Chapter 49

Ibounce my knee, nervous energy coursing through me.

This will be the first time I have seen my momma and sisters in…who knows how long.

When the guards arrived at my cell, I was ready. I didn’t even flinch as the mage asshole sent a wave of power at me, knocking me unconscious.

I glance around the barren visitation room with the stark white walls, metal table, and two plastic chairs. It’s as unwelcoming as the rest of the prison. A tool designed to warn people away.

When the door to the room opens, a brilliant smile is already spreading across my face.

“Oh, my baby boy!” Momma calls, rushing to me and peppering my face in kisses.

“Momma, stop it,” I growl half-heartedly, cheeks flaming at being doted on like a little boy. If Nina could see me now…

“Let me get a look at you, boy!” She whacks my shoulder, pulling away to give me a critical once-over. Her shrewd eyes narrow. “Are they feeding you right? Don’t make me march to that warden and give him a piece of my mind. I’ll beat him with my purse. Don’t even test me.”

I smile softly at the ferocious woman. I have no doubt she would.

Standing at barely five feet, Gemma Ferguson is a sight to behold. Her blonde hair, peppered with silver, hangs in a loose braid over her shoulder. Today, she wears a purple flannel shirt and ripped blue jeans. Despite her small stature, she looks plenty capable of charging into a battle, head-on. Her pouty lips and long lashes make her look younger than her actual age, emanating an innocence that contradicts the badass I know her to be.

“Are you going to ignore your favorite sister?” Marbella snarks, already sitting indolently on the plastic chair opposite the table.

“You dyed your hair,” I observe, staring intently at my sister’s indigo locks.

“I did.” She nods her head once, a familiar smirk playing on her lips.

“And,” my younger sister, Lola, pipes up, “she has a boyfriend.”

“Lola, shut up!” Marbella hisses immediately.

Boyfriend? Bella has…a boyfriend? I’m suddenly grateful I’m restrained by cuffs. If I weren’t, I might run out of this prison, track this boy down, and castrate him.

“Don’t start growling, boy!” Momma whacks me again on the shoulder. For a little old lady, she packs a mean punch. “She’s sixteen. Heaven only knows what you were getting up to at that age.”

That only makes me madder. I know sixteen-year-old boys because I was one. All we think about are sex and drugs, not necessarily in that order. I’ll be the first to admit I slept around and experimented with weed during my high school years.

“Who is he?” I growl, voice nearly unrecognizable.

“For fuck’s sake, Bron!” Bella flicks a wadded-up gum wrapper at my head.

“Don’t use that language, missy,” Momma scolds, diverting her attention off of me. “Or else I’ll go over there with my purse and beat you silly.”

Bella pouts her lips out petulantly while Lola cackles. Those two always got on each other’s nerves. Ali was the unofficial peacemaker.

At the thought of Ali, I instantly sober. Momma must read the change in my expression because she gives me a side hug.

“I miss her too. More than anything,” she whispers, her voice choked with emotion and pain.

I lost my sister, but my mom lost her daughter. I can’t imagine what she must be going through. I don’t have children yet, but already, I can see dozens of little babies with Nina’s glorious black hair. I don’t want to know what I would do if anything happened to them, these babies that don’t even exist yet.

“This place is crazy,” Lola interrupts. I love my younger sister, I do, but sometimes, she’s oblivious to the emotions of others. She’s not purposefully trying to be malicious or rude; she just gets trapped in her own mind. “It’s like a soap opera.”

“Soap opera?” I scoff. Nightmare Penitentiary is a lot of things, but a soap opera isn’t one of them.

“I heard some of the guards talking. Did you know that one of the guards, some dude named Rook, fucked and mated with an inmate? I heard the girl, the cockatrice, had a pretty badass shank business.” Lola’s face seems to glow as she talks, eyes bright with excitement. She feeds off drama like vampires do blood. “While we were walking through the halls, we came across this siren named Selena. She was really pretty. Have you met her? You should mate with her. Unless…” She flashes me a Cheshire cat grin. “Unless you already have a mate.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Momma scoffs. I note that some of the pain, the anguish, dimmed in her bright eyes the more Lola talked. I don’t think she’ll ever be whole, but she’s slowly working on mending herself together again. For Lola and Bella. For me. “If my boy had a mate, he would’ve told me by now.”

She glares at me disapprovingly, and I duck my head sheepishly. In a matter of minutes, my momma has made me feel like an errant boy getting caught eating something he wasn’t supposed to. That glare turns into shock as she whacks me a-fucking-gain with the back of her hand.

“You have a mate and didn’t tell your momma?” she cries in a stilted voice that conveys her annoyance and irritation. “I gave birth to you, boy. You don’t keep things like this from me!” She begins to sniffle, wiping at her eyes. Oh, dear God. Not the tears… “When should I start hearing wedding balls? Grandbabies? I want babies, dammit.”

The thought of babies saddens me as I recall what Nina confessed earlier. All my dreams of beautiful, black-haired babies dissipate like words written in condensation. I’ll have to bring this up to Cain at a later time, ask him to look into it. Babies or not, I’ll love Nina, regardless.

Besides, it’s not a smart idea to bring babies into this prison.

“Momma.” I blush, lifting my gaze towards her face once more. “It’s still really new…”

“But you met her?” Lola asks eagerly, placing her arms on the table and leaning forward.

I smile when I think of Nina Doe. My mate. My world.

“I did. She’s perfect.” If my voice sounds like that of a lovesick idiot, can you blame me? “She has a way of making you feel like you’re the only person in the world. She’s so incredibly strong—I can’t even begin to describe her inner strength. And she’s sweet. You’ll love her.”

