Caged Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary, #1)

by Caroline Peckham

And no matter what anyone said about the state of things since everything that had happened with the rival gang’s leader, Ryder Draconis, Oscuras were absolutely not welcome here. My cousin

him. “You know what they say about getting too comfortable when you’re married. If you don’t watch out, you might find your wife’s attention wandering…” “My wife’s attention is always wandering,” he joked as we crawled on. “But she’ll never grow tired of me.”

laugh. “Will the great leader of the Oscura Clan be in the dog house tonight then?” “Only because I didn’t invite her along,” he teased and knowing what I did about his wife, I had to agree with that assessment.

As a Taurus, I’d been gifted the power of Earth Magic which I also liked to think of as the best Elemental power. All Fae could command Cardinal Magic to use spells for things like healing, creating Faelights or any number of other useful things. But Elemental magic was different. It was linked to the stars we were born beneath. This effectively meant that your star sign determined which Element you were blessed with the power to wield, though a few lucky bastardos ended up with additional Elements too. Not that I was jealous.

I organised my work hours around him, but the new boy seemed to be organising his pissing shifts around me. Hastings was like a stray dog yapping at my heels. He was fresh out of Starlight Academy with his shiny-ass certificate of excellence to prove it. Unlike the little shithead, I hadn’t had rich parents to pay my way through one of the prestigious magical training academies. I’d learned to fight on the streets and clawed my way up through society by brute force.

Killing outside of Council approved Fae on Fae tournaments, magical training accidents, through permitted jobs like mine and marriage pairings contests in Eastern Voldrakia, was strictly against the law.

Besides murder, high level theft, bedazzlement, Order suppressing in children, and rape were amongst a few of the reasons the inmates of Darkmore had ended up here.

relished a good fight with a powerful opponent. It also tasted as sweet as pie to lock them up in isolation or send them down to Dr Quentin for interrogation. They didn’t look so hot when they came back from a visit with him. The guy even gave me the creeps.

bronzed. A flowering rose vine tattoo curved up the left side of her body from her thigh to her neck and ebony hair fell around her like a sheet, covering her tits but her pussy was bare and I wasn’t Fae enough to stop my reaction to that. My jaw tightened as my dick swelled shamelessly for the wild-looking

prison. The Fate Room was the only place down here where we would be offered access to things like tarot cards, crystals and our horoscopes. Access was granted infrequently and at random so I couldn’t expect to get in there very often, but whenever I did I’d be sure to make the most of any glimpse I could get at my fate.

“The Belorian is an entirely Fae made bio-weapon. The only one of its kind. Think T-Rex on steroids with a more bloodthirsty nature and a dollop of magic mixed in.”

Jerome hadn’t mentioned that shit covered nugget of crap when he’d offered me this job. Breaking out of the highest security prison in Solaria with a high profile psychotic inmate? Yeah. Getting past a bio monster bred to hunt and eat runaway convicts? Nope. He hadn’t uttered a word of that. I was damn tempted to ask for a bigger pay cheque.

Firstly and most importantly, I needed to find Sin Wilder. He was the one I’d come to break out of here after all. According to my contact, Jerome, he’d been stuck in isolation for way too long, though he couldn’t tell me what he’d done to earn himself that severity of punishment. Isolation was hard on any Fae but for an Order like his, it would practically be torture…

They may have been harsh, brutal even, but they weren’t going to risk killing one of us without a good reason and getting locked up with the monsters they were paid to contain. If that ever happened, their deaths would come surely enough, though not before the dark Fae who resided here made them suffer to the full extent of their power. And even without the use of our Order gifts or magic, there were a lot of creative ways that someone could be made to hurt with a bit of time and effort involved.

place. Audrey Pike, a Pegasus with the Element of air. She was one of those overachieving, goal orientated people who drove me to fucking tears. I’d done my research on her the most thoroughly of all. There wasn’t a week that went by in this place when she didn’t try out some new idea, strategy, creative path

physically. Incubuses were shapeshifters of the best fucking kind. We could slip into the skin of anyone’s deepest, darkest desire just by touching them and sensing it in their flesh. And the best part about that was, I held onto every skin I’d ever owned. If I had access to my Order form, I could look like any one of them. Male, female, tall, short, dark, fair, I had them all baby, and everything in between.

