Psycho Beasts

Machine Translated by Google
The table fell silent as everyone processed that both Jinx and Cobra had committed
murder at eight years old, and that they thought they were in the right.
"My visit is not purely of the social nature," the don broke the silence as he cut his
steak.
If he told us we were getting tortured again, I was shoving a bread roll up his ass.
"The third trial begins now," the don said casually.

DON'S ORDERS
, I shoved my chair over, hit the ground, B and rolled

under the table for protection with my steak knife between my teeth.
I crouched low, waiting for the gunfire to erupt.

"Um, Sadie," Lucinda called, and I ignored her.
She was so innocent.
I waited.
The danger came, but it wasn't in the form I suspected. Cobra's jeweled
fingers reached under the table and grabbed the bulge in Jax's sweatpants.
Jax jerked with surprise and slammed his booted foot upwards, right into
my face.
I yelped in surprise, slamming my head on the underside of the table.
Moaning in agony, I was too stunned to fight those tattooed fingers
grabbed my shoulders and hauled me back into my seat.
Ascher patted my head condescendingly. "Poor princess."
“Sorry. Are you okay? Jax asked as he reached across the table.
I smacked his hand away.
Cobra smirked knowingly, a satisfied expression on his gorgeous face.
"Pervert." I scowled at him.
Cobra's shoulders shook as he chuckled. "Very impressive hiding spot,
my kitten. Please, tell me, what was your plan? Just crouch under there as we
were all slaughtered in a hail of bullets?”
My face burned, but I refused to be ashamed. "Every man for himself."
"How positively bloodthirsty." He tsked. "I'm hurt."
From the way his shoulders still shook with laughter, it was clear he was not hurt.
He pointed at Lucinda and gasped for air like it was hilarious. “You
even abandoned the girls.”
"I knew he wouldn't hurt them," I snapped, rolling my eyes at him
dramatics.
He kept laughing.
"Whatever." I dabbed my napkin demurely on my lips like a proper lady and addressed
the don. "So I take it you're not going to kill me in a hail of gunfire?"
The don said dryly, "I hadn't planned to. At least, not yet.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out if he was making a joke or threatening me.
Cobra hissed, his entire demeanor changing in a blink. "Hurt her, Father, and it will
be the last thing you do."
The don arched his brow at his son.
"Need I remind you that she is not, and cannot, be a member of your pack? Or have
you forgotten? His "Loyalty" tattoo rippled on his neck as he spoke.
"Oh, I don't need reminding." Cobra had snake eyes, and his shadow
snakes writhed across his pale flesh.
The don waved his hand and kept speaking like he hadn't just caused the entire table
to seize with tension at the reminder of their pack status and my lack of inclusion.
"To complete the third trial, you must each capture someone on the
city's most-wanted list and present them at the Equinox Ball.”
"Dead or alive?" Xerxes asked.
The don's voice hardened. "They must be brought in alive."
The white snake that had been wrapped casually around his neck began to hiss and
slither in a circle.
Any softness disappeared.
"But, after your impressive performances in the second trial, I thought I'd offer an olive
branch of sorts. I know you are new to this realm and are not as familiar with the city. So I
have come here to recommend that you focus on bringing in the independent Ortega
brothers. There are five of them, one for each of you."
He pulled an envelope with a red wax seal out of his suit pocket and placed
it on the table.
"All the information about their illicit activities, and coordinates for
their suspected locations, are in here.”
No one reached for the letter.
"A reminder that alphas are not given weapons or allowed to shift until
after the trials. So you must use your other skills.”
He looked at me when he said "other skills," and my chest clenched.
Did he know about my blood powers? Why was he looking at me?
Under the table, Aran grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
Both our hands trembled.
Shit. If Aran had also picked up on the don's look, then maybe he did know?
A tension headache began to throb in the front of my skull.

The don dabbed his napkin across his lips and stood gracefully. "Thank you
you for hosting me. I am always here for you, if you need me.”
The don walked away but turned around as if he remembered something.
"I will have formal wear sent to the house for the ball." He paused.
My stomach dropped at his expression; it was the one every person made
before they delivered awful news.
"The Equinox Ball is in two days. You only have tomorrow night to
complete the trial. Don't fail."
We had one day to complete the trial.
My stomach dropped.
Ascher swore.
Everyone at the table shifted uncomfortably as they realized how fucked
we were
The don paused as if he was struggling to find words.
Finally, he said quietly, "Be careful, my son. This realm is crueler than
you can even imagine
With those uplifting words of encouragement, he left.
There was a long moment, then Jax warily picked up the envelope. He
broke the seal and read the cursive script.
"What does it say?" Ascher asked impatiently, as Jax stayed silent.
Cobra leaned over Jax's shoulder and paled.
Slowly, Jax smoothed out the paper. "The Ortega pack are wolf shifters and are
suspected to have ties to the Black Wolves."
Xerxes's silverware clattered against his fine china plate.
Alpha scents thickened with warning.
Cobra hissed and looked over at the omega, who was sitting still as a statue. Ascher
banged his tattooed fists against the table, and glasses sloshed.
Clarissa's warning rang through my head.

Xerxes must have told the men about the Black Wolves, or maybe they figured it out
because of the bond.
None of the girls said anything, but they sank lower in their chairs like they could feel
the shift in the energy and knew something bad was happening.
"He knew," Jax said. "The Ortega pack is a front that will allow us to handle the wolves."
"Why not just tell us to bring them in for our third trial?" I asked.
"Because you have to bring the captures to the ball alive," Cobra said, "and we won't
be leaving them alive."
Jax nodded in agreement. "There's more. It says the Ortega brothers run something
called a black ribbon club and that we will have to blend in to infiltrate it.”
Xerxes swore at the name.

Everyone turned to him expectantly; he was the only one familiar with the realm.
He blew out air and glanced at the girls. "It's a—" He sputtered like he couldn't find the
right words. "—dark club."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Xerxes's cheeks are tinged pink. He rubbed at the bite marks I'd left across
his neck, and he whispered, "I believe you'd know it as a BDSM club."
Ascher choked on his wine.
Xerxes did not look anyone in the eyes as he spoke. "They're very popular in Serpentine
City. Most are Mafia controlled, but there are a few seedier, illegal establishments.”
Jax glanced at his sisters and tried to deflect. "Well, the letter says it's believed to be a
front for the real underground club where the Ortega brothers can be found. We should
check it out tomorrow.
"We'll need to go shopping first for appropriate clothes. The club will only
be open at night, and we have to pull all this off tomorrow night."
Xerxes didn't look at anyone.
"What does BDSM stand for?" Lucinda asked.
Ascher choked again and sputtered wine everywhere.
I debated crawling under the table, and my face burned as I said, “Well,
it's hard to explain. But when two people are in a trusting relationship, and
love each other very much—”
"Bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, and masochism,"
Jinx said. "Technically, the proper acronym is BDDSSM."
"What are you binding?" Jala asked as Lucinda scrunched her face in confusion.
"Jinx," Jax growled threateningly.

Cobra put his fist in his mouth as his shoulders shook with silent laughter.
"Another person, usually a naked one, during rough penetrative sex,"

Jinx said casually as she cut her steak into tiny pieces.
Cobra lost his silent battle and burst out laughing.
"You learn something new each day," Jess said with amazement.
Lucinda brought her hand to her mouth in shock, and Jala's pink eyes
were as big as saucers.
Jax pressed his palms into his eyes and muttered something about sisters
being the death of him and sending Jinx off to an intensive military school.
I shuddered at the thought of Jinx with combat skills.
"Where did you learn that?" Ascher asked the twelve-year-old, while Xerxes looked at
his blades like he was debating stabbing himself through his skull.
Jinx shrugged. "I've been places."

"Excuse me." Jax growled, "What places have you been, when you're
twelve years old?"
"You know. Places.” Jinx took a delicate bite and sipped from her crystal
glass.
Aran was still silent beside me, pushing her uneaten food back and
forth, not reacting at all to the wild twelve-year-old spouting sex facts.
Her shoulders hunched lower as she itched mindlessly at her back.
Fuck.
Her itching made me nauseous because it was a reminder that she could never have
sex without pain.
I gripped my steak knife tighter and wished I'd tortured the queen
longer with my blood and made her hurt herself like she'd hurt Aran.
A loud banging noise and the sounds of Walter talking to someone in the foyer
interrupted my dark thoughts.
Everyone fell silent at the butler's uncharacteristically agitated voice.
It felt like my bleak mood had summoned danger.
"I'm going to check it out. Stay here," Xerxes ordered as he stalked out of the room.
Xerxes's voice was muffled, and a few minutes later, he returned to the
dining room, with Walter trailing.
His olive skin was unnaturally pale, and he raked his fingers across his stubble like he
was frustrated.
In his hand, he clenched a bright-red piece of paper with words on it.
Xerxes looked at Aran, and the nausea in my stomach turned into razor blades.
I tapped my foot with concern as my intuition screamed at me that what

he was about to say it wasn't good.
Everyone stared at him expectantly.
"The High Court has delivered flyers to every residence in Serpentine City," Xerxes
said as he held up the paper.
My heart pounded so hard that my chest hurt.
He read, "A ruler from another realm is being held hostage in this city.
They must be returned to the High Court's embassy on Fifth Street.
Emergency summons have been put in place in the city. Summon us by speaking the
number of our street in Latin.
Xerxes took a deep breath.
My stomach dropped out from under me, as I knew what he was
going to say before he did.
"It is the rightful Queen of the Fae Realm." He paused and said quietly, "Arabella Alis
Egan."
Aran didn't flinch, just calmly piled her mashed potatoes into a small
mountain.
Xerxes kept reading, "A woman covered in scars who is suspected of being a half-
breed is expected to have kidnapped her. Contact the High Court if you have information.”
Tension was a tangible weight, and my head spun with relief that mine
enchanted ring concealed my scars, and terror for my friend.
Everyone waited for Aran to break down or say something.
When she finally spoke, it was just to say, "I don't have a middle name.
They should fix that.”
She was too beat down to even care.
Once again, we were fucked.
SHOPPING
'
"U, ," I said as I peeked my head out of the
dressing room.
Xerxes had taken us to the "shopping district" of the city, which was
one massive skyscraper.
The central part of the building was hollowed out, and a glass elevator
went up and down continuously.
On all sides, going 120 floors into the sky, were shops for clothes, the
home, and everything else a person could think of.
It was a far cry from the small businesses in the shifter realm.
I didn't even know it was possible for so much stuff to exist.
"No, there hasn't," Aran said tiredly as she tapped her foot outside the
changing room.
After the flyer got delivered yesterday, she sat in the corner of the room, in
the dark, with a pipe in her mouth.
She wouldn't come to bed or talk to me.
I'd forced her to come along on the trip, knowing she loved shopping.
She'd pointed out that I was risking getting executed and she was risking being forced
to rule a bloodthirsty realm, all so we could pick out clothes for a BDSM club.
I told her it was worth the risk.

I was pretty sure she'd only agreed to the trip because she was low-key
hoping we'd be attacked and she'd have a reason to fight people.
Sadly for her, she was still enchanted as a boy and the High Court had released a
picture of her looking very girly and different with pin-straight hair.
But she still wore a baseball cap and sunglasses to hide her curly blue hair
hair and bright-blue eyes.
Odds were basically zero that she'd be recognized.
As long as her disguise held, we were safe.
I called out from the changing room, "No, there definitely has been a
mistake. I don't understand how they made it so the straps cover everything
but my boobs and vagina. How does that make any sense?
I quickly pulled back the curtain to flash her my outfit.
The black material crisscrossed in straps starting at my ankles and
climbing up to cover my throat.
Aran was in the throes of a deep depression, but my getup still made her
jolt with surprise.
Cobra, who was walking past at that exact moment, tripped and
slammed his face into the wall.
"Buy that. "Immediately," he croaked.
Aran rolled her eyes and pulled her other choices off the hanger. "Try this." It was a
gossamer white fabric that had fluffy feathers and sparkles across the boobs and sleeves.
I pulled it on and gasped.

The white contrasted with my golden skin and made my hair shine like
pearls.
The feathers were fluffy and feminine, and the fabric showed my body
when I moved, but I didn't feel completely naked like in the other outfit.
"You're a genius," I said to Aran as I opened up the curtain.
"I know, I'm a great shopper," Aran said, but her voice was strained and
her smile didn't reach her eyes.
What was a surprise was that all four of the men, who were supposed to
be finding their own clothes, stood behind Aran.
"Princess." Ascher groaned and shoved his tattooed fist into his mouth.
"Oh fuck, baby girl," Xerxes muttered.
"Love," Jax breathed out roughly, eyes wide as he admired me.
"I told you guys," Cobra said to the men as his eyes darkened.
"Although, Kitten, I personally prefer the last one."
"Noted." I tapped my mouth like I was considering it. "Don't care."
I shut the curtain with a snap.
When I'd settled on getting the nightie in white, I walked to check out.
However, I glanced at the tag and almost passed out.
It was ten thousand credits, and the symbol next to it was the same money symbol
used in the shifter realm.
Ten thousand credits was the cost of a large house, and about what Jax
said they had paid us for each battle in the shifter realm.
"Aran, did you see the price?" I showed her the tag.
She shrugged. "So?"
"Wow, very royal of you."
The despondent expression was still pasted on her face as she explained, "Sadie, the
mannequins in the store are all covered in jewels, and there are real crystals in those
feathers. The material is butterfly silk, which is the most expensive fabric in the realms.
What did you expect?
"I'd set my budget at fifty credits," I said sadly as the butterfly silk
Sparkled in between my fingers.
"I don't know if you want me to act like I relate to you right now, but I don't speak poor-
unfashionable-person language. Sorry.”
My spirits lifted. If Aran was feeling well enough to joke, then maybe she was back to
her old self.
I chuckled, but Aran's face didn't twitch.
"Oh my sun god, you're not joking."
She grabbed a leather strip off the wall that was covered in skulls and
started to wrap it aggressively around her throat.
It dawned on me what she was doing, and I slapped her hands, pulling it
Off her. "Really, in a public store?"
"Better than being queen of the fucking fae," she snarled and pouted as I
held the leather strap away from her.
"Shut up," I whispered furiously. "Someone will hear you and take you back."
"Kinky, Sadie." Ascher walked by and grabbed the strap. "Didn't know you were into
props."
Before I could explain the situation, Aran chimed in, "She also wanted that ball gag,"
and pointed to the most terrifying-looking device I'd ever seen in my life.
Ascher smiled and added it to his pile of toys. "I like the way you think."
"I'm going to stab you," I whispered aggressively at Aran as two very tall beta women,
with hair down to the floor, sashayed by.
They had black whips in their hands and an assortment of revealing clothes.
"Why haven't you come up to check out?" Xerxes asked as he walked

over.
He must have found clothes, because he had a sparkly black bag on him
arm.
Xerxes wore a baseball cap and had sprayed some type of enchanted
mist that temporarily masked his cinnamon scent.
"I need to find new clothes. Can you believe this? I shook my head and
showed him the price tags.
His purple eyes crinkled with confusion. "Do you need a different size?"
I can ask.
"Yeah, it's not gonna fit her muscles," Aran said sarcastically.
"Now you're just being mean. See if I stop you from strangling yourself next time.”
Xerxes looked back and forth between us with confusion.

Aran rolled her eyes like she didn't care and chewed at her fingernails.
"No, the price, Xerxes. Can you believe this? It's robbery!" I showed him again.
Xerxes shifted back and forth awkwardly. "I don't get it."
"See, Sadie, you're just being dramatic. Stop being poor," Aran said as she looked
around warily, like she'd just noticed that she was exposed in a public place.
I had a sick realization. "If you ever rule, you're going to be a bloody dictator, aren't
you."
"One could fucking hope." Aran itched at her back and walked away like she was bored
with the conversation.
Xerxes cleared his throat and said softly, "Baby girl, you're not buying this." He took
the hanger out of my hand and gave me an intense expression that made my stomach flip.
"I know. I just need to find a different store.”

He stared at me for a long moment.
Ever since the "heat incident," where I'd accidentally come on his vibrating dick a
dozen times, Xerxes had been looking at me with a dark expression.
I love you hung in the air between us like a tangible weight.

I breathed shakily, unsure how he could make me feel so on edge just by staring at me.
Xerxes turned around, but instead of handing the items back to the lady who worked for
the store—she was modeling one of the outfits that had cutouts around the boobs and lady
bits, which was truly inspirational—he walked to the counter.
"You're back, Sir Xerxes. Did you find everything you wanted today? the beta sales
lady asked sweetly, leaning forward to showcase her exposed boobs.
"No," I said quickly and lunged for the overly expensive nightie in his hand.
Xerxes shoved me aside with one hand and sent me sprawling across the floor.
"What she meant is I'd also like to buy this in the emerald-green color,"
Xerxes said.
Why would he get two of them?
We only had one day to complete the third trial.
"Of course, sir. You have great taste. She giggled, completely ignoring the fact that he'd
just manhandled me. "Do you want to pay again by fingerprint?"
I launched myself at him, but he expected my move and grabbed me by my ponytail.
Xerxes yanked my head back until I yelped.