Momma’s lips are curled into a soft smile. That smile seems to radiate through her expressive eyes. “You love her, don’t you?” Though it’s phased as a question, there is a knowing glint in her eyes.

“What…? How…?” Yup. I’m blushing. Like a simpering schoolboy.

Fucking hell.

“Do you remember your last girlfriend?” Momma questions, shooing Bella out of the only spare seat and perching delicately on the edge.

“Why does that matter?”

“When I asked you about her, you immediately began describing how she looks.” Momma’s smile widens. “Yet, with your mate, you didn’t once mention her appearance.”

“Because Nina’s more than that,” I snap before I can stop myself. “She’s beautiful, of course, but she’s also kind and funny and strong—” I break off at my momma’s smirk. “Ah. I see.”

“When can I meet her?” Lola asks, jumping from foot to foot. “Can we meet her now?”

“Calm down, spitfire,” I say, rolling my eyes. If my hands weren’t cuffed to table, I would’ve ruffled her bleached-blonde hair. “I promise I’ll introduce you to her.”

Lola and Momma exchange a mischievous look that promises trouble for that future encounter. I have no doubt that Momma thinks this girl isn’t good enough for me. I’m sure all mothers think that about their kids. However, she’ll come to realize that I’m not good enough for her. Momma will take one look into those white, compassionate eyes and be a goner. I’m pretty sure she’ll disown me and then adopt Nina as her own child.

“Well, we can’t stay for long.” Momma reluctantly gets to her feet. “Lola has art class this afternoon.”

“And Bella has a date,” Lola says in a singsong voice.

Bella glares at our younger sister, eyes hurling daggers, before huffing and crossing her arms over her chest. “Before we leave, can I talk to Bronson alone for a moment?” she asks, turning towards me. She brushes at a lock of her indigo hair, pushing it behind her ear.

“Of course, sweetheart.” Momma turns towards me and kisses my forehead. “Please, allow us to visit more. I know you didn’t want us to see you like this, but I can’t lose another child.” Tears fill her eyes, and each one is a punch to my gut. I hate when women cry, especially my mother. Tears should be fucking banned.

“Okay, Momma.” I rest my head against her chest like I used to do when I was a young boy. Her floral perfume surrounds me, evoking memories of late-night cookie baking sessions and horror movie marathons. “Love you.”

“Love you too, boy. And don’t forget to introduce me to that mate of yours.” In a softer voice, she adds, “Your face glows when you talk about her. Any girl who’s capable of earning your love is someone I need to meet. Hopefully, she’s good enough for my son.” If she was a peacock shifter, I imagine she’d be ruffling her feathers, attempting to assert her dominance.

“You’ll love her,” I assure her. “Promise.”

“Is she pretty? What does she look like?” Lola continues to babble question after question as Momma leads her out of the room. “Bye, Bron! Love you, asshole!” The “asshole” comment gets her a whack on the head from Momma.

A moment later, the door closes with a resounding clank.

Bella sits once more in the chair Momma previously occupied. She adopts a languid pose, legs kicked back and arms crossed.

“Did you get it?” I ask my sister.

She eyes me warily, eyes keen, before nodding once. “I did.”

She doesn’t move.

My irritation growing, I ask, “Can I have it?”

“Of course.” Once more, she doesn’t even twitch.

I sigh. “Okay, fine. I bite. What do you want?”

Finally—finally—I get a reaction. She sits straight up in the uncomfortable plastic chair and smiles brilliantly. Hook, line, and fucking sinker.

“I want your room,” she demands. “And I want you to call me ‘the supreme sister goddess’ for a whole month.”

My lips press into a grim line. “Is that all?”

“Hmmm.” She taps a finger to her chin before breaking into laughter, the noise deceptively light, and flashing me a malevolent grin. “When you leave here, I want you to buy me pancakes every day for three months. Every day. I’m not playing on this.”

“Fine,” I say through gritted teeth. “Now, give me.”

She gracefully slides a file out from underneath her sweatshirt. I have no idea how she was able to smuggle it into the prison, and I don’t care. All I care about is the information it contains.

My sister’s a hacker. A skilled one. Since a young age, she’s been able to break into the school’s computer, change her grades, and mark her attendance as perfect. Over time, her skills have developed significantly, and she even befriended some men and women from the dark web. Of course, I had argued profusely and threatened bodily harm on those creeps, but there’s not much I can do now that I’m in prison.

I never suspected her skills would come in handy.

Narrowing my eyes at the folder, I huff with irritation. “I can’t fucking read it with the cuffs on.”

With a sigh, she stalks around the table and flips it open to the first page.

“I couldn’t find anything on the Compound. Whoever ran it was good, very good. Probably better than me. Or they didn’t keep records online. There’s not a single trace of it on the web.” She sounds affronted by that idea before she shakes her head and nods towards the paper. “I did, however, find Nina’s hospital records from when she first left this mysterious Compound. The records were sealed, but the hospital had an extra, secret file on their computer. But this… Bron, this is big.”

I hit the brakes on my thoughts so fast that there are skate marks on the asphalt and the smell of burning rubber.

“This…this can’t be right,” I whisper, stunned by what I’m reading.

Bella’s face is uncharacteristically grim as she considers me.

“Your mate is in even more danger than you thought, if this is true,” she says solemnly.

Horror swamps me, consumes me, as I stare at the words before me. I see them, but I’m not able to read or comprehend them. Icy numbness courses through my veins.

I think…

I think my sister may be right.