Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

TWO YEARS AFTER THAT

I laughed wildly as I ran through the vineyard, ducking between the rows of grape vines, hunting my prey. They were out here. All seven of them and likely their papas too were lurking in the greenery, no doubt scoffing grapes while they tried to out-run their mother.

I crept as silently as a ghost through the rows of vines, my senses alert for the sound of soft giggles – probably from Sin – or perhaps little footfalls.

“They’re behind that row,” Taya drawled, and I looked around, finding her standing at the end of the line of vines I was creeping down, her arms folded and face set in a mask of utter boredom which only a thirteen-year-old could manage. She was the newest member of our found family, a girl I’d run into on a job downtown, skulking behind the trailer of a nasty bastardo who had owed the Oscuras money. Her dark hair hung forward, shadowing the features of her angular face, those unusually silver pupils.

I’d recognised the haunted look in her eyes the moment I’d first looked at her, felt a stab of pain in my heart as I found a reflection of the girl, I’d once been staring out at me in fierce defiance of her lot in life.

I’d offered her bastardo papa a trade – the end of his debt for her – and of course he had given her up in a heartbeat. Then I’d given her the real choice – asked if she had anywhere she wanted to go or anyone who she wanted to be with, the answer to which was a sharp no. Then I’d asked whether she wanted to join my famiglia or fall upon the mercy of the state where I could at least bring her to a decent group home. Thankfully, after a long and shrewd assessment in which she insulted my clothes, my hair and told me I was in need of a manicure, she’d decided to give life with us a shot.

It had been a long six months since she’d joined us and she was still finding her feet in many ways but that scowl, the edge of a smile on her lips and the fact that she was opening up to me about the things she’d survived in her short life told me that she’d always been destined to find us, and us her in return.

“Spoil-sport!” Mimi yelled and I snorted in amusement.

“Run off and I’ll come find you again,” I offered, the giggles of my little pack of hellions confirming that they’d taken the deal.

“You could join us,” I offered and I could tell she was tempted, that the pup she’d been had longed for carefree days playing in the sunshine and that all of her chances for that had been stolen and sullied by the rough lot life had handed her. “Come on,” I urged. “You can help me hunt?”

Taya’s lips twitched into the closest thing I’d seen to a smile from her and she nodded once, though I could almost see the shutters drawing down within her eyes at the same time, the concern that if she let herself embrace this life then it would only end up snatched away from her again.

“Come on, mia bambina,” I purred, a smile spreading across my face. “We’ll make it a competition to see which one of us catches the most of them.”

Taya’s smirk deepened and she turned from me, breaking into a run and cupping her hands around her mouth as she released a long howl to the moon, warning the rest of the pups that she was coming for them.

My heart swelled at the sound, tears pricking in the backs of my eyes as I felt her giving in to the call of the pack we had built, letting herself believe that this could truly be her famiglia too.

Sin’s wild cackles echoed across the valley as he broke from cover and ran from Taya at full speed. Ethan howled as he raced away too in his Wolf form, Gianna and Marco screeching with laughter from his back.

Cain shot into the distant trees carrying Eloin with him and I barely even flinched as Roary collided with me, winding his arms around my waist and pressing his lips to my neck as he kissed me.

“What’s that beautiful smile for, love of mine?” he murmured, and I looped my arms over him, holding him close and smiling even more broadly as I leaned into his embrace.

“I was just thinking,” I said softly, watching as Taya sprinted at full speed down the hill, determined to catch her prey, relishing in the freedom and joy of a family the way I had learned to do so long ago. “That life turned out pretty okay for us, didn’t it?”

“That’s an understatement if ever I heard one,” Roary said, kissing me again.

“A morte e ritorno,” I said because it felt like we really had gone to death and back to claim this sanctuary and I was determined to relish every moment of life we had claimed for our own.

“A morte e ritorno,” Roary echoed before wrenching me off of my feet and hoisting me into his arms. “Now let’s go catch some pups.”

My laughter carried away over the hills and beyond as he shot after them, the wind whipping the sound up into the sky, staining the clouds with it and marking this land with the happiness we had claimed. And there was nothing in this world or any other that I could have asked for beyond that.