I could force them all the way out. This curse punished me with the worst memories of my life. I’d already had nightmares before Twelve had marked me, but now they were as clear as if I was really that kid again, living those horrors once more.
I had the feeling my anger with Twelve had brought this episode on and I swore at myself for letting myself be baited by her. Who cared if she was fucking Sin Wilder?
My fangs lengthened and fury built in my gut like acid. I cared. Clearly. But I needed to find a way to stop her from riling me or I was never going to keep my head around her.
I scraped a hand over my short hair and sighed, looking at myself in the mirror. I didn’t do that often. I didn’t like the man looking back. All I could see in his eyes was bloodlust and chaos and darkness. The darkness was what I had to work to conceal at all times. I could never give in to it. My base instincts couldn’t be trusted. I had to fight to appear respectable, trustworthy. To Warden Pike, I was the best officer she had on duty. Little did she know, I had broken far too many of her rules. And mostly, I had broken them for Twelve.
I pushed through the bathroom door and lifted my chin high as I prayed to the stars the curse wouldn’t overwhelm me in front of Pike. That mark on my arm was like a key to all my secrets. It linked me to Twelve. If she was questioned, forced to go under Cyclops interrogation, they’d find out I’d been hunting her, wanting her. At best, I’d lose my job. At worst, I’d end up with some prison time of my own.
I strode down the hall, knocking on the warden’s office door as I drew in a long breath to calm the fuck down.
“Enter,” Pike called and I stepped into the room.
She nodded curtly to me from behind her desk. “Good morning, Officer, how are you getting along with Twelve?”
“I’m just about to assign her to her correctional program.” My nerves frayed as she gazed at me and I started to fear she knew something, that she was about to expose me. But I must have been fucking paranoid. I’d covered my tracks. It had been months since my last discretion with Twelve.
“Good. Sorry to summon you out of your meeting, but I’ve just had a call with the Tucana FIB Captain and it looks like we have a livewire being transferred here this afternoon.” She gestured for me to sit and I did so before she handed me a casefile.
“Laura Metz has been reprimanded in the past for various misconducts regarding a particularly famous Werewolf.”
“Who?” I frowned.
“I’m not at liberty to say, the information has been redacted from her file. She has been arrested for stalking multiple times, but on this occasion, it was with intent to kidnap. Charges have been pressed and the judge deemed a stint in Darkmore necessary to drive the message home.”
“That seems extreme considering she didn’t actually pull off the kidnap,” I pointed out. Darkmore was for monsters, not Fae with half-cocked plans to kidnap celebrities.
“Yes, well the judge took into account the fact that the FIB agent who brought her in lost an arm while subduing her.”
“Holy shit,” I cursed.
“My feelings exactly,” she said, her nose wrinkling. “The arm was utterly obliterated so there was no chance of reattachment.”
My throat tightened. Losing a hand was the worst kind of fate for a Fae. Nothing was worse than that apart from losing both fucking hands. We couldn’t wield our magic without them and those Fae who’d been known to lose both either lost their minds or got so sick, they fucking died.
“She claims it was an accident, but of course, that made no difference in the end even if it is the truth. The damage was done,” Pike said with a sigh. “Anyway, I wanted to make sure you would be around to process her at four pm. I want my best officer in attendance.”
She always gave me the crazies and the savages. Maybe I wouldn’t have formed my obsession with Twelve so quickly if I hadn’t had to process her naked ass. I could have ignored her if it weren’t for that interaction where my dick had gotten so stiff, I swear I’d had to jerk off three times to fix my