Chapter 7

Iwant to kill the twins.

No surprise. I’m pretty sure I want to kill the twins at least once a day.

Abel smirks at me, the little asshole, and waves the pendant in the air like the fucking American flag.

My pendant.

I’m not one to be vindictive—preferring to remain in the shadows and listen attentively—but the twins have pushed it too far this time.

With a roar, I shed my human skin and pounce forward, three hundred pounds of pure beast. I know my wolf can be intimidating as fuck. My fur is a contrast to my hair—while my tresses are blond, my fur is the shade of molten onyx stones. It’s a distinct characteristic of my lineage: a shadow wolf.

In three easy strides, I’m across the room with my paws on Abel’s chest. Despite my towering, hulking frame looming over him, the asshole still has the nerve to smile.

Crazy fucker.

With a huff of annoyance, I take the pendant between my sharp canines and saunter away. Abel’s deranged laugh follows me, even as Cain grunts at his twin’s antics. Unfortunately for the quieter demon, they’re both on my shit list.

I spit the pendant onto the ground, allowing the change to wash over me. It feels like thousands of needles pricking my arms and legs, not keen enough to break skin and draw blood but enough to hurt. My furry body shudders, contorts, as the magic wafts over me in a silver sheen. In only seconds, I’m standing on two very human feet, as naked as the day I was born. My clothes were ripped to shreds during my initial shift.

“Asshole,” I growl at Abel, and his laughter only increases. I notice a few appreciative stares from the females lingering, but I ignore them all. They know not to approach me—I’ll approach them.

I bend down to open my backpack and grab a change of clothes: a flannel shirt, dark jeans, and a white undershirt. After quickly dressing, sans boxers, I turn back around with my customary scowl firmly in place.

A few of our lower gang members are gathered in the far corner of the room, attempting to be invisible. The prison females are flirting with them shamelessly. Probably hoping to secure a man who will protect them.

They know they won’t find it in us.

The guys and I…we’re assholes. Too hard and cruel to truly care for anyone. The women know this. We use them when we have an itch and then discard them the next day. Usually, we don’t bang the same female in the same month. Don’t want them to get too attached.

The twins are talking amongst themselves, and I mentally plan their demise. I may be quiet, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. It just means I see more than the average person.

Like how Abel is oddly attached to his dick.

It would be a shame if something happened to it…

Smirking at my macabre thoughts, I grab the pendant from the ground and place it around my neck. It was a gift from my father many years ago, before he passed away. It’s my most prized possession, and it’s a miracle I was able to sneak it into the prison in the first place.

Not that anyone cared. The guards threw us in here without a second thought.

Forgotten. Discarded. Used. We’re nothing but a child’s old toy that was spit on and then thrown away.

The pendant glints in the artificial lighting like freshly spun gold. Engraved in the heart is my momma’s initials. How Abel stumbled upon it remains a mystery—I always keep it around my neck or hidden in my room—but I’ll make him pay for stealing it. I already have to deal with Blade’s longing, wistful looks.

Not that I blame him. The superstition about dragons hoarding gold and other shiny objects is true. I’m pretty sure Blade has an entire room dedicated just to his collection.

Across the room, Abel catches my eye, and I pantomime slitting his throat. His grin grows even wider while Cain frowns. I always knew Cain was the smarter twin. You can never be too careful with a volatile werewolf.

In the front of the room, on a dais, Blade talks in soft tones to Damien. I know exactly what he’s talking about: the increase in fights and dissent within the prison community. For years, Blade has ruled the Labyrinth uncontested. What has changed in the last few months? Why are the shifters protesting a system that keeps us all safe? It makes me immensely worried.

The second Blade is kicked off his throne…

Hell will reign.

The Labyrinth isn’t perfect, but it works. It’s relatively calm and peaceful—for a prison, that is.

The air suddenly leaves my lungs, and I gasp, my large palm sliding down the wall. Pain explodes in my chest, and I keel over. Something is happening, something indecipherable, but something irrevocably right. My heart drops to my stomach as all my senses focus on one being. One bright, pure light that breaks apart the darkness. A ray of sunshine in the gray, overcast skies that have defined my life.

Her.

She steps into the room, body shaking with what I suspect to be terror. Her hair is as dark as obsidian and cascades down to her waist in thick, luscious waves. Her body is frail and slim, a product more from starvation than exercise and diet if my senses are correct. She’s so entirely delicate and breakable that I want nothing more than to cross the distance between us, take her in my arms, and protect her from this entire world.

