The Broken and the Rogue ✓

Ch. 4: The agreement

The humidity of the cell had already penetrated my bones.

I couldn't close my eyes all night. Most of the prisoners were on the verge of madness and screamed non-stop while I tried to sleep. There was only one moment when I thought they had finally shut their damn mouths but a guard had to come in and torture them.

In my state of anger I asked him why he thought of doing something like that in the middle of the night.

"They talk sooner if you don't let them sleep," he answered.

Empathy was not the rogues' strong point, although I couldn't deny that it was a clever technique to get what they wanted. 

One thing was clear to me after witnessing the prisoners' suffering: I had to do everything possible to never return to the dungeon.

One would think that the task of torturing people all night would be horrible, the kind of work that no one would want to do, yet the rogues' jailers seemed happy to be there. They made jokes with each other, laughed while making the prisoners suffer, and, from what I heard, even worked overtime.

I made sure to remember their faces to avoid crossing paths with them, I honestly didn't feel like interacting with those psychopaths anymore.

An entire night locked in a cold cell, with leaks, without dinner, and surrounded by crazy people. For a moment I missed the nights in my old pack, at least I could sleep there.

Whoever will try to talk to me when I could get out of the cell would only see the worst version of me. I had already built up enough anger to take on an army, and I was saving the worst part for my supposed mate.

Yes, I knew that it had been my fault for breaking the rules and I deserved some kind of punishment, I was also aware that what I received was nothing compared to what the rest of the people locked in the dungeon were experiencing, but my tiredness  was beyond my reasoning, and I just wanted revenge or at least to be able to vent.

I raised my head from where it rested between my knees, without standing up I saw the person who approached the bars of the cell. A thin young man of similar height to me stood in the hallway, raising his hand that held the key to my freedom.

"Ready to go out?" he asked me. "I hope you learned your lesson, you were lucky this time."

I stood up and stretched my back. "Doesn't the stay include breakfast? I'm a little hungry."

The young man ran a hand through his blonde hair before putting the key in the lock. "You shouldn't demand anything before you leave, maybe your attitude will bother me and I'll leave you here for a while longer."

I looked him up and down while I crossed my arms. "I really doubt you have the power to make those kinds of decisions."

His mocking expression changed from one second to the next, his brow furrowed and his posture straightened. He left his hand on the cell door without opening it.

"Do you really want to try it? If you're so confident you can take a chance and see what happens," he said.

"Don't be so sensitive, I'm messing with you, after being locked up all night I'm kind of bored." I walked towards the door and passed my right hand through the bars to touch his arm. 

He moved his arm immediately as if my touch had burned it. "Don't worry so much about your boredom, I assure you it will end soon. Zaziel wants to talk to you, he asked me to take you to his office."

The opportunity I was waiting for came much sooner than I thought. If Zaziel made sure we were alone it would be a blessing to me.

I had a lot to tell him. The night I spent locked up made me think that we had not yet talked about our situation as mates, I needed to make it clear that I was not interested in consummating our bond. The good side is that Zaziel didn't strike me as the type of man who seeks to live the classic  lovey-dovey mates’ life.