Chapter 21

Itried not to cackle like a fucking bog witch when Hannibal came flying out of the basement four hours early like his manties were on fire. My wolf ears could hear his guts staging the French Revolution from where I was. I didn’t know if he made it to the toilet on time, but I really hoped not.

I’d casually been visiting the other residents and letting them know enough details of our plan that it actually worked, but not enough that they spilled anything. Hannibal would probably come find me after dinner.

My mate hadn’t reached out to me yet, but she was probably just shy.

There was this vampire who had been avoiding me. I noticed him have to run away to laugh when I started speaking about stupid vampire shit the humans believed. He was sitting on the couch pretending to read. I took a running start and jumped on the couch next to him.

“Whatcha reading?” I asked.

No one could say I wasn’t friendly.

“The fiction in here is pretty shitty,” he sighed, closing the book.

“I’m Benji.”

“Oberon. They prefer you call us by our patient numbers here.”

Holy shit. What were the chances? Was everyone here?

“Oberon Malik?” I asked, leaning in.

“How the fuck did you know that?” Oberon growled.

“Remember little Nathan Reyes? He remembers you. He’s been trying to get you out of here for a while. He just didn’t know where you were. Fucker tried to get in here undercover.”

“Nathan? Is he okay?”

“I can’t say much, but he’s fine,” I leaned in where only supernaturals could hear. “When we get out of here, he says you can stay with him until you get back on your feet.”

Oberon gave me a curt nod. Cas and Pax finally came out from the office and pulled me to the dining hall. The food was pretty shit. They fed us better seventy year ago when shit was less processed. Pax had to leave us because we were pretending, but Cas and I had garlic bread on our plates. Well, kind of. It was sandwich bread with butter, garlic, and some cheese.

Cheap fuckers. This was morally reprehensible.

I took a bite out of the toast and gagged. Cas looked at me like I had a second head.

“Did I not fucking enunciate clearly? This is margarine. I want a manager and a refund.”

“This is a Coalition prison, Benji. You’re lucky you even got that.”

“The parmesan is that wood shaving stuff, too,” I moaned.

“What did you expect?”

“There’s going to be some ‘Olga of Kyiv-level’ vengeance for this slight.”

“Benji,” Cas growled. “Rein it in. We just need to get them experimenting with those ingredients so everyone gets fed better.”

“These are dino nuggets, Cas. It’s morally reprehensible. Chicken shouldn’t be stegosaurus shaped. It’s wrong.”

How was he not pissed about it? Chickens were magnificent creatures. They’d shank your ass if they could. Grinding up chicken parts and putting them in a dinosaur-shaped mold was an insult to evolution. Everyone here should be rioting about this injustice. I’d start one, but it would blow my cover.

“Eat your dino nuggets like a good boy, Benji. You’ll need your strength later,” Cas purred.

I savagely bit the head off of a T-rex.

“It should be against the law to use my praise kink against me to get me to eat this abomination. You can’t even follow through because we’re being cock blocked by a fake blue priest.”

“Aww, Benji, you know you love it when we make you wait. It’ll be the best IOU and when I finally deliver, we’ll have our mate with us.”

“You’re so mean,” I said, sticking my tongue out at Cas.

“There are plenty of people who like dino nuggets. And you got one over on Hannibal. Correct him or don’t, but make sure everyone is getting this, including our mate. You did good.”

“Did I tell you Father Nathan’s friend is here?”

“No shit? I can’t fully trust Di and his friends since they either won’t give us their names or gave us a fake name, but their intel has been good. It seems like we are exactly where we need to be.”

Cas was going to have to get past all that fake name shit, but I could tell from the start Di was one of us. Cas and Pax were trying to figure out if his missing girlfriend was also our mate, but I already knew. She didn’t have to tell me. Di didn’t either.

My whole life had led me to this point. When I escaped from the Coalition, my shadow demon took over and got me out of there. I ended up in a barn and scared the pigs. The horse didn’t kick me, though.

Two men came out to see what the ruckus was. It was a polar bear shifter and a Smith instead of a human who would have brought me back. I was terrified, but I let them coax me out of the hay. I fought every instinct to run because there was this small, nagging feeling to stay. When I did and finally let them in, I realized they were my pack.

Di might not be his real name, but his girlfriend was our girlfriend, and he was also pack. Cas and Pax would eventually figure that out.