by Emma Cole
Avarice: House of Mustelid
Wicked Reform School
Emma Cole
Avarice: House of Mustelid © Emma Cole 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.
THIS BOOK IS EXCLUSIVE TO AMAZON. IF THAT IS NOT WHERE YOU PROCURED YOUR COPY-- IT IS STOLEN. PLEASE PURCHASE A COPY AND DON’T BE A PIRATE. THIS ISN’T THE 17TH CENTURY HIGH SEA.
Editing by – Inked Imagination Author Services
Cover Art by – Dark Imaginarium Art
Synopsis
Arimina Ruscov has landed herself a one-way ticket to the Wicked Reform School– where delinquents go to reform or face execution at the end of their sentence.
As a hybrid weasel-ferret shifter, she has some unique hurdles to face when she meets her mates. Not to mention, just trying to stay alive and avoid the pitfalls her uncle's spy keeps throwing at her.
Unbeknownst to Arimina, fate may just have a different agenda intended for her.
Will Mina's mates be enough to save her– or will biology, and a deviant uncle, lead to her death?
Find out in AVARICE: HOUSE OF MUSTELID, a reverse harem supernatural prison romance with an academy twist! It features brand new characters and is in the Wicked Reform School World. At this reformatory, you’ll discover wicked paranormals, wicked punishments, and wicked pleasure, like you’ve never read before!
Welcome paranormal delinquent... We hope you enjoy your stay at Wicked Reform School.
To facilitate this, we have a few rules:
1) Never disobey your instructors or staff
2) Be at the appointed place at the appointed time
3) Fights will not be tolerated (unless sanctioned by your guards)
If you follow these rules, you’ll be fine. If not, well…
They didn’t have to say anymore. Everyone knew the ending to the sentence. Reform or die…it was our only choice. Because this wasn’t a school, it was our prison.
Prologue
Vaughn
"You sure about this gig?" My quadmate Bane was getting on my last nerve. This was the third time he'd asked since we'd arrived in Ghost territory. Not to mention the twenty other times from when we took the job up until we got here.
"Dude, this should be a cakewalk. We catch this 'Avarice' asshat that's been robbing the Ruscov family blind, then we can get on with hunting down our bondmate. I swear I felt something when we came through town." Where Bane was our resident pessimist, Lorca was our glass half full member.
He wasn't wrong though. And as quad leader I didn't want to be irresponsible and get their hopes up, but I thought I'd felt the spark of a mate bond already. When I'd caught sight of the back of a female in a hooded sweatshirt with a lock of white hair escaping it, I'd had an insane urge to follow. It felt as if I were being tugged by a rope, leading in her direction. Unfortunately, we'd been under orders to pick up the slim dossier on the thief and set up immediately.
We'd been hired because we were one of the best groups of hunters. Only the single quint group held a higher success rate by one catch.
"Alright, let's get set up and then we can go over the dossier over dinner. Iliam? You mind ordering pizza while we sort the rest of this?" I redirected my team to get on task and lead them away from the mating talk. I'd gotten a bad feeling about this during our conversation, but I couldn't pinpoint why.
***
I adjusted my balaclava to help hide my face and tucked a black beanie over my snow-white hair. Over that I put up the hood on my snug-fitting sweatshirt, angling it to shade my violet eyes. Tonight's job was paramount to retrieving the leverage my uncle held over a forger. He was using the man's family as collateral to force his compliance, and it was my mission to get them out of the crossfire. The little girl and her mom hadn't asked for the man in their life to dip his toes into organized crime. Unfortunately for them, a toe-dip is enough for the Ghost Clan to swallow you up. It didn't used to be so– awful. Sure, we'd been shady when my parents ran things, but the locals were terrified, and the tariffs my uncle kept imposing were slowly strangling the town. No one could afford them.
I concentrated on stealthily escaping the compound and my mission to liberate the innocent. There wasn't a lock that could stop me, hence the Ghost Clan legend. The ability didn't appear in every generation, but when it did, it was usually heralded by the telltale albinism I carried.
***
Iliam
Something was off with Vaughn. I could feel it. Rarely was any of our intuition wrong, and mine was just as in tune as our quad leader's. We all sat absorbed in the information as we went over our packets and inhaled the pizza I'd ordered.
According to the information in the dossier, the target was suspected to be a ghost. That meant this was an inside job and a betrayal to the entire clan. I'd imagine the Regent would want to keep it quiet that one of his own had turned on him. There had been whispers about goings-on that the leaders who oversaw the shifters wouldn't approve of happening in the region. If they were true, then it was some pretty devious and nasty shit. The Therian Council rarely got involved unless it was something that would expose the supernatural to the world at large.
A grunt from Vaughn had me narrowing my eyes at him, and I was done pussyfooting around. As second, it was my job to keep the peace and step in when it was warranted.
"Spit it out already. What's going on?"
Surprisingly, it was Lorca who answered. "This is giving me hives. It looks like it's all set up and the target is all but gift wrapped for us." He glances up from his packet, addressing Vaughn. "This may as well say they know who it is and where they'll be tonight, but they're calling us in to handle it? Why?"
