Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

I’d never been one for sleeping in a pack huddle, but I had to admit there were worse places to wake up in the morning than tangled between three excruciatingly gorgeous men. My body ached in a blissful way which spoke only of our carnal claiming the night before and I sighed as I nuzzled Ethan’s chest, Sin’s arm banding around us tightly.

It was tempting to remain in place there all day but I had things to do and places to go. I wished this shit was over but there was still a victim in need of escape who we had to reclaim and I wasn’t going to rest until we had returned Roary’s Lion to him. What we would do with it and how we would go about returning it to his body after the fact would come next. For now, I knew what was needed of me.

I eased myself out of my position between the men I had spent the last night claiming, wriggling free of them and pushing to my feet at the foot of the bed. Roary was still absent after crawling from our tangled limbs several hours into our tryst and I frowned as I took in the empty space on the bed where he should have been.

I knew that sex was only a distraction for him from his grief at the moment but it still stung that he hadn’t returned to us to sleep. Of course that was on the assumption that he had slept at all.

I ran a hand through my tangled hair, a cool breeze raising goosebumps on my bare skin and a delicious ache resonating through my bones. I grabbed some clean clothes and a towel, leaving Sin and Ethan snuggled up in bed, the two of them closing in on one another now that my body didn’t divide them, and I headed for the shower.

I glanced in the mirror after locking the door at my back, the red in my hair glaring at me like a bruise that needed healing. It wasn’t a bad look exactly, it just wasn’t me.

I flipped open the cupboard beneath the sink and rummaged around until I found the dye removal potion lurking in there and headed to the shower with it.

I cranked the water up to scalding, sighing as I stepped beneath the flow, allowing the rush of liquid to soothe the throbbing ache in my muscles, the tender flesh between my thighs. It was almost a shame to heal it all away. But I needed to focus today and having a constant reminder of how good it felt to be pinned between my men likely wouldn’t be very helpful.

Magic tingled from my palms as I washed myself clean before dumping the dye removal potion into my hair and standing beneath the rush of water until the water ran clear again around my feet.

I dressed in a pair of stonewashed jeans and a black crop top, my wet hair dripping down my spine as I padded downstairs on bare feet to the delicious scent of my aunt Bianca’s cooking.

I strode into the kitchen, finding several of my cousins looking up at me and smiling widely as I arrived. Dante was lounging in his seat at the head of the table which took up the heart of the huge room, his eyes on a newspaper though he tipped a nod my way that told me he was aware of my arrival.

“Let the Alphas eat in peace,” Bianca shot at the Wolves who were edging closer to greet me and they grumbled as she hustled them out of the room with violent swats of her dishcloth and loud hissing sounds.

I snorted in amusement, dropping into my spot at the opposite end of the table to Dante and thanking my aunt as she piled pastries hot out of the oven onto a plate before me alongside a bowl overflowing with fruit, a steaming mug of coffee and a tall glass of orange juice.

“Your food might just be the thing I missed most while I was locked up in that hellhole,” I admitted, reaching out for a cinnamon bun and sinking my teeth into it with a prolonged moan of pleasure.

“Oh hush,” Bianca chastised though the smile biting into her cheeks made it clear she was pleased by the compliment.

She washed her hands off and bustled out of the room, murmuring about the state of my hair as she went and I smiled into the next bite of my food.

“Fourteen hours,” Dante mused, turning a page in his paper.

“What’s that?” I questioned.

“That’s how long the FIB spent sifting through our things, trampling around the vineyards, abusing Mama’s home.”

A sourness twisted my gut at his words and I set my pastry down with a sigh.

“Any arrests?” I asked.

“Fernando couldn’t help mouthing off and Clarissa threw a punch. Both have been released on caution already. Surprisingly most of the others managed to behave themselves or at the very least clear out of here rather than hang around to make trouble.”

I nodded, my relief clear and Dante set his paper aside, his gaze boring into mine.

“I know the famiglia is suffering because of what I brought to our door-” I began but he waved me off.

“There isn’t a Wolf among us who would have wanted you to do a thing differently, piccola regina. I only want to be certain it is all worth it. I don’t want any of you getting caught – not even that Incubus who’s been swinging from the lemon tree and riling the pups up relentlessly. I want this done so that we can all move on.”

I nodded, my mind fixing on what it would take to achieve that.

“I need to get Roary’s Lion back and kill the motherfuckers responsible for taking it. That kind of knowledge can’t be allowed to spread. If the idea of swapping and trading Orders catches on then this is only the beginning of the fucked up lengths some Fae will go to just to be able to claim their pathetic desires. Poor and underprivileged Fae with powerful or prized Orders will be hunted or convinced to part with them for a pocket full of gold. There will be kidnappings, murders. It will lead to all kinds of further depravities and it will hit the Fae with the least the hardest. Alestria itself could fall.”

