Darkmore Penitentiary 2 - Caroline Peckham Page 0,13

what had always been expected of me. And I’d thought for half a fucking millisecond that what we’d had was real. That I’d found a girl who not only sought out that monster in me, but coaxed it from the dark and accepted it as a part of me. But what she’d really been doing was making an idiot out of me. Of course she hadn’t liked me. I was the most unlikeable fucker in Solaria. I had nothing to offer a girl, nothing but perks in a hellhole like Darkmore. And it was blindingly obvious now that that was what she’d wanted from me. So why hadn’t she let me die?

I threw the fifty pound dumbbell in my grip across the room with a roar of rage, panting heavily as heat coursed under my skin. It was Saturday. The staff who weren’t working were home with their families, seeing their friends. This place was a ghost town. And that was the way I liked it. But why did my life feel just that much more hollow since Twelve was no longer a constant in my day? And that was saying something considering the size of the void that lived in me.

Why did I go over and over in my mind the moment she’d saved me from the Belorian’s poison? Picking through my reaction, the relief I’d felt waking to her, the heat of her mouth against mine, then the icy prickle of betrayal as I realised how long she’d been using me. She’d been up to something. She was always up to something. And though I’d known that all along, I’d still let her use me, let her manipulate me with my lust for the hunt. I’d handed the girl my balls and locking her up had felt like my only option.

The first few days, I waited for her to talk. For the Warden to call me to her office and not only strip my position from me, but hand me to the FIB for abusing inmates. I’d hunted the pretty little Wolf. She could have easily put on her big eyes and spilled a few tears while she told them how I’d abused her. But she never talked. And I didn’t know why.

I swallowed the throbbing lump rising in my throat, ignoring the twist in my gut that always came whenever I thought of her. Alone in the hole. Pawing at the walls. And I was constantly thinking of her.

I didn’t go down there, didn’t go near the place. I was working double shifts again, content to spend long hours overseeing the inmates rather than spend any time alone with my thoughts for too long. Not that it helped a whole lot. But it was better than being here, like this, with the quiet pulsing loudly in my ears and my thoughts running wild. But Warden Pike had insisted I take time off this weekend, so now I was trapped with myself and a thousand thoughts of her.

I strode from the gym, heading down the grey corridor and into my quarters. I moved through the bare room with its single bed and blank walls, marching into the en-suite and kicking out of my shoes, dropping my pants and stepping into the shower. I turned the water on so hot that it burned and shut my eyes to try and focus on the heat, letting it sear my flesh and draw all of my attention. Except that it didn’t. Because when I closed my eyes, she was there staring back at me, those big hazel irises glinting, drawing me in, promising things I had accepted would never be mine a long time ago. Her magic was so strong that maybe she could Bedazzle Fae even with those cuffs in place. She was a temptress like none I’d ever known. I found myself obsessing over everything from the taste of her blood to the secrets in her eyes. I wanted it all. I wanted to cross every boundary and barrier that kept me from her and seize her as mine. It was more than a need, it was a base instinct. One I grappled with every day because that was exactly what she could never be.

My cock hardened as she took up residence in my head and I growled my fury at that reaction to her. My body was a fucking traitor. I knew the truth now. I knew what she’d wanted from me all along. Her magic had been