Vaughn tossed his set of papers on the hotel suite’s table. "We can't back out now. If we do, we can be sanctioned and sent to the council. In the meantime, we'd be sitting in the Clan gaol." We all gave a shudder at that. Any clan prison isn't a place you want to end up, especially if you were an Enforcer.
"We're being set up as executioners." Bane had the right of it. We'd all come to the same conclusion, glancing uneasily between us.
"Let's do what was requested and get out of the area. We can't refuse unless we have something legitimate to take to the council. And if we refuse, we'd have to make a run for it. The Regent would never let us leave if he thought we were a threat."
We all nodded in agreement without enthusiasm. Usually, we were antsy to get started; tonight we were somber but determined to finish our job.
***
I had the mom and kid cloaked, and we'd made it through their small house and down the stairs without a hiccup. I'd used a sleeping powder on the guard at the rear, a quick burst of breath and some rope, along with a handy shed to hide him in, and voila– a clear escape. Or so I’d thought. The fine hairs all over my body were standing at attention, my alter’s intuition sensing something I couldn't. I silently stopped the females in my charge, so I could better focus inward on what my animal was trying to tell me.
I was so shocked at what she was telling me that I nearly dropped my cloaking. Frantic was an understatement; she did not want me confronting or even seeing who was hunting us.
That settled it then. It was going to take everything I had to pull
it off. I’d be lucky to make it to the safehouse with my cargo. My talents were amazing, but they came with a price. Severe lethargy and a need for sleep soon followed any large expenditures.
I could sense hesitation in the mother when I had her pick her daughter up and face the southernmost wall. A family portrait hung just to the left of us, a bittersweet memory of better times gone by. This wall was the closest to the wooded area behind the house. On the other side of the small copse, our getaway vehicle awaited our arrival.
Gathering my energy, I harnessed and bent it to my will, pushing it through the hand I clasped tightly and into the girl. With the faith of the desperate, the woman followed my lead, and we sunk through the paint and plaster to emerge from the outer wall. The rush of air that escaped her was the only indication she hadn't been sure we'd make it.
I could feel the exhaustion coming on and urged my feet, and hers, to move faster. My alter screeched at me not to turn. I obeyed, not looking back even though I could feel the hunters’ attention on us. She'd never acted this way before, and I could only assume it was something she was doing instinctually. Regardless, I wasn't about to argue with her.
We broke through the other side after I checked that we were clear and made our way to the nondescript station wagon I had stashed off the road. Functioning through sheer strength of will alone, I used my alter’s enhanced night vision to guide our way until it was safe to turn the headlights on.
My uncle had gotten too bold in his position as Regent, a place he held only until I found my mates and became eligible to take my right to rule. I knew he had to be aware that I was the one undermining him. So far, he had no proof. By bringing in the hunters, and a quad at that, he could only mean to catch me in the act. Were I caught, it would be treason, and I highly doubted he'd wait for the council to decide my fate. It was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened, and he set his trap better than I could escape.
***
Bane
She's our mate. Out loud I reiterated, "She's our fucking bondmate! What the actual fuck is happening here?"
My anger and frustration were directed firmly at our illustrious leader. This was what’d had him so twitchy since we pulled into town.
"Tonight confirms it, yes." Vaughn, for once, seemed at a loss. We'd been searching, and now we were in one hell of a pickle if we tried to claim her.
Quietly, Iliam asked Vaughn, "Is she who I think she is?" I glanced back and forth between them. Adding it all up, I started to shake my head in denial.
"She’s the Ghost Clan's Anassa in-waiting, and we've been called to commit regicide. And she's also apparently our bondmate." The palpable fury in Vaughn's voice had my hackles up.
It dawned on me then why he'd made us scout unnecessarily before we entered the house. "You knew! You sensed her, and you made us let her go. We could have–"
A sharp motion from Iliam cut me off, and a slow clap drew my attention to our audience outside. Of course, we'd been well and truly set up.
None other than the Regent himself and a contingent of his personal clan soldiers awaited us. The man wasn't physically imposing, especially for a shifter. Hair just long enough to curl and a Van Dyke beard the same sinful black as his hair and eyes. They complemented his slim figure and the vicious delight in his gaze.
"My, my. This couldn't have turned out better had I planned it. Even I couldn't have imagined this turn of events. I'd only planned to lay the death of the little bitch at your feet. Now, now," he chastised, twitching a finger side to side like a metronome when we bristled at the threat to our bondmate. "I have leverage over the brat. All I have to do is arrest you for letting a thief go. Bad things happen to enforcers in gaol. Once you're gone– it's only a matter of time for her. Bond in place or not."
The Regent was gleeful in his madness, for that's what it surely was. He must’ve gone mad to consider such actions, let alone try to implement them.
"The council won't stand for this, and you know it." Vaughn spoke with confidence, but knowing him as I did, I could tell he was concerned by the tension in his body.
