Page 41 of My Pucking Life

The first flight of stairs takes you down to an area used mostly for storage, though we went through and purged a ton of nonsense out of it during Slate's spring-cleaning meltdown last April. Now it looks more like a weird doomsday bunker with metal shelves lining two walls with some supplies and storage containers.

The second flight of stairs leads to the area where we have a handful of small cells with thick iron bars. Luckily, we haven't had much of a need for them over the years, but they have come in handy on a few occasions. One of those occasions being a time that the twins had managed to piss Benny and Slate off to the point that they'd locked them in here for a weekend.

Standing outside the very first cell are Fran and Willa. Fran's watching the dark witch with her arms crossed over her chest. Willa is scowling, clearly disappointed with the witch.

Dark witches aren't born as such, unless you consider the ones that are raised by dark witches. It's a conscious decision that they make to practice dark magic and to use their powers for evil purposes. Doing so is what divides the white and dark witches, going against their most fundamental edict. It is written into the laws of Sabbax that any witch who chooses to practice dark magic is stripped of any titles or possessions they may hold in Sabbax and are banned from their homeland, never to return.

Choosing to practice dark magic isn't a phase or rebellion. It's not something they can come back from. Once their soul is tainted with the use of dark magic, it can never be mended or forgiven. This results in the dark witches sneaking into other realms. Earth’s human realm happens to be the easiest one for them to habituate.

The problem with Sabbax's law is that when they ban these pains-in-my-ass, the rest of us have to deal with them. Instead of kicking them out like a petulant child, they should be doing something about the problem, not handing it off to the next person.

Willa offers us a strained smile as we file into the small space. Benny hot on my heels, Andrei just behind him, Dolos smirking, Eris scowling, and Slate bringing up the rear.

“Anything?” I bark, relishing in the barely perceptible flinch from the bitch in the cell.

The women shake their heads.

“Are you going to answer our questions cooperatively? I really don't have the patience for the whole song and dance,” I say, rubbing the muscles between my eyebrows. Being away from Leera makes my entire body coil tighter and strains every nerve ending in my being.

The witch laughs and prepares for what I expect is her well-rehearsed monologue that I don't have the time or energy for. Raising my hand, I interject, “I'm gonna stop you right there. I just wanted to grant you the opportunity to get through this with some of whatever sanity you have left.”

I turn to each person standing around me. “Fran, you are dismissed unless you'd like to participate further. Willa, can you make sure she doesn't pull any magic shit on them?”

They both nod.

“Eris, I would have allowed you to take the lead on this, but as you've chosen to keep your head firmly planted up your ass, your services are also not needed.”

He mumbles a few curses before stomping back up the stairs without a fight.

“Slate and Dolos, she's all yours. Get us whatever information you are able.”

Dolos dramatically cracks his knuckles. “You got it, Boss. Who's ready to party?!” he hollers, echoing in the small space.

Slate rolls his eyes before opening up his laptop and setting it to the side. “We've got it from here,” he states firmly.

Turning to head back up the stairs and towards the reason for my existence, I let Benny and Andrei know they can sit in if they'd like, but it's not required. The six of us work like a well-oiled machine—or at least all six of us used to. It's strange not being able to rely on one of the people I've always trusted most.

We haven't had a lot of our old style of action in quite some time, so I imagine Benny is likely chomping at the bit to be involved.

“Don't forget to educate her that if we have to, we'll take her to the prison in Sabbax when we holiday in the far to near future,” I toss over my shoulder as I continue to climb the stairs.

31

The last couple of weeks have been a borderline shit show. Between everything that happened at the game with the players being spelled, Eris' attitude, spending time with Zoey, finishing my classwork for the semester, and preparing myself for this trip, I am both mentally and physically drained. The trip especially.

This isn't just another trip abroad. This trip begins abroad, and then I'll be going to a completely different realm, and not the one I'm a lost-freaking-princess of. I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that I will be on a completely different plane of existence. Like I'd absorbed the information I’d been given. I've seen werewolves and witches alike. But there's something about going there that I just can't seem to process.

I keep trying to relax, but it's just so much. Roman's taken my wolf out on a few runs with his, and it seems to help. When I let my wolf take over, I can pretend that all the troubles of the real world can't reach me. The wind rushing through my fur. The pads of all four of my paws hitting the dirt, pushing off with my claws and moving so fast at times that even the trees around me seem to almost blur. There's such a peace in allowing my wolf to consume my actions for a while. It's like sitting in the passenger seat. You can hear and see everything, but you're not the one driving the car.

I also love watching our wolves interact. Roman and I are still in there, but they prance around together in circles, panting with their tails wagging. Even in my wolf form, he still towers over me, but you wouldn't know it by the way his wolf lets mine tackle him, pinning him to the forest floor. I can feel her excitement pulsing through me and his love through our bond. It's an absolutely incredible experience that I wish I could accurately put into words.

I've even been able to spend time with Khaos and Andrei, really trying to learn who my brothers are.

My soul-brother is so much different than my first impression led me to believe. Like Roman, I think he does it on purpose. If he doesn't get attached to people, then they can't disappoint him later. He loves nineties rock and heavy metal music. He plays drums as a hobby as well as a form of exercise and release. He's not sure what all he wants to do after he retires from hockey, but he really seems to be at peace with his decision. The way he's talked about it, I don't think he ever really loved hockey the way some of them do. I think it was always just an outlet that also happened to let him beat the shit out of people, my mate included.

My twin, on the other hand, is every bit my other half as is my mate, in obviously very different ways. Andrei seems to be the yin to my yang, opposite in so many ways. He only likes hot coffee while I prefer iced. He doesn't care for television or movies but agrees to watch stuff with me when I ask. Where I need structure and things to make sense, he likes to fly by the seat of his pants. Sometimes I just catch him looking at me similarly to the way Roman does…like I might disappear if he blinks. I can't imagine what he went through his whole life. He was forced to live his life without his parents because he could be stolen from them too. He was raised knowing his twin sister was kidnapped, making it his life's mission to find me. It probably doesn't help that I haven't been ready to accept the letter from our parents. As much as I want to, I want to be able to enjoy the words that they wrote for me, and with everything we're constantly facing, that doesn't feel like it will happen any time soon. He swears they'll love me, but there are too many what-ifs pinballing through my brain.

Roman managed to surprise me again by arranging a girl’s weekend for me. He even went as far as taking the men to the pack to spend time with them and introduce Khaos to Brutus and the others. Runa, Zoey, Matilda, and I had the townhouse to ourselves for nearly forty-eight hours. Fran was, of course, hovering around somewhere just in case. We had one whole day that we designated as our Spa Day and pampered ourselves with all kinds of ‘girly shit,’ as my mate calls it. The second day was spent gossiping while movies played in the background. We finally finished Runa's Twilight lessons, and I've never seen her laugh so hard. It’s always my favorite watching people watch the last movie. I'll never forget the entire theater gasping when we got to the part that we all know oh-so-well that turned into a complete plot twist. Chef's kiss. Runa didn't see it coming, and it was all just so carefree and fun.

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