"Be good, baby girl," he murmured into my ear as he restrained me.
Then he turned back to the worker and nodded casually, like he wasn't
manhandling me, and pressed his hand on the shimmering black stone.
Apparently, the payment system worked throughout all the realms and
was enchanted to connect a person to the amount of credits to their name.
Jax had explained that money in the shifter realm worked in the beast
realm through this credit system.
My mind was still blown.
Seemed suspicious.
"Oh, look, sir, since you've spent seventy thousand credits today, you qualify for a free
toy."
I choked. "Wow, what a bargain."
"I'll take the sex knife." Xerxes smirked and picked up a small, glittering blade that was
encrusted in rhinestones and glowing with a blue
Enchantment.
My mind had stalled at the words sex knife, so I almost didn't process
that the cashier was writing down her address on the receipt.
"I'd love to play with you, sir." She gave him a coy look and walked around the counter.
She swiveled her hips suggestively, showcasing her crotchless panties.

My stomach twisted with an unnamed emotion, and I suddenly had the
urge to shift into a saber-toothed tiger and pop her head like a grape.
Xerxes arched his brow down at me, and I realized I'd been making a low growling
noise.
He didn't stop staring at me as he said, “No, I'm taken. I already have an alpha."
Then he took his bags and dragged me by the ponytail out of the store as I glared back
at the lady and told her with my narrowed eyes that I would destroy her if she ever came
near Xerxes again.
We all piled into the massive glass elevator, and it dropped with a whiz.
Our feet lifted off the floor.
"So, are you going to visit her?" I asked casually, knowing he'd said no,
but still needing to be reassured.
Xerxes, with his hand wrapped around my ponytail, gave it another yank. "Hmm,
maybe."
A growl ripped from my throat. "Do it and it will be the last thing you do."
We came to a stop, everyone's feet slamming back onto the ground, and
Xerxes released my ponytail only to grab my throat in a choke hold.
Cobra chuckled. "Oooh, Kitten pissed off the omega."
Xerxes pushed me forward aggressively, so I had to walk backwards not to fall over.
Shifters walked around us and didn't pay us any attention.

What kind of sick place was this realm, where a woman being yanked around by her
hair didn't even deserve a second glance?
Xerxes walked me backwards until I slammed against a pillar.
"Stop shoving me against things." I kicked at his shins as hard as I could.
"I thought you didn't want to commit to our pack?" Xerxes arched his
eyebrows, purple eyes blazing. "Was I wrong?"
"That's not exactly what happened." I kicked harder, but he didn't release
me. His muscles didn't budge, so I turned to the other men. "You're seriously
going to just stand there as he chokes me in public?"
I made my lower lip tremble and widened my eyes like I was sad.
Cobra sniffed the air and smirked down at me. "I'm tempted to touch your
cunt to see if you're as wet as you smell."
Ugh. I rolled my eyes. "Why are you actually a pervert?"
"Kitten, I'd fuck you right here in front of everyone, and I wouldn't even
blink. I'd take you so hard you screamed my name."
I ignored the way my heart heated at his words.
Cobra was a lost cause, so I turned away from him and focused on him
looking pitifully at Ascher and Jax.
Xerxes's fingers tightened like he couldn't help himself.
Ascher ran his tattooed fingers across his horns and sighed. "I'm sorry, Princess, but I
have to agree with him. You were the one who said you wouldn't join the pack. What's your
answer? Either you want us or you don't."
Of all the times for the men to decide for us to have this conversation.
Cobra inched closer and flicked his finger over my nipple, and I
I jackknifed my foot into his balls as hard as I could.
He smiled like I'd kissed him.
My breath caught as worry flashed through me when he leaned into me
personal space. Was he really going to touch me in a public place?
Hundreds of shifters milled around us.
Jax pulled Cobra back and put him in a headlock. "Not in public." He
growled at him.
"Why not?" Cobra stared at me and licked his lips.
Xerxes's fingers tightened until I could barely breathe. Was he trying to kill me or turn
me on?
I couldn't tell. And weirdly, I didn't want to know.
"Jax, save me," I said desperately as I clawed at Xerxes's hand.
"Xerxes, let her go." Jax reached forward and used his massive size to
constrain both Ascher and Xerxes.
I sighed with relief as oxygen flooded back into my brain.
Ascher wrapped his arm around me in support, and I slapped him away.
He was still a traitor.
"Well, that was exhilarating." Aran stood to the side, hunched over as
she itched aggressively at her back.
"You didn't do anything to help me!" I said.
"First, you act all embarrassing and poor, and now this. Don't be a drama
queen," she mumbled but didn't look at me. She was too busy itching at her
back.
Her obvious distress freaked me out.
"We're not leaving until we find some type of healing ointment for..." I
trailed off because Aran was miming stabbing me in my peripheral vision.
"For me. Sometimes my bruises itch.
"Kitten is hurt." Cobra's eyes blazed.
"Baby girl, why didn't you say something?" Xerxes growled.
Thus began a small excursion, where the men panicked that I was
falling apart and they hadn't noticed.
Which was highly ironic because they'd just been publicly choking me.
Their irrational concern over my well-being had its benefits.
Case in point, we finally left the mall with five different creams for itching.
One of which was labeled a miracle cure, with a price tag that I was pretty
sure was over one hundred thousand credits, but Xerxes had taken it out of
my hand and bought it before I could say anything.
Ascher was the only one who wasn't completely brain-dead.
He kept looking between Aran and me like he knew exactly what we were
doing.
At one point, he pulled Aran aside and asked if she was okay, his
handsome face twisted with guilt and concern.
Since Aran had responded by hunching lower and biting her nails more
aggressively, the worry hadn't left his face.
It made me feel better to know I wasn't the only one concerned about her.
When we finally returned to the mansion, we still had a few hours until
nightfall.
I followed Aran up the stairs, looking forward to a long nap.
But stopped with surprise.
The girls had made a makeshift track out of toilet paper down the length
of the hall and were screaming as Noodle raced against a hamster.
I decided it was not my business where the hamster had come from.
When Lucinda yelled something about Jinx owing her ten credits
Because Noodle ran off the course and the hamster won, I ignored it.
Frankly, the girls developing a gambling problem was the least of mine
concerns.
However, my nap plans were interrupted by the scent of warm chestnuts, and a sheepish-
looking Jax tapping me on my shoulder. "We need to come up with a plan."
Aran took her ridiculously expensive creams out of my hand and closed the door.
I opened the door and pulled her back out. "This is a battle, and we only have one day
to get it right. You're a battle strategizer. You're coming with me."
Aran bit harder at her nails but allowed me to pull her along as she said, "If you're too
scared to face the men alone, just say that."
"Really?" I said with conviction, "I thought you knew me better than that."
that. I'm not a coward.
She rolled her eyes but didn't comment. She didn't need to.
We both knew I was full of shit.
PUPPETS ON A STRING
W around the roaring fireplace in the great room.

Well, everyone faced the fire except for Aran, who sat with her back to the fire and a
hoodie pulled over her head.
I'd asked Walter to turn it off, but Aran had snapped at me that she
didn't need to be babyed and was fine.
Her face was pale, and her blue curls stuck out of her hood in every direction.
She wasn't fine.

None of us were.
The fact that we had only tonight to capture the Ortega brothers and
eliminate the Black Wolves was a tangible noose above our necks.
Now, after an hour of fruitless brainstorming—while the girls screamed upstairs like
they were participating in their own fight club—we were no closer to a plan that sounded
effective and feasible.
The whole not being able to shift in this realm, not having weapons, and having to get
the attention of what sounded like masochist BDSM-prone alphas with a sex problem
seemed impossible.
Cobra said for the millionth time, "I don't understand why I can't just use my snake
venom to take them out."
Jax snapped, “We've been over this. We're not risking you getting killed because you
shifted in front of people."
"Technically, it's not shifting," Cobra argued back.
"Stop with the semantics." Jax's chest rattled with a roar. "No one's going to care
about the technicalities when there's an enchanted bullet in your brain."
"Jax's right," I said as Xerxes and Ascher nodded in agreement.

I sipped the hot coffee from my cup, which glowed blue with an enchantment that kept
the liquid warm.
A sudden thought struck me. "Wait, how is everything in this realm enchanted? I
thought it was a fae thing.
Aran waved her hands dismissively. "Common misconception. A person 'pure of soul'
who is particularly powerful burns a part of their flesh as a sacrifice to the sun god or moon
goddess, and then the gods allow them to channel their will into an object. So any species
can create an enchantment.
I had the sudden urge to throw my coffee cup out of my hand. "That's fucked up."
Xerxes shrugged. "In this realm, the entire industry is run by one reclusive family. No
one knows how they keep themselves pure, but it's an extremely difficult endeavor."
"Yeah, Mother had a man trapped in a palace room. He gave the flesh sacrifice. There
was a separate palace department that came up with the uses." Aran shuddered like she'd
been overcome by a phantom chill.
I opened my mouth to ask a million more questions, but I remembered Aran saying
she'd helped create enchantments.
From the sadness in her eyes, it hadn't just been for fun.
"Back to the problem at hand," Ascher said. "How the fuck are we supposed to catch
the attention of the Ortega brothers, somehow get information on the Black Wolves,
destroy the latter, and capture the former?"
All tonight at a BDSM club?”
He raked his hands through his horns and slumped back in his chair.
We were doomed.
Jax dragged his hands over his face tiredly.
"Kill him!" Jinx screamed from the floor above, and then there was a
loud crashing noise that sounded like a chandelier had shattered.
Walter was a blur of gray as he sprinted past the room.
None of us moved, but the anxiety in the room increased in intensity at the reminder
that it wasn't just our lives at risk if we failed at the third initiation task.
The girls would be alone in an unfamiliar world.

I dug my palms into my eyes. "Well, there is only one option for the first part of the
plan. We get the Ortega brothers' attention by standing out in the
club.”
Everyone stared at me.
"Sexually." I grimaced.
Jax asked tiredly, "Sadie, how are we supposed to stand out in a club
Full of experienced BDSM players?
"We could figure it out," Xerxes said slowly as he thought about it. “It
really is our only option.”
Cobra smirked, "I'm down."
Ascher ran his hands roughly over his horns. "So you're all fine with wax play?
Whips? Floggings? Knife play? While a room full of strangers watches us? It's fucking
not that simple."
I glanced over at Xerxes, who had a smile on his lips. "I may have some experience
with knife play."
The men turned to him in shock.
Memories of his savagery in the bedroom made me shiver. I was not surprised.
Xerxes said with conviction, "It's the only thing that makes sense. We
have one night to pull this off. We don't really have any other choice."
"He's right. We can do this," I agreed.
Jax arched his brow like he didn't believe me, but no one refuted the plan.
No one had a better idea.

"Say we catch the Ortega brothers' attention," Jax replied. "Then what are we
supposed to do? They'll have weapons and aren't just going to give up the Black
Wolves."
Aran sat up straighter and waved her hand. "Oh, that part is easy. It's
pretty obvious what you need to do.”
Everyone stared at her.
She narrowed her eyes when she realized it wasn't obvious to everyone
else, then he sighed heavily.
"You'll have to pretend to be disappointed with Xerxes. And tell the Ortega brothers
you want to give him back to the Black Wolves. Then once they lead you to them,
Sadie infects the brothers with her blood and holds them hostage. To take out the
wolves, Xerxes will have the element of surprise and he has the best chance of slitting
their throats with the sex knife before they realize it's a trap."
There was a long pause as her plan sank in.

"Fuck, that might work." Ascher smiled down at Aran, who avoided his eyes
contact and bit harder on her nails.
"I like it." Cobra's jewels flashed to snakes like he was imagining the carnage.
Jax shrugged. "I don't have a better idea. I say we go for it.
The three alphas nodded, clearly relieved that we had some type of game plan and
there was some hope that we would survive this.
"We can't," I said as my stomach hurt thinking about it. "We can't do that to Xerxes."
Xerxes had been sitting as still as a statue the entire time.

But I knew him enough to notice that his fingers gripped the hilts of his knives too
tightly.
I remembered the horror on his face when he was worried he'd been bitten
me too hard
How he'd trembled to hold himself back, terrified of driving me away with his intensity.
The shame etched onto his face.

Rage bubbled in my throat.
The fucking Black Wolves didn't just hurt him physically. Emotional scars went deep.
With flames casting shadows across his almost too-pretty features, long blond hair
flowing around his waist, Xerxes's purple eyes hardened into chips of amethyst. "I can do
it."
I said quietly, "You shouldn't have to." It's not fair to you."
He clenched his jaw. "Life isn't fair."
Cobra hissed, “We will do thissss to destroy the cowardssss that hurt him. We will tear
them limb from limb and show them what happens when you hurt our pack."
Xerxes looked over at Cobra, his lips parting slightly, like he hadn't expected him to
care so much about his well-being.
Xerxes looked away. "You don't need to do this for my sake. We can just take out the
Ortega brothers and ignore the wolves. I don't expect everyone to put themselves in danger
for me. I know the circumstances of our pack were forced."
Cobra hissed, and Ascher's horns expanded.

It was Jax who laid a hand on Xerxes's shoulder. "It doesn't matter how it came to be.
We are a pack, and you are one of us now. We look out for
each other.”
Ascher shifted uncomfortably. "Besides my idiocy in the past, what Jax says is true.
We're a pack, and you're our omega. I wouldn't want to stand beside anyone else."
Cobra nodded. "From what we've learned, omegas are usually weak, simpering fools
who can't defend themselves from harm." He shivered, like the thought disgusted him.
"You're the only omega I'd want in our pack."
Panic bubbled in my throat at the reminder that the don still expected them to find a
female omega.
Xerxes stared at the alphas, a sheen across his eyes, and when he spoke, his smooth
voice was uncharacteristically rough. "I wouldn't want any other alphas." He paused. "Besides
Sadie, of course."
I waved my hand dismissively. "Don't let me ruin the moment. And
seriously, Xerxes, you belong with us—them, I mean. Anyone can see it.”
"Kitten's right," Cobra confirmed as he leaned over and slammed his fist into Xerxes's
arm.
From anyone else, it would have looked like Cobra was attacking Xerxes.
At the contact, a massive grin split Xerxes's face, and he slammed him
fist back into Cobra's bicep. "You're not so bad, for an alpha."
Ascher chuckled. "Just give it a year. You'll want to kill him."
Jax wrapped his arm around Cobra's neck and ruffled his dark hair.
"He's an acquired taste. Like whiskey.
Cobra's canines lengthened, and he bit down on Jax's forearm.
Jax didn't flinch.
"He's definitely vodka," I said, thinking about how Cobra's alpha scent resembled
frostbite.
"How very touching," Aran said dryly as she chewed her nails. "The only problem with
the plan is the Black Wolves themselves. We don't know what they know, and they could
have a contingency plan, or be expecting us."
I looked at her in confusion. "How would they have a plan when we just decided to try
to get to them? We weren't even going to go after them until the don gave us a hint."
Ascher shook his head. "I think your plan is sound, Aran. You don't need to worry."
Jax and Cobra nodded in agreement.

Xerxes stayed silent. He seemed to be reeling from the alphas'

admission that they viewed him as their omega.
Aran stood and said she was going to bed.
As she walked by, she muttered something under her breath about
attending our funerals.
In her absence, the flames in the fireplace cracked and popped louder,
reaching new heights.
Like her presence had been stifling them.
My gut twisted as, once again, a sense of déjà vu washed over me.
Like something was so obvious, but it was just outside my fingertips.
The men formulated the specifics of the plan, how we would treat
Xerxes, and what toys we should use.
How we should interact with the people in the club to convince them we
belonged there.
Xerxes warned about how dark the beast realm could be and how
people expected violence.
Ascher gave tips. Apparently, he had his own experience with BDSM.
Cobra and Jax strategized the fastest way to kill the wolves.
The room spun around me.
"I'm scared," I blurted out before I could stop myself.
My face burned with embarrassment as I picked at the threads of the
blanket draped across my lap.
No one laughed.
Callused, tattooed fingers twined around mine.
Ascher leaned over the edge of the couch and held my hand, his amber
eyes burning with sincerity. "Me too, Princess."
His openness made me want to be honest.
My voice cracked. "It still scares me, but I wish I would have been allowed
to form a pack with you guys."
The only sound was the cracking of logs in the fire.
The silence was heavy.
Ascher's hand tightened around mine. "Every day, I feel like shit for turning
everyone over to the fae queen. Everything is my fault. Now Aran's falling
apart, and we can't be with you without risking your life. I ruin everything.
I squeezed his hand back as I struggled to find the appropriate words.

"But then I wouldn't be your omega," Xerxes said quietly from across the room, "and
I'd still be hiding from myself and following the orders of a madwoman."
Ascher stared across the room at Xerxes, like he'd just taken a weight off his shoulders.
Intensity swirled among us.

Secrets begetting more secrets, as if they longed for company.
Jax spoke quietly, "I'm scared every day that I'm going to fail my sisters
and all of you. I've been alone for so many years, and now I have so much to
lose. It feels like I'm just waiting for everything to be taken from me. Now that
there're so many reasons to fight, I don't think I'm as strong as I thought I was."
A log popped in the fire.

