole,” he said roughly and I paused, my heart pounding as I waited to hear this. “It was…selfish of me. You saved my life and all I could focus on were the lies you’d told me, the betrayal.”

“So what’s changed?” I asked.

“I…nothing. But I understand you better now I think. I heard what you said about getting yourself locked up in here to save the Lion and the more I think on it the more it makes sense. An Oscura getting locked up for a bank job always seemed suspicious to me. Your gang is infamous and wealthy, you didn’t need that money and there was evidence that at least one other Fae escaped using stardust. But not you. You were left behind to be caught and thrown down here.”

“So you accept that I came here for Roary. What difference does that make?” I asked, raising my chin.

Cain frowned at me, his hand moving to my throat as his thumb skimmed down my neck over the flickering point of my pulse and he growled softly.

“It means I can see that there is some good in you. That I can understand why you manipulated me…even if I still don’t forgive you for it.”

Silence fell between us and I licked my lips slowly, letting him look at me as he just stared into my eyes.

“Tell me what Sin and Ethan saw when they stole a look at your memories,” I urged, moving my hand to his wrist and squeezing so that the grip he held on my neck tightened. “Is what they saw the reason why you find it so hard to trust anybody?”

“What they saw was none of their damn business,” he warned, his eyes flashing angrily.

“Well you didn’t much care about that when you looked up my history,” I pointed out. “When you read about all the things my papa used to do to me in some file and stole a look at all the scars he left me with.”

Cain’s throat bobbed as his gaze drifted down the left side of my body like he could see those scars through my clothes, like he could feel the echoes of the pain they held.

“When I was growing up, I had nothing,” he murmured. “Nothing and no one. Until one day I was rescued by a man who I suspect had a lot in common with your father.”

“He beat you?” I guessed.

Cain shook his head slowly. “He did. But not often. Because I was one of his favoured – he tended to reserve that treatment for the weaker kids. What he did to me was different…he honed me into a violent creature, one without care or affection for others and a desire to spill blood for no reason beyond my own victories over them. He wanted me strong, it was his mantra, he had some obsession with raising fearless Fae who could rise to the top of the pecking order.”

“That’s why you’re all alone?” I breathed, my skin tingling as he shifted his grip on me to my jaw and ran his thumb over my bottom lip.

“I’m a Vampire, we’re meant to be alone,” he muttered.

“I don’t believe that,” I said softly.

“Oh really? So who should I be with then? Because the only woman who has ever tempted me into desiring her for more than her blood and her body turned out to be a lying whore who was only ever looking to use me.”

“That’s what you think of me?” I demanded, feeling like he’d just struck me with those words.

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

A snarl tore from my lips and I shoved past him, heading for the door and intending to leave his ass behind but he shot after me, slamming into me with his Vampire strength and shoving me back against the door as I turned to glare up at him.

"Don't go," he demanded.

"Why not?" I snarled.

Cain stared at me for an eternity, the turmoil twisting in his gaze enough to make my skin prickle as he stood caught in indecision.

With a growl of frustration, he gripped my face between his hands and slammed his mouth down against mine.

My heart leapt at the feeling of his lips on mine, the rough bite of his stubble grazing my flesh in the most tempting way as the tight grip of his hands set my skin blazing. But I yanked myself back before I could fall too far into his trap.

"You only want me when you know you can't have me," I growled at him and he shook his head as I broke away from him and started to back away.

"I want you all the fucking time," he replied angrily as I kept moving away and he stalked after me, the hunter in him rising to the bait as I presented myself as a target to the beast beneath his skin. "I think about you every moment of every day. I get lost in the memory of your flesh against mine and I lose my mind trying to figure out the truth behind the lies you spin. I watch you whenever you're near and I obsess over you when you're not. The whole time you were in the isolation unit, I was burning up inside from the pain of your betrayal and the knowledge that no matter how much I punished you, it wouldn't come close to erasing the ache in me for you. You're a thorn which has worked its way beneath my skin, Twelve, and I've found that I enjoy the feel of you there too much to even try and pull you out."

