Page 6 of I Regret Nothing
“Silverhold 101. These cuffs are going to suppress your magic. You won’t be able to shift. It’s the same for everyone in prison. Remotes control the cuffs. If you act out, all they have to do is press a button, and you’ll get a shock that disables you. Mouth off, and you’ll probably get a jolt. Once a week, you will be allowed yard time where the cuffs are disabled. You can shift and run. You’ll only be allowed in the yard with other shifters. Each group gets their own yard time cuff free to do their magic.
“No one wanted this, but some prison rights activists fought for it, so we allow it. If any group fucks this up, we can easily take it away again and say it wasn’t working. We can also track you by these cuffs, so don’t even think about trying to escape. Our guards have their own supernatural means of tracking besides the cuffs, but if they lose track of you, the cuffs will locate you in an instant. Understand?”
“That’s a shitty pep talk, doc.”
“No one cares about your feelings here, inmate. Get used to it. I’m going to put the cuffs on. You’ll feel them drain your magic as soon as they are closed. Get used to it. You’ll only get it back during your yard time.”
She closed the bracelets around my wrist, and I didn’t feel any magic drained. I had to stop myself from straight-up laughing and giving myself away. Demons had spent so much time away from Earth, I didn’t think there were any in Silverhold. They weren’t even entertaining the notion I was a Kitsune. Were they rare or something?
Still, I didn’t want them to know that. I’d especially take it since they keyed these cuffs for shifters and not demons. I hadn’t tested it, but I could still feel my fox and every single ounce of my magic.
I could have some fun with this and make sure Venus didn’t come near me for my seven-year stint here.
Another guard came in and glared at me.
“Welcome to Silverhold, cupcake. Now that your magic has been neutered, I’ll be bringing you to your cell.”
I just smiled sweetly.
“Can’t wait.”
Chapter 6
Faust
N
ew inmates were a dime a dozen and didn’t interest me, but it wasn’t every day I was to be CO to someone on that many most-wanted lists. If you were evil enough to be that wanted, they usually threw you straight in Scorchwood. I tried to get on as a guard there, but nothing I tried could even get me a fucking interview. After it hit the news the Warden of Scorchwood was corrupt, it made sense. She wanted criminals as guards. She could have had one, but I didn’t leave evidence, so I didn’t look good on paper to her. It was pretty fucking ironic I was lording over all these criminals in Silverhold when I should have been here right behind bars with them.
I could smell the Silver Fox before I saw her. My wolf let out this little growl. I knew fox shifters. I’d hunted and killed a few of them. And she wasn’t even remotely a fox shifter. My curiosity was definitely piqued. I’d followed the news when it broke they had caught her. She left a silver hair behind at a crime scene that was identified as a fox. They clipped her hair when they knocked her out at the scene before she shifted back and compared them—same fox.
I was a shifter, even if I was superior to a fox.No onein the supernatural community left hair behind of an animal unless they were a shifter. Witches had been trying to figure out how to assume animal form for ages. At most, they had familiars. That fox wasn’t her familiar because they had caught her shifted.
I knew my nose. The Silver Foxwas nota shifter. Color me curious. She just got a million times more exciting, and whatever she was, it smelled good to my wolf. It smelled a little like prey, but prey that would make the hunt a lot of fun.
I perked right up when she came into view. Yes, I was definitely hunting this creature in Silverhold. She was tiny and maybe one hundred pounds soaking wet. The Silver Fox had skin the color of coffee with a lot of cream and beautiful almond-shaped eyes. Her long hair was pure white, and I could tell her eyes were violet. She definitely wasn’t a shifter. I’d met Japanese shifters before, and they looked nothing like her.
She was fucking gorgeous, and my cock stirred at the idea of stalking her through this prison. I rarely got turned on by my prey, but most of them weren’t that pretty. Still, I wouldn’t kill her unless someone paid me to. I had this job for a reason. Sometimes, people didn’t think jail was enough for criminals. I was a trained assassin, but after I left my pack, I had specific rules about the jobs I took.
My old pack killed anyone they were asked to kill. I was raised since I was a pup to do the same. My pack didn’t care about feelings or what children might need. I had alpha blood, so they shipped me off to apprentice with our pack alpha. I was beaten and molded until I became the perfect killer. My alpha fully intended for me to challenge him in a fight and take over for him.
But I wasn’t stupid. Everyone liked to pretend shifters were slaves to their instincts, and wolves were beholden to the moon. I made my own decisions. I was a slave to no one, and nothing made me do something I didn’t want to do. And I had issues killing people who didn’t have it coming.
I broke away from my pack after a massive argument with my alpha about a kill they had approached us about. I had a big fucking problem with it. Some witches wanted us to kill their human neighbor because he played his music too loudly, and it was disturbing their chanting. Honestly? I could have roughed up the neighbor a little and gotten him to stop. I didn’t need to make him dead just so some witches could have some peace and quiet.
That was what I wanted to do, but my alpha kept insisting they wouldn’t pay us as much if we didn’t kill him. That was when I was done. There needed to be a line somewhere over who assassins killed. Were we just going to start taking people out because their dog shit on your lawn? It was annoying, but beating people could be just as effective.
I stepped out on my own and got my name out. I only took the jobs I wanted to take. And it usually involved killing bad people. Sometimes, the problem was they got caught before I could get a bullet in their head or rip their throat out with my teeth. Getting a job in Silverhold was so much easier. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. There were plenty of wolves in here for murder I could blame it on too.
The Silver Fox had pissed many people off, but no one wanted her dead as far as I knew. Hunting for fun was still fun, and I intended to do that all over this prison until I figured out exactly what the pretty little thing was.
Because I liked the way she smelled, and the hunt was officially on. She just didn’t know it.
Chapter 7
Rei
I