The crystal chandelier above our head tinkled as the girls sprinted down
the hall. It swayed back and forth.
Their laughter was far away.
"I know I can be an unhinged bastard most of the time, and I don't
handle things well," Cobra said softly as he looked over at me.
Memories of him being so sweet sometimes and so cruel other times
drifted between us like a live wire.
I gave him a sad smile and a small shrug.
With my eyes, I told him—I understand you don't shift into a beast
form, that you're always a beast.
I got it.
His behavior wasn't always appropriate, but who was I to judge anyone,
when half the time I was a hot mess?
Did I wish Cobra was an easy, nice man like the ones in the romance
books I'd grown up reading? Yes.
Did I understand Cobra would never be like everyone else and would
probably drive me up a wall with his mood swings for the rest of his life?
Also, yes.
Emerald eyes darkened as he understood what I was saying.
There was a long pause as Cobra breathed shakily, like my silence
acceptance had given him courage.
"I wasn't always covered in jewels," he said quietly. "I don't remember
anything before the fae queen took me, but as a child, I always had a black
snake around my neck. Like how the don wears his.
The chandelier rocked faster, crystals clacking.

Cobra gripped the arm of the couch. "The fae queen never hid that I'd
been kidnapped. She told me that her informants had taken me because they
had it on good authority that I would be an alpha shifter, and since the half
warriors were such a hit, she wanted to try a beast gladiator." He breathed
deeply.
"She thought my snake was a pet, so she would set it on fire, cut it, and
hurt it to get me to obey her. Not knowing she was really just torturing me.”
Coffee burned my tongue.
"She wouldn't stop hurting it, and I was so young and scared. One day,
she wanted me to stab another child during training, but I refused because at
the time, I hated violence. I'd lost control of my snake a few times, and it was
awful. I was terrified of hurting others.
He shuddered.
"She cut the tail off the end of my snake to make me obey." Cobra's voice
changed, like he'd lost himself in the past. "I was only eight, and I thought I
was going to die. It hurts so bad.
Logs cracked.
"Barely conscious, I stabbed the other child through the heart. They died
as I vomited and lay limp on the ground, feeling my snake bleed out as my life
slowly drained from my body."
My fingers shook, and liquid scalded my hand.
"The queen left. She'd gotten what she wanted and didn't care about my fate. But a
soldier picked me up and carried me into an empty room. He laid the bloody snake on my
chest and tipped a glowing liquid down my throat, and he told me this was the only thing he
could think of that would protect me from harm."
He shivered.
"I begged him to take me away from the queen, but he said that I had to."
Stay in this realm and learn to survive. Those bigger things were at stake.”
I bit down on my tongue until I tasted blood.
"When I woke up, jewels covered my body, and when I thought about my
snake, the jewels changed into shadows. Melded into my flesh, where no one
could touch them. The queen was ecstatic when she saw me, convinced that
the jewels were a rare beast trait and that she'd killed my snake." Cobra's
voice deepened.
"She had me fight other children, then adults for sport, all with the end
goal being the gladiator games. But they don't have a sacred lake in the fae
realm, and when I never shifted forms, she assumed I was a beta and only
good for small fighting rings, and...other things."
My stomach dropped.
"When I was in my twenties, the fae male I fought offered to pay for my
services after the match. The queen saw my potential, and I slowly
transitioned from full-time fighter and part-time prostitute to vice versa.”
Cobra shrugged casually. "So that's why I have these." He held up his
arms, and the jewels twinkled in the light. "A fucking curse."
Suddenly, he sat up straight and turned to Jax. "My snake never became
tangible, no matter how hard I tried, until that day in the shifter realm.
That's why it was so hard to transition it back to jewels. I was so scared I'd
never see it again."
Cobra turned to me, a sheepish look on his face. "Also, I never severed
the connection to your snake, just made it feel like it was dying, because I
wanted to hurt you back."
His pale cheeks became tinged pink as he mumbled, "I'd never actually
leave you."
My heart pounded harder in my chest as I thought about how much
comfort the shadow snake had still given me.
Even when Cobra had been furious.
"I think a part of me knew you didn't. It was always way too happy around
you."
I smiled at him and shook my head, the shadow snake twining around
my fingers, offering images of support.
Cobra smiled back, and the expression made his gorgeous features
unimaginably perfect.
I forgot how to breathe.
Jax wrapped his arm around Cobra and pulled him close, and Xerxes
was staring at the man in awe.
"Fucking hell, that was bleak. How did you escape? Ascher asked.
Cobra shrugged. "The soldier returned one day and told me to tell the
queen I didn't have a shifted form, but I always had control over my snakes.
That I should threaten to tell the whole realm unless she releases me. I thought he was
crazy, but strangely it worked. She must have known it would get back to the don and was
scared."
Cobra rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Now that I think about it, it's weird that the soldier
escorted me to the shifter realm and not the beast realm. He had me immediately tested at
the sacred lake.
My vision blurred.
I tipped forward out of my chair.
The coffee mug slammed into the hardwood floor and shattered into a million pieces.
Voices shouted from far away.

"What the fuck, Sadie?" Ascher slapped my face lightly as Cobra shook
my shoulders, and Jax and Xerxes crowded beside them.
All four men stared down at me in concern.
Aran had escaped the fae realm with the help of a strange man.
A similar man had randomly shown up and brought me to get tested at the sacred
lake.
My voice cracked as I asked, "Did the soldier have bright-blue eyes and
wear a long black cloak?”
Cobra took a step back. "Yes."
"Fuck us." I groaned.
The truth crashed over me, and my limbs went weak.
At that moment, the massive clock on the wall chimed, signaling midnight.
We had one night to pass this test—one night to survive.

Time kept mercilessly moving forward, and we were running out of it.
I didn't have the luxury of swallowing.
Everything was a blur as Ascher pushed me forward up the stairs, and Jax reminded
me to get dressed for the club.
They said we'd talk about it later, and I nodded like everything wasn't crumbling
around me.
My mind was elsewhere.
In the room, I told Aran what Cobra had said.
The truth. That the same cloaked man had forced all of us to get tested.
Positioned all of us so we would meet in the training compound in the shifter realm.
I watched Aran pale and hunch lower, as if she made herself small
enough, the truth couldn't hurt her.
I barely remembered walking down the stairs, the men complimenting me on my outfit.
Barely noticed the rain soaking me on the way to the car.

Was barely cognizant of the neon skyscrapers and the way Cobra
clenched my hand in the back seat.
How Jax looked at me with worry. Ascher smoothing his hands across my
head. Xerxes giving me a soft kiss on the cheek.
The world was nebulous and indistinct.
In the future, I'd come to think of this day as the dividing line in my life.
The distinction between the before and the after.

The after characterized by a singular realization that changed the
fundamental nature of existence.
It had been everywhere, in small signs we'd all become experts at avoiding.
Averting our eyes when it was right before our faces.

But there was no more running from the truth.
We were pawns.
And always had been.
THE BLACK RIBBON CLUB
N into the night as misty rain spattered around

us.
Unlike what we'd seen after the first trial, this part of the city wasn't dead at
night.
It was alive.
Shifters crowded the sidewalks in small glittering clothes that revealed more
skin than they covered.
Club signs flashed, and high-heel-clad legs waited in long lines.
The car stopped, and Xerxes pushed us through the crowds, leading us
around the side of a purple skyscraper.
As we walked further down the narrow, dark alley, open faces were
replaced with dark masks, boisterous laughter turning into whispers.
Cigarette smoke was a hazy cloud.
The glittering fabrics on the main streets, as people jostled to get into the
ritzy clubs, were so very different from the heavy eye makeup and leather-clad
bodies that slithered through the alley.
I looked out of place in my sheer nightie, with white feathers and crystals
glowing against my golden skin.
The men, however, fit in.
They wore matching black leather pants, and their torsos were bare
except for black leather straps that crisscrossed over their biceps and pecs.
Black kohl was smudged around their eyes.
Jax's nipple piercings and golden chains glinted against his glistening dark
skin. Ascher's colorful flame-and-rose tattoos glowed underneath the
neon lights. Cobra's jewels refracted specks of light across the dingy alley walls.
I shivered as Ascher pressed his hand against my lower back and led me forward.
His warm skin burned through the sheer material.

Xerxes glanced down at me, purple eyes flickering with heat. "Are you okay, baby girl?"
I nodded.
Xerxes hardened his jaw and looked away, like he could see the lie on
my face and it physically pained him.
He'd purposefully left himself unconcealed, spicy cinnamon wafting off him. His long
hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, highlighting the spiked leather collar wrapped
around his neck.
Cobra held the silver chain attached to it, wrapped tightly around his hand, a scowl
darkening his handsome face as he roughly yanked Xerxes forward.
A reminder of what we were here to do.

Muscles rippling, faces tight with tension, the men looked like demons of lore, and
people stared as they stumbled out of the way.
Violence clung to them.
I breathed in the dirty rain and exhaled calmly.
I pushed all the messed-up things back into the deep recess of my brain.
Where they couldn't touch me.
Rain drizzled harder, and black kohl streaked down their faces like war paint.
Through the rainy haze, a symbol on a neon sign flickered—it was a black ribbon.
A long line wrapped against the wall, but unlike those in the static lines on the main
street, bodies pressed against one another.
Hips gyrated in sync.
The line thrashed with pleasure.
Xerxes shook his head and pointed us forward. Then Cobra tugged him along, like he
was in the lead.
Under the flickering sign, a seven-foot-tall bouncer with thick leathery
skin blocked the door. The alpha scent of wet grass wafted off him.
His nostrils flared as he leaned closer to Xerxes, and he said, "No weapons allowed."
The bouncer patted us down and narrowed his eyes at the metal in
Xerxes's pocket.
"Sex knife." Xerxes shrugged.
The bouncer leaned closer to him, and recognition sparked in his eyes.
He hurried to unhook the velvet rope and let us through.
Cobra led, roughly yanking Xerxes forward as the rest of us followed.
The bouncer's eyes trailed across my naked body partially exposed in the
sheer fabric, and bile burned the back of my throat.
I pushed my shoulders back and forced my face to harden.
Ascher's fingers, still pressed against my lower back, curled and dug into
my skin.
Pine spiked muskier. His gait faltered slightly, like he was fighting a
reaction, but he quickly masked it.
It took every ounce of my willpower not to gape as we entered.
High ceilings towered above the massive open space.
Metal stairs with chain railings climbed stories into the sky and filled the middle of the
room in a massive maze.
Colored lights flashed.
Darkness, then neon red; darkness, then neon orange.
Bodies filled the stairs, wrapped around one another, pumping into one
another in endless positions.
Concealed in shadows, then exposed by flashing colors.
Bodies dangled off the railings from leather straps, hundreds of feet in the
air, as people on other levels pushed into them, licked their bare skin, pushed
into holes, and pulled at cocks.
Cigarette smoke wafted.
Lights flashed.
Techno music pumped.
Moans echoed.
Leather masks with holes over the mouths concealed faces, whips cracked
against flesh, leashes tugged collars, knives dragged across skin, lighters
were held over flesh, burning cigarettes pressed against partners, handcuffs
constrained, and ropes tied.
Cum dripped off leather.
The burning scent of betas was overpowering, but rich alpha scents and
a few hints of omega sweetness joined the crescendo of sensory overload.
In the very middle of the maze of stairs, floating by enchantment, was a round
velvet platform.
White lights flickered above it, the centerpiece of the room. Everyone's eyes
were on them.
Five women fucked one man.
He was blindfolded, on his hands and knees, as strap-ons slammed into
his ass and mouth and he pumped into the woman lying beneath him.
Two stood above in full leather outfits and slammed long whips across his flesh.
There were thousands of people in this club, and we needed to catch them
Ortega brothers' attention and get access to their backroom club.
The instructions had said it was invite only.
Xerxes pointed at the platform, and I nodded in agreement.
Jax's and Ascher's faces tightened with worry, and the fingers resting on my
lower back curled until nails dug into my skin. Cobra arched his eyebrows at
Xerxes and me.
"For the girls!" I yelled at Jax and Ascher.
Faces scowled.
No one said anything.
Cobra yanked Xerxes's chain and led us forward through the writhing
masses.
Climbing up the network of stairs, I bit down on the side of my mouth to distract
myself from the sheer depravity.
Cocks pumped into holes.
Women and men were tied to the railings so they were completely exposed.
Women with strap-ons, men with dicks, people with wild-looking toys casually
walked up to the constrained bodies and entered their orifices.
Touched them like they knew them.
As we walked up the maze of narrow paths, hands roamed.
Grabbing at us, like they had the right to touch.
Jax's hand joined Ascher's on my lower back as they led me forward.
Cobra and Xerxes walked in front of me, never more than a few inches away.
The four men surrounded me in a blockade.

A beta man grabbed Ascher's horn. Tattooed fingers moved impossibly fast,
and Ascher turned the man's wrist until it snapped.
We walked forward.
A beta woman tugged on Jax's gold-twined braids. He whipped his head

around and roared at her. She stumbled back in fear.
Noses lifted, lips were licked, and mouths dropped as Xerxes walked past.
Men and women trailed after him, running their fingers across his olive
skin, then bringing their fingers to their mouths.
I growled.
Xerxes kept his head down and did nothing as his leash tugged him forward.
"Mine," Cobra sneered at the people touching Xerxes.

He stopped to grab the omega's face and dragged his tongue slowly across
his cheeks, like he'd done to me in the mansion.
Staking his ownership.
Xerxes arched his eyebrow at Cobra and smirked, but quickly schooled his
expression.
We plowed forward.
Two men wearing nothing but leather thongs stood in the middle of the
stairway and blocked our path.
Ascher and Jax pressed against me tighter, and Xerxes and Cobra bent
their knees as they prepared to fight.
"Sadie, is that you?" the one man yelled with a big smile, and I recognized
the green scales across his face.
It was the alpha from the ring that had introduced himself. Beside him stood
the blond man who had talked to me after our fight.
We needed any advantage we could take.
I shook my head slightly and shoved past Cobra and Xerxes, ignoring
the hiss behind me as I walked towards the two men.
The white feathers and diamonds of my sheer dress glowed underneath
the flashing lights, contrasting wildly with the leather all around.
People stared at me.
“Dean and Logan, isn't it? What are you guys doing here? I asked casually and forced
my arms to my side like I was comfortable standing half-naked in front of random men.
Their eyes slowly traced my body.

I stayed relaxed.
"We got an invite from our packmate. Said things would be going down
here tonight, and looks like he was right." Dean grinned, showcasing his
dimples.
I leaned forward into their personal space, angling my head up so they could hear me.
Dean closed his eyes as he breathed deeply. Logan reached forward and trailed his
hands down my long white hair.
They were both handsome and fit, but they seemed boyish and young compared to
the men standing behind me. Too eager.
Their alpha scents were slightly sweet.
I preferred when they burned.
"I heard there was a secret club here," I said coyly and licked my lips
I stood on tiptoe to yell. "Have you heard anything about that?"
Dean tipped his head back and laughed, green scales flashing in the
shadows. "Aren't you a wild one."
Logan shook his head. "Everyone knows you have to be pretty depraved to get an
invite. At the very least, you have to put on a show.” He gestured to the floating platform a
few stories above us.
"Hm, interesting," I said coyly and smiled up at them. Our instincts had been right.
They moved closer, licking their lips, clearly expecting a reward for the information.
I shied away from their roaming hands but leaned higher on my tiptoes
and puckered my lips, aiming for Logan's cheek.
A hand grabbed my hair and pulled me back before I could make contact. Cobra
slammed his mouth into mine with such ferocity, my knees gave out.
I would have fallen if not for his other hand curling around to grab me
ass.
Frost burned my lips.
Finally, he released me with a hiss and pushed me into Jax's arm.
The big man held me still against him while Ascher trailed kisses down my jaw, his
hands pushing underneath the gossamer fabric to trail across my naked body.
"Oops, sorry about that," Cobra snarled at the two men, who were scowling at Jax and
Ascher touching me. "Sometimes Kitten forgets herself."
Snake eyes glowed in the dark.

I shivered.
Jax leaned forward to claim my mouth as Ascher slowly licked across

my neck. Xerxes stared at the three of us, purple eyes on fire.
Cobra yanked Xerxes's chain and dragged him past Logan and Dean.
who were still standing in the middle of the stairs.
Jax released my mouth, but his calloused hand tightened across my ass as he pushed
me forward.
Ascher kept sucking on my neck.
"Sorry about that," I mumbled to Logan as we pressed past them and followed Cobra.
Jax's gold chains tickled my skin as he leaned forward and growled into my ear. "Oh,
you're going to be sorry."
I rolled my eyes but couldn't mask my tremble as Ascher's teeth nipped my neck.
"It's all about the plan," I said through gritted teeth.

Jax tweaked my nipple through the sheer fabric, his gray eyes hard as slate as I licked
warm chestnuts off my lips. "You're playing with fire, little alpha."
Ascher bit my neck harder. Jax's other hand cupped both my ass cheeks as he pushed
me forward through the crowd.
There was a line of bodies waiting beside the small staircase that led
to the floating platform.
Cobra pushed past them all.
People growled and yelled but stopped speaking when Cobra turned and hissed at
them, eyes glowing and shadow snakes churning across his pale skin.
"Give it up for these ladies," a man in a suit spoke into a golden microphone as he
gestured to the five women holding up the limp, naked men in their arms.
Strobe lights stopped flashing, and bright light shone on them.