“I know,” Dante said, his voice a rumbling growl, his eyes flashing into reptilian slits as his Dragon raised its head and peered out at me. “Which is why this needs doing quickly and quietly. Before more depraved assholes set their sights on it. The less who know about it, the better.”

I nodded my agreement. “I have someone whose speciality is finding people who don’t want to be found. I’m going to meet with him today in the hopes that he can point me to Vard.”

“Good.” Dante picked his paper up again, his attention swallowed by it and I returned to my meal, resolution steeling my soul in iron.

Aunt Bianca returned and I relaxed a little while she brushed and braided my hair, the soft tug of her fingers through the silken strands making some of the tension in me subside. The moment she was done, I pushed to my feet, heading for the door without another word and calling for Sin to join me.

Ethan appeared with him and I gave him a lingering look in the black sweatpants which hung low on his hips, his blonde hair still mussed from sleep and whatever other activities had occupied us for the night.

“Down boy,” I said, pressing my fingertips to his chest and halting him where he was. “This is something I only need Sin for and I think it’s best we avoid being out in public in too large a group for now.”

Sin whooped, throwing his arm around my waist and hoisting me against his chest before twirling us around. His new bird pet was on his shoulder again, having slept stars knew where last night, but the creature looked happy enough.

“Tough luck, kitten,” Sin purred, patting Ethan on the head as he backed us towards the front door.

“Don’t be too long,” Ethan called after us, his brow furrowing as he watched us leave.

“Aww, are you worried about me?” I teased.

“Always. Which is in part because I’m hopelessly in love with you and in part because you see danger and just stride right on up to it. You’re hazardous, Rosalie.”

“You wouldn’t want me any other way,” I replied, giving him a taunting smile.

Sin lifted Crow-thing from his shoulder, placing him gently on Ethan’s and petting his head before kissing it. I swear the bird crooned at him and Ethan glanced at it uncertainly.

“Er, what am I supposed to do with him?” Ethan asked.

“He’ll have a plate of fried worms for breakfast followed by some Fae-chewed mealy bugs, If you could get right on that, Ethy-pie.” Sin clapped him on the cheek. “Chew the mealy bugs slowly so he doesn’t choke on them, and can you let him feed from your mouth too. It’ll remind him of his nesting days, thanks. Byeee.”

“What?” Ethan barked, but Sin led me out the door and snapped it shut behind us so Ethan’s confused cries were more muffled.

“So where are we going?” Sin asked, grabbing my hand and swinging our arms between us as we started the descent down the porch steps. “To the beach? Or a fair? Or an opticians? Oh I love a good squinty at the bottom line and a rage row when the scrangly bitch with the pointer stick tells me I’m wrong and it’s a W, not a penis-”

I opened my mouth to reply to that but the visual image he had just given me had a snort of laughter falling from me instead.

“We’re going to see Jerome so that he can help us locate Vard,” I explained, tugging him so that he followed me down the long drive.

“Right…right. Because Vard can see the future and you want to find out whether or not you and me will be mated too or if I’ll forever be the third wheel, only able to make myself feel better by loudly fucking you when I know Cain is near enough to listen so that I can console myself with the fact that there is a lower position in your pack than mine-”

“What? Sin, no – we need to find Vard because he has Roary’s Lion.”

“Oh.”

I rolled my eyes at him, jerking my chin towards the huge barn where the Oscuras kept our cars and leading the way towards it.

Sin pouted as he followed me and I sighed.

“I’ve told you clearly enough that I want you, Sin. Why do you keep falling back on this nonsense and making out like you’re not good enough for me?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s that the moon doesn’t like me. She hasn’t given me a sparkly moon mark and I can’t help but think it’s because of all the times I’ve looked her dead in the eye while taking an outdoor piss. It was disrespectful and she’s getting her revenge now.”

“The moon sees everything that takes place at night and you taking a piss has got to be the least of the depravity she’s witnessed. Hell, you were an assassin – don’t tell me you never killed anyone while she was watching.”

“Of course I did. But she liked that, the saucy minx. All the blood and screaming and death got her going, just like it did you. It was the pissing that pissed her off. I know it.”

I paused with my hand on the door to the barn, the magical wards tingling against my palm as they recognised me, parting to let me in. “The moon doesn’t hold grudges, Sin,” I said.

