I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,31

holographs of clouds and a moon on it. I knew better than anyone the prisoners in Silverhold were horrible criminals, but there were shifters in there. If they were going to take their cuffs off one night a week and let them shift, they needed a proper moon.

I had every access to my magic and my wolf, and this place was just fucking depressing. It smelled like BO and sadness no matter where you went, and it wasn’t like you could open a window anywhere to escape it.

I looked forward to my days off and tonight started my four nights off before I was on for another ten days. I never picked up extra shifts even if I was hunting a prisoner I was being paid to kill. I went to a shifter bar for drinks at the end of my shift and spent the next four days at my very isolated cabin running as my wolf and eating what I hunted. It cleared my head and allowed me to focus when I went back to that hellhole.

Except as soon as I left and made my way back to the bar, I wanted to go back. My mind was on that fucking inmate and her unreal scent. I didn’t want to leave her alone in a prison full of criminals, even though I knew full fucking well she was one herself. I didn’t want to be running as my wolf while that fucking witch was loose in prison, wanting her blood.

I really wished I had stepped in when she showed up in the showers and thrown her in solitary. I couldn’t do a damned thing about that now because I thought it was a good idea to just watch for a minute to see if the not fox revealed something. The fucking witch hadn’t given me a single bit of ammunition yet, but it was coming, and now I was fucking off. I should be at that prison.

What was this fucking inmate doing to me? Why did I care? I was getting smashed at my favorite bar and forgetting about her for a night.

I took my usual seat at the bar and ordered my favorite whiskey. A pack of wolves brewed it and was terrific. Call me a snob, but even if I was a lone wolf now, I tried to support other packs by only purchasing wolf made products when I could.

I’d knocked back four shots and was starting to feel them. I asked for another because I didn’t want to feel a fucking thing right now, and it was like she was still in the room where I could smell her.

“Another!” I said, slamming my glass down.

“What’s your deal tonight, Faust?” Raul said as he refilled my shot glass. “You usually have two, play a round of pool, and you leave. No one will play with you tonight if you never stop drinking and if you don’t get that look off your face. What’s bothering you?”

I was buzzed enough to talk to him tonight. Raul was a chatty bartender, but he usually knew better than to try that shit with me.

“You ever meet someone who smells too good to be true, and you can’t get enough of it?”

Raul gave me this knowing look.

“They smell like everything you love all at once, even though it shouldn’t make sense together? And you just want to be around them and protect them, even if you hardly know them, and it might not make a lick of sense?”

“Exactly! And I can’t avoid her either. It’s not an option where I work.”

Raul just laughed.

“Why would you want to? That’s your mate, you big, stupid wolf. The same thing happened to me when I met mine. You need to claim her, or it’s going to drive you mad now that you’ve met her.”

She could not be my mate. I didn’t even know what she was other than she was definitely not a fox shifter. How was I supposed to claim her, anyway? She was in prison for the next seven years, and she hated me. She told me that several times while she was going through my files.

Fucking fate. I hadn’t even been looking for a mate. I wasn’t one of those wolves that made stupid sacrifices to the moon, hoping to find their mate. Some of them even went to witches for tarot readings and spells to try to locate them.

I did none of that nonsense. I was fine on my own. Having