"So what am I supposed to take from that?" I asked, skirting the bed as he continued to prowl after me, my pulse racing faster with every moment that I evaded him.

"Nothing," he replied darkly. "It doesn't matter anyway because it’s too late for me to stop this. You came here with temptation tattooed into your soul and I lost the battle to resist you the moment I first got my fangs in you. At this point, the two of us are just prey to my obsession."

"There's only one problem with that," I said, stopping abruptly and smirking as I stepped up onto the bed that divided us. "I'm not anyone's prey."

I launched myself at him but he shot aside before I could collide with him, catching my waist and throwing me back down onto the bed with a snarl.

Cain advanced on me, his fangs bared as I wriggled backwards and I raised my chin as I caught his eye.

"No biting," I commanded, making him pause.

"What? Why not?"

"I'm going to make you work for it, stronzo," I purred, sitting up so that I could push my jumpsuit down my arms. "You need to learn a lesson in delayed gratification."

"Or I could just pin you down and take what I want from you," Cain replied, kicking his boots off and tugging his tank top over his head before tossing it aside.

"You could try," I taunted, my gaze running over his muscular chest hungrily. I'd never really gotten the chance to just look at him like that. His stupido guard uniform was always in the way and when we had hooked up before it had been such a wild and furious thing that I hadn't had time to just drink in the sight of him. "Or you could play by my rules and find out how good it feels to please me."

Cain snarled, pouncing on me with refusal in his eyes and I barely had a chance to cast my magic before he was on top of me.

But as his weight settled between my thighs and his fangs closed in on my throat, a vine whipped towards him and secured itself around his neck, yanking him back so that he couldn't bite me.

Cain cursed but I ignored him, flipping us over so that I was on top of him and grinding down against the thick length of his cock through his jumpsuit.

He groaned as I rolled my hips and I forced my magic to bend to my command as more vines appeared, tugging on his jumpsuit as I lifted my hips and yanking the thing clean off of him.

Cain destroyed the vine around his neck with a flash of fire magic, but I tugged my shirt off before he could get any more ideas of biting me, grinding down on him again as he sat up beneath me.

He groaned as I pushed my hands through my hair, my tits bouncing in his face and forcing his attention away from my blood.

Cain's hands closed around my waist, his palms rough against the softness of my skin as he gripped me tightly and his mouth closed over my nipple.

I moaned loudly for him, praising his efforts in Faetalian as I continued to grind against his cock, my body clenching in anticipation of what I wanted from him.

He wasn't soft with me, but he slowed down, taking his time to run his hands up my sides while sucking on my nipple in the perfect way to have me panting for him.

His fingers brushed against one of the biggest scars which were hidden beneath my tattoo and I flinched minutely, unable to help feeling self-conscious of them even if I had learned to be proud of them too.

Cain continued to trace his thumb back and forth across my scars and the discomfort in me rose a notch until I gripped his hand and moved it away. I tried to push his hand between my thighs to cover for what I'd done, but he pulled back and growled at me as he refused the movement.

"Why did you do that?" he demanded and though I was tempted to lie, pretend I hadn't done anything and distract him with the feeling of my pussy on his cock, I found I couldn't force myself to take the cowardly route out of this.

"I made peace with my scars a long time ago," I said to him seriously, letting him see the truth of those words in my eyes as I held his gaze. "And I made something meaningful of them when I covered them in ink for my famiglia. But I know how uncommon scars are and I know that they're not exactly a turn on, so-"

Cain growled at me as he snatched his hand back out of my grip, grabbing my waist again and throwing me back down on the bed beneath him.

"Maybe I need to teach you something while I've got you at my mercy, Rosalie," he said and I swear the way he growled my name sent a shiver darting through me all the way to my core.

"What's that?" I asked breathily, watching him as he reared over me, his gaze roaming down my body, fixing on my left side with more intensity than I thought anyone had ever looked at me before.