“Except against Cain,” he pointed out. “She gave him that curse which is gonna make him die a death bleeding out of his asshole and she won’t break it.”

I pursed my lips. The idea of that fate for Cain was a whole lot less enjoyable than it had once been and I flicked a glance up in the direction of the moon in question over that but I couldn’t spot her lingering in the morning sky and she clearly had her reasons for maintaining that curse upon him anyway. Who was I to question her?

“And yet you’re curse-free,” I said, brushing my fingers up Sin’s forearm. “So drop the little lost boy bullshit and stop comparing yourself to Ethan and Roary. What you and I have is ours alone, Sin. And I’m not giving you up or playing favourites, am I?”

“No,” he exhaled and I tiptoed up to brush a kiss against his lips before opening the door to the barn and leading him inside.

“Ho-ly cow on a cornflake,” Sin cooed as he took in the cars all lined up within the huge space, our family garage pretty impressive on first look.

There was…well, yeah it was awesome. I grinned as I watched Sin dive into the space, touching all the vehicles from the gleaming sports cars to the SUVs, convertibles, ATVs, dirt bikes, super bikes, the small battalion of electric scooters which Dante had surprised the pups with last Christmas, the pair of monster trucks which honestly caused more chaos than they were worth, to the twenty-three golf buggies, most of which bore evidence of being used as battering rams when they were being raced across the valley en-mass.

“You have a fluffin’ helicopter,” Sin called from within the depths of the barn and I weaved between the cars to find him grinning up at it.

“Yeah, there are a couple of light aircraft and gliders too – my uncle Fabio got his pilot’s licence a few years back so that he could chase Dante through the sky. We however need to take something which will draw less attention.” I beckoned for Sin to follow me and led him towards the front of the barn where a set of huge doors stood and most of the more practical vehicles were lined up and he booed as I selected a pickup for our chariot.

“We can play with the fun ones another time, Sin. We need to be incognito at the moment, remember? Also, the FIB are watching the roads out of the estate in hopes of catching some of us – so I need you to shift and drive while I hide in the footwell.”

“Drive?” he asked, moving around the truck and slowly climbing in behind the wheel. “Yes. Drive a vehicle. Like an everyday Sam.”

I gave him a dry look. “You can’t drive, can you?” I asked.

“Pfft. I can drive you crazy. I can drive my cock into anything, anywhere. I can drive a goose to gander and I can drive-”

“But you can’t drive a car?”

Sin narrowed his eyes at me then shrugged. “Maybe I can or maybe I can’t.”

Suspicion clawed at me but then I remembered him telling me that his hobby had been to do up cars while we were back in Darkmore and I relaxed.

“You almost had me there,” I admitted, settling into my seat and reaching over to take the keys from the sun visor above the driver’s seat.

Sin grinned innocently, taking the key from me and starting the engine.

“You need to shift,” I reminded him and he sighed before shifting into a perfect lookalike of Dante.

“Shit,” I breathed, blinking at my cousin in surprise. “When did you pick up his form?”

“At the party,” Sin replied, his voice now laced with Dante’s accent. “Sooo many of your pack wanna bone him, poppet. Luckily, I think it was mostly the ones who aren’t actually blood related to him, but if you wanna try a little filthy fantasy…”

“Ew, fuck no,” I said, crinkling my nose and recoiling from him. “Shift into someone else – Dante is under too much suspicion anyway. His alibi is barely holding up on account of there having clearly been a Storm Dragon there when we escaped. Him being the only one of that size currently on record as living in Solaria is pretty damn incriminating. But as they can’t prove for definite that there aren’t any others and there are so many witnesses and so much CCTV footage of him elsewhere they can’t make charges stick. Besides, Dante and our famiglia have a few friends in high places who might have helped us out a little. But the FIB know, Sin. They know and they’re pissed. So be someone else.”

He sighed like I was a total buzzkill then shifted again appearing as a man about twenty years older with a slim frame, salt and pepper hair and a smouldering depth to his gaze as he turned it on me.

“So are you my sugar daddy in this roleplay?” I asked him, my lips twitching in a smirk which he returned with a far filthier version.

“I’m whatever kind of daddy you want me to be, kitten,” he purred. “Now where to?”

I programmed the satnav with our destination and leaned back in my seat as I pressed the remote for the barn doors and they slowly began to swing open.

Sin started the engine then revved it, sighing appreciatively as he flexed his fingers against the wheel.

“How long has it been since you drove?” I asked him.

“Too long,” he groaned, revving the engine again.

I dropped my hand onto his thigh as he eyed the opening doors like they were a chequered flag and the moment they were wide enough, he slammed his foot to the floor and launched us through them.

