I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,56

didn’t need to kill anyone. I was just good at it, and it paid well. I rid the world of a few scumbags. This called for a fresh approach. I was a rational wolf, even with so many people wanting my mate dead.

I wasn’t going to kill them. I was utterly going to destroy this coven, sit back, and watch the fallout. Never fuck with a wolf’s mate.

Chapter 35

Sota

B

arbatos was still off playing in another realm with his daughter. There was nothing I could do about that right now. I was focusing on what I could do. Mainly, we needed to capture Rei’s kusoyaro brother so I could bring her home safely when I got permission to get her out of prison.

Hell was a vast realm with many places to hide. It didn’t matter what kind of demon you were, though. Patricide was frowned upon, and every region of Hell was looking for Kudan. He’d pissed a lot of people off, and everyone wanted dibs on torturing him. I’d been begging to get the honor, but it was really up to his father.

Takahiro had always spoiled Kudan. He gave the boy anything he wanted and made it go away when he got into trouble. Honestly, that was totally against the demon way of life. They should have tortured Kudan several times over for some things he’d done before he tried to kill Takahiro. I’ll tell you this, if he had been properly tortured at least once in his life, none of this would be happening, and I’d actually know my bride.

The manhunt for Kudan had stepped up way before I made a stink about bringing Rei home. Kudan knew damned well everyone knew he was a koshinuke father killer and would revolt if he situated himself on the throne, but he was still trying. He sent one of his honorless minions to try to sneak into the palace and try again. He was quickly caught but killed himself before anyone could get information about Kudan’s whereabouts.

Various demons had their own beliefs about what happened if you met the final death. This assassin wouldn’t get the proper funeral rites we did if someone happened to die. We didn’t know for sure because we couldn’t ask anyone, but we believed his soul would never find rest, and he would have to walk the Earth as a restless spirit endlessly. Not all of Hell believed this, but we did.

There was only one place we didn’t have eyes on to check for Kudan. Thanks to a deal with the Fae, there was a building for him to hide in, though technically, it was supposed to be having contractors in there, making it livable. Amduscias, one of Hell’s dukes that had spent a lot of time in Scorchwood and broke out with the help of his wife, his husband, a Fae, and a wolf, gave us a tip about the prison. There were plenty of places Kudan could hide in there.

Amduscias was scheduled to visit Olympus with his mates, but before he left, he and all his prison buddies would come with us to Scorchwood to search for Kudan. All except his wife, who was quite pregnant at the moment. She wanted to come, and she was pretty effective with her fire magic, but everyone was making her stay home.

I was just waiting for them to get here. The familiar red cloud of a demon portal opened, and Amduscias stepped through with Roman and Skoll. I expected Fergus to be with Serafina, but I didn’t complain that he came. He had fire just like Serafina did. I wanted Kudan tortured for centuries until he was begging for death before someone killed him, but I would have settled for watching Fergus use his fire dragon on him. I’d heard stories about how creative he was with making people die with it. I really just wanted Kudan dead.

I was leading this expedition, even if Amduscias outranked me in the entire Hell hierarchy. He was spat from the fires of Hell, so they gave him a title. I was a Tengu with parents, but we had mutual respect. Tengu were generally impressive demons, and everyone knew that.

“I’d like to take Kudan alive to be tortured, but I won’t be upset if he’s there, and we have to kill him. Kudan is not the fall on his own sword type. He has no honor. He’ll use his minions as a shield because he’s a warugaki and a coward. He