Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham

 

72 HOURS UNTIL THE FIB ARRIVE…

Sin tipped his head back and howled to the moon loud enough for it to hear him even through all of the dirt and rubble that separated us from this chamber of hell.

"Come on wild girl, take me by the balls and lead me on to freedom," he boomed, moving to my side and throwing an arm around my shoulders. "Tell me what you need doing to this fucker and I'll have it done." Sin nuzzled his face into the side of my neck, his stubble scraping against my skin and making a shiver dance down my spine as I kept my gaze fixed on Cain who still knelt before me.

"Are you going to make this easy or be a pain in the ass about it?" I asked him as he strained against the vines I'd conjured to restrain him. If the look in his eyes was anything to go by, he would very much be making this difficult.

"I'd sooner be strangled with my own entrails than do a single thing to help you and your band of murderous mutts," Cain spat, causing Ethan to growl as he stepped closer.

"We can make you talk easily enough, if that's what we have to do," he warned, his muscles flexing like the idea of that was pretty appealing to him.

“You’re all crazy,” Cain grunted. “You can’t have seriously believed that you would have been able to break out of here, did you? Even if that new bioweapon hadn’t been waiting for you in there, you would have hit the ground level forcefield and been fried anyway.”

“What?” I asked, my skin chilling as I wondered if his words might really hold any truth to them.

“See? Stupid. Every fucking one of you. There are layers upon layers of security here and even with magic in your grasp there’s no way you could have broken through that forcefield. Magic that powerful would take an explosion worthy of the Savage King and then some to destroy. You were never even close to escaping. So just let me go now and maybe I’ll go easy on you when your asses return from the hole – though I’m pretty sure the minimum term down there for an attempted escape is a year, so that might be a while.”

I bit my tongue on engaging with him, cursing as I dropped the idea of trying to tunnel out of here again. If what he said was true, then that had never been going to work anyway. But that didn’t matter now, all that mattered was making a new plan and utilising the time we had left before the FIB showed up.

"Leave the stronzo be for a moment," I commanded as Roary moved closer too. There were too many Alphas getting involved in this and I needed to take command before we ended up brawling for the spot in charge and wasting even more time. "We have other shit to deal with first."

I conjured a blade into existence in my hand, keeping it concealed as I looked around, hunting the group of dirty, exhausted escapees for the one whose luck had just run out as the need for his death rooted itself within me. Gustard's time blackmailing me for my cooperation was well and truly up. He had no way of contacting his help on the outside between now and the FIB breaking in here, and after that our work down here would be discovered and none of us would stand a chance at busting out again. Which meant my patience with him had officially run dry.

But as I shoved my way between Ethan and Sin to look around at the rest of the inmates, I found that he wasn't there.

"Quel fottuto bastardo," I snarled, my grip tightening on the knife which had been destined to cut that fucker apart. "Where did Gustard go?"

My pack mates flinched at the bark in my tone and everyone looked around in confusion like they hadn't even noticed him leave. But of course the cowardly stronzo had turned tail and run already. I should have expected this. I should have stuck him full of holes the moment he'd emerged from that tunnel, but my mind had been more focused on Roary and making sure he was okay.

"Find him!" I snapped, my Alpha tone ringing out and to my surprise, not only did Sonny, Brett and Esme scatter to look for him, but the rest of the group took off to search the stacks too.

I turned towards the doors on the far side of the huge room and sprinted straight for them, finding one of them ajar as I reached it and cursing colourfully as I fell to a halt in front of it. I tugged the door open, the sounds of screams and victorious chants filling the hallway outside from the rioting inmates on the other floors of the prison mixed in with the occasional roar from the Belorian, but there was no sign of Gustard.

The others all appeared behind me as I whirled around and threw the library door shut again, grinding my teeth in frustration as I tightened my grip on the knife I'd conjured.

"There's no sign of him, Alpha," Sonny reported with a soft whimper of apology and I blew a frustrated breath out through my nose.