Music pulsed.
They bowed, and two of them cracked their whips in the air.
There was a roar as the crowd went wild.
The announcer turned to the entrance. "Who's the next group going to perform for all of
us tonight?"
Cobra punched the men who were walking forward and shoved them aside.
Cobra walked out onto the platform under the spotlight. He dragged
Xerxes behind him, who tilted his head down and made a show of stumbling.
We followed behind.
Cobra spoke into the announcer's ear, and the man's face split into a grin.
"It's the Black Ribbon's lucky night. We have three alpha males, one alpha
female, and an omega ready to put on a show."
The platform rattled from the wave of cheers.
"And they're all new to the city, so this will be particularly exciting."
The announcer paused for dramatic effect. "Except for the omega."
The crowd hushed, and the music bounced. "Does anyone remember
Cinnamon?” He paused. "Xerxes is back in Serpentine City!"
Cheers erupted, and the platform rocked from the force.
"The floor is yours." The announcer winked and left the platform.
The white lights shut off, and everything was pitch black.
The music switched, and the beat picked up and was faster, more frenzied.
Red strobe lights pulsed overhead.

Four men turned to me, eyes glowing in the dark.
Cobra wore a cruel smile. "You think you can kiss other men, Kitten?"
His eyes flashed to snake eyes.
Xerxes' demure expression disappeared. He stared at me, his face
hardening with anger.
"I warned you, little love," Jax whispered in my ear.
"It's just us, Princess. Ignore everyone else. They don't matter," Ascher
whispered in my other ear.
Apparently, he was the only one concerned about my mental state.
"I was just doing it to play the part. We need all the help we can get
tonight!” I said with annoyance.
This was not the time or place for one of their possessive alpha bullshit meltdowns.
Ascher dragged his teeth down my neck, tattoos jumping as his hands
gripped my waist.
He bit down. Hard. "You will never touch another man, ever again."
Ascher's amber eyes glowed as he glared up at me.
"Don't tell me what to do," I snapped.
Cobra took another menacing step closer. "Kitten, this is not a negotiation."
I was surrounded.
Cobra licked his lips. Xerxes flicked open his sex knife. Jax growled.
Ascher glared.
I tried to take a step back, but Jax boxed me in.
I'd made a serious miscalculation.
SHADES OF BLOOD RED
lights flickered faster and highlighted the harsh planes of T three angry
alphas and one collared omega.
I swallowed thickly.
Saying I would do whatever needed to be done felt vastly different from
actually doing it.
Also, I didn't factor in the men being mad at me.
The platform beneath our feet spun in a slow circle, and it reminded me
of a screaming coliseum and fighting against bloodthirsty gladiators.
The music pounded.
It was a different battle, but a war all the same.
I didn't like the malicious sneer on Cobra's face, or the way his lips
curled up at the corners. Strobe lights and shadows danced across his face.
The shadow snake on my skin gave a zip and sent me images of happiness
and love.
Damned bastard thought he was smooth.
I sent back images of me strangling him while he begged for mercy.
He tipped his gorgeous head back and laughed, shaking his shoulders
snake sent more zips across my flesh.
Abruptly, the laughter left his face, and the darkest scowl I'd ever seen
contorted his expression.
The shadow snake sent me another zip of warmth and support, and I
realized what he was doing. He was preparing me, reminding me that this
was acting.
It wasn't real.
Cobra grabbed Xerxes' ponytail and shoved him to the floor. Playing along, he
sprawled across it like he was scared.
Cobra's cheekbones could cut glass as red shadows painted his
glittering jewels and the wicked V that framed his abdominals.
An otherworldly god.
He dug his fingers into his belt buckle and pulled out a whip that I hadn't noticed
coiled against his thigh.
With a dramatic movement, he snapped his wrist, and the long tail cracked
through the air. His arm swung forward, and it slashed across Xerxes's chest, leaving
a long trail of red.
Xerxes moaned with pleasure but quickly concealed his expression with a wince.
Cobra cracked it again.

The crowd roared with excitement, loving the violence.
For a second, it was a belt that cracked through the air; my flesh that was split in
two; my blood that ran down my chest after a merciless beating.
I gasped shallowly.
There was not enough oxygen in the room.
Jax's warm hands grabbed my throat and tipped my head back.
He kissed me roughly but pulled back to whisper in my ear, "You're
okay We got you. No one is going to hurt you. It's all a show.
I kissed him back, gasping, "Please don't let him whip me."
A roar rumbled through his chest as his hands cradled me softly while his mouth
pillaged aggressively. When he pulled back for air, he whispered, "Never. We planned
to do this to Xerxes, remember?”
I nodded, but it was a lie.
I'd been so worried about Aran that I'd made a serious mistake by not paying
attention to what the men had planned.
Fuck me and my horrible attention span.
Breathing deeply, I reminded myself that they would never hurt me.
Even while Cobra sneered, cracking the whip across Xerxes's flesh, the shadow
snake sent me images of cuddling and warmth.
This was Cobra, Jax, Ascher, and Xerxes. I trusted them, and our lives were at
stake.
"I can do this," I whispered back to Jax.
He kissed me once more, then nodded at the other men.
Cobra threw his hands in the air and bellowed to the crowd, "Who wants
to see an omega fuck an alpha?”
Screams sounded, and the platform shook from the roar of response.
Cobra cracked the whip loudly.
Cobra was a show master in his element.
Shifters screamed as his gorgeous face sneered; he oozed sex, depravity, and violence.
Jewels shimmering under the lights. He was demonic.

He slammed the whip across the omega's chest, red welts blossoming, blood spraying.
Xerxes flinched dramatically, like it hurt, but his eyes smoldered.

The violence turned him on.
Cobra stalked towards him, then leaned down and slammed his palm across his face.
The roar of the crowd covered Xerxes's moan of pleasure.

Cobra sent me more images of love through the shadow snake on his
skin as he leaned down and pulled out Xerxes' massive cock.
His knot was vibrating.
Need gushed between my legs as I remembered just how Xerxes had taken me. What
that knot had done to me.
The omega tilted his head down and curled his shoulders like he was
ashamed, but he looked at me with his purple eyes, and he licked his lips.
Faster than my eyes could track, his eyebrow arched mockingly at me.
He quickly masked his expression.
Fuck.
I clenched my thighs together.
Sprawling across the platform, olive skin stretched over endless muscles glistening
with sweat, blood dripping across his chest, hard cock standing stark across his leather
pants, black kohl smeared down his face, collar around his neck.
Xerxes had never looked so tempting.

It was wrong.
But I was painfully turned on.
The roar of the crowd was far away. The moving platform, strobe lights,
and cigarette smoke cast a dreamlike quality around the moment.
"Bad omegas get fucked by alphas!" Cobra bellowed for show as he
cracked his whip in the air, face contorted in rage.
From the hard bulge in his leather, he was enjoying the role-play. Of course
he would thrive as a psychotic BDSM master.
I was so busy watching what was happening between Xerxes and Cobra,
that I was taken by surprise when Jax and Ascher grabbed my arms and
dragged me forward.
They brought me to Cobra like I was some virgin sacrifice for the taking.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the dramatics and instead tried to look
meek and scared, which was excessively difficult.
An inappropriate giggle bubbled in my throat.
Cobra leaned forward and whispered just for me, "You've been a bad girl.
And bad girls get punished. His tongue flicked out and snaked down the side
of my face.
I swallowed another chuckle.
Cobra sounded ridiculous.
He moved impossibly quick and latched his mouth around my breast, teeth
and tongue scraping through the sheer material that barely covered
me
The giggle died in my throat as a burning fire replaced my mirth.
I drowned in frost.
Cobra sucked each of my nipples, then pushed two fingers roughly
inside me
We both knew he could feel how wet I was as I gushed on his fingers,
turned on by his little show.
Cobra's face contorted into an evil grin as he pumped his fingers faster,
then leaned forward and bit down on my nipple.
I yelped with surprise and clenched my thighs together as wetness dripped.
Cobra pulled his fingers out of my sopping heat and dragged them slowly across my lips.
"You're going to take all of us, my kitten. You're going to take our cocks until you understand
what it means to be owned by us."
For the sake of feminists everywhere, I ignored the way my heart fluttered
when he said they owned me.
I'd worry about it later.
For now, my knees were weak, Ascher's and Jax's arms the only things
keeping me upright.
Rearing my head back, I spat on Cobra's face.

The crowd roared.
I sent the shadow snake images of love and support and gave Cobra a
wink. "Do it. You won't," I mouthed with a taunting sneer.
It was a show, after all.
If I'd been in danger before, now I was dead.
Snake eyes flickered, and Cobra lunged forward, shoving four fingers
deep into my pussy while his thumb pressed at my back entrance.
His forearm bunched, face contorted in a sneer, as he pistoned into my
heat until I gasped and moaned unintelligibly. "You're going to take all of us,"
he growled.
This time, it was a threat.
He tilted his head back and roared to the crowd, "Take her to the omega!"
Jax and Ascher grabbed me and dragged me over to where Xerxes was
still sprawled across the ground, cocked out, with bleeding whip wounds
dripping down his chest.
His face was a stormy mask, and I sneered back, matching his energy.
From the way his purple eyes glowed brighter, he was also enjoying the drama.
We all were.
Ascher and Jax grabbed my thighs and pulled them apart roughly.
holding me atop Xerxes.
I shivered.
Jax's hand tangled in my hair as he whispered in my ear, "You'll take him
deep."
"Lie down, omega!"
Xerxes sprawled backwards as Cobra slammed the whip across his chest.
his knot vibrating faster with each hit.
Ascher's callused fingers parted my sopping folds as he and Jax lowered
me downward. They positioned me, spasming cunt nestled on top of the
vibrating tip of Xerxes's dick.
Jax pulled my hair back roughly, and I moaned.
He stared down at me.
"Do it," I whispered, showing him with my eyes that it was okay.
That I wanted it.
Ascher and Jax slammed me down on Xerxes's throbbing cock, and I didn't have to
pretend.
I screamed with shock and pleasure as his dick slammed into my womb.
Knot vibrating against my clit until I couldn't tell where the pain ended and the pleasure
began.
He was so much bigger than I remembered.
The sensation was overwhelming.
I didn't move as tears streamed down my face. I could do nothing but sit atop the
omega and shudder as he vibrated inside me, knot strumming my clit higher and higher.
"Ever seen an alpha fuck another alpha?"

The platform shook from the force of the cheers as shifters stomped on the stairs and
chains rattled.
This was my second time ever having sex, and it was in the middle of a rowdy BDSM
club under strobe lights.
I haven't even had sex in a bed yet.
I would have laughed if the pleasure weren't slowly blurring my mind,
making everything hazy and far away.
"Stay relaxed, my princess," Ascher whispered in my ear as his warmth burned my
back.
He leaned down, so he knelt on the ground behind me, legs spread wide and low.
Warm, callused fingers lifted up the sheer material of my short dress.

Fingers shoved into my mouth, and I tasted intoxicating pain as he whispered, "Get
them nice and wet, Princess."
Suddenly, those same fingers trailed against my back entrance.
Cobra stalked across the platform, a circus master in his element, and made a show
of adding his own spit onto Ascher's fingers. Then he slammed the whip across Xerxes's
chest.
His cock jerked inside me, and we both moaned.
Ever so slowly, Ascher worked his fingers into me.
Still squirming with Xerxes's dick spearing me, knot vibrating against my clit, the
sensation was incredibly overwhelming.
Cobra's fingers grabbed my chin, and he whispered, "Good girl."
Ascher's finger pressed inside me, and he stretched my tight hole back and forth.
I creamed on Xerxes's dick.

The knot vibrated faster, and I tipped my head back, tears gathering in
my eyes. It was so much.
Ascher added a second finger.
Cobra released my chin, then slowly stepped over Xerxes's body, so he
stood with his crotch in my face.
Slowly, he unzipped his leather pants and pulled out his jeweled cock.
Xerxes's hips jerked, and his knot slammed against my clit, the shock
wave making me spasm around him.
The tension built higher in my body.
Ascher spat on his fingers, then added a third into my tight hole.
Cobra pulled out his pale alpha cock. It was longer than Xerxes's and had
emeralds embedded along the shaft in a swirling pattern. His alpha knot was
swollen at the shaft, impossibly thick.
I licked my lips.
Cobra smirked down at me, traced his fingers across my lips. "I own you.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
He paused.
"You're mine, Sadie."
I narrowed my eyes up at the handsome bastard that drove me crazy.
Cobra spoke so only I could hear him. "I don't care what you tell other men."
He glanced down at Xerxes, whose vibrating dick was buried deep inside me.
"I don't care if you tell them you love them. That doesn't change that you
were mine first."
He dug his thumbnail into my bottom lip as he pressed my mouth open
wider until my jaw ached.
Cobra snarled, “Because, Kitten, what I feel for you is beyond love. Do you
understand?
My eyes widened, his words piercing through my haze of lust.
He leaned closer.
"I fucking own your mind, body, and soul. Absolute ownership. You are my
possession. My fucking everything.
There was a long pause as emerald eyes speared me.
"Do you understand what I am saying?"
Nodding slowly, I let him see the truth in my eyes.
I mouthed silently; I love you too, Cobra.
His perfect face transformed into an intense expression, as if something

had snapped inside him.
Suddenly, he shoved his throbbing jeweled cock through my lips.
His hands were buried in my hair, and he slammed into my face like he
was saying, I. Love. You. With every thrust.
I kept my eyes on his emerald gaze, even as I choked around his dick.
I love you too.
My core gushed across Xerxes's dick.
Suddenly, Ascher's fingers were replaced by a warm, slick cock.
My eyes widened as he pushed forward with painful slowness.
The smallest pressure, stretching me impossibly wide as Xerxes's cock
still twitched deep inside me and Cobra used my mouth.
Abruptly, Cobra pulled back, and dark fingers unbuckled his leathers
and dragged them down his thighs.
Jax stepped over Xerxes and positioned himself behind Cobra.
Cobra's dick leapt against his stomach as Jax spat on his pierced cock
and slowly worked it into the snake shifter.
Cobra buried his hands in my hair as he resumed fucking my mouth.
But this time, Jax set the pace.
He was merciless.
Abruptly, Ascher shoved forward, and I screamed around Cobra's dick
as he filled my narrow shaft.
Cobra fucked my mouth so fast that I couldn't breathe.
My eyes fluttered shut from lack of oxygen.
Cobra yanked back and whispered praises down at me as he caressed
my chin.
"You're mine Sadie. Mine. Mine. Mine," he repeated endlessly.
It sounded like—I love you so, so, so, so much.
Ascher didn't move, just stayed impossibly still as his dick speared my
ass. He leaned forward and bit my neck, whispering endearments against
my sensitive skin.
His hands tugged at my nipples.
Everything was too much.
Jax fucked Cobra violently, slamming Cobra's cock deep down my throat
until I gagged. Ascher speared my ass while Xerxes filled my core, his knot
still punishing my clit and driving my ecstasy higher.
It was so much.
The music pumped, strobe lights flashed, and cigarette smoke filled me
nose
I drowned in sensations.
I was light-headed, like I'd taken a hit of a powerful drug, so the world
had a nightmarish quality about it.
I didn't even know if it was pleasure.
It was just a lot.
As if he could read my mind, suddenly, Xerxes's hands grabbed my hips
roughly, and his hips jerked upwards.
I screamed around Cobra's cock.
Xerxes moved his hips and fucked me from the floor. I was on top, but no
one would ever mistake who was in charge.
His hips slammed his knot hard against my clit, and Ascher moved in tandem behind
me.
I sobbed.
The pleasure-pain blurred and contorted until reality became far, far, far
away as my body was strummed to the highest possible euphoria.
Cobra cracked the whip in the air.
Xerxes slammed his hips faster, Ascher pulled my nips harder and joined
his rougher movements. Jax's hips became more frenzied, and I couldn't
breathe as I gagged and choked on Cobra's dick.
The strobe lights flashed faster.
Shadows contoured and twisted over our writhing mass.
I bawled as I came.
Pussy and ass spasming in such powerful waves, I barely noticed Cobra
pulling out and coming all over my face.
Or the way he dragged his fingers through his cum and pressed them into
my mouth.
Jax tipped his head back and roared as he filled Cobra.
Ascher bit my neck as he came in my ass.
Xerxes's cum filled my womb as his fingers dug into my hips.
I barely noticed when the men pulled themselves painfully slowly out of
me, hot liquid filling my orifices.
I didn't hear the loving words Cobra said as he wiped at the sticky cum that
coated my face.
I didn't know what Jax said when he whispered softly in my ear.
The lights turned on above us, and the announcer said something.
I stumbled on shaky legs off the platform.

The men's faces were contorted in concern, but I was too overwhelmed to
care. Panic made my head spin, and with each step, my body ached,
reminding me of what had just happened.
Pushing through the flailing limbs, naked flesh, and leather, I sprinted
down the stairs towards the glowing signs of the restrooms.
When I was finally inside, I threw myself into a stall and shut the door.
Face pressed against the cold door, I struggled to orient myself.
The hard truth of what had happened was unavoidable.
Not the act itself, but how I felt during it, the overwhelming feeling
that had clogged my throat and burned my brain.
I'd just been used.
Fucked by four men in front of thousands of people.
Eyes closed, I slammed my head against the stall, relishing the pain
sent stars shooting before my eyes.
I was well and truly screwed.
Because I'd loved every second.
And, somehow, it felt like the sweetest declaration of love.
VIOLENCE SPILLS OVER
A my head against the bathroom door like a lunatic, I finally

calmed down enough to recognize what was happening.
I'd made the transition from prude to slut, and I was struggling with the lifestyle change.
Breathing deeply, I pressed my cheeks against the cold stall and calmed my heart.
I might be dumb, but I wasn't a dumb bitch.

