My hands unclench, and I wipe my sweaty palms on my knees. “Good. I won’t go.”
“You’ll take the punishment?”
I don’t like the sound of that, but I nod.
He lifts up his phone and pushes a button. After a minute, he speaks. “Go ahead and arrange the punishment for injuring a teacher.”
When he sets the phone down, he motions for me to leave the office.
I rise, but stop at the door. “Dean?”
“Yes?”
“Do berserkers ever…serve their time? Do they ever get out?”
He’s quiet for a long time before saying, “I have things to do.”
What he doesn’t say lays heavy on me as I close the door.
I leave his office. Outside, the secretary looks worried. “Henry will show you where to go.”
My stomach sinks as the silent golem leads me across the campus. I honestly can’t believe this is only my second day, and I’ve already managed to screw up so badly. It wasn’t that I blamed myself for what happened. Mr. James forced me to change. It was just that my plan to obey the rules and get out of here was looking more and more like a pipe dream.
That was if I could even survive until “graduation.”
The afternoon sun beats down at us as we pass the dining hall. I take a deep breath, inhaling the scents of meat and potatoes. Despite my resolve to endure this punishment without showing weakness, my stomach grumbles. Berserkers ate. A lot. And since coming to the reform school, I’d missed far too many meals already.
We walk through a lonely field and reach three buildings near the edge of the woods that surround the school. A sad sign says “detention center” in front of them. The silent golem leads me to the first building, produces a key from his pocket, and unlocks the door.
I take a deep breath. So, isolation was the punishment? Isolation I could handle.
“Enter,” the golem orders.
I start forward, into the darkness.
Behind me, the golem starts to close the door. “I’ll return, for your body.”
I whirl around to ask him more, but the door clicks shut and locks behind me. Well, that’s not good. I turn back to the pitch black of the room and start forward. My front foot comes down too far, and I’m almost sent flying, but manage to pull back in time.
Heart racing, I sit down and scoot forward. This time, I feel the stairs. I move slowly down the tight, winding steps, even though I have no idea what the hell waits for me deep in the ground.
Time ticks forward and I know I’ve been scooting forward for too long. A sudden panic fills me, and I wonder if I’m going to be trapped in darkness forever. If this was really their plan, for me to get lost in this place and starve to death. I debate going back the way I came, but then grit my teeth and force myself to keep going.
If I let them get in my head, I’ll go crazy.
Time passes slowly, and my movements become a pattern. Scoot forward, feel for the next step, move down, over and over again. I’m about to scream when I realize that light is bleeding into the darkness. Moving faster, I finally come around the twisting stairs and spot a room, a few flickering lights illuminating the space.
Wincing against the light, I stand and step out into the room.
My jaw drops open. In every direction, bodies of creatures litter the room. Blood paints the floor and the walls. I move slowly around the giant walls of yellow stone and circle the pillars. My breathing hitches as I hear the sound of water flowing on one side of the room and spot a bed in the center of the room.
Drawing closer, I realize someone is in the bed, lying down. A man.
But who?
Probably the man who killed all these creatures.
My heart lurches, and my hands curl into fists as I ready myself for a fight.
Suddenly, my boots scuff the floor, and I feel the air in the room change. The man in the bed slowly sits up, and I’m shocked when I spot the big shifter, Drake.
He grins at me. “Took you long enough.”
“Wh—what are you doing here?”
He shrugs. “I knew they’d bring you here, so I took care of the flesh eaters for you.”
My jaw drops. “Why?”
He stretches and my gaze slides down his bare, muscular chest and lingers on the thin sheet that covers him. Is he wearing clothes? My blood heats up. What if he isn’t?
“I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“Because you enjoy a woman who can kick your ass?” slips from my lips before I realize that reminding the big shifter of what I’d done might not be the best thing to do.
“No,” he says, drawing out the word. “Because…I’m pretty damned sure you’re my mate.”
His…mate? Now I know my jaw is hanging open again. “Not a chance.”
He either doesn’t hear me or pretends not to. “Does that berserker complicate things?”
“Beserker?”
“Emory.”
I stiffen at his name. “Why would he complicate anything?”
“He isn’t your male?”
“No!”
He smiles. “Good.”
My thoughts move to Adam. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have…someone.”
His smile turns dangerous. “Who is he?”
“None of your business.”
“If another male claims you as his own, then it’s my business.”
“I didn’t say he claimed me as his own,” I say, rolling my eyes. “No one claims me as their own.”
He rises from the bed, and I see he’s wearing nothing but dark boxers. And that he’s hard as fuck.
Something inside of me awakens. This shifter is an arrogant asshole. He’s also big and sexy. Different from the berserkers back home. He holds himself like a king, not like some crazed brute, and there’s something oddly appealing about that.
“Good,” he says when he comes to stand far too close to me.
I take a step back. “I didn’t need you to kill these beasts for me. Or to defend me in fighting class.”
His gaze holds mine. “I protect what’s mine.”