"Forget Gustard," I gritted out. "We don't have time to waste on him unless the opportunity presents itself. But if any of you happen to run into him between now and the moment when we escape this place then feel free to kill him for me. The Oscuras will happily pay out a bounty on that motherfucker's head."

"Dibs!" Sin called, drawing my attention to him where he was now perched on top of one of the bookshelves. "I'm gonna kill him up good and make a bonnet out of his head. I always fancied the idea of myself in a bonnet."

I swiped a hand down my face as I forced thoughts of Gustard aside and tried to focus on what the hell we were going to have to do to get out of here now. Nothing I'd done up until this point was going to help us anymore. It was back to the fucking drawing board with time running against us, the Fae Investigation Bureau on their way, and a whole prison filled with rioting murderers ready to fuck up each and every plan I could concoct. Not to mention the fucking Belorian was running free in the halls ready to kill without mercy the moment anyone was unlucky enough to cross its path.

"What do you need, Rosa?" Roary asked me in a low tone, taking my hand and pulling it away from my face so that I could look up at him.

Fuck he was gorgeous. His long, dark hair hung around his strong face and chiselled jaw, his golden eyes heating as he drank in the sight of me too. Like, this seriously wasn't the time for it, but I couldn't help looking at him for a long moment, remembering the words he'd spoken to me, reliving the way his kiss had tasted on my tongue. Was that all just some delusion I'd conjured for myself, or had this man I'd hungered for for so long really just told me he loved me?

"I need..." I dragged my gaze away from him and glanced between the rest of the inmates surrounding us. All of them were looking to me, waiting on me to come up with a solution which was thoroughly out of my grasp. But I'd made them a promise and I sure as fuck wasn't going to just give up on the idea of freedom for us now. "I need to talk to Dante," I said firmly. It was still at least a few hours until I'd be able to actually get a call out on account of Jerome blocking the lines of communication from the prison for us, but that was fine. I'd need those hours to figure out the rest of this plan. "As soon as we can get a call out again, I need to speak to my cousin and make a new plan for him to come get us. And I'm going to need to be able to make as many calls as required over the next few days. The FIB will be informed about the riot, but if Cain is right then they won't get involved for another three days. They don't know anything about the escape attempt so there’s no reason for them to start a man hunt. Which means we have to get ourselves organised and be ready to move fast when the plan comes together."

"You still have a plan?" Esme asked hopefully, her eyes brimming with excitement as her chest swelled and her tits almost burst free of her shirt.

"Yep," I replied. Working on it, anyway. "So, Pudding - how many of those transmitters can you get me in a hurry?"

"I will get you all the transmitters you need, hound," Pudding assured me in his low, deep voice. Even now when everything had gone to shit around us he didn’t seem in the least bit fazed or hurried. He just stood there stoic and serious, his huge and solid presence somehow reassuring amongst the aftershocks of the carnage we’d just survived. "I just need to collect more supplies."

"Good. Do that then. Brett, Esme and Sonny, you guys go with him and help keep each other safe. If you see any sign of the Belorian then just fucking run-"

"Hold up," Sin interrupted as he leapt down from the top of the bookshelf. He was still only wearing his boxers and the sight of his bare flesh was all kinds of distracting. My gaze lingered on the ink that decorated his dark skin for several long seconds and I made a mental note to insist he got himself some clothes sharpish. "I've got just the thing for the beastie." He moved to the row of shelves to the side of the door and returned with a bundle of lemons in his arms before handing them out to the rest of us.

Why the hell did he have lemons stored here? Where the fuck did he always manage to find so star damned many of them in the first place?

"I'm still planning on killing you for letting that thing out," Ethan snarled as he snatched his lemon and shoved it in his pocket. None of us were going to be dumb enough to refuse a lemon but I was pretty sure each and every one of us was mad over the fucking Belorian currently running the halls once more.

