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  Siren Awakened

  Thief of Hearts Book 3

  C.R. Jane

  Mila Young

  Contents

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  WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE PENITENTIARY PARANORMAL PRISON COLLECTION

  Thief of Hearts

  Siren Awakened

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Siren Redeemed

  Acknowledgments

  Keep reading for a peek at Bound, Book 1 of the Fallen World Series

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Meet C.R. Jane

  Other Books by C.R. Jane

  Meet Mila Young

  Other Books by Mila Young

  Siren Awakened by C. R. Jane and Mila Young

  Copyright © 2020 by C. R. Jane and Mila Young

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  For permissions contact:

  [email protected]

  [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Proofreading: Bookish Dream Editing

  We hope you find your power, and you never let anyone take it from you.

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  WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE PENITENTIARY PARANORMAL PRISON COLLECTION

  Siren Condemned by C.R. Jane & Mila Young

  Delinquent Demons by K Webster

  Conveniently Convicted by Ivy Asher & Raven Kennedy

  Noir Reformatory by Lexi C. Foss & J.R. Thorn

  Blindly Indicted by Katie May

  Wraith Captive by Lacey Carter Andersen

  Stolen Song by Autumn Reed & Ripley Proserpina

  Prison Princess by CoraLee June & Rebecca Royce

  Succubus Chained by Heather Long

  Check out all the books in the Nightmare Penitentiary Paranormal Prison collection!

  Thief of Hearts

  Siren Condemned

  Siren Sacrificed

  Siren Awakened

  Siren Redeemed

  Siren Awakened

  What happens to a siren who's come back from the dead?

  I hope I get the chance to find out.

  I've been betrayed, destroyed by the three men that I'd given my trust.

  I’m alone again in this place… a place that’s darker than hell.

  And worse, something strange is happening to me. Something that has me wondering if I can even trust myself.

  There are so many secrets in these walls, and I’m now determined to find them all out.

  I’m done playing nice. This siren’s going to sing once again.

  Nightmare Penitentiary doesn’t know what’s coming.

  One will risk the safety of our future. One will reveal a heartbreaking betrayal. One will bring out my own demons. And one might just be the savior I’ve been looking for.

  Don’t outstay your time at Nightmare Penitentiary. Some places you just don’t survive.

  Chapter 1

  Keon

  Blood.

  I wanted it.

  It was all I could think about.

  Everything around me looked crimson through the eyes of the beast.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew they were still my eyes, but when he took over, it literally felt like I was staring through the eyes of a stranger.

  I lifted my claw up to my mouth, licking the salty blood that coated them.

  Something gnawed at me. I was supposed to be paying attention to something…something other than blood.

  A high-pitched whine filled my senses, like an animal was in pain.

  The beast chuckled, the idea of a wounded animal had him salivating.

  The scream grew louder, and I turned to see where it was coming from.

  A hellhound shifter was curled up by a body, great sobs racking its body as the creature continued its mournful whine.

  Intrigued, I took a step forward, shocked when the hellhound dared to jump up and growl at me, baring almost all of its razor sharp teeth.

  The beast growled low in our chest as we prepared to lunge at it.

  Until I saw her.

  The hellhound’s movement had revealed the body it had been wrapped around.

  Everything came rushing at me at once. It felt like someone was taking a hammer to my skull as the last few hours burst their way through the bloody haze of the beast’s mind, clearing the way for me to take my body back over.

  I rushed to go to her, when the hellhound’s teeth sank into my shoulder. I roared, and it took everything in me to keep the beast at bay.

  “I’m not going to hurt her. Let me go!” I snarled through clenched teeth as I tried to shake him off. His teeth ripped at my sinew and muscle as I yanked at him.

  I finally used my left fist to crack his skull, knocking him out and giving me blessed relief from his knife-like teeth as his jaw released my shoulder. He sank to the floor, and I shook out my arm. It hurt like a motherfucker, and I knew my whole right side wouldn’t be useable for several hours as my healing powers kicked in.

  The agonizing pain in my shoulder faded away as I sank by Selena’s side, horror breaching every cell in my body as I realized that she wasn’t just unconscious. She had no pulse.

  But that fact should have been obvious to me as I’d ripped out her fucking throat. Blood seeped from the wound. Her blue tipped hair was a macabre purple and pink color, stained from all the blood she’d lost.