"It's just a dick. It's not that deep," I whispered to myself as I dry-heaved into the toilet,
farted out a concerning amount of white substance, slapped my face, then spread my arms
and legs wide for confidence.
My panic attack waned, and I was able to see my new slutty reality for what it was: a
blessing.
"They're basically your bitches. You aren't their bitch," I whispered
while shadowboxing against an invisible opponent.
Memories flashed through my mind.
I told Cobra I loved him after he told me I was his possession and he owned me.
Oh my god, I'm their bitch.

I proceeded to learn a very important lesson: it's impossible to strangle
yourself with toilet paper.
I yelled with frustration when the damn paper ripped for the tenth time right when I
was starting to get some good pressure, and a woman's voice called out, "Are you okay in
there?"
I groaned, "Why is it so soft and pliable but so easily broken?"
"What?"
"By the holy sun god, just let me die in slutty shame."
My toilet lady got angry. "Oh please, we both know there's no such thing
as a slut."
I wailed, aware that I was being melodramatic but unable to stop myself.
"But what do you call a woman who gets violently fucked by four men
and enjoys it?" I shuddered. "Like really violently, and like really enjoyed it. I
can't emphasize enough how much enjoyment." I paused. "And how much
violence." I coughed. "Whatever you're picturing, make it twenty times worse."
I coughed harder. "As concerning as possible."
My toilet savior sighed. "I'd say she was one lucky woman."
I breathed deeply and composed myself. "You have no idea how much I
needed to hear that right now."
I pushed open the stall, and my savior stared back at me.
Turned out female empowerment came in the form of a four-foot-tall
woman wearing a leather suit with holes cut out around the nipples.
"You're so wise," I said gravely.
"Oh my god, you're the girl who was just on the platform!" She slapped
my arm with surprising strength. "Bitch, I've never seen four more attractive
men in my entire life. If you don't want them, I'll take them."
I laughed.
She didn't.
"My name is Jenny, and I live in the financial district around Third Street.
Tell them I'm here every weekend."
"Um." I pursed my lips, unsure what was happening.
"Thank you so much. You're the best." Jenny gave me a hug. "Tell them
they can find me by the back exit sign. I'll be waiting for them." She smiled
and danced out of the bathroom.
I narrowed my bloodshot eyes in the mirror as I splashed cold water on
my face.
What just happened?
Had I just set the men up with another woman?
I scrubbed my face, wondering how things had gotten so confusing.
On one hand, I wanted to attack Jenny for even looking at the men, but
on the other hand, I felt bad because she was looking forward to them and
she'd helped me out of a dark place.
It was a pickle.
"That's the women's restroom!" Dean's voice yelled outside, and I jumped
in surprise.
"I know. Just go back to the stairs. I'll meet you there later. Don't
interrupt me,” a voice snarled back. I recognized it, but I couldn't place it.
That was the only warning I got.
A familiar bald alpha with a cigarette in his lips charged into the restroom
with his gun pointed at my face.
I stilled in shock as I tried to process what the fuck was going on.
Apparently, Dean and Logan's third pack member was Hunter.
The alpha who'd beat me until I'd chosen death, who I'd also
happened to infect with my blood.
Fuck.
I'd been hoping he'd just forget about it.
An enchanted gun hovered inches from my forehead.
I stated the obvious. "This bathroom does not have good energy."
The safety clicked off as Hunter pressed the barrel into my forehead.
I pursed my lips. It seemed like he was holding a grudge.
"Listen, it really wasn't personal."
Hunter stepped closer until his caustic alpha scent overwhelmed my senses. "I'm
making it fucking personal." I found out from Z you'd be completing your third initiation here
and wanted to make sure I didn't miss the fun."
He pressed the barrel harder against my forehead.

I'd already had my mental breakdown, so I couldn't panic appropriately.
"This is how it's gonna go." His cigarette hung from his lips, and he
leaned forward so the burning end was precariously close to my face.
"You and I are going to enter into an agreement. I won't tell everyone that
you're part witch, making you a wanted half-breed, and in return, you're going
to do something for me.” He pulled down his zipper, making it clear what he
was referencing.
I glared at him with disgust.
I took it all back; what had happened with the men was beautiful and,
frankly, inspirational.
This was violence.
He smirked, and bile burned my throat as I mentally reviewed my options.
I bit down on my cheek until I tasted coppery blood.

"You so much as begin to shift, or I see a glimpse of whatever that shit was that flew at
me before, I'm pulling this trigger." Hunter's eyes were manic and wide. He licked his lips,
and he shoved the butt harder into my head.
He wanted to do it.
Fuck.
Hunter smirked, thinking he had won, as he pushed my head down.
I fell to my knees and sent images of what was happening to my shadow snake, praying
to the moon goddess that the connection worked like I thought it did.
Everything was happening so fast.

I couldn't think.
The gun was cold against my forehead, and I mentally screamed at it
Snake, begging Cobra to understand.
To help.
"They thought they could threaten me and get away with it." He laughed. "That's not
how this city works."
Blood filled my throat as I bit down on my tongue. He didn't make any
sense, but it didn't matter.
Hunter pulled his dick out of his pants.
He stepped closer.
Could I spit my blood at him? Could I shift? Could I do it faster than a bullet to the brain?
I had half a second to decide.

"Open your mouth," Hunter demanded, and I gnashed my teeth together as hard as I
could.
Terror paralyzed my chest.
From the corner of my eye, the flashing lights outside made shadows contort on the
walls.
No, wait, the shadow was moving across the wall.
Relief made my head spin.
Cobra's shadow snakes slithered in one long black snake against the wall.
"Open your mouth," Hunter growled.

I leaned my head back, hyperaware of the gun that leaned with me, as I squeezed my
eyes shut and begged the snake to take him out before he shot.
me
Abruptly, the gun stopped pressing into my forehead.

I opened my eyes, and the gun clattered against the floor, Hunter's arm limp at his side.
Large snake's fangs sank venom into Hunter's neck as he stumbled in confusion.
I didn't hesitate.
Rearing back, I slammed my fist into his face as hard as I could.
Cartilage snapped beneath my knuckles, and I relished the feeling of his face breaking
my fist.
I'm going to fucking destroy you.
He grunted with confusion and pain as the venom coursed through him, and I beat him
with my fist as hard as I could.
Blood splattered as I threw his body against the wall and stalked forward, slamming
my knuckles at him until he was an unidentifiable, bloody lump beneath me.
"Open your mouth," I snarled at him like he'd threatened me.

I yanked down his jaw and punched out his teeth.
My knuckles burned in the best way.
His jaw broke with a satisfying crack, teeth falling to the floor.
"What, you don't enjoy being on the other side of it?" I taunted as I broke his skull,
shattered his cheekbones, and made sure he would remember just who the fuck he had
threatened.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and angry alphas stalked in.
Their eyes swept over Hunter's exposed dick, the gun on the floor, his busted face,
and my bloodstained knuckles.
Faces hardened.
I'd thought I'd seen them angry before, but now I knew what true rage looked like.
They didn't hiss or roar; they were dead silent.

They stalked past me, chestnuts, cinnamon, and frost spiking like they were on fire.
Ascher stopped beside me and wrapped his tattooed arm around my shoulders. He
pulled me tight against him, alpha-purring as he held me close and tried to offer comfort.
"Princess, step away from the fucker," Ascher whispered roughly as he dragged me
away from Hunter.
I leaned against him, grateful for the support.
His tattooed hands trembled as they ran over every inch of my body, like he
was desperate to make sure I was okay.
When he got to my busted knuckles, he hissed in the air through his teeth.
"It's fine," I whispered. "I handled it."
"No, Princess, it's not fucking fine," Ascher growled as he wrapped his
arms tighter around me and held me.
I melted into him as we watched the other men.
Jax pulled Hunter's hands behind his back.
The shadow snake slithered off his neck and back onto Cobra's skin, and Hunter
stopped convulsing with pain.
With Hunter missing half his teeth, with a busted face, his words were barely
understandable. "How dare that whore touch me. How dare you put your hands on
me again.
Cobra hissed, "You dare call her names." He slammed his fist into Hunter's gory face
with such force I was surprised the fucker didn't lose his head.
"You touched my kitten." Cobra said quietly, "You hurt what's mine."
Xerxes flicked open the sex knife.
"You'll never get away with this." Hunter's skin rippled as he began to shift.
"Stop shifting!" Jax alpha-barked, the power in his voice stronger than
anything I'd ever heard.
The walls rippled as he spoke.
For a split second, Hunter stopped.
Xerxes did not hesitate. He slashed the knife down Hunter's torso, from neck to
navel.
Cobra reached his hands inside the split skin and grabbed Hunter's
organs. "You dared to try to force yourself upon her." He snarled.
"Pigs like you don't deserve to live," he unraveled his organs, pulling
them out with impossible speed.
Hunter screamed.
Cobra disembarked him.
Jax held the thrashing alpha immobile, his face ice-cold.
They were merciless.
Xerxes picked the gun off the floor and clicked off the safety.
Jax released Hunter, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping as he did
Grabbed at the organs still being ripped from his body by Cobra.
The omega walked to stand beside his packmates. Rage radiated off all
three of them in tangible waves.
There was a loud pop.
Xerxes lowered the smoking gun.
Hunter's body collapsed, a glowing blue hole in the center of his forehead.
Cobra kept pulling at the organs, blood staining his pale hands as he tore at the dead
alpha's body. His eyes were wide with mania, and he worked in silence.
"He's dead," Jax whispered and wrapped his arms around Cobra. "He's dead."
Abruptly, Cobra stopped and turned his head around.

He stared at my bloody hands, watched as Ascher held me and whispered words of
comfort.
Cobra stalked across the room and reached his hand for my face, but he
pulled it back when he realized gore dripped from his fingers.
"Kitten," he whispered brokenly. "This is my fault."
I shook myself out of the stupor I'd fallen into. It was slightly traumatizing, and yet
weirdly satisfying, watching your assaulter get his organs ripped out and a bullet to the
brain after you beat his face into a bloody pulp.
Free therapy.
Jax growled and raked his hands down his face. "Fuck, this is our fault."
I didn't think I'd ever heard him swear before.
"How?" I asked with confusion.
Jax sighed heavily.
"After the second trial, when you and Xerxes—" He waved his hand as if he didn't
know what to call our violent sexcapade. "We went to the club and cornered Hunter. We
beat him up pretty good and threatened to kill him if he ever hurt you again."
Cobra snarled, "I didn't lie."

Ascher sighed heavily, like he was beyond exhausted by recent events.
"We also talked to Clarissa and told her that it was our fault for misleading her, but that we
never had any real interest. We were idiots who were trying to get a rise out of you after we
thought you rejected us."
Cobra wiped gore off his hands onto his leather and said, "I wanted to
beat her up for lying and touching you. I still think we should have."
"It was more our fault for leading her on, and you know it," Ascher snarled back.
If I weren't feeling extremely unwell, I might have marveled at the fact that
Ascher, who had once referred to all women as sluts, had recognized that he
was the problem and not Clarissa.
However, since I was still in a state of extreme duress, I decided not to
be impressed by a man doing the bare minimum.
"So—" I clapped my hands and pointed to the dead alpha at our feet. "—
what do we do now? Pretty sure there was a law against murdering other alphas.”
Jax said, "Rule two hundred and three. Punishment by death.

"But rule ninety-four, punishment for sexually assaulting any shifter is
death and disembowelment," Cobra argued back. "We were in the right."
I narrowed my eyes and stared down at the dead body. "That feels too
easy. We should burn him and flush the ashes down the toilet.
Ascher laughed, the sound out of place among the death and gore.
"You've clearly never gotten rid of a dead body before."
"And you have?"
Suddenly, Ascher looked uncomfortable as he rubbed at his back
neck. He couldn't meet my eyes.
"Oh my sun god, how many people have you murdered, Ascher?"
He squinted and mumbled, "One for every tattoo."
I covered my mouth in shock because every inch of his golden skin was covered in
tattoos.
I'd made love to a serial killer.
Another panic attack seized my lungs.
Before I could go back into my bathroom stall and resume falling apart, the
door to the bathroom slammed open.
All of us jumped, and I spat out my blood, preflinging it across the
room, not willing to be caught with a gun to my forehead like last time.
It was the bouncer from outside.
Thankfully, he didn't see the ball of blood hovering in the air beside him.
"You've caught the attention of the owners," the bouncer said

gestured at an enchanted broadcasting stone in the upper corner of the room.
I let my levitating blood fall to the ground, hoping the stone didn't see
it.
The bouncer smiled as he looked at my busted knuckles and Cobra's

gore covered hands. "They're impressed with your savagery and want to
personally invite you to their private club. Follow me.”
With that, he turned around and left.
I stepped over the dead body and grimaced at Cobra. "Good work, I
guess. But, I had it handled.”
"I killed him, baby girl," Xerxes whined like he was looking for praise.
Cobra grabbed his leash and dragged him forward. "No talking, omega,
unless I say so."
He mumbled something about Kitten being his and him seeing me first
under his breath, but I chose to ignore it.
I gagged as I walked into the club, because Hunter's blood made my
steps squishy.
Technically, we'd accomplished our goal.
But for some reason, it didn't feel like a win.
THE PAIN OF POSSESSION
T earlier
I gripped Xerxes' leash tight as the music pulsed and flashing red lights
cast ominous shadows across flailing bodies.
The shifters thought they were dangerous and exciting, with theirs
ghastly leather clothes and whips.
Just another realm obsessed with sex.
But I'd already played this game in the fae realm.
It was nothing new.
Shifters pawed at us, mindless in their euphoria. The mob mentality of sex,
a dark drug, as nulls and betas desperately tried to lose themselves in
something more exhilarating than the mundane reality they existed in.
Tried to forget they were nothing more than sheep.
In a realm that didn't respect them.
If I were alone, maybe I would have lit a cigarette and touched them back.
Lost myself in the mind-numbing haze of sex and violence that was a
little too easy to pretend to enjoy.
But I wasn't alone.
The red shadows and desperate faces took on a sinister light as I tugged Xerxes
forward, cognizant with every step of the small woman in a sheer white dress that trailed
behind us.
From the set of Xerxes's jaws, the way he looked over his shoulder
constantly, he felt the same way I did.
She shouldn't be here.
I watched her in my peripheral vision.
Sadie's ruby eyes were wide, her lush lips parted on a silent gasp as she took in the
frenzied people performing all manners of sex acts across the maze of stairs. She curled
in on herself, shoulders hunched as hands grabbed and toys slapped against flesh.
But she forged forward, not looking back or missing a step like us
pushed our way through.
My kitten had no idea.
She didn't see the man who grabbed the back of her dress.
Didn't see Ascher gouge out the offender's eye with his fingernails in
an efficient maneuver that left the man with a gaping cavity on his face.
Someone grabbed a strand of her snow-white hair with his fingers, and Jax quickly
broke his arm in three different places before Sadie could even feel the tug.
Ascher's and Jax's eyes glowed brightly, bodies strummed with tension.
You could see in the way the bodies shifted that people were drawn to Sadie's
stunning golden skin and shockingly unique features, but it was the edge of violence that
radiated off her that made them claw at her desperately.
An ignorant fool might have said she was different and others recognized it.
But the truth was more complicated.

Sadie was out-of-place while simultaneously right at home in the dark club. If she were
given enough time, she'd become the wickedest of them all.
I led us further into the frenzy.

The shifters crawled on hands and knees as we walked past, desperate to
touch Sadie and taste Xerxes.
An omega and a female alpha: two rare jewels in a cruel realm.
They were mine.
The golden string in my chest, the bond that connected me to my packmates,
strummed with warning as Xerxes noticed an alpha charging behind Jax and Ascher, his
eyes wide as he stared at Sadie.
The alpha's nostrils flared as he followed.
He'd smelled cranberry wine.
The string between us panged with warning as he lunged forward with a sharp knife,
intent on fighting us for her. He could smell that she wasn't ours
packmate, and he thought she was up for grabs.

His mistake.
I yanked Xerxes's leash, giving my kitten a show. Distracting her.
Sadie might fight like a warrior and bathe in the blood of her enemies,
but there was something so innocent about her violence.
The void beckoned me closer, and I studied my expression at the terror
that always gripped me when I thought of my kitten.
It was why I hadn't fucked her yet, the reason I held myself back from
ravaging her.
The world was already too cruel, and I refused to be the one to break her.
Knife in his hand, the alpha made his fatal mistake as he tried to swipe at
Ascher and grab Sadie from our protection.
Shadows danced.
I tugged Xerxes's handsome face closer and dragged my tongue across
it, making sure Sadie's attention stayed fully on us.
Jax shifted to shield the violence happening behind her.
Ascher dislocated the alpha's shoulder and took his knife. In a flash of
steel, he slit the man's throat, then kicked the body off the stairs.
Leather bodies gyrated and fucked, desensitized to violence.
It all happened in a split second.
The gold thread that had been screaming with tension between us instantly
quieted with relief.
We eliminated the threat.
I pulled Xerxes's leash forward, both of us relieved that Sadie hadn't
saw her attacker, as I led us further up the stairs into the masses.
The gold platform spun slowly high above, a beacon and a curse, taunting
me with what we were here to do.
With each step towards it, the void screamed at me, bellowed at me to stop.
We couldn't do this to Sadie.

