I wound my way between the passages until I made it to my destination and I quickly took down the wall at the rear of the tunnel I’d been working on there and crawled through it.
I paused once I was pressed up against the bricks which separated me from my destination and shaped my magic into an amplifying spell so that I could listen to what was going on beyond it.
I closed my eyes as I concentrated on the sound of slow breaths coming and going for a few minutes and finally accepted that whoever occupied the cell was asleep.
I reached out to start dismantling the wall. My fingers shook and my heart pounded out of rhythm. This was by far the riskiest thing I’d done yet, but I had to do it. I needed Sin out of confinement if I wanted to get him out of Darkmore and the only way to orchestrate his release was by proving his innocence.
I wet my lips and pulled the first brick from the wall.
I held my breath despite the silencing bubble I’d cast as I moved it aside and I peered through into the dark space for a long moment, hunting the shadows for movement.
When I was satisfied that there was none, I carried on pulling the bricks aside as fast as I dared.
I kept going until the gap in the wall was just big enough for me to fit through and I moved forward to wriggle my way into the cell.
The moment I was inside, I fell still, crouching by the hole I’d created in the rear wall of the cell as I eyed the bunks to see if there were any signs of the Fae there stirring.
There was no one sleeping on the bottom bunk, but my heart lurched as I spotted the heavily tattooed arm hanging over the edge of the top.
Ethan Shadowbrook growled a little and rolled over in his sleep and I held my breath as I stared at him in fright. There weren’t a whole lot of Fae in this prison who could match me, but Ethan definitely could. Although, as I thought about it, I realised this wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Ethan was mated to me now, which meant that all of his instincts were geared towards protecting me. He could no sooner hurt me than take a solid gold shit.
My lips twitched at that visual and I straightened, tiptoeing closer to his bed as I eyed the leg of it where Sin told me he’d hidden the weapon.
My gaze snagged on Ethan as he shifted in his sleep again and for a moment I forgot what I was supposed to be doing here as I just stood looking at him.
Ending up mated to the Wolf who led my enemies against my gang definitely hadn’t been a part of my plan, but I had to admit that if I took that irritating fact out of the equation, I could see why the moon had chosen us for each other. His strong features captivated me and there was obviously incredible chemistry between us. I still didn’t really know him from Adam, but there was a base part of me which ached to find out all there was to know about him too.
I sighed as I thought about the lengths he’d been going to to avoid me since it had happened. Not only had he covered our mark with that tattoo, but he’d also been running his pack to the far south of the Order Yard when we were out there and hadn’t so much as spoken a word to me whenever we’d come across each other elsewhere.
And it wasn’t like I’d tried to do anything to change that. For now, I didn’t need to force the issue of bringing our packs together, though I had to admit it would be handy to have the added might behind me when it came to Gustard. I was just hoping that he was aching for me the way I did for him in the middle of the night sometimes. This bond made me crave his company even when the sensible part of my brain reminded me that he was behaving like a douche.
But I wasn’t going to be the one to cave and go to him. I’d resisted far greater torture before than just aching for someone’s company. He’d be the one to crack and come looking for me soon enough.
I tore my eyes from Ethan and dropped down at the foot of his bed as I hunted for Sin’s hiding place.
Even knowing what I was searching for, it was damn near impossible to find and it took me a few moments to figure out how he’d lodged the weapon into the leg of the bed before I managed to pull it free.
I looked down at the jagged piece of metal as I held it in my hand. The damn thing still had bloodstains on it and my lip curled back in disgust. The guards would be able to tell whose blood it was with magic at least and when this weapon was found on Two Hundred they’d have no choice but to assume he was the one who’d murdered the Fae Sin had killed.
When I’d first started looking into Sin Wilder’s reputation before agreeing to this job, I’d been more than a little concerned about freeing such a violent Fae from the confines of the prison. But as I’d looked closer at his rap sheet, I’d realised something. The Fae he killed weren’t innocent. There were rapists, murderers, gangsters, dark magic practitioners, even a Fae who had been travelling to the mortal world and abducting girls to use as slaves was in his list of victims. He was ridding the world of the lowest of the low with each and every job he took on. He even had a fan cub of sorts who had started up petitions to get him released. He was a vigilante. Not that the law cared about that. But I did. It was the only reason I’d agreed to the job. No matter my other motivations for coming here, I wouldn’t have agreed to getting Sin out without that nugget of information.
My black hearted sinner was really a saviour in disguise.
I pushed the shank into the pocket of my jumpsuit and stood as I prepared to leave.
I turned my back on Ethan’s bed but before I could take a step away from him, a strong hand wrapped around my throat and I was yanked back against his hard chest as he growled threateningly.
“Not so fast, love,” Ethan snarled in my ear.
I threw my hands out, casting vines into existence and encasing him in them in an instant, wrenching him off of me and pinning him back against the end of his bunk.
“You!” he accused, his eyes wild. “You’re the one who stole the cuff key!”
“Duh,” I replied, rolling my eyes at him as I moved to stand before him with my arms folded, wondering what he’d do now. My silencing bubble and the sheet he’d hung over the door of his cell kept this interaction private for now, but I needed to be sure he wouldn’t blab either.