  My whole body shook as I stared at her. Flashbacks of every time I’d touched her perfect skin, every time I’d felt her perfect lips. The way she sighed as she said my name.

  This girl was my fucking everything. Her mark was on my soul, the same as my mark was on her skin.

  My head sank back as I roared at the flickering lights in the ceiling above me. My mind raced as I tried to think of something that could be done. I’d do anything…give anything to save her.

  Alaric. The mob asshole’s face filled my mind.

  He would know what to do. He had to know what to do. Everyone knew he had power that others didn’t. The rumors we
re that he’d wanted to come to Nightmare Penitentiary, he hadn’t been forced to.

  I was afraid to move Selena, in case my jostling did more internal damage, but I was more afraid of leaving her here with the hellhound unconscious and who knows what lurking around the halls. The appearance of the beast had scared off all of the bystanders I could faintly recall at the start of the fight. But still…

  This prison was aptly named.

  And how much more damage could I do dragging her around if she was dead?

  I gently picked her up with my left arm, draping her legs over my right arm, even though it was still in bad shape. I raced through the hallways, the familiar paths seeming like labyrinths in my panicked state.

  “Hold on, sweetheart,” I whispered into her hair, the tang of blood hiding her usual smell. When I was a child, my grandmother had talked about a waiting place that immortals went to after they died, a place where they were judged before being sent to Heaven or Hell.

  I didn’t know if I believed in Heaven. And I was pretty sure that Nightmare Penitentiary was at least a part of Hell. But I was desperate to believe there was a waiting place. Because maybe if that existed, then she could come back.

  Even if it didn’t exist though, I’d break through the gates of Heaven to get her soul back to Earth.

  The beast inside of me snarled at the thought.

  After what felt like hours, but must have been minutes, I made it to Alaric’s hell.

  He was pacing, anxiety engrained into his features.

  “Selena,” he cried out as he ran towards the bars and shook them like he had the power to rip them apart.

  The warden had made sure he didn’t.

  “What the fuck did you do to her, you fucking bastard?” Alaric seethed, the whites of his eyes disappearing as he began to lose control.

  “She’s dead,” I said flatly, even though the words threatened to shred the very inside of my soul as I uttered them.

  “What?” Alaric’s voice came out choked as he tried to comprehend what I’d just said. Even now, Selena’s blood was dripping to the floor beneath her, the wound too ragged and large to be stopped.

  “I…I ripped her throat out when I transformed.”

  I knew that Alaric knew what I was talking about. Part of his power was to know everyone’s secrets. So I had no doubt that he knew mine.

  “I need you to fix her. Bring her back. Now!” I ordered, shaking Selena a bit in my arms as I struggled for control.

  Setting her down as gently as I could, I pulled out the key, unlocked the door, and threw open the cell.

  Alaric just stared at Selena as if he was in a daze.

  I pushed him back onto the cell bars, and his head snapped back against the metal, sending a loud clang echoing through the hallways.

  “Help her,” I roared.

  He tore his eyes away from Selena and stared at me, his gaze crazy and desperate.

  “I can’t bring her back from the dead,” he whispered to me.

  Now it was my turn to stare at him blankly. I didn’t understand what he was saying. Of course he could bring her back. There was no other option. There wasn’t another creature more powerful in these walls besides the warden himself. There was no one else I could turn to.

  I released Alaric and shakily stepped away. Alaric sank to the ground and gathered Selena’s body in his arms, his entire body trembling as he murmured words to her I was too messed up to hear.

  My claws extended, digging into my face as I roared. I could just let go, there wasn’t a reason to hold on anymore. This was all my fault.

  “The fae,” Alaric suddenly cried, springing to his feet with Selena still in his arms. He took off down the hallway before I could fully comprehend what he’d just said.

  The haze that was threatening to take completely over rapidly dissipated once again, and I took off after him, our thunderous footsteps filling the hallway.

  I felt the gaze of prisoners as they warily watched us fly by. Alaric was going so fast that it was hard for even me to catch up to him.

  My thoughts raced as we ran towards where they were keeping the fallen fae prince.

  The fae were powerful, that couldn’t be denied. And their power was ancient, so ancient that nothing was really known about what they could do.

