Darkmore Penitentiary 2 - Caroline Peckham Page 0,141

Cain growled and I looked up at him, my fingers stilling in their movement over the mark.

"I'm a Moon Wolf," I replied, holding his gaze. "The moon offers up use of these gifts as and when it sees fit. I don't understand them any better than you do, I just follow what the moon pushes me to do. I couldn't remove the curse even if I wanted to."

"And you don't want to?" he asked, his tone deadly as his fist clenched.

I tilted my head to the side as I regarded him and decided to give him a truth about me that might give him some small sense of understanding.

"The man who gave me my scars spent years trying to force me to become a ruthless creature of his design," I murmured. "And when I failed the tests he set me, he would punish me in all kinds of ways. One of which involved him locking me alone in the dark for days on end. He had a pit in the back yard, a crawl space under the front steps and a tiny closet which were his favourite places for me, and I never knew how long I would be trapped there once he threw me in. The walls would seem to close in on me and the darkness would whisper all kinds of horrors in my ears."

Something dark flashed in Cain's eyes at my words like they caused him real fury on my behalf and I scoffed at him as I pressed my thumb down on the first curse mark I'd given him.

"When I saved your life, you punished me in just the same way, locking me up in the dark for far longer than he ever had with nothing but my memories of him to keep me company. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, my memories aren’t somewhere I like to reside,” I said, my gaze hardening as I remembered exactly how his betrayal had hurt me. “So no, boss man, I don't want to remove the curse. And if I could give you another one, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Cain's eyes darkened but it didn't seem to be with anger at me for once. In fact, if I had to guess, I would have said it was regret. But it was far too late for that to make any kind of difference. He could have come and gotten me out of that hell any time he liked but he chose to let me rot.

Well, payback really was a bitch. And she had nothing on Rosalie Oscura.

I got to my feet as the bell sounded the start of the dinner hour and I headed to the door without another word. Cain got up and unlocked it for me, catching my arm to stop me from pulling it open at the last second.

I looked up and waited to hear what he had to say but he just gritted his jaw and pulled the door wide, letting me go. And I walked away without a backwards glance.

I showered a few feet away from my pack, letting Harper stand close to me, but I couldn’t have her wash me. I couldn’t stand her hands on my flesh for too long and I’d end up snapping at her if she even attempted it and then give away the truth. She scrubbed at her dark dreadlocks and my gaze hooked on the silvery crescent tattooed behind her ear. It made even me angry to see it, let alone what it was doing to Rosalie. Fuck I hated this. Hated having to hide her away, hated fighting with her all the time. A guy like me needed his beauty sleep and I was scraping by on sub-par ugly-as-a-pig’s-asshole sleep. I swear at this rate I was gonna get wrinkles before I was thirty. And that would just be a travesty for my perfect face.

My pack finished washing and I sent Harper after them as I stole a few moments alone under the stream of water. The showers were emptying out and I wanted to just stay there and not have to return to my cell block where a night sharing my cell with Harper awaited me. I made her sleep in another bunk, the weight of guilt of sharing my bed with a woman other than my mate too much for me. I swear the mate bond was getting stronger, begging me to go to Rosalie, to make it up to her.