Laughter tumbled from my lips as he yanked on the parking brake, swinging the back end around in a cloud of dust as he lined it up with the main drive before racing down it at speed.

The smile on his face was infectious and I kept my eyes on it as I dropped down into the footwell of the car to conceal myself as we reached the main gates to the estate. They swung wide just in time for us to blast through them and Sin howled as we made it to the open road.

“I see the piggies,” he called loudly, waving out the windscreen at what I had to assume were the lurking FIB in their car. “I think they’re gonna give chase!”

“Maybe you should stick to the speed limit then?” I called over the rush of wind which was billowing in through his open window.

“Nah. Where’s the fun in that? Those motherfuckers can’t catch me!” Sin threw his hand out the window, a blast of air magic erupting from his palm and sending dust up into the air in an enormous cloud beyond our rear wheels.

I pulled myself up into my seat again, fastening my seatbelt as he showed no signs at all of slowing down and looking out the rear window where a horn was blasting and sirens wailing from within the cloud.

The truck roared as Sin floored it, rocketing us up the road and towards the sprawling metropolis of Alestria in the distance.

I gave up on any attempt to rein him in, instead lowering my own window and grinning out at the open road ahead of us while my hair was whipped around my face and the FIB were left far behind in our dust.

The streets of Alestria weren’t quite the horror-filled alleys and criminally ruled hell holes they had been during my childhood, but the people here were wary of newcomers all the same. Peace had been achieved in this place thanks mostly to Dante and all the shit he went through ten years ago when Dark Fae ruled these streets and a war between the Oscuras and the Lunar Brotherhood seemed never ending. Of course the darkness of the war for the throne had touched this place too and though that had been a perilous time for many I was proud of what Alestria had achieved then too.

When the Order persecutions had taken place and Fae had been hunted simply for being a Tiberian Rat, Minotaur or Sphinx, Alestria had used its criminal network and hive of underground cells and secret places to hide those in need. Our city was one of the few which had managed to successfully protect the majority of its citizens from the wrath of Lionel Acrux right until the end of the battles.

“I heard it was as bad up here as it was in Darkmore for a while,” Sin said in a low voice, bobbing his chin at a spray-painted symbol of two Phoenixes rising from the centre of a crown on the side of an apartment building. It wasn’t the first we’d passed.

“It was,” I agreed, the pain in my heart where members of my famiglia should have still resided twisting sharply as I thought back on the carnage of war.

“Did you fight in it?” Sin asked, his eyes on me though I turned my gaze steadily out of the window.

The clash of battle and screams of dying Fae filled my ears for a moment and I swallowed thickly before banishing them again. “I did. Dante and I led our pack into battle in the army of the True Queens. I…killed a lot of Fae that day. Sometimes I swear I can still taste their blood coating my tongue.”

Sin was silent for a long moment but he reached across the seats and took my hand in his.

“My wild girl,” he murmured softly. “I’m glad the moon had you in her protection.”

“Me too,” I agreed.

“We’re here.”

I blinked out of my reverie, the roar of battle, stench of death and endless screams abandoning me and landing me in a warm truck with Sin at my side and a whole ocean of time between now and then.

I smiled tightly, grabbing a baseball cap from the backseat and pulling it low over my face just in case any of the CCTV cameras around here were working and jumped out.

Jerome lived in a fancy penthouse suite on the top floor of the tallest building in the heart of the city. He’d moved into it a few years ago from his hometown of Iperia, spreading his criminal dealings further – though of course he had to bow to the rule of the Oscuras here. I’d often thought he liked it because the view from his windows made the Fae below appear as irrelevant as ants – his ego ripe for stroking at all times.

Sin slung his arm around me, the lighter weight and shorter length of it in this form feeling unfamiliar as he drew me close to him.

We passed a Fae dressed as a doorman – though I figured henchman was more accurate as he leered at us threateningly, but he made no move to slow our access. No doubt Jerome already knew we were here even if Sin was in disguise, my face was obscured by the hat and we were driving a truck he’d never laid eyes on before. That was why I wanted him for this. He was the best.

The elevator slid open as we approached it, a mirrored cube welcoming us inside. The doors closed at our backs the moment we embarked and it began to sail upwards.

Sin shifted beside me, sighing like it was a relief to shuck that skin and rolling his shoulders as he settled back into his own flesh.

“Better?” I questioned.

