Page 5 of Nope, No Regrets
Faust
Icharged into Rei’s cell as soon as I saw a red haze through the window on the door. She was awake, in the corner, and totally feral. I had no idea what I was currently looking at. She had fox ears, andthreefucking tails sprouted out her ass. I’d read about this when I took a job in Japan, before I came to work at the prison.
Rei was a Kitsune. How was that even possible? Yeah, there was this whole supernatural world that was hidden from humans. Some of it they knew about, even if they got the details wrong, and some of it they made up to fill in the gaps. I thought Kitsunes were characters from that fiction, but there was Rei. She was amazing.
The red cloud around her dissolved, and she darted towards me. She wasn’t herself. She grabbed my hand and sunk her little fox teeth in greedily. Fuck, that hurt. I wasn’t even mad about it. I had a feeling something important was happening.
The toilet was engulfed in flames, and Rei started licking the blood off my hand. I didn’t even care about the fire. I was consumed by the feeling, as I looked down to see her on her knees, licking the two puncture wounds she just made on my hand. My wolf rumbled in my chest. I stroked one of her ears.
“Did you just mark me, little fox?”
Rei might only just be getting used to the idea of me being her mate, but her fox was totally on board with the idea. Rei seemed to snap out of whatever haze she was in. She jumped to her feet and waved her hand. The flames on the toilet went out. She spun around like she was trying to do this weird dance.
“How many tails do I have?” she demanded.
“Three. It’s kind of hot. I would never have guessed you were a Kitsune because I thought they were fiction.”
“Are you mad… that I didn’t tell you? I wanted to. I was about to, but then the alarm went off about Astrid. I thought it was an omen I should wait.”
“Not as mad as I am that you’re now in solitary because you didn’t trust me. What were you thinking?! Venus and Brody are dead. They are going to extend your sentence, even if they don’t think you had anything to do with the deaths.”
Rei blinked. Her big violet eyes grew wide.
“But… I killed Venus. I regret nothing about it either. She followed us to kill me, and I owed her for Astrid. Who killed Brody?”
“I snapped his neck, after he tried to kill you with his magic. The warden thinks Brody killed Venus. Don’t ask me why he did it, but the gargoyle took the blame for Brody. I’m not complaining, but that little shit was the warden’s nephew, and she blames all of you for his death.”
“Rajack is a good guy. He’s already in here for life, and you did it because he hurt me. He knows you’re important to me, and there’s no point in you ending up in jail with us. That was the whole reason I didn’t tell you. I wanted to, but I didn’t want to cage your wolf if something went wrong. And now, well, something did, and so here we are. I knew the risks. You would have done everything you could to help us, and lost your freedom in the process. Once we found a safe place to hide, I would have gotten your number from Hauser and called.”
This little Kitsune had me wrapped around her three tails because I forgave her. She was right. I hated it that I couldn’t touch her while she was in here. It was driving me insane. If she’d come to me with some half-cocked plan to break out, I would have rolled with it and gotten myself fired.
The plan she had was a good one. It could have worked if Venus hadn’t slipped out. I still didn’t know how she managed that, considering the entire prison was after the witches, thanks to Wren. Rei said she could have successfully robbed the museum if it weren’t for her.
I wasn’t sorry Rei killed her.
My walkie suddenly went off.
“Faust, stop what you are doing and get to my office immediately,” Warden Snow said.
What the fuck did she want now?! She’d already grilled my ass about the prison break several times. My job record here waspristine.She didn’t know about my side job. No one could ever claim they’d seen me getting violent with a prisoner. I did that in the shadows. She also knew damn well that I wouldn’t kill Rajack for offing Brody, even if he was the one who really killed him.
“I’m on my way.”
I turned the mic off my walkie and turned to Rei.
“I got assigned down here under the premise of interrogating all of you… but I’ve mostly been watching you, because Brody hit you with magic. Wren healed you, and you’ve been passed out on the floor. Warden Snow hasn’t filed formal charges against any of you, so I don’t know what you’re looking at, but I’ll find out.”
Rei smiled and touched my cheek.
“Don’t go down for me, Faust.”
“I’m being careful, Rei.”
I left her, but I didn’t want to. She’d been totally open with me, and Isawher now. Whatever happened when she was half-shifted like that had caused her to lose control of her fox for a minute. I was guessing she had just earned herself a new tail, because she asked how many she had, like she didn’t know.
Her fox marked me as hers. She broke the skin. I’d forever have her teeth marks on my hand. I needed to get her out of here. My wolf wanted to mark her back. He wanted to feel those sharp little fox teeth all over his body. Fuck. I adjusted my waistband to hide my erection as best I could and stomped off to meet the warden.
She was sitting behind her desk, and her resting bitch face was cracked. Itneverslipped, even with all that mess with Brody. What the fuck happened in here while I was in solitary?!
