Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

The moon hung in a deep crescent close to the horizon in the distance far out across the sea, almost as if she were beckoning us closer.

I checked the small backpack I’d filled in preparation of our departure, counting the contents for the third time as if they might have somehow changed. We didn’t know what we were heading into exactly and that left far too many unanswered questions for my liking. It was the kind of job I wouldn’t have taken on if offered it. Too many variables, too many unknowns. I liked a challenge and the thrill of the odd surprise but this was all risk and high stakes beyond the point of any form of prediction. I was used to changing tactics and going up against bad odds but the island we were headed towards was almost entirely unpredictable.

We couldn’t stardust there – none of us had been there before to be able to guide us to the place but even if we had known it, we couldn’t learn enough about the location to attempt it as the ticket clearly warned that there were wards in place against such arrival. It was also why we hadn’t been able to disguise ourselves magically. Jerome had been certain that there would be wards against all forms of illusion too so we’d had to go the old fashioned route of hair dye and bravado.

No doubt the entire island was going to be full of security measures, all aimed to keep the authorities firmly out of the nefarious business which was conducted in the criminals’ secluded pit of sins, but they would work just as certainly against us too.

I wasn’t afraid of what it might take to do this, but I was determined to succeed, so we had to be prepared.

In the attic of this little Oscura cabin, I’d located the arms cache and retrieved a handful of fire canisters from their depths. The small metal bombs had been created with a violent mixture of Faesine and fire magic – an everflame trapped behind a small, glass window within the metal contraption just waiting to be let loose on the incredibly flammable liquid. They smashed easily on impact with any hard surface and exploded instantly, but they were temperamental little bastardos and carrying them came with a fairly high possibility of going boom by accident.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to be letting Sin anywhere near them.

Alongside my nasty little friends I’d packed some food, a bottle of water and a shot of a potion my great uncle Marco called ‘jazzy eyes’. It was most definitely illegal as shit but he swore by it for any and all jobs he went on. I’d seen jazzy eyes in action and, in fairness to Marco, his shot of crazy potion worked a treat on anyone who happened to be in need of it. It was what Dante referred to as a later-than-last-resort tactic – basically a concoction of fuck knew what which would kick start even a Fae on their death bed. It would give them enough energy to run for their damn lives should they find themselves in a situation where their magic was tapped out and they needed to heal and escape. It didn’t do shit to heal anything magically, but it blocked out pain and gave a jolt of adrenaline which could rival a shock from a Storm Dragon, though the side effects included hallucinations, hysteria and the potential for a serious case of the shits – to name a few. My cousin Luigi had once run three miles on a broken ankle to escape the FIB while riding high on jazzy eyes so I knew it worked – but I hadn’t wanted to listen to the stories about the side effects all the same. Safe to say, I was hoping we wouldn’t be needing it, but I’d gathered a shot for each of us anyway.

“Are you ready, love?” Ethan asked, shouldering his own pack of supplies as he walked into the room.

I looked him over, inspecting the new, dark colour to his hair just as he took in the deep red of mine. He was still easy to recognise if you asked me, but it did make me look twice and I guessed someone who wasn’t so familiar with the curve of his lips, the sharp line of his jaw or the depth of his blue eyes might not realise who he was.

I said nothing. My heart was beating so fast that it was all I could do to concentrate on quieting it. Everything was riding on this. It had to work. Ethan moved closer to me, lifting a lock of my dyed hair between his fingers and inspecting it.

“It suits you,” he said as I lifted my eyes to his.

He ran his fingertips along my jaw, looking at the makeup I wore, the edges of his mouth lifting. I’d gone heavy on the eyeliner and painted my lips a deep red while pencilling a scattering of freckles over my nose and cheeks. Again, it wasn’t perfect but it was damn far from my usual style and the bare faced, dark-haired wild girl in all the mugshots.

“You look so…sophisticated,” Ethan teased and I snorted. “The others are waiting outside.”

I blew out a breath and took a well-worn deck of tarot cards from the coffee table, shuffling them slowly and letting my eyes fall closed as I began to deal them onto the table before me. My fingers tingled with each selection I made until I’d laid ten cards out before me.

My gaze roamed over the cards as I read them, Ethan’s shadow engulfing me as he moved to lean over my shoulder and take in their meaning too.

The first card I’d drawn was The Hermit reversed, representing isolation and a loss of direction. The following few seemed to whisper of Roary’s incarceration, the Nine of Swords, Justice reversed, the Wheel of Fortune reversed – basically a whole shit heap. But then I moved my eyes over the following cards, the ones indicating what the plan I’d made might lead towards; the Five of Wands whispering of struggle, The Hanged Man indicating sacrifice, The Tower hissing warnings of disaster, the Five of Swords which I took to indicate an escalation of violence but last of all, offering me the hope I so desperately needed, my gaze locked on The Devil who was blessedly, beautifully reversed. Freedom. Release.