“Always,” he agreed. “Unless you wanna play out the sugar daddy fantasy-”

“No,” I said firmly, that little crease appearing between his brows saying he still believed he’d catch me out on some hidden fantasy I held over the real him one day. I stepped closer, taking his hand and trailing my fingers along his jaw as I made him look at me. “No, Sin,” I repeated and that frown smoothed out, his mouth closing on mine as he offered me a kiss far sweeter than his usual desire-ridden claiming. There was relief in that kiss, honesty and hope and…love.

“And there was me thinking your tastes were more singular,” Jerome’s soft voice coiled around us and I broke from Sin to step into his apartment, realising the elevator must have stopped while I was distracted by the taste of his kiss.

“How so?” I asked, striding into his pristine bachelor pad like I owned the damn place and earning myself an appraising look.

“Your obsession with the Night boy-”

I breathed a laugh. “I can assure you that Roary is no boy,” I said.

“No Lion anymore either if the rumours I’ve heard hold merit.”

The smile slid from my face to puddle on the floor like acid and I took a step closer to Jerome who held his ground, a cup of coffee held in his hand where he surveyed me from a position near the huge windows which looked out over the city.

“Hello, brother.” Sin strode across the space which divided me and this stronzo as if the floor hadn’t just coated itself in ice and embraced him fiercely. Jerome in turn patted Sin half-heartedly on the back. For someone who had been so desperate to see Sin released from prison, he certainly didn’t appear to be overwhelmed with emotion at his return. “We need to find that Lion.”

Jerome extricated himself from Sin with a smile before stepping away again and moving into his open plan kitchen. The whole thing was black, with dark marble countertops and accessories to match.

“What makes you think I know where it is?” he asked as he placed his empty cup down and set his coffee machine working.

“Because you sit up here all day looking at your little screens, nosing into business which isn’t yours but which will benefit you the best. So just name your price, bastardo because I don’t have time to waste on this.”

Jerome considered me for a long moment then his eyes flicked to Sin.

“I don’t need money,” he said dismissively, as if I hadn’t already known that.

“What then?”

Jerome scowled at me, clearly not liking my tone. He thought himself an Alpha but in truth he was all Omega, a lone stronzo too big for his boots, howling at the moon as loudly as he could as if shouting and stomping his feet might force her to listen. So if he wanted to find out what would happen if he went up against me then I was ready but the truth was, I needed his help if I wanted this done quickly.

“There’s a job I need doing,” he said finally, his eyes cutting to Sin. “Someone important who is mouthing off and causing my organisation issues. I need him out of the way.”

“Sin needs to lay low until the heat of our escape dies down,” I growled. “Name another price.”

The air crackled with tension as Jerome’s coffee machine spat liquid into his cup with a hiss and a splutter.

“No,” Jerome said firmly, a challenge in his eyes which told me this wasn’t about the price; it was all above proving he still had some hold over Sin which I didn’t. He was swinging his dick around in an attempt to make me back off and bow to his command but that really wasn’t my style. Besides, my skin was prickling with some darkness which lurked beneath the surface of this pristine place and my moon senses were warning me not to back down for a moment. Something was off here and I’d never ignored the moon before.

“Fine,” I said and Jerome smirked triumphantly before I could go on. “We’ll do it another way. Come on, Sin. We’re leaving.”

Sin blinked in surprise, his head wheeling from me to Jerome then back again before he pushed off of the window he’d been leaning against and strode over to join me as I headed for the elevator.

“Sin,” Jerome growled, a low command to his voice but I spoke before my Incubus could.

“He doesn’t jump through your hoops anymore, Jerome,” I said tightly. “He’s not your little bitch boy and I’m not dancing to your tune either. You might think you’re all powerful up here in your tower but really you’re just a lonely man hissing orders to the wind while the moon laughs at your petulance.”

The elevator arrived and I stepped into it, Sin only hesitating a moment before following.

Jerome scowled furiously as the doors closed between us and Sin gave him a cheery wave before they shut out the sight of him entirely.

“I thought we needed him to find Roary’s Lion?” Sin questioned but my skin was still prickling with my gifts, telling me to find another way.

“The moon will help us,” I said firmly, my skin glimmering a little as if in confirmation of that and I smiled. “We don’t need him.”

Sin gave me a look which said he was clearly questioning my sanity. “So the moon decided to join the Daring Anacondas, did she?”

“I’m not sure. But my powers have never led me astray before. She led me to you, hides me from my enemies, hell, she even let me converse with the dead once or twice.”

“And what did death have to say to you, kitten?” Sin asked curiously as the elevator arrived in the sparkling foyer and we headed back out to the street.

“Oh where’s the fun in telling you that, amore mio?” I asked him with a smile. “Some secrets are best left beyond the grave.”