"That all of your damage is what makes you so beautiful to me. It's not the face you show the world, it’s the hurt you've overcome to claim your crown. I can see the pain of my own past in you and so much more besides. You're a warrior, a survivor and you're more beautiful for every mark upon your flesh."

He dropped his mouth to my shoulder, kissing the scar he found hidden in my tattoo there and making me suck in a sharp breath as he began to move lower. Licking and kissing every mark my father had left on my body and making them burn with the heat of his adoration.

I moaned and writhed beneath him as he worked his way lower, worshipping each of my scars and making it more than clear to me that he meant every word he'd spoken about them.

I lifted my hips for him as he dragged my jumpsuit down, taking my panties with it and leaving me bare beneath him as he continued to kiss and lick every one of my scars.

When he made it to the one that curved over my hip, he followed the line of my body until he was burying his face between my thighs and sucking my clit between his teeth.

I gasped as his fangs almost broke the skin but as I tried to jerk back, he just pushed forward, sinking two fingers into me and groaning as he continued to lick and suck me.

I bucked my hips into the movement of his tongue against my clit, pawing at my breasts and tugging on my nipples to sharpen the pleasure he was gifting me until I was coming with a howl that made my back arch off of the bed.

Cain sat back so that he could watch me as he continued to drive his fingers in and out slowly, his gaze devouring me as he held me at his mercy.

"Togliti I pantaloni," I commanded, pushing myself up onto my elbows as I looked at him.

I was guessing the tone of my voice made my point because he withdrew with a smirk on his face and obediently removed the rest of his clothes.

I shifted forward, reaching for him, but he shot around me, landing on the bed behind me and kissing my neck as his solid cock drove into my ass cheek.

"You don't know how often I've thought of you while I was in this room," Cain growled. "You and your lying eyes and that tight, hot body. The things I've imagined doing to you would make you blush, inmate."

I moaned for him, tipping my head back against his shoulder as I looked up at him and smiled.

"I bet you thought about pinning me down and teaching me a lesson, didn't you Mason? Did you dream of using your cock to punish me for all the bad, bad things I've done?"

"Yeah, I did," he agreed, wrapping an arm around me and squeezing my breast in his palm almost hard enough to hurt. "I thought about getting you on your knees and driving my dick into that mouth of yours every time you tried to bullshit me. I think if I could have punished you the way you needed to be punished, I might have stood a chance at rehabilitating you for good."

I laughed, driving my ass back against his cock and feeling just how hard he was for me with a thrill of delight.

"That's the problem with silly little fantasies, Mason - they just can't compare to the real deal." I twisted in his arms and kissed him hard, tasting my own lust on his lips as his fangs grazed my tongue.

While he was distracted, I shoved him down beneath me, sinking onto his cock before he could get anymore stupido ideas about trying to dominate me.

Cain groaned as my pussy gripped him tightly and I let out a sigh of satisfaction as his thick length filled me.

I began to ride him as our kiss deepened, my hips rocking back and forth and keeping his cock deep inside me so that I could feel every glorious inch of him.

Cain grasped my hips, reclaiming some control as his fingers bit into my ass and he began to guide my movements in sync with his thrusts which drove up into me hard enough to steal my breath.

As a deep moan escaped me, he flipped us again, bearing down on top of me and tossing my leg over his shoulder as he fucked me harder and kissed me deeper.

His mouth moved from mine until he was kissing my neck, his fangs scraping against my skin in the most delicious way, but I wasn't ready for him to take that yet.

I flicked my fingers and vines ripped him off of me, slamming him back against the wall with a snarl as I pushed up onto my feet and prowled towards him with the Wolf in me looking out from within my eyes.

"You're insufferable," Cain growled as he fought to burn the vines off of him, but every time one of them was burned away more took its place to contain him and I smirked as I slowly sank to my knees before him.

"No, stronzo, I'm just in charge. The sooner you get used to that, the easier this will be for you."

Cain started protesting but his words fell short as I took his cock between my lips and I started fucking him with my mouth. My hands landed on his thighs, my nails digging into the thick muscles as I felt him tremble in response to my efforts to destroy him and I smiled around his shaft.

