Page 38 of Okay, I Regret a Little
Chapter 27
Rajack
W
e stashed the key in a vent in the mailroom in our favorite blind spot. We got back to our cells in the chaos of everyone trying to get back to theirs. Dakarys was super pissed off about the whole Faust thing. I was more upset about Wren’s whole revenge plot.
Yeah, I mean, technically, we needed the riot, but I was just going to throw some food at the shifters on the sly. The entire prison would realize food was flying, and there would be a food fight, then eventually, a full-blown riot. I had this carefully planned when Brody was the only guard in the mess hall.
Well, Brody and Faust. I now knew why he was always in the mess hall when we were.
Wren could have ruined everything. Brody wasn’t even there when the riot started. He sure came pretty quick when Wren’s spell took effect, and everyone was gunning for the witches. Brody went straight for the witches, and Rei went straight for Brody.
I’d give it to our little demon. She wasn’t scared of him. She just stood there as everyone was beating the shit out of each other. Brody’s baton was crackling with electricity. Way more than just a simple shock. He was going to kill her. We needed that key, but Dakarys and I were both going to step in and tackle Brody.
It was Wren that stopped us. She assured us Rei could handle herself. We ran towards him anyway when Rei made his baton explode. We knew it was her. Dakarys and I just stood there in awe at her new power, while Wren just stood there laughing like a crazy person as her riot spiraled out of control. I liked Wren, and I had no problem taking her with us, but she was utterly insane sometimes.
Still, we had the key, Wren had her revenge, and Rei might get a new tail. Things were still going in our favor.
Try telling that to Dakarys. He’d forgotten about the riot and the key. He was still pissed about the whole Faust thing, even if he told Rei he would deal with it.
Next up on Action Nine News—Dakarys totally wasn’t dealing with it.
There weren’t many rat shifters in Silverhold, and our cell was far away from the ones who lived in our cell block. We could whisper in our cells without worrying about being overheard. It was a lot harder for almost everyone else in this prison, especially with the shifters and vampires. Thank the gods, we weren’t rooming with the vampires. I’d get no sleep with the number of sex toys they had us smuggle in.
Dakarys was pacing and irritated. He was like my brother, and I loved him, but he could get uppity sometimes.
“You can’t tell me you’re okay with this!”
I got that everyone here feared Faust. Honestly, he gave me the creeps most of the time. Even his beard creeped me out. Sometimes, I could picture him grooming it with one of those straight razors with his hands covered in blood. But clearly, there was another side to him, and I didn’t know shit about him.
“We don’t know him, Dakarys. Rei does, and she sees something in him. I know you like Rei, and you haven’t fallen for anyone in a long time. Faust comes with Rei. Faust kills bad people for money. So what? I killed a bad person too, and we’re like brothers. You don’t have to be his best friend, but would you seriously take a wolf’s mate away because you’re jealous?”
“I’m not jealous,” Dakarys sulked. “You know how wolves get with their mates. Faust is a killer. He’ll kill all of us so he can have Rei to himself.”
I held up my hand and stopped Dakarys. That much could be correct, but I doubted it. I didn’t know the first thing about Faust, but I was almost certain he would get over his wolfish possessiveness and not murder us.
“Faust knows Rei isn’t a shifter. He knows she’s not feeling the same pull he is. Faust is careful. Think about it. The only proof anyone has that he’s killing inmates is that there was an uptick in murders when he got hired, and he just gives off those weird vibes.
“He’s careful, or he’d be in here with us. He has to be meticulous to plan his kills and not get caught, especially with all the cameras in here. Faust is going to know if he kills us, Rei will reject him. He’s going to have to suck it up and deal with it, just like you are. If you don’t want him to kill you, don’t be a dick to him. You never know. He might be cool.”
“Faust and his stupid beardare notcool.”
Dakarys and I never did prison relationships. Scorchwood was nasty and filthy. It was also continually freezing cold. Some people could get around that and have sex in there, but we never could. People certainly tried to get us in their beds, but that place was just so nasty, it was impossible to get in the mood. You just had to havesomestandards, even in prison.
There just wasn’t anyone in Silverhold that struck our fancy, and once we realized things were better here, we were more focused on exploiting what we could than breaking out.
Dakarys hadn’t had a girlfriend in a very long time, and it showed. There wasn’t much else to do in Scorchwood but talk. Dakarys straight up told me male sphinx had entire harems of women. If he expected women to share him, then he needed to get on board with sharing Rei. That was some fucked up double standards there.
Dakarys had a damned harem when he got busted. I knew all about them. He spoke of them fondly. Each woman meant the world to him, and he knew all their little quirks. If Dakarys could make it work with seven women and know every little detail about them, then I knew Rei could do the same.
“Dakarys, you were married to seven women once. Rei can handle all of us. Like it or not, Faust comes with Rei. If you don’t like it, track down your wives when we get out of here. If you think only you have the right to be surrounded by the opposite sex, then go back to your wives. If it was okay for you, then it’s okay for Rei. You like me, and you like Wren. You don’t know the first thing about Faust. You’re going to lose Rei if you give her an ultimatum about Faust, or you don’t at least try.”
I might as well give him the option. Dakarys had been in love with his wives. He talked about them regularly until one day, he just stopped. It wasn’t like he could write to them in Scorchwood. He hadn’t tried tracking them down on our secret phone either.
“My wives came to see me before they shipped me off to Scorchwood. I released them and gave them my blessing to remarry. Sphinxes don’t do well on their own. We need big families. They are all probably remarried with lots of babies now.”
I loved Dakarys like a brother, but sometimes, he didn’t make a lick of sense. I threw up my hands in frustration.
