Page 37 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

“So that you sleep through the spiders, bugs, and possibly snakes crawling on you?” I cringed as the words fell from my lips. For a second, I’d lost my mind, forgetting just how much my sister hated bugs.

Willa began to do full body wiggles and turn in a circle, swatting at herself as if wiping away invisible bugs. “Never mind on the knocking-me-out thing. It’s just…I’m afraid I’ll get loose again.”

“The chains will hold,” I said with a nod, trying to look more confident than I was. I wasn’t sure they would hold her but we were out of options.

“That’s what you said about thelastchains in the old building outside of town,” she stated, her voice cracking just enough for me to hear the panic she was trying so hard to contain.

I would have taken offense, but she was right. My gaze slid to the iron hooks that were embedded deep into the rocky wall. “That was different. They weren’t secured to stone walls. These are bolted in tight.”

Willa reached for one of the iron hooks that was secured to the cave wall. She tugged on it before outright yanking hard.

It didn’t budge.

Good.

I pushed one of the rusted chains on the cave floor with my foot. There were other broken bits near it, all looking as if they’d been there different lengths of time from the aging on them.

“Mina, why do you think those are here?”

“I don’t know. Something was chained here. Something powerful enough to break those.” I pointed to the broken chain bits on the cavern floor. I wish that I could give her the answers she was after but I knew as much as her about the cave and the chains.

“Do you think there was another shifter here at some point?” she asked, flinching slightly at the words.

“Maybe.” I wanted to calm her but lying would get me nowhere. She knew me better than I knew myself most days. Plus, she could literally smell a lie now that she shared her body with a wolf. “Whatever it was, it was pretty damn strong. Those chains are old, and they would have held a lot. Something made child’s play of them.”

She gulped. “When you told me about finding this, you swore you looked around for evidence of it being used recently.”

I turned, surveying the cave visually as I nodded. “I combed over it. There isn’t anything in here that looks to have been used recently. No tracks or anything, either. Just the ones I left the other day.” I bit my lower lip lightly. “I don’t think whatever had been chained here has been back recently.”

“If it comes back while I’m chained in here?” she asked. “What then?”

I wasn’t sure what to tell her. On one hand, she was a wolf-shifter. She could eat anyone who threatened her. On the other hand, I wasn’t so sure whatever had been chained in the cave had been human. That meant it very well could eat her first and she’d be here, chained and at its mercy.

I opted for false optimism. “Hey, maybe I could organize a playdate between you and them? Maybe we can meet at a dog park or something.”

A slight laugh came from her, but it was strained. “Okay, but I’m not sure I’m up for sniffing anyone’s butt.”

“You say that now,” I teased.

Willa laughed loudly, the sound echoing off the cave walls. “I really hope the times I’ve gotten free in wolf form, I didn’t end up sniffing the backside of any stray dog.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that more than once when she’d escaped in wolf form and I’d given chase, she totally had smelled a stray’s butt. That felt like something she’d be less than thrilled to know so I kept it to myself. “Do you think you’ve ever run into another wolf? Or even a wolf-shifter that way?”

She hedged a bit. “Honestly, I have nearly no memory of what happens when I’m the wolf. Maybe.”

It was impossible to avoid grinning at my next thought. “Do you think you’ve ever gotten it on with a male dog or wolf?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask me that,” she said, her expression deadpan.

“Pretend all you want. The question will now linger.” I waggled my brows playfully.

Willa came at me, her hands suddenly on my neck as she pretended to choke me. We laughed and stumbled, grabbing one another, just barely stopping ourselves from falling. For a briefmoment in time, we were normal. Just two sisters laughing and joking together, not a wolf-shifter and whatever the hell I was.

Several deep breaths later and a good squeeze of the vag muscles to keep from peeing while laughing, and I’d managed to compose myself.

Willa’s laughter faded as her attention went to the manacles and the chains. She worried her brow and I didn’t need to be able to read her mind to know what she was thinking. She was scared of getting loose and hurting someone.

I touched one of the hanging chains. The metal was cold under my fingertips. “Willa, this is going to have to work this month.”

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