  But as I’d said before, if someone was going to know about another supernatural’s secrets, it would be Alaric.

  A small tendril of hope began to swirl inside of me, despite how hard I was trying to tamp it down.

  How long had she been dead now? Thirty minutes? An hour? I couldn’t be sure how much time passed when the beast had taken over. I strained my brain, trying to think about if supernaturals suffered from brain damage like humans or if Selena’s healing powers would make that a non-issue.

  And now my thoughts were just going down a rabbit hole, because I couldn’t think about the actual reality in front of me—that every second that passed was a second closer to her never opening her eyes again.

  Alaric bypassed where the guards would usually turn to get towards the fae’s cell and instead ran down one more corridor before stopping abruptly. He muttered to himself as he held Selena with one arm and pressed on a few of the rocks in the wall. I wasn’t surprised when an opening silently appeared in front of us, even though this route wasn’t familiar to me.

  This fucking place seemed to grow secret passageways overnight. The warden had said as much during guard orientation. He’d said that Nightmare Penitentiary was a living creature, and I hadn’t ever seen anything to the contrary.

  Alaric headed into the black void of the tunnel, and I followed him without hesitation. I pulled out the flashlight in my pocket and turned it on, almost dropping it when Alaric hissed at me. “Turn that fucking thing off, do you want to wake them up?”

  He didn’t bother telling me what he didn’t want to wake up, and I didn’t ask. The flashlight went back into my pocket, and I concentrated on listening to Alaric’s footsteps as he ran, trying to follow him while not running into him.

  Despite the fact that we were running through a tunnel basically blind, in half the time it would have taken to get to the fae’s cell on the other route, Alaric stopped and fumbled with what must have been a wall in front of him.

  Dim lighting appeared, and Alaric and I strode through into the decrepit hallway where the fae and the other prisoners the warden desired to torture were kept.

  Before the wall could close behind me, I looked back and saw what looked like several pairs of red, glowing eyes staring out after us.

  I probably wouldn’t be using that tunnel as a regular passageway in the future.

  “Fae,” Alaric spat as we approached his cell, one of Selena’s arms dangling beneath her like a limp doll.

  The fae was lying on his bed per usual, beat to a bloody pulp. He rolled over with a groan, only half-heartedly sparing us a glance.

  His whole body flinched when he realized that it was Selena in Alaric’s arms.

  I’d been jealous of Selena’s feelings for the fae from the very beginning. The looks she gave him were softer, the feelings she had for him had always seemed truer than the ones she held for me. I’d even contemplated killing him a few times when I’d followed her and watched them together.

  I was so glad that I held off the compulsion right now, as Seth hurriedly dragged himself off the cot and stumbled his way towards the cell doors, his gaze locked on Selena.

  I unlocked the door and ripped it open. Alaric was through the cell door before Seth had taken more than a few steps. He gently laid her down on the blood and sweat-stained cot. For a moment, I was caught off guard by the tender look he was giving her.

  He loved her.

  It was written across his face. He didn’t just love her. She was everything to him.

  My inner beast roared at the thought.

  Mine, mine, mine, it screamed, even though its obsession had led to her downfall.

  I could have left her alone after that
night in the bar, never stalked her down the hallways of the prison or watched her every night as she slept.

  “What happened?” Seth choked out. There was no color in his face as he gazed down at her with dread.

  “She’s dead. You need to bring her back,” Alaric ordered, taking over since I seemed to have lost the ability to speak. “And don’t say you can’t,” he said, cutting off whatever Seth was about to say.

  The beast growled inside of me again at the thought that Seth would refuse to help. He’d be dead if those words left his mouth.

  “I’d never,” Seth whispered as he gave Selena a longing look. “But I need…” His voice trailed off as he began to pat down Selena’s prison jumpsuit anxiously.

  “What are you doing?” Alaric snarled.

  “The crystal. I can’t do anything without it. I had her keep it for me since they’re always searching my cell.” Seth let out a sigh of relief as he pulled a crystal I vaguely remembered seeing in the warden’s office out of her lower pocket.

  “Can you do it? Can you bring her back?” I was finally able to spit out.

  But Seth didn’t answer me. He was already muttering something over Selena’s body as he glided the crystal across her chest.