Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
I know there are contracts to review. I know there are meetings to take. Someone is going to want to touch base about something. I am not terribly interested in any of it.
“Hello, sir,” Fescue says. “Would you like to be briefed on pack matters, business affairs, or the prisoners?”
“I will deal with the whelps first,” I say. “Double the guard on Nicky.”
He lifts a brow. “You think she is still a flight risk?”
“I think she is until proven otherwise.”
“Hard to prove that if she never has the chance to prove it, sir.”
I give him a long look. “Triple the guard on her.”
* * *
I go down to the cell block. When we were first planning this place, I was hesitant to put one of these in. Wolves do not follow human systems of justice. But I was talked around into it, and now I am more glad than ever that we have somewhere to hold wolves who cannot behave according to the laws of our pack.
It is a cinderblock building. The exterior has a wood paneling finish to make it less of an egregious eyesore, but the interior is unadorned. It smells faintly of bleach and exposed toilets. It is not a pleasant place to be.
At the very far end, our most illustrious prisoner is making feral sounds, throwing himself against the metal bars of his cell over and over.
“How long has he been doing that?” I ask the guard.
“Hours,” he says.
My jaw tightens. We are going to need someone with prison experience to run this facility if I intend on keeping on dealing with problems this way. This is already devolving into a madhouse.
“Get the doc to sedate him,” I order the guard. “I don’t want him hurting himself.”
I walk down the row of normal cells that are really more based on kennels. Each of them contains one of Nicky’s male companions. Their expressions contain everything from regret, to contempt, to anger, to fear. They are bristling with energy they can barely contain and cannot express.
These boys have been in our cells for days now. They are being kept separately because I do not want them seeking solace or finding comfort in one another. They do not deserve to be comfortable. They deserve to understand that their world has changed forever.
“Get them out,” I order my guards. “Cuff them, and line them up out the back of the building.”
“Is this a fucking firing squad?” one of the boys asks another.
“If it is, I think they would give us blindfolds,” the other replies.
“Not always,” a third chimes in. “Sometimes they want you to watch.”
“Enough talking,” I growl, my voice deep to cover the fact I find their banter ever so slightly amusing.
We get them ranged up outside, where I can breathe more easily, and where the moans, ravings, and rantings of Nicky’s father are less egregious.
“You are part of my pack now,” I tell them. “You answer to me, not to Nicky. If any of you so much as dare to lift a pinky finger against my orders, you will suffer. Do you understand?”
There’s a pause, and that pause tells me all I need to know. A few days in the cells has done nothing to soften their allegiance to Nicky. We’re not close to breaking their bond with her.
Can’t say I know what’s making them so loyal to her.
Ah, hell, what am I thinking? Of course I know what is making them so loyal. It’s Nicky. The way she’s cared for them all this time, how she’s given herself for their needs and made them a place to be that none of them have ever had before.
All I’ve done is put them in a prison with a madman. There’s no benefit to that anymore. They’d be better off elsewhere until I can get control of Nicky. Then we’ll see about the rest of her pack.
“I’m going to let you go,” I say. “I’m going to send you back to the city, because I believe the rest of your pack needs to be assembled. I’m sure there’s other work to be done, too. I want you all to check in daily with the office. If you agree to this, and you do it, we’ll call this over.”
“Thank you,” Cal says. He’s the tallest, the broadest, the one with the most leadership potential over the others, I think. “We won’t let you down.”
“You’ve already let me down,” I tell him. “But let’s see how you all come back from it.”
* * *
Nicky
I’m never left alone anymore, of course. I can’t be trusted by myself. I can’t be trusted at all. So that means I perpetually have a tweed-clad babysitter.
“Fescue?”
“Yes, madame?” He turns to me with a slight incline of his head.
“Since when am I madame?”
“Trying it out,” he says.
“Oh. Fair.”
“Can I come out now?”