Number three: My real name was not in fact Sin Wilder. It was Whitney Northfield. Fucking…Whitney.

“Yeah, he’s a Monolrian Bear Shifter. They replenish their magic by stocking their home with supplies and hibernating, which means his cell is basically a trash heap.”

you,” Cain growled. “But ah- is that the best idea?” Hastings asked hesitantly. “Putting an Oscura in the kitchens? It’s all Lunars in there. Shadowbrook will kill her

Which was an accurate description if I was about to come face to face with Ethan Shadowbrook. He was the leader of the Lunar Brotherhood inside the prison and the Alpha of their Wolf pack. He had a reputation for acting first and asking questions later, not least with the women he screwed. Rumour had it he’d had more than half the women in this prison in his bed within the first year of his sentence. Aside from his manwhore tendencies, he was brutal and bloodthirsty and if the photographs I’d seen of him were anything to go by, he was hot as all hell too.

unquestionable numbers. I was already strengthening my ties with Roary which meant I was making an ally of him too. He ran one of the most notorious gangs in here, though the Shades weren’t as flashy about their power as the rest of the gangs. But his followers were loyal to their bones and there was nothing wrong with subtlety. It was impossible to count the members of his gang.

Ethan Shadowbrook was perched on what looked like a heap of potatoes at the back of the wide space and I moved towards him as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. I could feel his gaze scraping over me as I moved and my inner Wolf lifted her head like she’d caught the scent of something truly worthy of her attention.

Ethan growled hungrily as he kissed me, his tongue pushing between my lips in a firm demand which I gave in to without any protest. He tasted like honey and sin. I shouldn’t have been kissing him like this. I certainly shouldn’t have been about to do anything else with him.

He was born to be my enemy but he was my equal too. I could feel it in the pit of my soul. Wolves spent their lives hunting for a mate who could equal them and I’d all but given up on finding another of my kind who could rise to the challenge, but now here he was.

Gustard and his unFae crew of fuckers he called The Watchers were beating the living shit out of a guy already while he was held down with magical vines.

the Alpha of the Oscura Clan and Roary Night and his Shades, he was the other top power in here. And his cutthroat ways had quickly made him an enemy of mine for more reasons than one.

The best thing about that wall, was that it wasn’t just a bunch of bricks. It held magic within it which had been put there by an infamous prisoner called Regan Novak who’d gotten himself executed in here a long time ago. He’d been a genius because he’d subtly set up this wall without the guards ever knowing. And so long as you knew the secrets it hid and how to access them, you had a serious advantage in Darkmore.

We called it the Veiled Wall. Anything you needed, you could post it on the wall in secret then other Fae could place offers to take the job, naming their price until you found one you were willing to pay.

“I’m Rosalie Oscura of the Oscura Clan. I was raised by Bianca Oscura, mother of the Storm Dragon who I’ve ridden with in the clouds countless times.”

His eyes moved down my body as I stood before him and I bit my lip as goddamn butterflies warred in my stomach. He was just, so…urgh. I’d really thought that after all of this time I wouldn’t still feel this way about him, but it was like he’d taken a piece of me hostage and no matter how long I’d been free of him, that piece would always be his.

Because I wasn’t just an ordinary Werewolf, I was a Moon Wolf which meant all kinds of untold things. I was the first of my kind in generations and my fur wasn’t just pale grey, it was honest to the stars silver and I looked fucking awesome even if I did say so myself.

A distant howl made my ears prick up and I turned my head to look back the way I’d come as a shiver ran down my spine. I wasn’t sure how I could tell, but something deep in the pit of my gut told me that was Ethan leading his pack out into the trees and for the longest moment, all I wanted to do was run to meet him.

and I glanced down the long table to where Claud was sitting, arching a brow at him. He was a stout man with a Lion tattoo on his neck that looked suspiciously like me, and dark hair which he’d been growing out since I’d met him.