"Get in line," I agreed, shooting Sin a scowl which he just winked back at. I liked that. I shouldn’t have liked it, but I did. Damn that stronzo.

For the love of the moon, that Incubus was going to end up getting me killed one of these days.

"In case that wasn't clear, the Belorian hates lemons," I explained as Pudding inspected the yellow fruit he'd just been given. "So squirt some of that juice at it if it gets you cornered. Other than that, just be careful out there and I'll catch up to you guys soon."

The Wolves all surged forward to hug and nuzzle me as Pudding pulled open the library door.

“Are you sure it’s best for us to leave you, Alpha?” Sonny asked with a concerned frown and I hugged him tight for a moment before nodding.

“Yes. I need to focus on getting us out of here and it will be easier done in a smaller group. I need the three of you to protect Pudding and help him get whatever he needs for creating those transmitters. If I can’t call Dante and tell him when to meet us then this whole thing will come to nothing. I’m trusting you.”

Brett whined, leaning in to nuzzle me before taking Sonny’s hand and linking their fingers together. I smirked as the two of them gave each other the moon eyes, wondering how long it would be before they just announced that they were exclusive and stopped bothering with the pack orgies. Esme sobbed dramatically as she flung her arms around me and I laughed as I patted her on the head and told her she was a good girl. My intended teasing only made her beam at me though and I guessed she just loved her place at the bottom of the pack.

“We’ll get you all the transmitters you need, Alpha,” she promised. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get them for you. I’ll suck any cock, run any race and will even trade my tits for what you need if that’s what it takes.”

“No need for any of that – especially not the tits, Esme, they’re too nice to trade,” I teased and she grinned wider.

I gave them a moment to follow their instincts as the three of them wrapped their arms around me, nuzzling and licking me before barking at them to get them moving when they didn’t back down.

I watched as they all followed Pudding out into the corridor and I could only pray to the stars that they’d be alright out there amongst the rioting inmates, and that the lemons would protect them from the Belorian if they were unlucky enough to cross its path.

"And what do you need me to do with my dipping stick now?" Plunger asked, making me flinch as I was forced to look at him directly for the first time since he'd emerged from the tunnels with Roary. Thankfully he'd shifted back out of his wrinkly Mole form, but he was still butt ass naked and that really wasn't a sight I wanted to see. He had his hands on his hips and he was swinging his ass from left to right so that his little cock bounced between his thighs.

“Per l'amore della luna,” I muttered beneath my breath. For the love of the moon.

My upper lip curled back. I didn't really have any intention of including him in my plans if I could help it from here on out, but if we did end up needing his Order powers again then I'd be kicking myself later if I did anything to him now.

"We need a bucket of potatoes," I said, quickly averting my eyes as I yanked the door open again. "And we need them fast."

Plunger shimmied on past me with his butt shaking from side to side, apparently not in any hurry to locate any clothes.

"Your wish is my command, fair mistress," he said as he headed on out into the corridor and I shuddered as I closed the door behind him once more.

"What are the potatoes for?" Ethan asked curiously, pushing a hand through his dirty blonde hair in an attempt to tame it but it just flopped back down into his eyes again.

"Getting rid of Plunger, duh," I replied and Roary chuckled as I strode between the three of them and headed back across the library to where we'd left Cain.

My thrashing heart settled a little as I found him where I'd left him, on his knees and restrained by my magic. He bared his fangs at me and I smiled sweetly in return, taking in the sight of him in the sweatpants and t-shirt he was wearing. He looked almost...normal out of his guard uniform and I couldn't say I minded the way his biceps pressed against the material which was trying to contain them. Of course, the reason his muscles were so tense was because he was very much trying to break free of the restraints I'd placed on him so that he could attack me, but even so, Cain looked hot in normal clothes. If I’d met him under any other circumstances I was sure I would have been all over him, but in our current predicament I was going to have to settle with keeping him as my prisoner. I guessed the tables had really turned on us in that regard.

