Page 93 of Son of a Witch

This afternoon, once Supergal and Pascal processed the prisoner, I’d pay old James a visit, blacken both eyes for tormenting my girlfriend. Teach him never to fuck with me, my girl, or my team.

CHAPTER31

Knoxe

“I’ll take it from here.”I jerked the prisoner forward. “Selena, you debrief the team.”

Selena didn’t like that one bit and her jaw clenched. Her patience with my constant competition snapped. “I’m coming with you,” she insisted, keeping pace with me.

Loco snorted behind me. “Want me to stay, Selena?”

He acted protective over her the way he did with Astra. Those two shared a special bond. Loners thrown into an established team trying to find their way.

“I’ve got this.” Selena caught the other arm of James.

Loco saluted her with a single finger and retreated to lean against the wall. Loyal. Protective. Her soldier in battle.

Typically, I handled the darker aspects of the job like torture for information, sometimes with Tor, others with Raze. After all this time, I finally understood why Raze twitched at electrocuting the gantii, knowing he was one of them.

Pascal wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing with his sensitivity to sounds, and when I was team lead, I sent him to lodge samples, return weapons, or conduct further investigation in the Watch Tower.

I shielded this side from Astra for good reason, especially after she saw me lose my shit with the mothman. My girl didn’t need to see the darker side of me. The one willing to do whatever it took to get a lead and get us out of here. Wasn’t proud of it, but unfortunately it was a demand of the job.

“You sure?” I quizzed my leader. “This isn’t a pleasant task. Some of the females aren’t made for this.”

“Sexist,” Loco coughed under his breath.

James smirked, enjoying the showdown between two Alphas fighting for place as top dog.

Fuck. I didn’t mean it like that. Some female prisoners were twisted wenches that got off on having power over a captive and torturing them. Others did it to save face. Some because they had to, but most preferred not to. Or so they told me in the study material for my Tollen management course. I thought I was being courteous.

Selena jerked James harder to scrub the smug grin off his face. “I can handle it.”

Fuck. I did it again. Swung my dick. Pretended to have the bigger one. This was getting out of hand. One of us had to back down or it was going to get ugly. That person had to be me. I had to find my place. Accept I was no longer the fucking leader. Do everything I was told.

“Good. I could use your experience on this.” Peace offering extended.

Maybe I could learn a new technique from her. A new method of questioning. Reverse psychology. Manipulation to get answers. Then I wouldn’t need to be heavy-handed sometimes.

Her shoulders lowered and her mouth parted as if she was stunned I backed down.

Good start, Knoxe.

Wave the white flag of surrender, asshole.Let her feel like she was the bigger swinging dick in this relationship. Get on with the job and get out of here. I didn’t need disciplinary action for going against an order or creating friction with my leader.

Stepping aside, I let Selena take the lead on this one. “Take him to his cell.”

My Alpha instincts screamed at me for backing down when I was used to assuming command. I tucked them between my legs where my cock went until I proved worthy of being reinstated as leader.

Sentries escorted James to his cell, and a dark sense of satisfaction twisted in my chest as he resisted, fighting them, begging for forgiveness. No sympathy. That asshole threatened my girl and team. For that hewouldpay.

I tapped my finger as Johnstone dragged his heels, taking thirty minutes to process his end of the paperwork to register James. Slow as fuck. Irritation sparked in my gut, setting off a furious fire that threatened to leap off me onto him. Fucker didn’t have anything else better to do than taunt us.

At least he was better than the last asshole posted here. Frank got torn to shreds by the fleeing gantii. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving man. Flicking through his porn magazines in front of female inmates, making lewd and sexual gestures at them.

Selena met my eyes with the same heat banked behind them. “If you go any slower there, Johnstone, we’re gonna be here for a week.”

I huffed out a laugh. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all. Hope flickered that we might get along after all. Friction sparked between us because of how similar we were. Alpha personalities butting heads. Two coworkers who must find common ground to get the job done.

---