I sent images of love and support to my shadow snake that lived on her
flesh—the favorite part of myself.
In my peripheral vision, the corners of Kitten's lips turned upward, and she
sent me love back. My knees wobbled because she knew what she was doing.
Knew that I was there and who she was technically talking to.
To me, no woman had ever been so perfect, so sweet, and so fucking vicious.
I straightened my shoulders and led us onward.

We would pass this third trial because my kitten's life depended on it.
Failure was not an option.
The void screamed.
Gold thread no longer offered the warmth and support they usually did;
we all were out of our minds with stress over what we were having to do.
Fuck.
I almost stopped and demanded we go back, tell Sadie we weren't fucking doing this.
That we'd find another way.

We hadn't fucked her yet because we were afraid the intensity would scare her away.
Terrified of hurting her, of dimming the spark in her red eyes.
And now we were going to do just that, in the worst possible way.
In public.
In front of thousands of depraved shifters.
I yanked harder on Xerxes's leash and kicked at shifters who got in my way.
Ahead, two alphas stood in the melee, staring at Sadie, waiting for her.
The bond screamed with warning as we recognized the two alphas who
had hit on her after they'd fought her in the second trial.
I licked my lips with anticipation.
Oh, how I longed to hurt them for daring to smile at her after they'd marred her flesh.
As a child, I'd been horrified by my snake's bloodlust, by the wild

Temperament I'd housed inside myself. I didn't want to be a monster.
But you didn't get to be what you wanted to be in life.
You got to be what you were.
After years of torture, I stopped trying to pretend I was anything else
than fucked up. A dark void of violence that yearned for exact retribution.
That loved to hurt others.
Except for the select few that were mine. Those I would protect until my dying breath.
It was the only code I lived by.

Sadie pushed forward. Xerxes and I hadn't been expecting it, so we

didn't stop her when she walked up to the alphas.
She tilted her head back and curled her white hair around her finger coyly.
I read her lips. She was asking about how to get into the private club.
Her stature was not her normal haughty stance. She was acting, playing the part like I
was.
The gold string burned.
Erections strained the leather pants of the two alphas who stared at her with
undisguised longing, sniffing her skin and shuddering when she wasn't looking at them.
My hands shook with the need to say.

To kill.
A low hiss rattled from my chest. The sound grew stronger the closer she stood, the
longer she talked to them.
My vision flickered, and the world plunged into darkness and glowing orange heat
signatures.
The alphas raised their eyebrows at her expectantly.
Kitten's shoulders slumped slightly, and she rose on her tiptoes, leaning away from
their hands as she aimed for their cheeks.
Gold thread exploded, and the void snapped.
With impossible speed, I flung myself forward and tangled my fist in her silky locks.
I dragged her head back before cranberry lips could touch alpha skin
and kissed her as hard as I could.
Before I could do something I regretted—like gut the men with my bare hands and fuck
Sadie atop their corpses to stake my claim—I flung her back into Jax's and Ascher's hands.
The gold thread calmed down but didn't stop burning.

We were all pissed.
I taunted the fuckers who dared to get too close to her, mollified by the
way Jax and Ascher kissed her all over and covered her with our scent.
If she were our packmate, she would reek of us and we wouldn't need to threaten
others.
But she wasn't, and it was driving us all mad.
The void still screamed at me.
My leathers were too tight as blood rushed to my dick, the urge to claim Sadie a
constant ache I'd come to live with.
Yanking Xerxes, I marched forward to the platform.
Visions of Kitten's lips almost touching the cheeks of the other men
replayed in my head like a nightmare.
The void was all I knew.
Instead of running from it, I fell into it. Allowed it to help gird me for what
was inevitable. What we were all going to do.
What happened next was a hazy blur.
I snapped a beta's femur when he got in my way.
I told the announcer who we were, what we were, and watched the man's
eyes light up with excitement at a show.
Kitten glared at me, legs wide on a spinning platform, as her sheer dress
did nothing to conceal her cranberry-red nipples and sweet little cunt.
Lights flickered above her, making her golden skin glow like the little
goddess she was.
"You think you can kiss other men, Kitten?" I taunted her, reminding her of
what had plunged me into the void.
Reminding her of the hard truth she was too afraid to accept.
She was mine.
Kitten rolled her eyes.
My dick became painfully hard at her defiance. She was such a little brat. The predator
inside me always reared up with excitement when she gave me sass.
The men told her the error of her ways, all of us enjoying the way she spat
fire and was completely unrepentant.
Kitten didn't kowtow for any man.
I taunted her, loving the way sparks jumped in her eyes.
Xerxes lay down on the spinning platform.
I cracked the whip.
Slammed the leather across his flesh, watching with satisfaction as the
crowd roared and the omega's eyes glazed with pleasure. The whole time,
watching Sadie's face. Loving the way she gnawed on her lower lip and
pressed her thighs together.
The crowd screamed as thousands stared at my kitten's perfect little body.
Her unique golden skin glowed like a beacon.

It was a nightmare.
She was mine, yet I pulled out Xerxes's cock and nodded to the men
bring her over like we'd planned.
I cracked the whip and roared, but sent images of love and warmth to my
snake on her skin.
Begged her to know what she meant to me, that this wasn't at all how it was
seemed. Begged her to see the truth.
I touched her. Pleasured her.
Drowned in sweet cranberry wine as I screamed to the crowd and cracked
the whip, still loath to do this to my kitten in front of all these people.
We'd waited so long to take her, wanting to make it special.

Do right by her.
This wasn't right.
Her eyes gleamed with something, and the void bellowed at me to stop.
That she was being pushed too far, that she was breaking before my eyes.
But it wasn't tears.
Suddenly, Sadie spat on me.
Images of love and support flooded through my shadow snake.
She winked, "Do it. You won't.” She mouthed as her lips curled in a devious
smile, and her saliva dripped down my face.
Relief like nothing I'd ever felt flooded through me and continued down the
golden string. Fucking sun god, she was so perfect. So fucking pure. So fucking
rabid.
It wasn't a nightmare.
This was a dream.
RUBY EYED DELIVERANCE
, cracked the whip, and brought the club to a fever pitch,

aware my jewels gleamed under the shadows.
The otherworldly beauty that had plagued me my entire life was now a
fucking boon. Because my kitten was obsessed with me.
I could taste it on my lips when she'd spat on me.
The crowd was enthralled by me.
But all I cared about was one woman.
I nodded at Jax as he smirked back, pushing Kitten down Xerxes's cock, her head
flung back in ecstasy.
Ascher knelt, spreading his legs impossibly wide behind Sadie so he was kneeling in
a split, in the perfect position to nudge himself into her tight hole.
Kitten's eyes glazed in euphoria as she trembled, speared atop Xerxes.

He didn't move, content to just lie there and watch as she flung her head back and purred.
From the expression of rapture on his face as he stared at her, he was as far gone as
I was.
She was his savior.
I cracked the whip across his chest, rewarding his patience with our kitten.
He shuddered with pleasure.

I dragged my hand across Jax's bicep as I stalked over to our woman.
He nodded at me, a smirk on his handsome lips as feelings of awe and gratitude
flooded down a golden thread.
Emotions I'd never felt in my miserable life.
Standing in front of her luscious lips, I ignored the screams of the crowd as I focused
on my redemption.
Tracing fingers across her lush ruby lips, I said, "I own you." Do you understand what
I'm saying?
I stared down at my kitten, begging her to understand what I meant.
It was impossible to put into words the all-consuming obsession I had
with her She was my everything, and I would destroy the world for her.
I begged her to see that I was sorry for every time I lost my mind and made her angry,
because no matter how much I wanted to be a gentleman for her and treat her right, I was
still just a savage animal.
I wasn't civil like other men. But that didn't make what I felt any less real.
It only made it stronger.

More savage.
"You are mine, Sadie," I snarled as I stared down at my redemption.
Anger ignited in my soul at the thought of her caring about another man more than me.
"I don't care what you tell other men." I glanced down at Xerxes, whose
Dick was buried inside my cunt.
In the omega's memories, I'd watched Sadie whisper, "I love you too,"
back to him. It had shifted something inside me.
I didn't want her to say those words to me.
No, I wanted her to say, You own me, Cobra, and I am fucking yours for all of
eternity. That was what I wanted.
I whispered, "I don't care if you tell them you love them." That doesn't
change that you were mine first."
I dug my thumbnail into her bottom lip and wrenched her mouth open
so I could see her pretty pink tongue. My tongue.
"Because, Kitten, what I feel for you is beyond love. Do you understand?
You. Are. Mine.

I leaned closer as I promised her, "I fucking own your mind, body, and soul. Absolute
ownership. You are my possession. My fucking everything.
I. Am. Yours.
I begged her to see what I was saying with my eyes, as her pretty cunt and tight ass
were fucked by my packmates.
"Do you understand what I am saying?"
Sadie's ruby eyes widened as she stared up at me. Slowly, she nodded her pretty
little head.
She mouthed, I love you too.
I'd been lying to myself; That was exactly what I needed to hear.
Something snapped inside me as I realized the implications of what she did
had just said to me. Kitten cares about me as much as I care for her.
It shattered me.
I plunged my cock deep down her throat and told her with each thrust of my hips that I
loved her back. Tenderly holding her chin still, I fucked her throat.
Worshiped her.
Jax took me from behind, his warmth and impressive size a familiar
weight that grounded me.
Endless pleasure burned through my senses as I was surrounded by those I
cared about. Those I would do anything to protect.
They were the reason the void no longer tried to break me, the reason it welcomed
me with open arms.
When Xerxes finally moved and Ascher wrapped his arms around
Kitten and matched the pace, her eyes glazed over with pleasure.
Euphoria sparked across the gold thread.
We were complete.
When she screamed as she came, when I pulled back and coated my seed
across her golden skin, the void whispered what I'd been unable to face all along.
I didn't own my kitten.

My kitten owned me.
And it was everything.
When we all stopped trembling from releases that brought us to an ungodly high, the
lights switched on above us, and the announcer walked back out.
He yelled things to the crowd, and the entire club roared in response, but I didn't
hear what they said. I was too busy staring at Sadie. Her eyes widened with fear, and
her breath caught.
Fuck. I screamed across the bond as we all realized at once that Sadie
It wasn't okay.
It had been too much.
Too fast.
Just what we'd been so scared of.

I drowned in the void. I'd lost myself in my anger and allowed it to fuel
forward me. Fuel my performance.
What woman would be okay after what we've just done?
I was a monster.
Before I could do anything, Sadie turned and bolted, running away from
us, down the stairs in the masses.
I shoved past the announcer and sprinted after her, breaking beta limbs
as I followed the growing-fainter scent of cranberry wine.
This was our fault.
My fault.
I had to make it right.
The gold thread screamed with tension, fraying at the edges as desolation
and anxiety streamed through it.
The highest highs had the lowest fucking lows.
Kitten deserved to be coddled after we'd all taken her for the first time.
She deserved to be pampered and given soft kisses.
Gentle cuddles and warm sentiments.
I sent endless waves of love and warmth to my shadow snake, desperate
to help calm her. But she sent nothing back.
Like she was too anxious to notice.
An orgy of nulls and betas fucking moved from one stairway to another,
the flailing limbs blocking the scent of cranberry wine.
I whirled around, my nose overwhelmed by the stench of sex.
Unable to track where my kitten had gone.
I hissed and kicked a beta that blocked my way, stomped on fingers.
The fucking club was a massive maze of stairs.
My vision changed to heat signatures, but it didn't make it any easier to find Sadie.
Jax growled behind me and Ascher swore as we realized we didn't

know where she'd gone
I focused on my snake on her skin, which allowed me to get a general direction. She
wasn't on the stairs and was on the floor somewhere to the right.
Choosing a random stairway, I hurried down it. We needed to find her and
reassure her, make sure she was okay.
Fuck. I snapped the arm of a beta that got in my way, slowing me down as I tried to get
to my kitten.
Suddenly, my shadow snake screamed with terror as Sadie sent me
images of her on the floor of a bathroom with a gun to her head.
Everything went silent.
The men stilled with terror as my emotions flooded through the gold
the thread that connected us.
I didn't hesitate.
Grabbing the chain railing, I threw myself off the stairway, falling four stories to the
ground and landing with a crunch as the floor broke beneath
me
My three mates followed.
Sadie screamed at me through the shadow snake.
The bathroom was across the club.
My jewels left my skin as I sent all my shadows streaming impossibly fast towards her.
Coalescing into one massive snake, they reached the bathroom in record time.
My shadow snakes tasted the air, sensing the world differently. But I
could make out an unfamiliar alpha holding Sadie.
With a lunge, my fangs slammed into his neck, and I pumped him with my most potent
toxins.
The distance to the bathroom was about a hundred yards, but it felt like forever. I
sprinted with the other men, slamming open the door and stalking inside.
I wasn't expecting what we walked in to.

Sadie had the much larger man pressed against the wall, and she was driving her fist
into his face with so much force that blood sprayed across her.
Hunter was unrecognizable.

For a moment, my chest warmed with pride as my little kitten beat the fucker.
She shifted to the side and revealed his exposed dick.

He tried to rape her.
My mind blanked, and I saw red.
A few days ago, we'd visited Hunter and beat him until he was mangled and begging
on the ground. I'd promised him death if he ever hurt
her again.
He didn't listen.
He tried to rape her repeated in my mind.
There were red marks on Sadie's knees from where he'd made her knee.
The void swallowed me whole.

He would die.
Ascher grabbed our snarling Sadie and pulled her away from Hunter. He
whispered softly to her, tattooed body shaking as he held her.
The bond among us screamed with rage and fear.
We picked off where the kitten had left off.
Jax held the fucker's arms behind his back and ordered him not to shift.
which made him stop convulsing.
The fucker said things, and I snarled back, but I wasn't aware of anything other
than the bloodlust blinding me.
Xerxes did not hesitate, his rage was tantamount to mine.
He sliced the sex knife into the alpha from neck to navel.
The void welcomed me as I dug my hand into the fucker's abdomen and
unraveled his organs.
He screamed, but it wasn't enough.
For what he'd done to Sadie, it would never be enough.
Everything was dark as I focused on hurting him. Breaking him. Pulling him apart
at the seams until he understood what it truly meant to try to hurt what was mine. To
fuck with one of my own.
He'd never make the mistake again.
Xerxes put a bullet through his head, but I couldn't stop pulling.
Couldn't stop trying to hurt him.
He died too quickly.
It wasn't enough.
But I'd threatened him, and he'd hurt her.
I dropped the organs and turned to where Ascher was comforting our kitten.
I reached for her but stopped when I realized I'd marked her with the horrors of
what I'd just done.
FUCK! I screamed in my head.
She'd just seen me unravel; I'd tried desperately to keep from her.
But Sadie didn't look at me with horror. Instead, she gave me a small one
smile as she shook off the blood that was dripping down her knuckles.
Fuck, she's magnificent. She would have handled him even if we hadn't
shown up.
I loved her.
The knowledge settled around me like a slow song, warm blanket, and toasty
fire.
Jax explained how we'd threatened the alpha, although clearly we
hadn't done a good enough job, and I snarled about killing the fucker.
But my reactions felt detached from myself as all my attention was on my
kitten.
The realization of what she truly meant to me brought the possessive need
to own her to a newfound intensity.
She was my everything.
A combination of ferocity and softness that made me want to kneel at her feet.
Suddenly, the bouncer showed up and told us we'd been invited to the private
room. But I could barely bring myself to care.
My attention was still enraptured.
Kitten leaned close and praised me for killing the fucker.
I saw it in her eyes, in the way she smiled up at me, not at all scared by the fact that
I'd disemboweled Hunter in front of her.
She said she loves me.
Another piece of me shattered away, irrevocably gone, as I remade
myself in her image, for the task I didn't know I was born to provide.
I would be Sadie's protector for the rest of my life.
Xerxes commented that he'd technically killed the fucker, and I
I swallowed down a hiss as I yanked on his leash.
The omega might also be mine, and Sadie might tolerate his masochist
ass, but I was her main protector.
She loves me.
I would prove myself better than him.
Because even though I pretended to be civil, I was still nothing more than a
beast, and Sadie was my possession to protect.
Just as I was hers to own.
BLACK WOLVES AND KIDNAPPINGS
us to the back of the club, then used an enchanted key T to unlock a

red velvet door.
He pushed it open, and it took my eyes a second to comprehend what I was seeing.
I'd expected a similar scene with flashing lights and pounding music.
It was pitch black.

Dead silent.
Ascher's and Jax's hands rested on my lower back, and I was grateful for the contact.
Something clacked to my right, and I swiveled my head.

