Broken Compass: Supernatural Prison Story 1 Read Free

size. Family and pack also knew it was Maximus’ young and no one got weird or anything about it. Which I’d never expected. Their unwavering acceptance had reduced me to tears more than once, but I’d at least waited until I was alone to explode in a pregnancy-induced ball of emotions.
    “Good, just … I really want to send him a text. I can’t have this baby without him knowing. I just can’t.”
    I didn’t say his name out loud very often. It was painful, and I’d had enough of that. Tyson’s hand drifted across to clutch mine. I loved the tactile nature of supernaturals. It was comforting and I sucked it up because I’d never had anything like it in my life before.
    “Not a great idea. We don’t want to send him over the edge, and who knows what a text like that might do. He said he was on his way back, and he’s a supe of his word.”
    I groaned before dropping my head against the wizard’s shoulder, something a few months ago I’d never have been comfortable enough to do. But once my wolf accepted them as my pack, the rest had fallen into place.
    “I planned to tell him so many times right after the dragon king battle. I even stood outside his door for an hour just hoping he’d emerge. But he was in so much pain and he didn’t seem to want to be anywhere near me.” After losing Cardia, he’d spent time with his pack, but he’d very clearly been avoiding me with a single-mindedness that was quite insulting.
    “I should have forced him to listen on that last day, when you guys were inducted into the council. Why did he just take off without even stopping to see me?” I sucked in a deep breath, trying to stuff my hurt feelings deep down where they belonged. I had no right to these emotions and I was working really hard at accepting that. Maximus owed me nothing. But he did owe our child his attention, which meant I needed him here so he could at least know before the birth.
    Tyson’s hand was comforting again. “You were trying to do the right thing. Give him time to grieve and assuage the pain over the loss of his mate. He’s the one who took off without a word to you. This is on no one but him. He’ll return soon. I know it.”
    The mage was probably right. He seemed to have an inside scoop to the goings-on in our universe. The gods talked to him.
    “I don’t think I can take it any longer,” Jessa said as she sat next to me, Braxton on her other side. “I need Maximus back. Brax … get him back for me.”
    She turned large, pleading eyes on her mate, and I could practically see the way he was crushed under the enormity of his love for her. There was nothing he wouldn’t do or get for her. I had no doubt now that his vampire brother would be back in Stratford soon.
    Sinking further into the soft couch, I tried to school my features. No point letting anyone see the burning well of agony inside of me. It was stupid that every time I heard his name a sharp stab hit me in my chest before ricocheting down through my ribs. But there it was.
    Every single time.
    My wolf brushed against my mind and I let her wrap around me.
    Mate.
    For some reason she always called him mate. I’d had just about every supernatural I knew explain to me – multiple times – that there was no possible way a vampire could be my true mate. We were from different supernatural races. That was one of the first truths I’d learned upon my arrival in Stratford. True mates were within the same race. My mate would be a shifter, and Maximus’ would be a vampire … was a vampire. Cardia. She died in the battle against the dragon king, and was the reason Maximus had taken off.
    Ugh! I would not dwell on this any longer. No more was I going to be the sad and pathetic member of this pack. It was hard though, to not feel alone. Outside in the human world I’d been nothing, forgotten, a freak, neglected by a mother who was grieving and ridiculed by humans who didn’t understand the odd little things I’d done. And while I