I kept my eyes down and rushed past the crowd, my attention focused entirely on Isabella, who I could sense down in the Citadel basement.
I hustled down the steps until I reached the right floor.
The prison guards sat around a table playing a game of cards.
They looked up at my approach.
I adopted the identity of my Shadow counterpart, Sar.
“I’m here to collect my fated mate,” I growled.
“For what purpose?” the guard with a knot in his forehead said.
“There’s been a suggestion she’s infertile and needs to be inspected,” I said.
“Infertile?”
The lead guard spat in the corner.
“As if we didn’t have enough to worry about,” he said. “Now we have to worry about faulty merchandise.”
He tossed his cards on the table and got to his feet.
They allowed me entry to see my fated mate but remained on my heels the entire way.
When I saw Isabella, so small in that dark and dismal room, I wondered once more how they could cage a gorgeous bird in such dingy surroundings.
She deserved to live in a palace, not in this squalor.
I couldn’t let the guards know who I was, not until the right moment.
Isabella played along.
We edged toward the door, my hand wrapped firmly about her neck, prepared to shove her out of harm’s way the moment it reared its head.
And it would rear its head.
This was why we were trained in how to fight before searching for our fated mates.
In case we found ourselves in situations like this.
Like all young M’rora, I disliked the training.
It was grueling hard work and I never fully understood its purpose—not until now.
To find myself in this situation without it meant facing off against two heavily-muscled opponents and no knowledge of how to exploit their weaknesses.
There.
The lead guard had a bulging stomach and a slight limp in his right leg.
He kept leaning on his left to stay upright.
The other guard with dark green skin had lost an ear at some point and would be easy to attack from that side.
I found my center the way I’d been trained and choreographed each move and strike to occur one after the other.
All I could do now was wait for my opening.
“Everything in order?” the lead guard said.
I nodded.
He turned to leave.
The one with the missing ear half-turned to follow him, his severed ear facing me so I could see the dark hole in the side of his head.
Now, I thought. Now was when I needed to strike.
I would never get a better opportunity than this.
And once I started, there would be no going back.
I threw a kick at the guard with the weak knee.
It shifted unnaturally sideways and I heard the accompanying crack.
The other two guards snapped to attention.
The missing ear made my attack automatically stealthy.
I bellowed as I snapped out with my fists at his bulging gut.
His head lowered in response.
I gathered every ounce of my strength and delivered a devastating uppercut to his chin that lifted him off his feet.
He staggered back, hit the wall, and slid down it.
Down, but not out for the count.
“Rargh!”
The guard with the gimpy leg roared as he threw himself at me, his hands reaching for my throat.
With his momentum carrying him forward, I carried out the movements I’d practiced in training over a thousand times before.
It was automatic.
That was the thing about coming up with plans.
They were good so long as everything lined up perfectly, but with there being so many variables that might go awry, there was always something that came out of the blue.
I stepped to one side, crouched, and spun my body around, my leg catching the large creature’s feet, and sent him sprawling.
I wasn’t aiming for maximum damage, only to take his feet out from under him.
Oftentimes, it was enough to knock the opponent off balance to claim victory.
He fell in an unruly lump and I sprung on top of him.
I wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled tight.
I felt his throat struggling for breath.
He rolled over.
His weight was heavy but I braced it with my knees and held on tight.
His arms flayed but they were short compared to his bulging stomach and couldn’t reach me.
His limbs went limp.
I held on a little longer to ensure he wasn’t only pretending to be unconscious.
I checked his pulse.
He was still alive.
“Look out!”
The earless wonder was already on his feet and stamping the ground like a runaway bull.
I could roll up onto my feet but he would be on me instantly.
I yanked the baton at the prison guard’s waist and swung it around.
It struck the charging creature on one side of his knee.
The fury turned to shock as he wailed and fell…
Toward me.
I rolled to one side and came up with the baton raised, ready to unleash a fresh torrent of abuse.
The guard’s eyes drifted from my face to the baton and back again.
He lowered his eyes.
He was beaten.
Not that I trusted him not to leap to his feet and bellow for help the moment we were gone.
“In the cell,” I said.
The creature got up slowly, his hands raised, and limped toward the open cell.
“Don’t forget your buddy,” I said.
The guard dragged his unconscious friend into the cell.
“Keys,” I said.
He unhooked them from the lead guard’s belt and handed them over.
“Are these all the keys you have?” I said.
The creature snorted to the affirmative.
“If they’re not, I’m coming back here,” I warned him, waving the baton menacingly under his nose.
The guard’s eyes bulged.
“Wait!”
He slipped a smaller set of keys from his pocket and handed them to me.
“What are these for?” I said.
“They’re a copy of the set you already have.”
I took them and shut the door behind myself.
I slipped a key in the lock and turned it.
The lock thunked into place.
I turned to Isabella.
She threw herself at me and smothered my face with kisses.
She’d never tasted so sweet.
I breathed her in, savored her erotic scent, and planted kisses on her face in return.
I pulled her in close, so close I wished I could merge with her and become one.
But now