“I’m not anyone’s.”
He runs a hand slowly down my arm, and I hate that I shiver. “Why fight this, Kiera?”
I hold his gaze. “I don’t think you get it. Just a few days ago I was just a normal berserker. I lived with my family, my parents and brothers, and I’d just graduated. I had friends,” I swallow down the wave of pain that comes with the thought of Lucy, “and a life.”
“We were all like that before the reform school, but life goes on.”
My jaw clenches so hard it hurts. “Yeah, it does. But I’m no more going to become your mate than I’m going to become the wife of Lord Maxen. My goal is to finish my time here and go back to my old life.”
His gaze grows calculating. “Who is Lord Maxen?”
Is that the part he focused on? “Lord Maxen is a giant asshole who runs the House of Berserkers and thinks he’s our king. And, I guess, because of some prophecy about a female who can go berserk, he’s decided that I’m going to become his wife.”
I swear every muscle in his body tightens. “Well, that’s not going to happen.”
“No, it’s not, and I’m also not going to be your mate, so get over it.”
He lets out a loud sigh, like I’m a really irritating child. “Seduction then…”
“What?”
He draws even closer, and I have to fight the urge to take another step back. “You should know that a mate bond is nearly impossible to resist. This thing between us is going to happen. It’s just a matter of when.”
My brain has stopped working, and I can’t stop my gaze from sliding from his ridiculously handsome face, down his chest, and to that hard erection of his. I want to argue against Drake. He’s so damned arrogant and cocky that I want to resist him just to resist him, but greeting me half-naked makes it fucking hard.
When he pulls back from me, I’m surprised by the wave of r
egret that moves through me. But then he plunks himself down on the bed, lying back in the most casual way, his erection still hard and straining. “So, if you don’t want to have sex, how do you want to spend our next few days here?”
“You’re going to stay here with me?” I ask, and my words come out too high.
He grins. “You bet. It was hard enough to get in here… and, of course, magic the bed. I don’t even want to tell you the deal I had to make with the witches… so I can’t exactly just climb right back out, not without the key.”
I stare at him, then back at the area covered in dead flesh eaters and a dark, twisting staircase.
I might be better off there.
Chapter Seventeen
King Maxen
My other form slowly shrinks away as I pant, trying to calm myself. Around the sides of the cell, the chained berserkers are no more than hanging pieces of flesh. The sounds of their screams and pleas still fill my ears.
Smiling, a shudder moves through my body, and I feel my cock grow hard. In my mind, I can picture the moment they realized the injection I’d given them kept them from shifting. That they were helpless.
Their faces were a mask of terror. Pure and utter terror.
Another shudder of pleasure racks my body, and I stand in the middle of it all, drinking in this perfect moment when my senses are sharpest. When I feel most alive.
“Your Majesty?”
I turn and reach for the towel before Bill throws it to me, then carefully mop the blood and chunks of flesh from my body. “Do you have news of my queen?”
Already, I’d set to work on House of Berserkers. Everything must be as perfect as my new bride when she arrives.
“There have been…some delays.”
“Delays?” Something dark rumbles inside of me.
Bill takes a nervous step back. “The dean has taken your bribes to communicate with the female about the possibility of being your bride. Unfortunately, it seems from his messages, she’s…reluctant to leave the reform school.”
“Reluctant to leave?” The question comes out ice cold. “What female would refuse me?”
“Apparently,” he clears his throat in that irritating way again, “the female in question is Kiera Frost, daughter to the Lord of the Winter Berserkers.”
“Fuck,” I mutter.
The other lords would’ve been smart enough to tell their children to obey me at all costs. They would have taught their sons and daughters to fall in line before me or die at my hands. But not the Lord of the Winter Berserkers, Lord Frost himself. The man was stubborn, arrogant, and an asshole that had long since served his purpose.
“I will have her, whether she agrees to the match or not.”
Bill shifts from foot to foot.
“What is it?” I snap.
“I just…the prophecy says that the female must take a mate by choice. That it can’t be forced, or the prophecy will not be fulfilled.”
Hell, I did remember something about that whole personal freedom thing. “Well, we shall get her here, and then worry about the rest of it.”
“Very good, King Wolff.” He bows. “But there is more.”
“What?”
“The female has been sent for discipline. Apparently, with a room full of flesh eaters.”
My flesh ripples, and I feel myself expanding. “Do they not understand how precious she is?”
“Th—they do, but—“
“Have my men free her. Now. No matter the cost.” I feel my vision going red. “I will have her, even if she isn’t in one piece, I will have her. And if anyone should stand in my way, they will die.”
Bill is halfway out the door. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Send in more prisoners!” I roar.
“Yes, Your Highness!” he says, out the door and out of sight.
I turn back to the bodies on the walls, and not caring if I use my hands, feet, or mouth, I tear their bodies into smaller pieces. This…Kiera dared to refuse me?