I sucked and licked him, taking him deep and loving the way his cock pulsed and strained in my mouth while he still struggled to free himself from my magic.

I pulled back as I felt him teetering on the edge, looking up at him as his muscles strained against my vines and giving him an innocent look. "If you can break free before I make you come for me, I'll let you put me in my place and bite me too," I challenged. "But you might want to hurry up, because I think I'm about to finish you."

Cain groaned as I wrapped my lips around his cock once more, his hips thrusting as he gave in to the motion for several seconds, letting me own him, feeling how good it was to fall beneath my command.

But then a wave of heat washed over me as a snarl escaped him and the next thing I knew I was on my feet again, my face pressed to the door as he used his speed to get me exactly where he wanted me.

His palm pressed to my bare back as I let him hold me there and I turned my face to smirk at him over my shoulder, taunting him to do his worst.

"I told you how often I've thought about teaching you a lesson in this room, Twelve," he growled, his eyes running down my body before his hand cracked down against my ass hard enough to leave a print. "And I think I know exactly what it might take to do that."

He shot away from me so fast that I barely had a moment to blink before he'd returned, a bottle of lube in his hand which he squirted liberally over my ass before tossing it aside.

I moaned for him as he slicked his fingers down between my cheeks and the next thing I knew he was driving his cock between them too.

"Come on then, boss man," I panted, pushing my ass back against him and giving him free rein to try and punish me any way that he desired. "Show me how angry I make you."

Cain snarled in my ear as he drove his cock into my ass, his fangs grazing my neck and a throaty moan escaped me as I pushed back against him, wanting to feel all of this and show him I could take whatever punishments he wanted to try and dish out.

He started moving slowly at first, groaning in my ear and telling me how fucking tight I was before upping his pace, gripping my hip and fucking me harder.

My nipples rubbed against the wooden door in the best fucking way and I braced myself against it so that I could push back into his movements.

Cain shifted his hand from my hip, dropping it to my clit and making me cry out for him as he began teasing it in time with his brutal thrusts.

It was so much, so fucking much and his pace was merciless as he took ownership of my body and slammed into me over and over again.

"This is your fault," he snarled in my ear. "You made me do this, didn't you? You wanted to ruin me the first moment you laid eyes on me, didn't you?"

"Yes," I gasped as he drove in harder, punishing me like he wanted to while I loved every fucking second of it.

"You've been aching for my cock, haven't you Twelve?"

"Yes," I panted. "Almost as much as you've been aching for me."

He snarled as he slammed in harder, stealing my breath as I could feel his dick swelling within me, but he was holding off his release, dragging this out as long as he could manage.

"Come for me then, inmate. Show me how much you love taking my dick. Show me how good it feels to accept your punishment."

I tried to hold out on him, my muscles clenching as I fought to make him come first, wanting to prove to him that I still owned him even now. But he seemed to know it and his pace increased, the pressure of his fingers on my clit creating the perfect rhythm with his cock and suddenly I was doing what he wanted, coming and screaming his name.

Cain's teeth sank into my neck as he came too, my pleasure somehow building as he drank deeply while thrusting in a few final times, fucking me into the door and making my legs give out from the pressure.

But he held me in place, his dick still inside me as he drank slowly, savouring every drop he claimed until he withdrew his fangs and pulled out of me too.

I turned to face him, panting and grinning while using the door to hold myself up.

"You were always going to ruin me, weren't you?" Cain breathed, resting his forearm against the door above my head as he leaned down to look into my eyes.

"Perhaps we were always meant to ruin each other," I suggested. "But either way, I don't seem to be able to stop it."

"Then don't," he replied, his eyes flashing with vulnerability for a moment before he locked the feeling down again and looked away from me.

I caught his chin in my grasp and made him meet my gaze.

"Maybe I won't," I breathed, tiptoeing up to press a kiss to his lips. "But I guess the only way you'll find out is by sticking with me."