A flash of scales.
Glowing eyes.
All light dissipated into pitch darkness. Did I imagine it?
Slurping noises and grunts.
My breaths were too loud, my heartbeat a tangible noise that pounded
through me, and my steps echoed.
Skin crawling as darkness swallowed us, I could barely discern the outlines of Cobra
and Xerxes in front of us, following the bouncer deeper into the abyss.
Biting down on my lower lip until blood dripped down my face, I levitated five droplets
in front of my head.
I was ready to throw them at the Ortega brothers as soon as we found them, before
they could draw their guns.
I wouldn't make the same mistake again.
Grunts echoed, and I whipped my head to the left.
Chains rattled.
We walked deeper into the belly of the beast.
My skin is pebbled with goose bumps.
Eyes glowed, and I turned my head to the right. They were gone.
Ascher and Jax moved their hands from my lower back and instead gripped
my biceps, like they were prepared to throw me out of harm's way.
My blood droplets vibrated in the air, annoyance coursing through me.
They should hide behind me.
A loud roar.
Hacking noises.
Abruptly, we came to a stop. Metal rattled, and the bouncer pulled out a
glowing blue key.
He yanked open another door.
Smoke spilled out, and hazy light illuminated a small section of where we'd
been walking.
Holy fuck.
To the left was a massive metal cage, and inside, a horned beast I'd
never seen before growled softly.
"Through here," the bouncer said, his voice mixing with the sultry
music that crooned from the room.
He gestured for us to walk into the hazy smoke but did not enter himself.
The door slammed shut behind us.
Through the smoke, shapes took form.
Five men with dark hair and wicked scars across their faces lounged on a
massive green velvet couch, cigarettes hanging from their lips, dicks out while
at least a dozen women lay at their feet, fondling them and sucking.
A naked woman hung from straps on the ceiling, a microphone in her
hands, head hanging back, eyes closed, as she sang a sad, sultry song.
Enchanted machine guns in each of the man's hands pointed directly at
us.
This was no private club; it was a trap.
But it was the same men sketched in the don's letter—the Ortega brothers.
They smirked, bobbing cigarettes as they straightened their forearms and

waved the machine guns back and forth.
Red dots traveled across each of us.
"Gotcha," one of the men drawled, eyes half-closed as three women pleasured him.
They thought they had us.

But I'd already infected them with my blood.
I flung it across the room as soon as we'd entered.
Sweat dripped down my temple as five droplets slowly traveled through layers of
muscle and tissue, seeking their sources of power.
But we had a plan.
Instead of slamming my blood through their bones, attacking them with
my power, and commanding them to obey, I focused on control.
If the plan was to work, they couldn't know they were infected.
We needed them acting normal to get the Black Wolves. Then I could take them over.
It was the hardest thing I'd ever done, holding myself back when bloodlust demanded
I take them over, control them, make them drop to their knees, obey me.
But this wasn't a battle.

This was espionage.
Sweat dripped down my spine as I clenched my hands into fists, my cells screaming
at me as I held my blood back.
It was like trying to control a rabid bear on a leash.
My vision blurred as I concentrated.
We said nothing.
The brothers were silent, content to take their pleasure, confident that
their guns had pinned us down.
"We'd like to give this omega back to the Black Wolves." Cobra's face contorted with
malice, and he yanked on the chain around Xerxes's neck.
"He's fucking defective."
Anger radiated off him, and if I hadn't known any better, I would have believed him.
They said nothing about his request.

My gut twisted with rage for the women who were lying at their feet, black collars
around their necks, their only clothes, as they pleasured the men who fondled them like
they were objects.
I almost lost control of my blood and screamed at them to let them
women go
Anyone could see what the fuck was happening here.
They were being used.

Sweat dripped down my brow, blurring my vision as I searched desperately for control.
My blood slipped, burrowing deeper into the men, inches from the points of no return,
where I'd completely taken over their free will, but we needed them unaware.
There was only one option.

I flipped on the numb.
The world went cold.
Black and white.
Hold your power back. Concentrate.
I obeyed.
It had been like holding a rabid animal on a chain that was bucking further out of my
grip, but now my arm was steel, my fingers paralyzed on the numb's invisible leash.
It didn't give.
Pay attention. This is a trap. One wrong move and you're all dead.
I didn't wonder what the numb meant or how we were at risk when I had control of the
brothers, just held still and waited because I could taste the danger on my tongue.
A brother grunted as he found his pleasure and gestured lazily with his machine gun
across the room.
The room had a false wall, and it slowly lifted up.
It revealed eight people.
Four girls and four men holding guns to their heads.
Even numb, I felt something close to fear.
Stay still. Don't move.
Four ridiculously muscular men had darkness in their eyes and pressed the barrels to
the heads of four teenage girls, who were sitting unconstrained in chairs.
Jinx, Lucinda, Jala, and Jess sat wide-eyed with fear.

Molly's warning about the dangers of the beast realm echoed through my head: "Mind
games and cunning are commonplace."
The don had set us up.
Was this even the third trial?
Was it all a trap?
How were the girls being held in the backroom of a BDSM club?
Nothing made sense.
Concentrate.
"We heard you were looking for us. How about a trade? Xerxes for these
girls,” one of the wolves said, his voice a rough growl, green eyes glowing
bright as he stared at my omega.
Guns cocked.
I took a step forward.
STAY STILL! the numb screamed at me, and I stopped.
Infect the men. Turn their guns.
I slammed my power into them with so much force that I was left with
the unexplainable knowledge that they were now brain-dead.
My fear for the girls drove me. I didn't have to speak.
Five Ortega brothers sat up straight and turned towards the girls. Arms in
in front of them, they aimed their machine guns at the Black Wolves.
Pull off the safety valves.
Clicks echoed.
The wolf who'd spoken before, who had his gun pressed to Jinx's head,
tipped his head back and laughed. "Yes, we'd heard rumors about your
abilities. But it's truly more impressive in person."
His face hardened.
"They pull the triggers and we pull ours. We've ruled the shadows of this
city for five hundred years. Want to test our reflexes?
The barrel of his gun stabbed harder into Jinx's temple.
"It was all too easy to follow you. The butler and boy didn't even put up a
fight. Don't worry, it was a quick death for both of them. Little anyone can do
against a hail of bullets.”
Aran was dead.
They. Killed. Aran.
My knees wobbled.
CONCENTRATE.
Jinx looked unconcerned as she slowly stroked her ferret.
Jax shook with rage. Cobra, Ascher, and Xerxes stood still as statues,
calculating and assessing.
"You want a trade," Xerxes said slowly. "Then let's trade. I'll go with you
willingly."
The wolf chuckled. "Of course you'll go with us willingly. Only problem is
you'll shoot us as soon as we release the girls. Can't have that."
I inched closer.
DON'T MOVE.
The wolf tapped his lips like he was thinking. "Yes, I do believe we'll have
to kill one of the girls to ensure that you understand the circumstances." He
smiled, and all four men shoved the barrels harder against the girl's temples.
"But which one?"
Look at Lucinda. Focus on her.
Lucinda dragged her fingernails across her forearm, gouging herself with
her fingernails repeatedly.
To anyone else, it would have looked like a sixteen-year-old harming herself
from anxiety.
She's your sister.
Memories of her reassuring me that she could handle herself, that she was
stronger than I realized, flashed before me.
I understood.
Suddenly, the unspoken words that had hung around us when she'd told
me I didn't need to worry about her seemed so loud.
So obvious.
Her fingernails dragged violently until her entire arm was a cut-up mess
of flesh. Blood oozed across her arm from hundreds of cuts.
Steady. Get ready to shoot.
No one paid Lucinda any attention, just a young girl hurting herself in a stressful
situation.
Her blood didn't float in the air like mine did.
Like a snake, it gathered into a small stream and trickled up her arm.
Distract them.
"We'll never let you out of this room alive," I snarled.
The wolves focused their attention on me, mouths curling into smirks and
glaring gazes. "You know nothing about how this city works," said the man with
his gun pointed at Jess's head.
He had a black eye, and Jess's face was covered in bruises. She'd put up
a fight.
Get ready. She can't hold him long.
Lucinda's thin trail of blood crawled across the barrel of the gun and
Disappeared into the man's hand.
She whispered something under her breath.

Everything happened at once.
Lucinda's eyes glowed bright red, and the Black Wolf she'd infected
swung his arm to the left and fired.
He blinked with awareness as his bullet traveled through the brains of his
two packmates, who held Jala and Jess at gunpoint.
FIRE AT THE OTHER TWO.
I took the opening.
Pop. Pop. Two Ortega brothers fired their guns, controlled by my blood.
A smoking blue hole appeared in a forehead.
Three wolves crumpled to the ground.
The wolf Lucinda had taken over, had just killed his two packmates.
And I'd killed him.
Jess grabbed Jala and Lucinda and shoved them behind her as they
scurried away from the dead bodies.
One wolf still stood.
The leader.
The bullet that I'd made one of the brothers shoot at him was embedded
in a glowing wall of blue that shimmered in a circle around him and Jinx.
Enchanted shield device.
Extremely expensive and rare.
Behind it, he held the barrel to Jinx's head as he stepped backward; the
shield traveling with him.
She's his only bargaining chip. He won't kill her.
Fire.
The Ortega brothers opened fire, hundreds of bullets plowing into the blue
shield. None penetrated.
You won't be able to get through the shield.
"Xerxes will follow me outside this door," the wolf said as he backed up to
a door against the wall. "Anyone else follows, and I kill her immediately.
My shield will hold, and you won't be able to get to me. I have nothing left to lose.
He kept the barrel pressed into Jinx's head.

Don't let him leave the room. You'll never get her back.
"Stop!" Jax alpha-barked, and the wolf stilled for a moment.
However, he was strong, because he quickly shook it off, turning the handle of the door.
Xerxes took a step forward to follow.

DON'T LET HIM LEAVE THE ROOM WITH HER.
Bullets sprayed against the shield uselessly.
The woman hanging from the ceiling kept singing.
Jax roared and shifted into a bear. He tore at the shield, but nothing happened.
Ascher shifted into a ram and barreled headfirst, but it didn't break.
Cobra's shadow snakes slammed against the shimmering blue enchantment, unable to
penetrate just like the bullets.
The wolf smirked as he twisted the doorknob. "You can't penetrate the shield. She's
stuck in here with me. There's no getting in."
Jinx smiled up at the much larger man. "No," she said calmly.
The look in her dark eyes was terrifying.
Jinx smiled and said, "There's no getting out."
Jinx's jaw unhinged, and she screamed like she had the first day we'd met the don,
"Freeze!"
Everyone froze.
Behind the shield, the wolf's gun barrel hovered where Jinx had stood moments ago.
"Do it now," Jinx said with a smile to the ferret as she crouched down
and placed it gently on the ground.
The ferret shifted.
Into a man.
Suddenly, a massive naked warrior with shimmering skin stood taller than the wolf
shifter.
Jinx's command wore off, and the leader swung the gun at the new intruder while he
himself started to shift into his wolf form.
But the naked warrior took up the space inside the shield with his impressive muscles.
Even partially shifted, the wolf did not stand a chance.

The warrior broke the wolf's arm, slammed his fist into his throat, and kicked out his
knees.
Then, with a sharp twist of his biceps, he broke the wolf's neck before picking up the
gun and shooting him repeatedly through the head and chest.
It all happened in half a second.
Finally, the warrior stomped on a silver device that hung off the wolf's belt.
The glowing blue shield disappeared.

The warrior heaved with rage, dark eyes glowing, black hair disheveled, blood
splattered across his naked body. His knot and the sweet scent of licorice identified him.
He was another omega in disguise.

"Loyalty" was tattooed across his right thigh.
The ferret was a man.
I'd been right: the don had planted a spy.
Jinx gave the warrior a high five.
Across the room, Lucinda stared up at me with big eyes, tears streaming down her
face.
The threat is eliminated.
I clicked off the numb.
DEATH
over me in endless waves as we sat in the car driving back

G to the mansion.
Everyone was silent.
The omega had introduced himself as Warren after Jax had beaten him
bloody for being a perverted ferret.
Now Warren sat next to Cobra, who had his jeweled hand around the back
of the omega's neck in a death grip.
Warren looked repentant and had Lucinda's sweatshirt wrapped around
his waist to preserve his modesty.
"I knew what he was as soon as the don gave him to me, and he was
always respectful. He left the room when we changed. It wasn't weird.
Jinx had argued as the men slammed their fists into Warren's stomach.
No one had listened to her.
Now we rode in silence.
The truth was a noose around our necks.
Aran and Walter were dead.
My stomach and chest burned like I'd been gutted, and I struggled to
breathe. We were going back to the mansion.
Back to their bodies.
The only thing that stopped me from losing all semblance of sanity was
the five brothers crammed painfully on top of one another in the back seat.
I still controlled them.
We'd decided it was the safest way to keep them constrained, because
who knew what enchanted devices they had on them like the wolves.
We couldn't risk it.
Sweat poured down my face as every muscle in my body burned.

The ball was in the afternoon, and the night was just fading into a gray
morning. Who even knew if we'd passed the third trial. Had there even been
one to begin with?
Everything reeked of betrayal and sabotage.
Just one big setup.
I breathed through the pain.
Lucinda gripped my hand in hers, her savage arm still dripping blood,
her eyes wide with shock.
The don had warned us this world was cruel.
But it was so much worse than I could ever have imagined.
When the car came to a stop, I dragged the Ortega brothers behind me
through the rain, but stopped at the entrance.
Bullet holes speckled the front door, and the ornate glass on either side
had been shot out. Shards lay at our feet.
I couldn't lose Aran.
I couldn't face any of this without her.
I refused.
My hands shook so hard I couldn't twist the doorknob. No one stepped
up to open it, and all of us stood on the stoop, unable to face the truth.
Eventually, Xerxes walked up and shoved it open.
Blood was everywhere.
The foyer stank of death.
Aran lay on top of Walter like she'd tried to shield him with her body, and both were
riddled with bullet holes.
No one could survive that.
I keeled over and heaved bile across the gore-splattered marble.
Lucinda and Jala joined me. Jess collapsed.
Xerxes backed away.
Warren stood in the doorway, staring at the scene in horror.
The alphas didn't move.
My legs gave out, and I fell to my knees. The Ortega brothers mimicked
my motion, my power still wrapped around them.
I screamed.
They bellowed.
Jinx was the only one who walked up to the bodies.
I fell forward onto my forearms, so much pain coursing through me that

I couldn't cry, could do nothing, as the world fell apart around me.
The little girl knelt in front of Aran's body and prodded it.
Her head snapped up, dark eyes wide. "She's—" she whispered so
I couldn't hear the rest of what she said.
I heaved up bile.
Jinx stumbled backwards, eyes frantic. "She's alive."
Her words penetrated.
I crawled forward through the broken glass and blood, the Ortega brothers
followed mindlessly.
"Aran!" I screamed as I collapsed on top of my best friend.
Bullet holes covered her body, and every inch of pale skin was stained red.
Her skin was icy, colder than snow.
She was dead. It was a cruel joke.
I shook.
"Look at her chest." Jinx's voice was far away.
Aran's chest was a mess of bullet holes.
I stared at it with single-minded intensity, refusing to blink, forcing myself to
stare at the carnage that was my best friend.
Ever so slightly…
It rose.
My eyes widened, and I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her as hard as I did
could. "Wake up!" I screamed as I clawed at her gore-covered skin.
All rationality fled my body.
Ascher fell to his knees beside me. "How?"
I didn't care how, or why. I didn't give a flying fuck. All that mattered was she
was still breathing.
"HELP HER!" I screamed frantically at everyone, unsure of what I was asking
for, just knowing that we needed to do something.
Anything.
Sweat poured off my body, the strain of using my blood powers mixed with
the acidic hope that burned me from the inside out, and I collapsed onto my back
beside Aran, choking on manic screams.
Xerxes yelled something about a medical kit.
Maids ran around us.
I prayed to every god—promised myself, anything they wanted—if they would
just let her live.
The Ortega brothers sprawled on the ground beside me, mindless puppets connected
to my will.
Xerxes poured vials of liquid down Aran's throat, and Ascher used tweezers to pull
out the enchanted bullets that were buried in her flesh, the ones that hadn't gone straight
through to Walter.
The butler's chest didn't move.
Tears streaked down Xerxes's cheeks as he worked, glancing over at
Walter every few seconds.
I mourned for him.
The girls scrubbed the blood off Aran's skin, and Jax wrapped belts around her limbs
to stop the blood flow.
Her chest kept moving, but she was ice cold.
Xerxes stopped pouring liquid down her throat and started stabbing her with various
needles.
Jinx helped Ascher pull out bullets.
Glass from the window breaking had left long gashes across her body.
Jala, Cobra, and Jess stitched them up.
Warren handed over supplies, wet rags, and drugs as Xerxes shouted at him to grab
things.
Exhausted from using my powers, I could do nothing but lie among them
carnage, praying that my friend would be okay.
Hours passed.
Aran's condition did not change.
I stared down at her face, willing her to wake up.
I swore at her. Called her every dirty word I could think of. Promised to
hunt her down in the valley of the sun god if she dared to leave me.
Warren said something about the ball coming up.
I screamed expletives at him until he paled and said nothing of it again.
Xerxes kept working, injecting and stabbing her, ordering maids to get different drugs
from the store. They came back with full bags, and he mindlessly stabbed her with
needles.
Ascher pulled out bullet after bullet, working at an exhausting pace, refusing to stop
until the hundreds of shards had been removed from her flesh.
Aran didn't wake up.