“Let me go,” Ethan demanded in a dark voice that had my toes curling.
“You’ll just grab me again,” I protested, making a show of massaging my neck although I didn’t totally hate how it felt to have his hand wrapped around me like that.
“I won’t.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if I could trust him but I was the one at an advantage here. I had use of my magic and he didn’t. So I wasn’t really worried about what he might try and do to me.
“Be good,” I warned.
Ethan growled and I smirked as I destroyed the vines with a wave of my hand, releasing him.
Ethan lunged at me instantly, a snarl escaping his lips as he caught me around the waist and drove me up against the wall.
His hands roamed over my body as he hunted for the key and I laughed as he ran his fingers all over me.
“I don’t have the key on me, lupo,” I teased. “But feel free to keep frisking me if you like.”
“Where is it?” Ethan growled just as his hand dove into my pocket and he found Sin’s shank.
He pulled it out and eyed it with a frown. “Were you going to kill me in my sleep, love?”
“No,” I purred, reaching out to wrap my hand around his where he held the shank. “If I was going to kill you, I’d want you beaten and bleeding at my feet before I drove the knife in.”
His gaze heated at my words and he let me draw the shank back out of his hand and slip it back into my pocket. He knew I’d no sooner be able to hurt him than he would be able to hurt me now anyway. The mate bond would never allow it.
“So why are you here?” he asked suspiciously, his gaze dipping down to take in my body before returning to my eyes.
“Why do you think?” I asked, reaching out to run my hands over his muscular chest. “The same reason you’ve been dreaming of me coming to you every night s
ince we were bonded.” I slid my hands lower and he groaned with need, but I stopped as I reached the top of his boxers. “Are you going to say sorry?” I taunted.
“Why?”
I reached up and trailed my fingers over the tattoo he’d gotten to cover the mark which bound him to me and pouted. “For being ashamed of me.”
Ethan growled. “You’re an Oscura,” he spat. “It makes me sick.”
“I can tell,” I mocked, reaching out to caress the hard ridge of his dick through his boxers.
Ethan growled and shoved away from me as he started pacing. “I don’t know why you seem to think this is funny,” he snapped.
“It is a bit,” I said with a shrug.
“What would your family think if you told them about us?” he demanded angrily.
“Well, I don’t really think Dante would have a leg to stand on berating me about being with someone from the Brotherhood after everything that happened with him and Ryder Draconis-”
“And look how that turned out!” Ethan snarled, lurching towards me again and baring his teeth. “I don’t want that to happen to me!”
I only shrugged. It wasn’t really my place to comment on what had happened to Ryder and I guessed it was a pretty raw subject for his gang. Ethan might even still be grieving for all I knew.
“I didn’t mean to upset you. Were you and Ryder close, or-”
“I don’t want to talk about him. Especially not with an Oscura,” Ethan spat my family name like it was dirty and I sighed.
“We’re all just Fae you know. We might be stuck in this war between our gangs, but that’s just a choice we made. It’s not who we are-”
“It’s who I am!” Ethan snarled, storming towards me and pointing to the Lunar Brotherhood symbol of a crescent moon with a serrated edge which he had tattooed over his heart like that ink was the sum total of what he was.
“Okay,” I said slowly. “Then let’s just call this off. I’ll keep away, you keep away and maybe the moon will let our bond fizzle out.”
Ethan stared at me like he wasn’t sure if that idea was genius or insanity and I turned away from him, moving towards the hole I’d carved into his wall.
His hand closed around my wrist as I made a move to drop down and he shoved me back against the wall as his mouth found mine.
I gasped in surprise and he pushed his tongue between my lips, groaning as he drove his body up against mine.
“Fuck you,” he growled as he started tugging at my jumpsuit and I gave in to the demands of his flesh with a heady moan.
Ethan pressed me back, caging me in against the wall and dominating me as our kiss deepened and his hands groped at my breasts through my tank top.
“You clearly want to,” I taunted and he growled again, tearing away from me and stalking to the far end of his cell as he scraped his hands through his blonde hair.
“Why do you act like this is one big joke?” he demanded as he turned back to glare at me.
I shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not a joke, but I’ve lived through far worse than a scandal and a gang war and survived to tell the tale.”
“Like what?”
I released a long breath and pulled my hair over one shoulder. I’d never told anyone about the depths of pain and suffering that lived in my past. Not even my Aunt Bianca or cousin Dante knew the truth of what I’d suffered at the hands of my mamma and papà. They knew I’d been neglected and ignored but not the rest of it. Those secrets were locked up tight in the depths of my soul and I certainly wouldn’t be releasing them to a man who was too afraid to own his own feelings.
“Let’s just say that there are a lot of monsters in this prison, but I doubt any of them can compare to the man who sired me. So you ask me why I act like this is a joke? Maybe it feels like one. Maybe sometimes I wonder if I’m even capable of feeling anything the way I should anymore. I got so good at hiding my emotions that I might have just lost the ability to really feel them too.”
