Lucien nodded back, and the two let us in.
The lobby was surprisingly bright and colorful. There were plants all over, and little sculptures of mushrooms and beetles, and whatnot. The man who sat behind the front desk was also wearing bright neon colors.
When he saw us coming in, he immediately jumped to his feet and saluted. “Good afternoon, Mr. Alpha, sir.”
To my surprise, Lucien’s lips twitched. “I told you calling me Alpha is enough, Miguel.”
Miguel didn’t reply but kept saluting.
Lucien seemed half amused, half tortured, as he sighed and gave a quick salute back to release him.
Once he wasn’t saluting anymore, Miguel smiled, eyes twinkling, and asked, “How can I help you today?”
“We’re here for Alby and Dianna,” Lucien said, face growing serious.
Miguel nodded quickly and motioned toward the door next to his desk. “They’re at cell twenty-six, sir.”
“Thank you,” Lucien said quietly, nodded, and headed to the door, but before he opened it, he turned to Miguel and said, “I know you’re new, and you’re still getting the hang of things, but remember, this is not the military.”
The bright man nodded so fast, his hair flew everywhere. “I know, sir, Alpha,” he said, smiling a little. “I’m working on it.”
Lucien, to my surprise, smiled back. “All right, then.”
Once we walked through the door, I looked around me as the surroundings took on the opposite feel from the front desk’s. Here it was bleak and moist, gray walls and floors, an aisle of prison cells greeting us. To my surprise, most cells were empty, but the few that weren’t were inhabited by werewolves in their wolf form, who seemed to be avoiding looking at Lucien altogether as we passed by.
The silence, though, was heavy, broken only by our footsteps—and my curiosity, which thankfully pushed my dreadful thoughts from before to the back of my mind. “So Miguel is new?”
Lucien heard the question in my voice and glanced at me with a somewhat cryptic look. “Yeah. He hasn’t been a werewolf for long.”
My heart came to a screeching stop as my throat grew dry. “What do you mean—”
“We’re here,” he cut me off as he stopped by cell twenty-six.
Biting my tongue and swallowing the rest of my questions, I looked into the cell through the thick metal bars. There were two wolves there, both with dark fur and gold eyes, though they weren’t identical in the slightest. One had a sharper face, and a shorter tail that had a pretty silver ring around its edge, while the other had thicker fur and a longer tail.
“Alby, Dianna,” Lucien now said, looking at the wolves. “Shift.”
The wolves stared at Lucien as they immediately shifted. While I’d witnessed Lucien shift before, the sight still startled yet fascinated me as I watched their fur being sucked into their skin, followed by a hissing sound. Their limbs grew longer, and a faint sound, almost like a paper being folded into origami shapes, filled the silence.
When they were finally in their human form, both were naked, but they didn’t seem to care about it. It made me wonder about the nudity culture in the werewolf society. Lucien had been comfortable in his nudity, too, every time I’d seen him without his clothes on.
Which, granted, were a few very precious moments.
I also did my best to keep my eyes on their faces rather than on their other body parts. And both their faces were surprisingly freshened up, if a little pale.
Lucien stared at the two of them for a quiet moment before he spoke again. “Tell me everything you know about Mack Page’s dealings with the Sable Syndicate.”
Some part of me expected the two of them to be surprised Lucien knew about the Syndicate’s involvement in his attack, but instead, they kept blank expressions, seemingly impassive about this turn of events.
Dianna was the first one who spoke. “If I tell you, will you let me see her?”
Alby’s head whipped toward her, glaring in warning, but Dianna kept her eyes on Lucien, determined.
Without missing a beat, Lucien said, “I will.”
Alby bared his teeth as he turned his glare to Lucien. “What will I get, then?”
“A more merciful death,” Lucien said in a darker voice. “Considering this is not your first crime.”