"We need your help," I said firmly as I came to stand before him with Ethan, Sin and Roary at my back. The weight of their domineering presences laid on my shoulders as they held themselves in check and allowed me to take the lead. I loved the way they did that so naturally, letting their naturally dominant personalities make way for mine.

"Get fucked, Twelve," Cain spat.

I sighed, wishing he'd just give in instead of making this more difficult than it had to be, though I couldn't say his attitude was unexpected. I guessed we’d just have to do this the hard way.

"Give me a few minutes with him," I tossed over my shoulder to the others, my gaze remaining fixed on Cain's.

Ethan growled and Roary muttered a complaint, but when I shot them a warning look, they all gave in and headed out of sight between the closest shelves.

I twisted my fingers through the air beside me and constructed a silencing bubble around me and Cain before taking an overturned chair from the floor and placing it down in front of him.

"Let me have it then, boss man," I offered, leaning back in my seat and tilting my head as I surveyed him beneath me. He looked angry enough to burst; there was a vein throbbing in his temple and the corded muscles in his neck strained with the desire to get to me. Hurt me. Hell, I’d bet a little round of our hunting game would turn savage pretty damn fast if I let him chase me while he was in this mood. Not that the idea of that was appealing or anything, but there was just something about a man who looked ready to snap my neck that got me hot. What could I say? I had a type and I wasn’t shy about it.

"You played me from the start," Cain growled, the vines restraining him creaking as he fought to break them, and I leant them a little more magic to make sure he didn’t. "You used me. Manipulated me. Made me think that we-" he cut himself off and snarled as he skirted his gaze away from mine.

I sighed, slowly dropping down to my knees in front of him and reaching out to cup his jaw in my hand as I turned his gaze back to meet mine.

"Tutto quello che ho sempre voluto era essere libero," I breathed honestly as his grey gaze met with mine. All I ever wanted was to be free. "Yes, I played you," I admitted because we both knew it was true and I wasn’t ashamed of it either. I’d done what I had to in order to rescue Roary and I was never going to feel bad about that. "I used you. Manipulated you. But that doesn't mean it was all a lie."

The hurt and betrayal brimming in his eyes said he didn't believe one word of that. I looked down at the silvery curse mark which coated his arm, reaching out to run my fingers over it and feeling the way his muscle flexed beneath my touch. I traced the pattern of the rose vine and felt a shiver pass along my skin at the contact as I felt the magic within it which bound us to one another. Moon magic. Something so far beyond either of us and yet linked to us all the same.

"We're connected, you and I," I said slowly. "I didn't mean for it to be the case and yet it is. Which means the moon wants us to be connected."

"Connected by a curse that will end up killing me," he growled angrily. "A poison. Just like you're a poison."

"The moon doesn't work in shades of black and white," I disagreed with a shake of my head that made my black hair spill forward over my shoulders. "Her light casts us in something in between. Her power isn't good or bad - it only has the potential to be either. It's what you do with it that counts. So maybe this is a curse. Or maybe it's a blessing in disguise."

"A blessing that will kill me by making me bleed to death out of my eyes and asshole?" he deadpanned and I couldn't help but laugh. It wasn’t funny but it also kinda was, at least as a visual for whenever he pissed me off.

"You never know."

Cain blew out a harsh breath and I met his gaze again as he just stared at me, hatred coating every line of his features. "Lay it out for me, Twelve. How long until you don't need me anymore and just cut my throat?"

I frowned at him, shaking my head as I sat back on my heels. "I don't have any intention of killing you, Mason," I said honestly. "You don't have to believe that if you don't want to, but it wasn't all a lie between us. I care about you. Even after you threw me in the hole and left me to rot for saving your life. I should have killed you for that. I would have killed anyone else for it. I don't fully understand it, but the two of us are linked whether you like it or not, and I've always known to follow my instincts when they guide me like they are with you now."

