Chapter 10

Cam

I"d had to hold myself back in front of the guards in the hospital ward. Whoever had done that to Cerys and her parents would regret it severely during their last breathing moments. I would rip them limb from limb. Slowly. I didn"t know all the details, but I would find them out. Then I would use them to make sure they suffered just as Cerys and her family had. One of them was going to get whipped until they were begging for mercy. No one would ever hurt her again.

In amongst all of that, I felt such pride for my little human mate. She had survived such a brutal thing and still offered the world goodness and grace. She was the bravest being I had met. True, she had just run from my cell like a rabbit being hunted for sport, but this was all a lot for a human, so I didn"t blame her. I needed to claim her. Then I could talk to her about leaving this place. Now I'd found my mate, I wasn't wasting more years of my life in prison.

My cock was still throbbing, but there were noises of guards wandering around, so I lay back and tried to rest. Food arrived at my cell in the endless boring hours, and I gulped it down. It tasted awful and sour, but I was starving and the food in any prison was never great. After eating I tied Cerys" scarf around my wrist so her scent would be closer to me, and let myself fall asleep to dream of the ways I was going to hurt all the people who had hurt her. And all the ways I would make her happy and give her pleasure once she let me fully claim her.

Searing pain from my collar ripped me from sleep. Everything was dark, and it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. Something was wrong. I felt the pull of unconsciousness dragging me down again before another arc of pain shot through me. I roared, and this time I was fully awake as more pain cramped my body into spasms. The gash on my chest stung as I thrashed on the ground. It felt like an eternity before it stopped, and I lay for a moment as the waves of pain receded. I let my eyes close but flipped up my ears a bit to listen.

"Jesus, that was full blast and he ain"t dead. Is he awake?"

"He"s awake. Just pretending not to be, probably. The drugs will be wearing off now."

I didn"t recognize the first voice, but the second one was the sneery guard that had first zapped me with the collar when I objected to therapy. Daylen, I think Cerys had called him. They weren"t in the room with me and probably didn"t realize I could hear them through the thick walls.

"Okay, what now? I don"t want to be here when he goes mad."

"We are safe in here," Sneery responded. "We just need a good excuse for all the other officers to kill the beast. If he"d just died from the collar shock before we wouldn"t have had to go ahead with all this."

A crackle slightly deafened me as they turned on a speaker in the room.

"Now listen here, cow. You are at the center of our nice little maze of a prison. And far away is that little monster-fucking therapist you've been messing around with. We don't like your sort and we don't like you touching human women. But she wanted to be alone in your cell, so she's there now. In your cell block, and all the cell doors are open. And the alarms and cameras are mysteriously broken, so none of the other guards know. There are some nasty monsters in there.."

Sneery had barely finished talking before I was on my feet with the red hot fire of rage washing over me. The room looked like some sort of lab. I spun around. There was a glass window separating me from the two guards in the other room. I ran and hit it horns first. Waves of pressure ran down my body as the glass stopped me in my tracks. Both guards jumped back. Sneery looked amused, but the other one looked terrified. I glared at them for a moment, flaring my nostrils. I wanted to rip them apart. Wipe the smile off Sneery"s face. But Cerys was alone and needed me. That was all that mattered. For now.

I turned away to find a door, and charged at it. My horns weakened the door enough that the rest of my large bulk shattered the wood into pieces. I stopped, faced by my first choice. To turn left or right down the corridor. I"d avoided this entire area since my first hint of maze madness. Even if I"d known the most direct route, it was going to be a struggle to remain clear headed. But I couldn"t afford to take my time. A sense of anguish set in, thinking of Cerys frightened and alone with some of the worst monster criminals around. I threw my head back and roared again. A primal, deep release of the feelings threatening to overwhelm me. I had to get moving. I turned left, and I ran.

Turn after turn, with no clear idea of where I was going. My mind was growing foggy. Turn.

Keep focusing on Cerys.

Turn.

Hold it together.

Turn. I could feel parts of myself slipping away. The thinking parts. I was failing my mate. With a thud, I ran headlong into the shadow demon from the fight earlier. It was like hitting a wall of force, and it sent me flying backwards and onto my ass. Before I could react, he leaned down and pressed one finger to my collar. I heard a pop and then felt the cold metal slide off my neck, followed by a clunk as it hit the floor.

"How…?"

"I exist in a different way."

His solid shape flickered and became hard to see before he spoke again.

"You know, your intense protective mating instinct comes from your minotaur side. Maybe you should just trust it? Relinquish some of that control that you think matters so much. By the way, the cells are this way."

The shadow demon then floated through a solid wall in front of me. There were no turns leading in that direction for me to take. The red rage was clawing at my whole body. It was taking so much of my mental and physical energy to fight it off. Maybe he was right. Maybe what my mate needed was me at my worst. I let go. I let my raging inner minotaur shatter my control. Everything faded away. I was pure animal and instinct. And that animal was dangerous. Without thought or restraint, I charged at the wall the shadow demon had passed through. I smashed it to smithereens, and I kept going.