Chapter 2

Cam

This prison was like all the rest. Dark and cold. Monsters get dumped and left to rot in these places. If you caught anyone"s attention it was never for a good reason. It certainly hadn"t been for me. The minotaurs at the last prison had decided that they didn"t like half-breeds, and set out to make my life miserable. Most monsters don"t like half-breeds, so this was nothing new. I"ve learned the hard way that you have to let people know that fucking with you isn"t worth the consequences. And it wasn't in my nature to take crap or submit to anyone. So, obviously, it ended badly. But more for them than for me. After a punishment of solitary confinement in the tiniest cells, I was moved here to avoid causing further problems and placed in a cell far too small for a beast my size. I laid down on the bed, my legs hanging off the end. Sleeping was going to be interesting.

I looked around the cell. Stone walls, check. Mattress that looks like it"s been in here for a century, check. Filth everywhere, check. And apparently this cell used to belong to a werewolf, because my nose felt stuffed full of the smell of dog. Also, maybe a hint of some sort of snake creature.

As I was trying to get the fur off the mattress, a guard appeared and unlocked the cell door.

"It"s time for your first therapy session. Let's go."

"Therapy? I don"t think so. I"m not here to talk about my feelings," I snarled, crossing my arms.

A hot jolt of pain ran through my body from the collar around my neck. It was a small warning shock; painful, but I'd had worse. I kept my face still and refused to react to the pain. The guard's face screwed up slightly at my lack of reaction. I smiled at him, showing my sharp incisors.

"I take it that means therapy's mandatory, then?"

The downside to having your crime be a violent one was the control collar and its various levels of pain. It kept the fragile human guards safer. But some of them were click happy. It was good to find out early on which ones were going to be a problem. This short round man qualified, although he shifted foot to foot uneasily now. He turned and stepped away from the cell to let me out.

"I"m not sure housekeeping has been yet. There"s some dust in my cell. Can you check with them?"

The guard scowled before walking off.

Must not appreciate my sense of humor. No shock for a sarcastic attitude if you are compliant, though.

I followed him, my horns nearly scraping against the ceiling. The corridors here were taller than any of the other prisons I'd been to, but I still had to stoop through doorways. I didn"t spare a glance at any of the monsters peering out of their cells at me as we left the block. The wrong look at the wrong person or at the wrong time could start a feud, and I wasn"t interested in that. If I could stop getting more time added on to my sentence I"d be out of here and into a camp for hybrids in five more years. After a few years in hybrid camp, you could get moved into a family camp if you found a mate. I pushed the thought down and tried to ignore the emptiness I felt inside. I didn't let myself think about mates anymore. I was a hybrid and a murderer. There was no one out there for monsters like me. I was sure of that.

The guard led me down a sweeping curved corridor until we turned right. Then left. Then right again and again. Left. I could feel tension building in my body. My fists balled, and the sound of my teeth grinding drowned out all other sounds except for the roaring of my blood in my ears.

"Enjoying the walk? Yeah, the prison has lots of little twists and turns, it"s almost like a maze in here."

The guard was being a dick, but there was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me lose control. Humans seemed to value control. I needed to show that I was trustworthy and calm. My minotaur side was edging closer towards raging bull than friendly sleepy cow though. My muscles twitched uncontrollably as I fought off the sensations that were building.

Deep breaths. Don't snort.

Step after step, I walked behind the guard, my hooves clomping on the floor.

Did they build this place specifically to drive every minotaur wild? How had they not had an incident yet?

It was then that I realized I hadn't seen another minotaur. Not one, and we weren"t uncommon in prisons, sadly. This place was minotaur kryptonite. A memory of the monster-hating warden at my last prison flashed through my mind.

"Your punishment isn't done yet," he'd sneered as I was bundled into the van.

He'd done this on purpose.

I didn't have time to dwell on that before we arrived at the first pleasant room I had seen since arriving.

"Wait here."

The guard slammed the door behind me while I looked around. Walls painted a pastel green. Cozy chairs with bright cushions. Nice furniture and bookcases full of books. It had even higher ceilings. I stretched my arms over my head and still didn"t touch the ceiling. It felt good, and being in a single room with no corridors grounded my inner minotaur a bit. But not much. The slightest thing would still send me into a wild charge. I looked around but couldn"t see any cameras anywhere. Privacy. I'd heard about this. Prisons that did therapy. Part of some rehabilitation scheme that some politician had come up with. Monsters talking about their feelings. I'd never heard of anything so ridiculous. If this therapist thought they could get me to open up about my past, they were in for a shock. My body was still tense and twitching with the maze madness that had threatened me. I wanted to roar my frustration, not chat.

The door opened behind me as I struggled to push the wildness inside me away. I spun around. After many years in prison, I react quickly and aggressively to someone appearing behind me. Got to let them know not to mess with you. A low growl erupted from my lips before I registered the small woman in front of me. Her vibration hit me like a truck, and I staggered backwards, staring at her. Dark curls fell around her shoulders in a chaotic way. She was all softness. A hunger rose in me as my inner minotaur responded to her. A smart lavender dress hugged her curves, and a matching silk scarf was tied around her neck. My ears twitched up of their own accord, and her vibration washed through me even clearer. It sounded like birdsong, beautiful but strong and somehow perfectly in harmony with mine. My vibration seemed to take hers in and grow stronger and somehow more complex. Like our sounds were dancing a symphony around each other. I'd never felt more myself, and I bathed in the feeling for a few seconds, watching her intently. Taking the vision in of her wild hair and pale skin, a word echoed in my mind over and over again.

Mate.

The bright green eyes that gazed back up at me looked terrified. It was like a punch to the gut. I"d scared her, and it was the last thing I ever wanted to do. Maybe I should give her some space, but it felt wrong. I wanted to scoop her up into my arms and run my fingers through her hair. Frustration and confusion twisted my throat, mixing with the madness I was already feeling, erupting as a rough grunt. She shrank back even more towards the door.

"Fuck."

I couldn"t manage any more words after that. The smell of her fear pheromones overwhelmed me, and a primal need to protect her sent me rushing forward. I had to hold her and make it better.