"Excuse me if I don't believe a word from your lying mouth," he muttered.

I huffed out a breath, losing my patience with him as I moved to sit on my chair again and leaned forward to look down at him.

"Believe what you want to, boss man, but this is how it's going to go. I'm getting out of here. And I'm taking my friends with me. To do that I need your help and I'm going to get it one way or another. So tell me - we have three days until the FIB step in, but how long do we have before more guards head down from the surface?"

Cain surveyed me for a while before shrugging. "Forty-eight hours. Give or take. They'll be observing the situation using the CCTV and they'll be quite happy to let this violence play out. No one cares if the scum down here kills each other. And the Belorian is out and doing its job too. So whatever this impossible escape plan of yours is, you're going to have to put it together damn fast and even then, there's no chance it will work."

I gave that some thought then nodded. "So if they can see the CCTV, I'm guessing we can too?"

Cain said nothing but that was an admission in itself.

"And I'm guessing that you can get us into the surveillance room too?" I pressed.

Nothing again. I smirked at him and got to my feet, disbanding the silencing bubble as I called the others back over to join us.

"We need to get an idea of what's going on in the rest of the prison," I said, looking between them. "And Cain had the great idea of us using the CCTV surveillance room to check it out."

"Oooh, good plan," Sin said as he causally tossed a lemon up and down. "Can I kill him now?"

"No," I bit out and he pouted. "We still need him."

"You're just saying that because you want to fuck him," Sin lamented and Ethan growled loudly.

"Like hell she does," he said angrily while Roary threw a death glare Cain's way too, both of them moving closer to me like they wanted to make sure Cain wasn’t able to get a good look at me.

"She does," Sin insisted. "And he wants to fuck her so bad that he's hard right now, even though he's all tied up and at her mercy and shit - unless that's what's getting you hard, Officer?"

"Fuck off," Cain snapped. "I wouldn't fuck her if she was the last woman in Solaria."

I turned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow because we both knew he’d very much enjoyed sinking his dick into me and even the anger he was feeling now was unlikely to have doused the heat that burned between us.

"Liar," Sin growled furiously, taking a step forward like he'd kill Cain for that remark and I moved between them, slapping a hand against his bare chest to stop his advance.

"We don't have time for this," I said firmly. "You should stop worrying about who wants to fuck who and just concentrate on finding yourself some clothes."

"This escape business is no fun at all," Sin grumbled, turning away from me like I was disappointing him with the fact that we weren't all currently taking part in a murder spree followed by an orgy. Honestly.

"Come on. We need to get downstairs," I insisted, using my magic to take control of the vines restraining Cain and handing them to Ethan and Roary so they could corral him along with us.

Cain instantly tried to run, putting on a burst of Vampire speed which caused the two of them to curse him as they fought to hold him back. I quickly conjured another set of vines around his upper thighs to restrict his movements before handing them to Sin to control and smirked at Cain as he glowered at me.

Once it was clear that our pet guard couldn't escape us and he was giving us all his most terrifying death glares, we headed for the exit.

I tried not to let the crushing weight of our failure dampen my spirits as I thought of Dante circling in the sky overhead, wondering where I was, freaking out when I didn't show up. I couldn't contact him until the block Jerome had put on the outgoing communications for us was lifted anyway and I needed Pudding to make more transmitters too. So right now, I just had to concentrate on the next part of our plan, which meant getting into the CCTV surveillance room on level eight.

Sin, Roary and Ethan all hustled Cain along between them as I led the way to the exit, the knife I'd conjured held ready in my left hand while my right was raised to cast. Roary was the only one of us with his magic still locked down and I lamented the fact that we hadn't taken the opportunity to unlock his cuffs while Nixon's remote still worked before he'd died. Not that we'd had more than a few seconds to act in that moment, but it was still really fucking annoying now.