One word reverberates in my ears, over and over again, like the sweetest song imaginable.

Mate.

This slight, unassuming, gorgeous female is my mate. I know that as innately as I know my name is Bronson and I’m left-handed. My wolf howls in my mind, demanding to be free. Beneath the ecstatic joy is bone-crushing terror.

How did my mate end up here?

I want to lunge forward and take her in my arms, but she already looks so frightened. Tessa stands directly behind her, and I’m grateful that, out of all the women who had to find my mate, it was Tessa. She’s the nicest.

What’s her name?

What’s her story?

Where did she come from?

Question after question fill my mind until I want to shout them from the rooftop.

My mate.

My fucking mate.

I’ve heard the stories of a werewolf’s fated mate—the one person who completes your heart and soul. I’ve even seen it happen firsthand. First with my mother and then with my sister. I have never, not in a million years, believed that I would stumble across my fated mate, the person irrecoverably meant for me.

Especially not in this hellhole.

What did she do to arrive here? She looks as if she could barely hurt a fly, let alone a person. Is she a government spy? Everything about her is delicate and fragile, like a real-life angel statue. I yearn to take her in my arms and shield her from the horrors of this world.

There are a lot of fucking horrors.

Her mouth parts suddenly as she stares in Blade’s direction. Stares with…sightless, white eyes.

Is she blind?

Terror squeezes my heart in iron chains and tightens painfully. I need to go to her. I need to protect her. I need?—

As the female begins to rush forward, towards Blade (what the fuck?), Tessa tackles her from behind, pushing her into the ground. My mate whimpers and covers her head with her hands, almost as if she’s expecting another blow.

A growl escapes my lips before I can contain it, and I find myself marching forward.

“You can’t touch him,” Tessa whispers urgently to my mate, the him meaning Blade. “I told you. Walk seven steps and then bow.”

My mate will bow to no one. If anything, we will bow to her.

Iwill bow to her.

With a ferocious roar, the noise nearly unrecognizable, I grab Tessa and wrench her off my mate. It’s entirely irrational. Logically, I know Tessa isn’t hurting my female, but my wolf bristles at the sight of someone tackling her small frame.

My beautiful, gorgeous mate turns her face in my direction, terror evident in her glossy white eyes.

All I can do is stare.

This close, she’s even more beautiful than I imagined. Her dewy, heart-shaped face is perfectly symmetrical, her skin like porcelain. Those large, white eyes, framed by thick lashes, somehow make her arresting features even more stunning. More beautiful.

Her sightless eyes stare up at me in horror and fear, and I immediately feel as if I’ve been struck by lightning. My mate should never, not ever, look at me like that.

But what did I expect? I’m a large, towering beast of a man hovering over her. Even if she can’t see my features, she can sense my presence.

I should move away, give her space.

But fuck, she smells so damn good.

Blade cuts off his conversation mid-word, spinning to see what the commotion is all about. It”s very, very rare for me to growl, let alone in the presence of a lady. His eyes drop to the female cowering on the ground, and something flickers in his hardened gaze. Something I have never seen before.

Disbelief. Horror. Hope.

And love. A love so deep and intense, I want to growl again.

Why is he looking at my mate like that?

“Nina,” he whispers, staggering down a step, as if he is drunk. Damien turns to stare at us, his expression almost bored, but pauses when he catches sight of the petite female. His eyes widen almost imperceptibly in his stupidly handsome face, and he, too, takes a step forward.

“Kai?” my mate whimpers, turning her head to stare in his general direction.

Blade pauses a few steps away, his lips curling into a snarl.

“Everyone out!” he shouts, and I wonder if I’m the only one who notices my mate wince. What has happened in her life to cause such an instinctive reaction to loud noises? I suddenly want to tear the world apart, watch it bleed. Whoever hurt her…

A growl resounds low in my throat.

In a matter of seconds, the females and lower members scatter as if their asses are on fire. Tessa hesitates, only a second, before hurrying out with the rest of them. She might be the nicest female, but she’s still a coward, still driven by fear. Only the twins, Damien, and I remain.

Blade collapses to his knees before the female—Nina—with tears glimmering in his dark eyes. Blade, the man who once murdered twenty-two people without breaking a sweat, is crying. Who is this woman who brought a man like Blade to his knees?

She reaches for him at the same moment he reaches for her, pulling her onto his lap and wrapping her in his arms. She rubs her face against the skin of his neck as he rocks her.

I just barely bite down on the hiss threatening to escape.

What the fuck is going on?