Page 16 of First Offense

Hope blossomed inside me, only to die at the sight of a shiny net falling from the sky.

“Watch out!” I launched forward, only to be tossed back by the flames bursting up around me again. I let out a strangled cry, dancing away from the heat.

Auric looked up, then crouched as he sliced his blade through the air.

It wasn’t enough.

The silvery web whirled around him in a sickening display of madness, entangling with his limbs and molding to his thick combat pants and boots. He fell to the ground as the metallic strands ensnared his arms and wings, degrading him to that of a fly caught in a spider’s web.

A sick feeling rose up inside me.

I had to help him. I had to—

Tight fingers closed around my arm and jerked me backward into a circle of virile male Noir.

Oh gods...

A tall, muscular Noir with a scar bisecting his right eye leered down at me. “Look at you,” he hummed, his gaze roaming over my gauzy top—no one had provided me with anything else to wear. “All alone, aren’t you now, Princess?”

My stomach twisted as my heart fluttered like a frightened bird.

The man’s scent was all Noir—fetid and feral like a dangerous, wild animal.

I hadn’t realized that Noir smelled so different from Nora until I came here. In the castle, I’d hardly ever noticed anybody’s smell beyond Auric’s. Nora had a nice, muted scent that was almost calming in its steadfastness.

However, the Noir’s stench choked me. I could taste it in the back of my throat.

I yanked against his hold, but his fingers just tightened on my arm.

“Let go of me,” I snapped, going for a haughty, royal tone. Unfortunately, the words came out too shaky to land the way I wanted them to.

Gods, I hated this place. I hated the way it shredded my courage, how it turned my resolve into mush and my brain into that of a helpless female.

I wasn’t weak.

I was aroyal.

He should be bowing to me, not manhandling me.

Three other inmates crowded around us, identical glints in their gazes. They looked just as rough and intimidating, covered in scars and healing wounds, their heads shaved and their skin sallow from so much time locked away.

I dreaded to think what they’d done in their lives to be here for so long that they no longer resembled Nora at all. Their descent into Noir life had gone well beyond their black wings, as if the evil inside them had manifested on the outside.

The one holding my arm sneered. “What do you think, boys? Should I let her go?”

His buddies laughed as though he’d said something uproariously funny.

“Let her godown on this cock,” one of them said, earning more maniacal laughter from the groupies.

All the hairs on my body stood on end. The low level of panic I’d managed to keep submissive until now threatened to overwhelm me.

Why had my father sent me to this awful place? How could he put me in this position? If Auric didn’t survive the razor wire, I’d be at the mercy of every man in this prison. I’d be meat, and they’d all take a bite until there was nothing left of me.

My captor gave a slow nod, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. “Been a long time since I felt the warmth of a cunt.”

His crudeness lit a fire of indignation under me. Baring my teeth at him, I hissed. “Release me, or lose your hand like the other Noir in the yard.”

He sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. “Your guard dog’s a little busy,Princess. I don’t think he’d notice if I took you for a ride.”