I pushed open the library door, hesitating a beat as I caught sight of the bloody puddle which marked the corridor outside and the yells of the riot echoed down to us from the upper levels. It looked like the Belorian had made a feast of someone here recently and I really didn’t want to run into that thing again.

I paused to thump Sin in the arm and he gasped in horror.

“Why?” he asked.

“You know why,” I replied and he nodded solemnly before shooting me another damn wink.

I stood there for a few moments, listening out for any signs of that monster and double checking my lemon was in my pocket before deciding the coast was most likely clear.

I jerked my chin in a command for the others to follow me and quickly led the way outside. My heart pounded as we went and I made quick progress to the stairs at the far end of the corridor, trying to tune out the random screams and victorious yells in favour of anything closer to us which might pose an actual threat.

We were at a huge advantage having access to our magic, but I wasn't going to be dumb and get us killed by thinking that somehow made us immortal.

We made it to the stairs and started hurrying down them, skirting the half-eaten remains of several inmates who had clearly run into the Belorian. Unless of course there was a cannibalistic Fae currently roaming the corridors in their Order form. And in this place, that was highly likely too. Perfetto.

We moved quickly, jogging down the stairs past the seventh floor where the Belorian's cage sat empty at the far end of the darkened space and on to the eighth floor beneath it.

A shriek of fear caught my attention, followed by more screams just before a terrified Fae in an orange jumpsuit rounded the corner ahead and started racing up the stairs.

"The Belorian is coming!" she wailed and fear speared through me as I froze, looking between my men as the need to get to that CCTV surveillance room warred with the desire to run the fuck away from the star damned monster which roamed these halls.

"I'm on it, sex pot!" Sin announced as he tossed his vine to Roary before dropping his boxers and shoving them into the front of Ethan's jumpsuit. “You can pop those up your butt if you like, honeypie,” he added with a wink.

He shifted while Ethan was still cursing him and a gasp escaped me as he became the Belorian's ideal wet dream - which happened to look exactly the same as itself - and took off with an excited roar towards the corridor beneath us.

I didn't waste any time overthinking it and started running after him at full pelt. Ethan and Roary forced Cain to follow and all four of us picked up the pace as we headed after Belorian Sin.

More inmates raced into the stairwell as we reached the corridor, all of them screaming and terrified and I was forced to shove them aside as we went against the flow.

“It ate Gertrude!” Laura screamed as she passed me. “Run, Alpha!”

“You run,” I commanded in my Alpha tone. “And make sure the whole pack band together somewhere to keep each other safe. I’ll come find you later.”

Laura hesitated but she couldn’t fight the command in my voice and she raced on up the stairs with a mournful howl as she ran to do as I’d said.

Sin roared a greeting to the Belorian as he charged towards it, and I swear the thing looked happy to see him as it looked up from its meal of some poor bastardo's head. Probably Gertrude.

I ignored every instinct in my body which was commanding me to run the fuck away and kept going, sprinting past Medical which was locked up tight and heading straight for the surveillance room halfway along the corridor.

The Belorian spotted us and my gut plummeted as it lunged our way, but Sin intercepted it, a weird monster giggle escaping his shifted form as he shook his ass at the terrifying creature and drew its attention to him instead. Then he took off, running for the stairs and leading the monster after him as he went.

I fisted the lemon in my pocket but sighed in relief when I found I didn’t need the damn thing.

I skidded to a halt before the door and Roary shoved Cain forward, raising one of his bound hands to the access panel beside the lock.

I pressed my blade to Cain's throat, giving him a hard look which warned him not to fuck with me while Ethan conjured blades of ice to press against his back too.

“Open it,” I commanded, looking around as the Belorian roared again.

Cain snarled, but I could see the acceptance in his gaze and I quickly removed the vines binding his hand and slapped his palm against the reader.

He resisted for a moment, but a monstrous roar sounded from the corridor to our right and Sin reappeared, the Belorian hot on his ass as he shifted into a man with white hair and Harpy wings before yelling at us to open the fucking door.

