Page 53 of Pain

The bear merely grunted.

As hard as I triednotto think about the fact that my parents were not that far away, it was impossible not to. Every time I tried to think of something else, my mind immediately drifted back to them. Would they want to see me? Did people really change? Was evil hereditary? How far did the apple have to fall from the tree? Did my apple fall far enough? How much shit would they flip when they found out my Fated Mate was a half-human, half-demon hybrid? And not only that, but she was also Fated Mates with a vampire and a bear?

The sadistic part of me—which was most of me—secretly hoped they flipped all kinds of shit. Big shit. Little shit. Shiny shit. Matte shit. All the shits that a person could flip, and in very large quantities.

Of course, I was also terrified that I’d show up, and they’d tell the guards they didn’t want to see me. That they’d rejectme.It was one thing to rejectthembecause they were homicidal maniacs. But for them to reject their only child just … I knew it’d hurt if it happened.

“Are you going to fucking answer her?” Zandren growled, plunking his bowl of porridge and jelly on the counter before digging in with the spoon like he was a thumbless numbskull.

I blinked and shook my head. “Shit. Sorry, babe. I got caught up in my head.”

Omaera shot Zandren a look. “Be nice, you grumpy old bear.”

All Zandren did was growl and scowl.

My head bobbed in a nod, even though my heart was arguing against it. “Ithink maybe we should.”

“Drak?” she asked, appealing to the melancholy man in all black. “Do you want to visit your aunt?”

Drak shook his head. “No. But I’ll come to the prison with you.”

Omaera shrugged. “Okay.” Then she faced the bear. “You staying here to sleep, Pooh Bear? Or are you tagging along? Do you have any family members incarcerated in Hell?”

Zandren growled. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, Little One. And especially not to a fucking prison. And no, bears don’t go to prison for their crimes. We handle things ourselves.”

Omaera reared back a little. “And how is that?”

“Trial and execution. If a jury of your peers finds you guilty, you are either exiled or executed, depending on the nature of the crime.”

She blinked a few times. “That seems …”

“Efficient?” he asked.

“I was going to say, very black and white.”

“It’s because no shifters want to come to Hell to deliver the prisoner. So we had to come up with our own system. And jails just deplete resources. Better to either send you on your own without the support of the kingdom and community, or erase you from existence and tell people to forget you.”

“And people call me a psycho,” I murmured, taking a bite of the cricket flour scone I’d all but drenched in blankberry jelly.

The bear met my gaze and growled.

“Should we leave in half an hour?” Omaera asked.

I put my barely eaten scone down on the plate and pushed it away. I was nauseous already, and we still had hours to drive before we reached the prison.

“Fine by me,” Zandren said. “Don’t understand why we’re going in the first place, but whatever.”

Drak merely nodded. I thought we’d reached a bit of a breakthrough the other night after Omaera fainted, but the morning after we mated, the vampire was quieter and more withdrawn than ever.

Thirty minutes later, we piled into the rusty, brown pickup that was coveredin a thick coat of red dust. We had water bottles in a small bag on the floor at Omaera’s feet, and some disgusting scones in case we got hungry.

Even though my stomach was in knots, I knew Hell better than the other three, so they designated me as the driver. Omaera sat in the front seat, and the grumpy twins took up the back seat.

Because it was Hell, there was no signage. Signage would have been helpful, and nothing so far—besides Kenvin—in Hell was helpful.

There weren’t any roads beyond the town either. It was just more of that stupid, dry, cracked, hard-packed dirt as far as the eye could see. Only this time, the mountains were behind us, not in front of us.

We had to make sure we were back to town before nightfall, otherwise we’d once again be prey for the monsters that lurked and hunted in the dark, this time with nowhere besides our vehicle to hide. And something told me, the thin and rusty metal piece of shit I was driving was no match for the talons of a bisibra.

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