A gasp fell from Rosalie’s lips and she braced herself on the ground either side of my head as the moonlight surrounded her, seeming to shine from within her flesh. It took me a moment longer to realise my skin was shimmering too and I inhaled as something shifted inside my chest. All of my pack instincts, every Wolf need and desire I had suddenly angled toward her. She was the answer to everything. My equal in every way. My mate.

desk as he dropped down into her seat to start filling it in. “Come along, dear. My name’s Brenda Grus but you can call me Mother Brenda. You’ll have a nice rest here today,”

Two Hundred paled, looking at me as if I was a psycho. And maybe I was. Maybe I should have shed my uniform and stepped into an orange jumpsuit and joined the masses. But the difference between me and them was I’d never been caught.

He had a slight hunch on his back, teeth that were sharpened to points and two dark red eyes. He’d altered all of his features via some twisted spells. He wasn’t that ugly by nature, he chose to look this way. Which made him all the more creepy.

“Well, I don’t really think Dante would have a leg to stand on berating me about being with someone from the Brotherhood after everything that happened with him and Ryder Draconis-”

“And look how that turned out!” Ethan snarled, lurching towards me again and baring his teeth. “I don’t want that to happen to me!” I only shrugged. It wasn’t really my place to comment on what had happened to Ryder and I guessed it was a pretty raw subject for his gang. Ethan might even still be grieving for all I knew. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Were you and Ryder close, or-” “I don’t want to talk about him. Especially not with an Oscura,”

“Let’s just say that there are a lot of monsters in this prison, but I doubt any of them can compare to the man who sired me. So you ask me why I act like this is a joke? Maybe it feels like one. Maybe sometimes I wonder if I’m even capable of feeling anything the way I should anymore. I got so good at hiding my emotions that I might have just lost the ability to really feel them too.”

“What?” I asked with a frown, because that wasn’t supposed to be possible. Fae were only sent to Darkmore if there was overwhelming evidence that they were guilty. Things like CCTV footage, witness statements and DNA were used to build a case and if that wasn’t strong enough then the suspect had to face Cyclops interrogation where the truth would literally be torn from their head. There were a whole bunch of security guard witnesses from the bank whose testimony had sent me here and assured my conviction. But the only way that a Fae could be convicted without those things and still found guilty would be if-

“I gave a full confession. I knew all the details they required, I didn’t contest a single thing, didn’t even complain when they offered up the maximum sentence,” he said slowly. “Why?” I asked in confusion. “Because I love my family too.”

“Hey er…out of interest, how did you know your wife was the one for you?” I asked, leaning forward across the table. We hadn’t ever discussed it much seeing as I’d gotten carted off to Darkmore not long after he’d found her. Leon’s brows raised as he eyed me like a detective. “Whyyy?” he asked in a sing-song voice. “Just wondering,” I grunted. He chuckled softly. “Well I guess I knew the first time she brushed my hair. I couldn’t even let my Mindys do that.”

“Why?” I murmured, my hand drifting into her hair of its own accord. “What is it you’re using it for that matters so much?” Mind your own business, asshole. But I just couldn’t with her, no matter how hard I tried, she circled through my brain a thousand times a day. I wanted to know everything about her, what she dreamed of, what she lived for, what she loved. And I equally wanted to cut out the piece of me that felt that way. She leaned down, brushing her lips over mine and the taste of temptation flooded my tongue, begging me to kiss her.

“Every time I get hurt, you show up, Mason,” she whispered and I swallowed thickly. “I’m just doing my job,” I growled.

spirt broken.

I spotted Ethan filing into an elevator with his pack and I caught his eye. I made a circle with my index finger and thumb then pushed my other index finger into it with a raised eyebrow. He answered by lifting his own finger and running it across his throat. A grin bit into my cheeks as I headed into another elevator. It’s totally up his butt.

She tipped her head back, sighing my name and I sure as shit wasn’t gonna be writing her up for it.

me. It was as cold as my mother’s heart down here and creepy as shit.

approached. As a double Elemental, I was the most powerful Fae in this prison. An overlord, if you will.