Cain cursed before using his magic to unlock it and we all fell through the door, Sin sweeping in last before Roary slammed the door behind us and locked it up tight just as the Belorian crashed into it from the other side. My pulse jackhammered, but relief settled in me when the door didn’t give.

Cain lunged towards Ethan with a spurt of his speed, but I'd been expecting that and I quickly yanked on the tether I held to my magic, wrapping his free hand up tight again and locking it to his side before binding his ass to a chair in the middle of the room and rooting it to the wall for good measure.

Ethan tore into his lemon with his teeth and squirted it all around the doorframe which was rattling under the assault the Belorian was waging against it.

We all looked between each other for a moment as the Belorian continued to try and batter the door down before Sin started laughing as it finally gave up and headed away with a frustrated roar.

"This might just be the best fucking day of my life, kitten," he said to me enthusiastically. "All I need to top it off is to wet my dick between your thighs and I could die happy tonight."

He bit his lip as he looked me over hopefully and I couldn't help but laugh. He was naked and pretty much fully hard already and if we didn’t have a prison to break the fuck out of and a monster trying to tear the door down, I'd have been sorely tempted to take him up on that offer.

"There are spare guard uniforms in that closet," Cain snapped, glaring at Sin like he'd love nothing more than to break his neck. "Put your fucking cock away, Eighty-Eight."

"Why? Is it turning you on too much?" Sin challenged, fisting his dick and grinning at Cain as he ran his thumb over his piercings.

"It's fucking distracting is what it is," Ethan grumbled as he moved towards the screens which covered the wall to the left of the small room.

"He's right," I agreed, offering Sin a flirtatious look as I admired his body for a moment before shaking my head to dismiss his Incubus spell. Or maybe it was just a him spell, but either way I couldn’t spare the time for it now. "You're distracting and we need to concentrate."

Sin huffed like a thirteen-year-old who'd just been told to clean his room then stalked over to the closet to find some clothes.

I moved to Ethan's side, my arm brushing against his as we looked at the feeds from all over the prison. There were a lot of blind spots, but also plenty of coverage to give us an idea of what was going on in general.

"The Lunars have taken control of the Gym," Ethan commented, his lips twitching with pride while I snorted dismissively.

"Yeah and the Oscuras have the dorms. I think I'd prefer access to the beds and the shower block over sleeping with a dumbbell for a pillow - but nice work there, champ." I clapped him on the shoulder patronisingly.

Ethan snarled playfully, giving me a little shove and I shoved him right back, the mate bond buzzing between us as we riled each other up. In fact, I was seriously tempted to wrestle him a little, just to show him who was boss here.

"If you were paying more attention to the screens than your little Wolf mate then you'd have noticed what's going on up on level two," Cain snarled and I reluctantly stopped tussling with Ethan as I gave my attention to the screens showing that area of the prison.

It took me a few moments to piece it all together as I looked between Sparkle and her herd of heavily tatted Pegasuses who were running up and down the corridor outside the visitation rooms, banging on doors and looking like they were yelling about something.

"Hastings just escaped them and locked himself inside the commissary room on level one," Cain snapped when I didn't say anything. "They were chasing him, but they didn't see him go in there. It won't be long before they find him though. Unless you don't give a fuck about him now that you've finished using him?"

My lips parted on some kind of snide comeback, but it fell still on my lips as I spotted the decapitated body of a guard strung up inside the Mess Hall on one of the other screens. I hadn’t wanted any of the guards to get hurt during this escape, but I couldn’t really be held responsible for the actions of the other inmates either.

"If we start trying to save guards, this is all going to fall apart fast," Roary warned, moving to my other side as he looked over the screens too and my gut twisted uncomfortably. "We have to focus on getting out of here."

I bit my lip as Cain muttered to himself about him not being the least bit surprised by that choice.