Hope was a dangerous thing, but I’d been living for the flickering flame of it for too long to back out now and that little fire blazed brighter as I took solace in the message I’d gleaned from the cards.

“The cards hold good omens,” Ethan said gruffly, squeezing my shoulder in reassurance.

I nodded in silence, not wanting to jinx anything by breaking it and fastening my pack carefully before lifting it onto my back. Adrenaline spiked through my veins at the thought of the combustibles I was now carrying, but I lifted my chin and strode from the door like there was nothing at all to worry about.

Cain watched me as I passed him, and I searched his eyes, expecting to find a reluctant kind of acceptance there but instead I found blazing concern. He hadn’t said anything to me about the way I had clearly lost my shit over this, but the way he was looking at me made me think there was something he was holding back on.

“You don’t have to come,” I said, glancing at Hastings and including him in that statement too.

My little choir boy had dyed his hair black and styled his fringe to hang down over his eyes. He wore a backwards baseball cap and a leather jacket with a pair of jeans which looked like they might just fall off his ass. I wasn’t quite sure what he looked like, but I guessed it wasn’t the prim and proper guard with his finely pressed uniform anyway. Unsurprisingly, Cain had refused to alter his appearance at all.

I frowned. “I know you think the curse requires you to stick with me and help me or whatever, but I don’t think that has anything to do with how it’s broken. And I don’t want anyone following me into this mess if they aren’t all in. We might die out there. I’m willing to die if that’s what it takes to rescue Roary. And I can’t bring you with me if I’m going to have to worry about you grabbing hold of me and trying to whisk me away from there if things start going south.”

“You expect me to stay back here like some cowardice piece of shit?” Cain grunted.

“No. I think you’re a lot of things, Mason Cain, but I don’t think you’ve been afraid of a fight a day in your life. That doesn’t mean you won’t pull the same shit you did back at Darkmore and try to rescue me again though. So I want your word that you won’t and I’ll take a star vow on it too – from all of you,” I added, glancing at Ethan and Sin to make sure they understood this. I wasn’t going to be leaving that island without Roary. “I can’t leave him behind for a third time. If that means I have to go alone to get this done, I will. I entered Darkmore on my own, so it’s not like I haven’t done it before.”

I held out my hand, waiting to see which of them would take it.

Sin didn’t surprise me when he was the first to clasp my palm. “I’ll follow you into death before I steal you away from your Lion, wild girl,” he swore. “We leave with Roary in tow or we step through The Veil at his side – no more running away.”

I smiled darkly at that promise and magic flared between our palms, binding us to it. Sin’s eyes brightened with the thought of death. It didn’t surprise me in the least that he wasn’t afraid of it.

I turned to Ethan next, waiting as he looked me over, his jaw locked with tension. He met my eyes, the blue of his appearing brighter out here beneath the sky as if freedom from that underground hell had awakened a new spark of life in him. I knew it went against everything in his instincts to make me this vow. A Wolf protected their mate above all else, but that was also why he had to make it. Roary was my mate too. And Ethan had to know that I couldn’t go on without him any longer.

“Whatever it takes, love,” he swore, clapping his hand into mine, magic ringing between us. “He’s coming home.”

I nodded firmly, that oath lashing itself to my heart and giving me the strength I needed to face whatever it was we were about to go up against. Roary needed me at my best if I was going to pull this off and that’s what he would get.

I turned to Cain last, Sin and Ethan backing me on either side and the man who had been my guard, tormentor, enemy and saviour surveyed me with a look so powerful that I could feel the weight of it running over me.

“This is madness,” he said roughly. “You understand that, don’t you?”

“No more insane than getting myself locked up in Darkmore with the intention of breaking out,” I replied with a shrug of a shoulder.

He grunted his agreement, not seeming to know what to say to that.

“You’re a force of fucking nature, Rosalie Oscura. I think back on every moment with you and wonder at which point I might have saved myself from the madness of you. But I can’t find one. From the second I brought you into the prison, snarling and smiling with equal finesse, I think you held me captive. So I might as well admit that I’m lost to you at this point. My fate is in your hands. And if that fate requires this oath from me then fine. You can have it. I won’t make you run from him a second time. I’ll be by your side to see this through, come death or dawn.”

He took my hand, sealing the promise with a clap of magic and I offered him a smile utterly free of bullshit for once.

“A morte e ritorno,” I purred and his lips lifted a little, telling me he had picked up on the meaning of my famiglia’s motto.