Well, I said that she would be my queen. I didn’t say that she had to like it. And if she continued to refuse me, her life might just get very, very bad.
And if that wasn’t enough…there was always her family.
I feel my massive face twist and an animalistic laugh leaves my lips as I tear an arm off a hanging body. That was the thing about caring for anything. If I’d taught Emory anything, it was that doing so was a weakness.
A weakness that I could use against people.
Luckily for me.
Chapter Eighteen
Adam
I told myself that when the female left, when she walked away without looking back, I’d let her go. I wouldn’t try to succeed at this reform school when I wasn’t even sure it was what she wanted.
But something inside of me wouldn’t let me let her go. Something chewed and ate at my belly until I found myself on Princess’s favorite tree in a quiet part of the gardens. It was late at night, long past the time students were allowed to roam free, but I knew the guards’ rotations. I knew how to avoid them.
You’re troubled.
I turn and spot Princess as he leaps slowly up the branches until he reaches me. He walks like a king across my branch and moves toward me. I wait, as I always do, until he lowers his head, and then I pet him gently.
“Yes,” I say, my word disturbing the silence of the night.
Why?
I feel him purr beneath my touch and rub the spot behind his ears that he likes, while I decide how to explain my troubles. “I met a female. She smelled good. She felt good. She was…different than anyone I’ve met before. We had sex, and then she left. I miss her. I want her. But I know what I am.”
Humans, Princess huffs in my head.
“What?” I ask softly, praying that Princess will explain these things that I don’t understand, the way he always does.
Why don’t you deserve her? Because of what you are? He huffs again. I have met many males in my life, of many different kinds, and you are a good one. She would be lucky to have you.
“You don’t understand. Even before I was Adam—“ I stop, shocked by my words.
There was never anyone before. I have only ever been Adam. Hadn’t they told me that over and over again? Hadn’t the scientists told me that my memories of a mother with a sad smile were all in my head? Hadn’t they told me that my dark room and mattress on the floor, with a stuffed bear with one eye, was something I’d made up?
Whoever you were before. Whoever didn’t want you before. They were wrong, Adam. You were always good. Always.
I feel my eyes prickle, even though I don’t understand why. Princess moves so that I’m scratching his body. “I haven’t seen her since then. She’s…disappeared.”
When my girl disappeared, I went and looked for her. Look for your female and don’t ever give up.
“You stopped looking for your girl.”
He moves out of my reach again, and I know I’ve hurt him, I just don’t know why.
I didn’t give up on her. I will see her again. That I know with all my heart.
“Okay,” I agree, even though I still don’t understand. I just know I don’t want to cause him pain.
What was your female?
“A berserker.”
Then we should go to the berserker house and find her.
“But if anyone sees me…”
They will learn that even a mutant will go after what he desires.
I’m still uncertain, but I climb down the tree, following Princess’s agile movements. We move through the shadows of the forest, his multicolored fur blending in with his surroundings, and we avoid the areas with dangerous creatures. Going around the outside of the thickest part of the woods, we come to the cliffs that overhang the ocean.
For a minute, I pause. Massive hippocampuses leap from the waves, the seahorses glow beneath the moon’s light. They lift their horse-like heads in the air, and their bodies flash with gold and blue before they disappear back into th
e waters, a splash of their finned tails all that remains.
“They’re beautiful,” I say.
They make me hungry, Princess replies, sounding irritable.
I make a note to catch him another bird. He can do it himself, but he likes the gesture. As long as I don’t pretend it’s because he’s my cat. He belongs to the little girl.
We circle until we come to the outside of the House of Berserkers. I’ve seen the white-washed building many times in the night, and never cared for the beasts inside, but now I stare hard. Is my Kiera inside?
I’ll find her room. Princess sends the thought into my mind, then slinks toward the building.
I wait, feeling time ticking away. I’ve never felt an urge to be around the other students here. I make it a point to avoid as many of them as possible. But with the appearance of Kiera, my life seems to be changing. Even now, I’m taking a risk I never imagined.
More time passes. So much that I begin to worry. But as I take a step out of the shadows, I spot Princess, and my racing heart slows. If anything were to happen to him…
I found her room. Something has happened. Hurry, before the guards return.
Sprinting from the trees to the buildings, I open the door to the House of Berserkers silently. Princess leads me down a hall, as if he’s been here a million times before, then stops before a door. I turn the handle and find it unlocked.
Pushing open the door, I stare in surprise at her room. Clothes have been thrown everywhere. A couple of pictures are broken on the ground.
Come on, and close the door.
I do as Princess asks, and automatically open the window, so he can have an easy escape. Princess is like me. He doesn’t like small cages, or places with only one exit.
Then I go slowly through her room. Her clothes. They smell like her. Like flowers and leather.
I clutch one of her shirts in my hand and kneel down. Picking a picture off the floor, I see Kiera. She looks tiny, surrounded by an older man and woman, and five big men.
Untamed- House of Berserkers Page 10