My gaze skimmed over the screens where Sparkle and her gang were still hunting for Hastings and I continued to chew on my lip. My little choir boy wasn’t cut out for this. He was sweet and weirdly innocent. Hell, I even liked him in a platonic, weird little brother kind of way.

"No, Rosa," Roary reiterated, taking my arm and trying to draw my attention to him.

"And you seriously think I'm going to help you do shit?" Cain scoffed. "He's a good man. And you know it. But do you care? No. You got what you wanted from him and now he's disposable because all you give a shit about is saving your own ass."

"None of us give a fuck about any of the asshole guards in here, kitten," Sin teased and I looked around to find him in a pair of black guard’s trousers and boots. He'd opted to remain shirtless which was probably for the best as we didn't need the added drama of anyone mistaking him for an actual guard when we went back out there.

Cain shot me a disgusted look which said I was even worse than he'd thought I was and I frowned anxiously.

"We have time," I muttered, glancing back towards level two. Sparkle and her gang had returned to the Mess Hall for the most part, all of them stomping their feet - some in Fae form, others shifted into their Pegasus Order forms. Hastings was still stuck where he was, but for now at least they didn't seem to be close to finding him. "We need to make some calls before our plans can progress very far, and the communications are still blocked at the moment anyway. Hastings doesn't deserve to die down here."

"You've got to be kidding me," Sin said in disbelief, but both Roary and Ethan seemed more inclined to listen to me.

"You really wanna risk heading up through the entire prison for the sake of one guard, love?" Ethan asked me curiously and I shrugged.

"He was nice to me when other guards were cruel." I shot Cain a scathing look to make sure he understood who I meant. "And I've never seen him treat any of the inmates like dirt the way a lot of the guards do."

"He does seem to be irritatingly decent," Roary agreed reluctantly, pushing a hand through his dark mane.

"Well we aren't just going to go and help a guard out for nothing," Ethan said, turning to Cain. "If you want us to save him then you can agree to help us out properly in return."

"That's fair," I agreed, arching a brow at Cain who looked inclined to tell us to get fucked.

Sin looked utterly perplexed by the suggestion that we were seriously going to go and save one of the men who had been in charge of keeping us locked up down here, but I was willing to trade him sexual favours for his cooperation, so I was sure I could get him onboard with it.

"Fine," Cain snapped, his gaze cutting back to the CCTV monitor again. "You save Hastings then I'll cooperate with you, and I might even believe there's some decency in you too. But if not then I won't be doing a single thing to help you out and I'll take great pleasure in watching you fail in your hopeless escape attempt."

"Deal," I decided, not asking the others for their opinions because this was my train they were riding and if they didn't like it then they could just get off. "Roar, can you stay here and watch Cain? We can't risk bringing him with us and you're the only one I trust not to kill him."

"I wouldn't go that far," Roary muttered, cutting Cain a hate filled look.

I moved between them, forcing him to fix his attention on me instead and he gave in, nodding his agreement as I glared at him.

"You're leaving me tied up down here with the only one of you who doesn't have magic?" Cain asked. "We'll be dead before you make it back."

"I might not have access to my magic, asshole. But I have something a lot better than that." Roary kicked his boots off, quickly followed by dropping the rest of his clothes and I shamelessly ogled his tanned, naked body, earning myself a wink from him before he shifted into his enormous Nemean Lion form.

Me, Sin and Ethan were forced to back away as he took up almost all of the space in the room. I tipped my head back to look up at him, wrapping my arms around his thick neck and pushing my fingers into the dark fur of his mane as I held him tight for a moment.

"We'll be quick," I promised before peeling myself away and glancing at the monitors again.

The Belorian had moved up to the seventh floor and the corridor outside this room was empty. That was about as close to safe as we were going to get.

"Let's go then, kitten," Sin urged, taking my hand and tugging me towards the door. "We have a little popkin to rescue."