“Tell me who hurt you and I’ll see them dead a thousand times over,” Ethan snarled, stalking towards me with his Alpha Wolf peering out of his eyes and his instincts to protect me winning through.
“I don’t need any help in fighting my battles,” I replied dismissively. “Just don’t go thinking that being my mate means you know me. Because I can assure you, you don’t.”
I dropped down to my knees and made a move to crawl back through the hole but before I could make any real progress, his hands locked around my hips and he dragged me back again before flipping me over onto my back. He fell over me, caging me in with his body while pinning me in his gaze.
“Stay,” Ethan asked, his tone raw with all the things he wouldn’t let himself consider for us.
“Why?” I breathed.
“You said I don’t know you. Well you don’t know me either. So stay and give me something real.”
I looked up at him for a long moment before reaching out to trace my fingers across his jaw. He really was something to look at. I wanted to call him beautiful, though his edges were all too rough for that. But there was something achingly captivating about him. Looking at him felt like gazing upon a piece of my own soul despite how little we knew each other.
“I love my family,” I said finally. “It’s not about strength or loyalty to gang ideals or anything muddied in politics. It’s just that. Love.” My Aunt Bianca, Dante and all of my cousins were the one thing in this world that made me feel anything I could be truly certain of. Without them, I had no idea where I’d be now or who I’d be. They’d saved me when they took me in. So much more so than they’d ever know.
Ethan considered that for a long moment before finally nodding in acceptance. He leaned down until his forehead was pressed to mine and the rich scent of oak and earth coiled around me from his skin.
“I’m innocent,” he murmured in a low voice.
“What?” I asked with a frown, because that wasn’t supposed to be possible. Fae were only sent to Darkmore if there was overwhelming evidence that they were guilty. Things like CCTV footage, witness statements and DNA were used to build a case and if that wasn’t strong enough then the suspect had to face Cyclops interrogation where the truth would literally be torn from their head. There were a whole bunch of security guard witnesses from the bank whose testimony had sent me here and assured my conviction. But the only way that a Fae could be convicted without those things and still found guilty would be if-
“I gave a full confession. I knew all the details they required, I didn’t contest a single thing, didn’t even complain when they offered up the maximum sentence,” he said slowly.
“Why?” I asked in confusion.
“Because I love my family too.”
Ethan’s lips found mine before I could ask him any more than that and I found myself giving in to him as his mouth moved against mine in a torturously slow motion which had me undone.
I wound my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as I drew him closer to me and his right hand moved down my body inside my jumpsuit.
I could feel how hard he was as his dick strained to be set free of his boxers and I ground myself against him, moaning softly in a plea for more.
It wasn’t like we’d suddenly forgotten all the reasons why we couldn’t be together, more like us sharing a small portion of ourselves with each other had lowered the barrier between us. Not a lot. But just enough to let a ray of moonlight shine through.
Ethan found the hem of my tank top and his hand shifted beneath it as he began exploring the skin of my stomach with rough fingertips and firm promises.
I arched into him, pushing my hands into his blonde hair as I devoured the kiss and stole this moment with him. It wouldn’t change anything about tomorrow, but it did feel like fate had conspired for us to end up in each other’s arms again tonight.
His hand slid to my side where my tattoo decorated my flesh and I stilled half a second before his fingers moved over the scars I’d disguised within the ink on my s
kin.
Ethan pulled back with a frown and for a moment my ears were filled with the sound of screaming and the pure, raw feeling of that whip striking at my flesh. The sun steel barbs on the end of it cutting me open and burning like hell fire.
I knocked his hand off of me and shifted upright so suddenly that he was forced to sit back too.
“Rosalie, what the hell happened to you to give you scars?” he demanded in a rough voice as he tried to pin me down again.
My ears were ringing with the echoes of long faded screams. My own screams.
There were very few things that a Fae couldn’t heal from with the aid of magic. But sun steel could cut through flesh and muscle easier than a knife sliding through warm butter. And there was no magic yet created which could heal the damage from it entirely. Hence the scars.
“I offered you one truth, not my whole life story, stronzo,” I growled, shoving him in the chest and knocking him back so that I could scramble out from beneath him.
“Tell me what happened,” Ethan demanded.
My breaths started coming faster as the memories of that night flooded in on me. Of being taken captive, tied up, members of my family dying and me screaming for mercy in a way that I’d vowed never to do again-
“No,” I snarled.
Ethan growled in response and I glared at him as he got up and started pacing again. “I knew this was what I’d get with an Oscura. Lies and bullshit. How do you expect me to try and overcome the divide between us when you hoard lies like a Dragon hoards gold?”
“I don’t owe you any piece of me,” I replied in a low tone. “Least of all the parts that bleed so easily.”
Ethan’s lips parted but before another word could leave them, a loud ringing started up out in the cell block announcing the arrival of the guards.
“Inspection!” Officer Lyle’s voice boomed out. “Everyone get up and get ready. We will be conducting searches so prepare to have your cells tossed!”
Darkmore Penitentiary (Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Book 1) Page 24