“A morte e ritorno,” Cain echoed then Sin yelled it and Ethan barked a laugh before repeating it too.

I turned towards the path which led down to the ocean. Jerome had given us intel on a harbour in a town a few miles south of here where we’d be able to secure a boat before heading out to sea to track down this cursed island.

My boots skidded in the gravel as Hastings stepped in front of me, raising his chin and expelling a harsh breath.

“I will do what it takes to live up to your goals, Rosalie,” he said, offering me his hand and I blinked at him in surprise.

I hadn’t really expected any kind of promise from him – he was a beta at best, really more delta – mid level pack kinda dude, points for physical strength but deductions for not having the bite to go with that brawn. I didn’t need promises from him because I had just assumed he’d follow our lead, and even if he didn’t, I had no concerns over him being able to stop me from doing what I needed to if it came down to it.

“I knew I could rely on you anyway, ragazzo del coro,” I told him, patting him on the arm and refusing to take his hand. I wouldn’t prise a star vow from Hastings. If he needed to run to survive this mess then he was free to do so.

I started walking down the hill, leading the way but whirling back around as a shout of alarm cut through the air. Magic built in my fingertips, adrenaline spiking through me but I only found Cain and Sin wrestling in the dirt.

“Hold still and take it, baby. You’ll like it once I’m done,” Sin panted while Cain punched him so hard in the ribs that I heard bone crack.

I strode back over to them, barking an order for Sin to get off of Cain while he knelt over him, using air to pin him down.

I grabbed Sin’s shoulder as I made it to them, but he leapt up without making me haul him off of Cain.

“There,” Sin announced triumphantly, and I backed up as Cain shoved to his feet, swiping a hand over his mouth.

“Did you kiss him?” Ethan accused and Sin roared a laugh.

“Nah – Cainy boy only wants our Rosa’s tongue in his mouth. I just got him on board with the incognito plan seeing as he wasn’t playing ball. Can’t have him exposing all of us with his recognisable face,” Sin said.

“What the fuck have you done to me?” Cain demanded and a bark of surprised laughter escaped me as he dropped his hand, revealing the pencil-thin douchebag moustache Sin had scrawled over his upper lip with a pen. It had little flicks at the end and everything. Fuck knew how he’d drawn it so neatly while Cain had been thrashing about.

“You look…debonair,” Sin announced, chuckling to himself as he casually healed his cracked ribs.

Cain bared his fangs and the effect was so comical with the little moustache curling up over them that I laughed louder.

“It’s fool-proof,” I agreed, taking the baseball cap from Hastings’s head and placing it on Cain’s instead, pulling the peak down to shadow his murderous eyes.

“Show me,” Cain snarled.

“There.” Ethan pointed towards the window of the little cabin which was casting a decent reflection in the moonlight.

Cain strode over to it to inspect his new look, a feral snarl spilling from him as he tried to wipe the moustache off.

“I wouldn’t bother with that, kitten. This here is a perma-pen. No wishy washy is gonna get that sucker off for at least a week,” Sin said.

“You fucking hypocrite,” Cain growled at him. “You haven’t made any attempt to disguise yourself either.”

“That’s because I can do this,” Sin replied, shifting before us and becoming an extremely pale, bulky dude with long white hair that trailed down to his ass and a scar through his eyebrow. “I shrank my cock too – because that’s the most recognisable part of me after all,” Sin added in a sultry voice which was nothing like his usual rough tone.

“What possible reason might you have to get your cock out during this?” Cain hissed, taking the lead down the path and I let him because I wasn’t sure I could stop myself from laughing if I had to keep looking at that moustache the whole way into town.

“That, my dear, dastardly, deprived dandelion, is precisely why you’re so uptight. I can think of eighty-six different scenarios in which the exposure of my dick would be integral to this little mission of ours without even trying. What if there is a cock-sized hole in the bottom of our boat that needs plugging? What if I have to slap a dog but both of my hands are otherwise occupied? What if I’m tapped out and need a quick power fuck with my wild girl in the bushes – which, incidentally, I think I will need to do seven times before we make it to this boaty village place. What if-”

Cain threw a punch which Sin dodged before slapping him in return then taking off down the path at a sprint with a wild giggle.

Cain shot after him furiously and I watched them go while Ethan took my hand and kept pace at my side, Hastings trailing along behind us like a dutiful puppy.

“It’s nice when the kids entertain themselves for a bit, isn’t it?” Ethan purred and the smile which had found me since seeing that douchey little moustache on Cain’s upper lip remained in place while we walked on.

The moon glimmered overhead and for some reason, I felt more sure than ever that we were on the path which would bring us back to Roary and guide our pack home together at last.