"And who is the Therian Council going to believe? An Enforcer Quad who let a mark go for no apparent reason? Or the Regent who hired them to apprehend a thief?" The Regent tsked and shook his head as if we were naughty children to be reprimanded. "Arrest them."
I waited, as did we all, for Vaughn to give the order to resist, but it never came. I glared at him in silence as our hands were bound behind us until a hood obscured him from my vision. We were searched and divested of our weapons and communications devices and corralled into the back of a vehicle. When we were secured and the transport under way, he finally deigned to explain himself.
"There were more in the area, and we likely wouldn't have made it out. We’ll have a better chance when they think we're compliant and locked up." I didn't agree, but he was the leader and Iliam hadn't jumped in either, so it was probably a good course of action even if it chafed.
"Lorc, I want you to shift and hide. As soon as those doors open, we'll make them come in to get us. I want you to run, get to the council and tell them what happened. Get our bondmate first if you can." Vaughn's directive chilled my soul.
We’d never split up, not since we'd formed our Quad. Lorca's denial was swift to come.
"I'm not leaving you all. We'll get out. Together." The easygoing man could be stubborn as a mule when it came to those he cared for, and I could just hear the stiff set of his jaw in his voice.
"Lorca, there won't be a chance after we get within those walls. Not without assistance. The Regent only has to kill us to make our bondmate ineligible to rule. Not to mention other consequences for her." Iliam's prediction wasn’t idle. We all knew it. Without us, our mate would slowly die. Even if there were a way to counteract that, she still wouldn't be able to continue the bloodline. The Regent could, and probably would, petition the council to be named Anax, a new king instead of a queen.
"Fine. But I'm getting her and coming for you. The council will drag it out, and I'm not taking that risk." Lorca was pissed, but at least he wasn't arguing anymore. Not much anyway.
Vaughn wasn't done though. "Get a message to the council, then you can get our bondmate and come for us. The council must know in case we fail."
In case we die, he means.
The rest of the ride went by in silence after Lorca shifted and hid. The rest of us quickly did a partial shift and freed our hands before shifting them back and playing possum.
The soldiers not being amused was an understatement.
"Where's your fourth? Don't make us come in there!" The soldier had balls, but he couldn't hide his anxiety.
"We have hoods on, you dumbass. How are we supposed to know where he went? Better yet, how did you lose a prisoner?" I taunted them, getting the expected reaction.
Finally, it was go time. Ripping off our hoods, we attacked. The reinforcements didn't take long to arrive, and that part hurt like a bitch, but Lorca got away. I smiled through my bloody teeth and spit in the face of the soldier in front of me. It was lights out after that.
***
Lorca
My weasel form was small, but it was fast with my shifter magic, and it blended in with the forested area I'd escaped into. A plus to being hidden from the majority of the populace was seclusion– even the prisons. The bad deal was I'd be shifting back naked, and our hotel was probably crawling with soldiers waiting for me to show up.
Plan B it was. Steal a cell phone and call the Enforcer's HQ to get a message to the Therian Council. It took hours of hanging around a park, but I finally got my chance when a lady left hers on a bench to chase a toddler across the playground.
I ended up leaving my message with the Commander who wouldn't give me the council number. It wasn't ideal, and the man was an ass, but it's not like I could do anything else about it at the moment. He assured me he'd get a message to the council himself and that two teams were being sent to straighten everything out. Than
k fuck we had a pristine record. He'd been uncomfortably interested in our bondmate– asking more questions than I had answers for in regards to her. Worried the council might not act quickly enough if they didn't understand the importance of the issue, I complied.
Clearing the call log, I left the phone on the ground under the bench to avoid being seen. Determined to find my bondmate and rescue the rest of my Quad, I set off to get what information I could and find some damn clothes.
***
Vaughn
It had been twenty-four hours in this hellhole, and we'd been individually interrogated for most of them. They wanted our missing member in a bad way. We were in separate cells, me across from Bane and Iliam. I'd only woken up a short time ago after passing out from the beating I'd received. My panic was instantaneous when I only saw Bane and an unoccupied cell.
"Where is he?" Bane just looked at me, devastated.
"They took him again after they threw you in. We should have fought." He was resigned, and that in itself spoke volumes.
Had I fucked up? I still didn't think we would have all survived. But this? This was maybe worse.
It was hours of guilt-ridden anxiety before they returned with Iliam. The guards were silent as they threw his motionless body in his cell and shut the door with a clang. Instantly, Bane was reaching through the bars, trying to get to him.
"Ils. Come on, man. Wake up." Bane could just reach his hand, and the grip that he had on our wounded quadmate was barely returned.
"Iliam, no, you have to shift. Fuck, I'm so sorry." Grief was already settling in. There would be no medical care given, and judging from the wet rattle, Iliam needed immediate intervention. Even our advanced healing couldn't fix this. Especially if he wasn't able to shift. "Bane, can you help him?"
"He's not absorbing it. I think he has something stopping the change." Panic colored Bane's voice, and there wasn't anything I could do to help.