Time ticked faster.
I got light-headed, sweat pouring off my face and blurring my vision, as I used my
blood powers for far longer than I should have.
Everything cramped, and the world spun around me.
If there was any truth to the third trial, we needed the brothers.
I did not release them.
There was a long, ragged breath, and someone hacked aggressively.
I turned my head to the side in slow motion, body like a starfish across the bloody
foyer, towards my best friend.
Aran's blue eyes were open, and she was coughing.
For the first time, tears leaked out of my eyes, and I choked on a shallow sob. I'd never
known such relief.
There were no words for the sensation slamming through me.
I crawled towards her, sobbing.
The girls cried with me.
Tears streamed down Ascher's face.
Xerxes helped Aran sit up, all of us wincing at her mangled state, the holes that were
still gaping across her body.
She shouldn't be alive.
After aggressively hacking, Aran choked out, "Ow."
Everyone chuckled.
"You stupid fucking cunt," I snarled, perspiration still half blinding me as my muscles
burned.
Aran held up her arms and inspected the bullet holes covering them.
"Shit." Frost radiated off her, a cold mist that crackled in the air in a white fog.
"How dare you get yourself shot like this." My voice trembled with anger as I glared at
her.
"Shit," Aran repeated as she looked around with wide eyes.
Her face fell as she took in my haggard appearance.
We both knew she was powerful; even if she avoided it, there was darkness inside her.
There was no way she'd been taken by surprise by a hail of bullets. No way she
couldn't have done something in that split second of gunfire to avoid them.
She looked down guiltily.

We both knew it.
I grabbed her by the tattered collar of her sweatshirt and pulled her close to my sweat-
stained face. "You don't get to leave me."
Crystal-blue eyes sparked with fire as she stared back at me.
Hands tried to pull me off her, but my fingers didn't release.
"Promise me!" I screamed into her face, shaking her with desperation.
"Please," my voice cracked with another sob.
Ever so slowly, she nodded, her mangled arms resting gingerly around
my shoulders as she pulled me close.
"I'm a coward," she whispered. "My back, my mother, the fae realm. It was all too much.
I squeezed her back, and she trembled beneath me.

"But I promise. For you and the girls. I promise.
"Um, Sadie." Lucinda tugged at my arm, and I realized the pressure on
My back was the five Ortega brothers hugging us.
I gagged, ordering them to get off. My mindless puppets stumbled away.
"The ball is in less than one hour. You have to go or you'll fail the third
trial. Your lives are still at risk," Warren said frantically.
"Who's that?" Aran asked.
"That's Noodle, the ferret," I spat in his direction and glared at him.
I still remember him running around with underwear on his head.
It didn't matter if the don gave him to Jinx to protect the girls like he'd
claimed. The man was a pervert.
Aran swore vehemently, summing up the situation. "Why is he still alive?"
I shrugged. "He saved Jinx's life. But I think Jax is just waiting to kill him.”
Warren paled.
"Do you feel alive?" I asked tentatively, unsure how my best friend
seemed to be okay even though physically she clearly wasn't.
"Not really, but I don't feel dead." Aran shrugged, then winced at the movement.
Everyone stood up and looked around, taking in the fact that all of us
were covered in Aran's blood and shards of glass.
We had less than an hour until the ball.
A maid, who stood next to Xerxes, holding supplies, gestured up the stairs and said,
"The don delivered lots of formal wear yesterday so you could choose what you liked best."
It's in your closets.
Xerxes stared down at the sheet he'd had the maids place over Walter's dead body.
I could read the question on his face. It was the same one I was asking myself.
How were we supposed to go to a ball after everything that happened

happened? How were we supposed to act normal after all this?
Jax cracked his neck. "Everyone is attending. The girls and Aran. We're sticking
together."
We all nodded in agreement, although I grimaced down at Aran's gaping wounds.
Ascher gestured at Aran. "We need to get her a hoverchair. She can't walk."
Xerxes said something to the maids, and they scurried off.

"Sit here and stay," I ordered the Ortega brothers, my limbs shaking
from the strain of commanding them.
The world wobbled around me, but I forced myself to act normal as I turned to
Ascher. "Please carry Aran to our bedroom. I need to clean her up.
He nodded and picked her up gingerly.

Lucinda went to hold my hand, but Cobra picked me up before she could grab it.
"You're almost done, Kitten. You can do this," he whispered down at

me "Deep breaths," he coached.
Annoyance sparked.
"Don't tell me what to do," I said weakly.
Cobra chuckled even though his eyes were tight with concern like him
carried me to the bedroom.
The shadow snake on my back sent me images of support, like I was a weakling
who needed his help.
"Fuck you," I growled and sent back violent images. "I don't need your help."
"No, Kitten," Cobra whispered as the snake sent me images of love and warmth. "I
fuck you."
He winked as he turned on the shower and put me down on the toilet
next to it. Ascher gingerly put Aran on the floor next to the tub.
Cobra left the room, but Ascher lingered.
"Are you sure you don't need help?" Ascher asked as he narrowed his
eyes at my sweat-stained face and trembling muscles.
I would never forget how he dug the bullets out of Aran for hours, working
tirelessly to save my best friend.
"Thank you," I whispered, my voice catching.
Ascher's tattoos rippled across his torso as he dragged his fingers along
my hairline and leaned over me.
"Princess, you understand I would do anything for you?" His amber eyes
were dark with intensity as he stared down at me.
"Anything," he repeated.
I swallowed thickly. He'd thrown himself face first off a platform in the fae
realm to cushion my fall with his body.
"I know, Ascher. You've shown me."
The big man fell to his knees in front of me, his tattooed biceps lying on
either side of the toilet as he caged me in.
Intoxicating pine filled my nose.
Ascher said, "I know I've fucked up in the past, and I have some anger
issues, but I would go to the ends of the earth for you, Sadie.”
He swallowed thickly, flames leaping across his throat. "You're mine
everything," he said as he dragged a colorful knuckle across my lips.
The man who was closest to my age, who'd already killed hundreds of
people, trembled before me.
"I love you, Princess," Ascher whispered as he leaned his head forward
so our foreheads touched.
He inhaled deeply, and his voice broke. "I love you so fucking much it
terrifies me. I don't know how to fucking take care of someone. Don't know
how to be something for anybody. But I want to be someone for you.
I held my breath as a buzzing sensation spread across my chest.
"Princess, I want to take care of you. I want to love you.
I exhaled shakily. "I love you too, Ascher. I want to take care of you too.
Ascher grabbed my face and slammed his warm lips against mine,
consuming me with his mouth until all I knew was the heady scent of pine.
He pulled back. "Even if you have crazy fucking friends."
I chuckled and punched him in the arm weakly. His hands on my face
were the only things keeping me sitting upright as exhaustion pummeled
through me.
"Please, don't mind me," Aran drawled. "Should we all do celebratory

anal now that we've established we all love each other?”
Ascher chuckled as I groaned with embarrassment.
Why did she like this?
"No, please continue," Aran said. "I only puked in my mouth six times." She
lowered her voice in a mockery of Ascher's. "Oh, baby, I love you so much I
just wanna protect you and have your babies and be a little bitch for you."
“Oh, fuck off. You're just jealous," Ascher said as he rolled his eyes at her.
Aran continued, "Is he always this sappy? I've literally never been so embarrassed for
someone in my entire life. Did you plan that speech beforehand, because if so, I'm
ashamed for you, man. You should have come to me first."
"All right, I'm leaving," Ascher said as he stood up and looked down at me.
"Are you sure you're okay, Princess?"
The corners of his mouth pulled up in the cutest little smile, like he was still
buzzing from telling me he loved me.
Sun god, he was adorable.
Six feet, five inches of tattoos, muscles, and sweetness.
I grinned back at him, then rolled my eyes dramatically. "We're fine.
I'm not some weak woman that's going to collapse as soon as the men leave."
I pushed my shoulders back and projected competence. "Go get ready. We
don't have time."
With furrowed brows, Ascher backed out of the bathroom, eyes on my face
as he waited for me to ask for help.
"Love you," he said softly, a red tint staining the tops of his golden
cheeks, before he turned around and hurried away.
My heart soared as my body gave out on me at the same time. I slumped
forward, exhaustion hammering through me.
"So we both agree that it was cringy and embarrassing?"
"Oh, shut it," I groaned at Aran as I collapsed onto my knees in front of
her. "No, it was sweet," I mumbled under my breath defensively.
"So how are we going to do this?" Aran asked, changing the subject
with a weak chuckle, her face a bloodstained mess.
Her gore covered my skin.
"The only way we can," I said with conviction, then shoved awkwardly
her body over the lip of the tub into the shower.
Immediately, I collapsed beside her.
We lay together under the hot spray, fully clothed, unable to move, limbs tangled, as I
handed her a bar of soap and we both scrubbed weakly at our skin.
The water ran red around us.

"I think we're cursed," I said through gritted teeth as I picked shards of
glass out of my skin, the water stinging unbearably.
Aran haphazardly rubbed soap across the holes still dotting her flesh.
Bloody limbs entangled in the tub. It was a morbid scene.
"You know, they banned guns in the fae realm because enchanted bullets
don't just kill shifters."
Aran paused.
"They also kill fae."
Droplets slammed against the tub and hammered our sensitive flesh.
Aran turned her head and pulled her hair back to expose her neck and
ears. "My hair wasn't the only thing that changed when I took off my mother's
toe ring."
It took me a second to process what she was showing me.
Then it hit me. "Well, fuck."
Aran slumped against me, and I patted her head as we lay dejectedly
under the warm spray.
Thinking about how everything was messed up, thinking about how
nothing was what it seemed.
Because Arabella Alis Egan, fae princess, rightful ruler of the fae realm, heir to the
seat of death, daughter of the fae queen, wanted fae monarch, didn't have fae ears.
Aran wasn't fae.

THE BALL
T .
Lights flashed, reporters yelled questions about our trials, and betas screamed
and reached out as we walked down a gold silk carpet that spanned three city
blocks.
The entire financial district was blocked off for the celebration.
To the casual onlookers, we were glamorous starlets walking into a large
domed glass structure.
An ultraexclusive event held by the don every equinox.
The birthplace of the new alphas who would rule Serpentine City.
My knuckles were white as I pushed Aran's floating hoverchair. It was
the only thing keeping me upright.
Sweat dripped down my forehead as my vision wavered, the five brothers
trailing behind me mindlessly.
It was the reason I'd forgotten makeup.
But I wasn't completely giving the middle finger to ostentatious demands of
authority.
My shimmery gold dress had an open back, and it contrasted nicely with the
dark circles under my eyes and the strain on my face.
Aran wore a black suit that covered her body, but the gashes across it
the side of her head from the bullets were bloody and uncovered.
Betas standing along the roped-off carpet winced when Aran levitated by.
She grinned and flipped them off, unruly blue hair a wild mass of curls
that were stained red with blood.
Déjà vu hit me as I remembered a fancy carpet in the shifter realm.
Back then, Aran had preened and smiled at the attention, and I'd stood
beside her all dolled up and pretty.
An outsider would remark how far we've fallen.
Aran flipped off a reporter and rolled her eyes when the woman gagged
at the jagged cuts across her face.
It felt like we'd risen.
We both were buzzing with the accomplishment of staring pain, fear, and endless odds
in the face.
We'd survived certain death.
Adrenaline, exhaustion, and confusion warred inside me, and I felt slightly
euphoric as I rode the forbidden high.
Aran sucked on her enchanted pipe, blowing electric-blue smoke into it
the face of the outraged reporter.
I giggled as I "accidentally" slammed the hover chair into her legs.
Aran laughed and held the pipe up to my lips so I could take another drag.
Sucking on the stick, my vision smudged from smoke and fatigue, I

pushed us forward in a wobbly line.
"Sun god save us," Cobra grumbled as he tried to take the floating chair
from my hands.
"Don't you fucking dare," I snarled as I held on to the handles like they were a lifeline.
Aran cussed him out with an impressive vocabulary, and Cobra gave up,
realizing we were mentally unwell and dead serious.
"Has she always been like this?" Cobra asked Lucinda.
My sister sighed heavily. "One time after Dick beat her super bad, she
suddenly had the urge to take up carpentry. She cut down an entire tree and
was convinced she was going to build herself a chair.”
Cobra gaped. "No shit."
Lucinda sparkled in her strappy white gown. She smiled sadly, clearly
thinking about our awful childhood, as she rubbed her cut-up forearm.
"She didn't make anything, just dragged the tree through the forest, shouting
to the moon goddess."
Aran pressed the pipe to my lips, and I took another long drag.
Cobra stared at me like he'd never seen me before, and I shrugged.
The closest solution I'd found to dealing with trauma was the pure
elation of starting a new hobby project and not completing it.
Aran's hoverchair slammed under the rope, into an unsuspecting beta.

Lights flashed, and people screamed as Aran launched out of her chair
and tried to strangle the man.
"Shhhh, shhhh," I giggled as I shoved the pipe into her mouth and dragged
her back into her chair. "It's okay, sweetie. He didn't mean to get in our way." I
patted her head as she settled back down.
The beta we'd just plowed over, and attempted to assassinate, gaped at
us in outrage.
"Don't be such a man about it." I huffed over my shoulder as I pushed past
him back onto the endless golden carpet.
Aran rolled her eyes. "Everyone is so sensitive these days. I only
choked him a little. You just can't do anything anymore. It's ridiculous.
I nodded in agreement. "I'm worried for the next generation. They're too soft."
Said generation (four girls ranging from twelve to eighteen years old)
stared at us with concern as we tried to race them down the carpet.
"You're just afraid to lose to a woman in a hover chair!" Aran screamed as
we sprinted past them in a blur of speed and agility.
Of course we won.
We were the best.
"Pussy!" I flipped them off as I came to a screeching halt in front of the
golden doors of the venue.
Two Mafia betas stood in tailored suits and sunglasses, blocking the door
with their muscles and glowing guns.
"Loyalty" was scrawled across both their foreheads.
I stated the obvious. "Tacky tattoo placement."
The corner of one of their mouths twitched, and I took that as my signal
to unload my grievances.
"What is with the endless carpet? Are you trying to kill us all from
Cardiac arrest before we arrive? Is that secretly the third trial?
They didn't respond, and Aran generously handed me the pipe for another
long drag.
After a deep inhale, I got up into the face of one of the betas and blew out
smoke slowly, enjoying how he tried not to cough.
It really was a very powerful show of dominance.
"Have you ever used that gun, buddy?"
His eyebrows twitched.
We both lunged for it at the same time, but before I could disarm him and shoot him in
the face for refusing to answer me, large hands that smelled like chestnuts wrapped around
my neck and dragged me away.
“Jax, Sadie, Cobra, Ascher, and Xerxes. We're on the list. Also, we brought our family
with us." Jax growled.
The betas didn't argue, just opened the doors for us.
"You better open that door for me, buddy," I snarled at the beta I'd wrestled with.
"All right, you've officially lost your privileges," Jax said as he pushed me into the
venue. "You need to release the brothers now. You're not acting well."
Ascher grabbed the hoverchair.

Aran screamed, "I'm being kidnapped!"
Ascher rolled his eyes.
Cobra and Xerxes pulled the brothers forward (for show, we'd put handcuffs and
chains on them), and I narrowed my eyes at Jax. "Is this your way of saying I'm not pretty?"
Jax narrowed his eyes back. "What?"

"Don't answer that," Jess said as she walked up beside him. her green
black hair was plated in a braid and matched her velvet dress.
"I think they should stop smoking that pipe," Jala said with wide pink
eyes, her hand clutched in Lucinda's.
Jinx rolled her eyes. "What, you don't enjoy two women acting like complete lunatics?"
"Don't test me," I hissed at her.

Jax closed his eyes and tilted his head back like he was praying to the sun god.
A full-blown smile transformed Cobra's face. "Kitten, did you just hiss?"
"Sadie, release your control of the brothers," Xerxes snapped as he

tugged at my hair and omega-whined with displeasure. "Do it now."
Alpha instincts reared inside me, and I obeyed.
Instantly, the crushing weight that had been driving me into a mindless state dissipated.
My legs buckled with relief, and Jax caught me.

I gasped slowly, suddenly aware that we were standing on the edge of a massive
dance floor, and that I'd been acting crazy.
A few dozen shifters were present, and they twirled expertly as a live band played a
classical tune.
The entire ceiling was glass, and the gray skies above were bleeding
into the darkness of night.
It was like walking into a storybook.
Elegance, refinement, and decadence were the words that popped into my mind.
Aran's hoverchair wobbled as she lunged at Ascher.

Behind me, the Ortega brothers were face-planted onto the floor—I'd been right about
leaving them brain-dead.
Xerxes and Cobra looked unconcerned, dragging them by chains across the floor.
"Aran," I hissed as my friend weakly mimicked stabbing Ascher in the kidney with a
knife, as I wrestled her back into her chair. "Just pretend to be okay for a few hours," I
whispered as I held her.
Aran's body was sweaty, her crystal eyes clouded with pain.
She wasn't present, lost in a pain- and drug-induced delirium.
Xerxes had stabbed her with at least thirty different needles.
"We can kill them all later," I promised, and she stopped struggling against me. "You
just have to be a spy for tonight. You have to be discreet.
Aran's blue eyes twinkled, and she grinned like a maniac. "We'll take them out later?"
I nodded conspiratorially. "On my cue. Just wait for it.

Mollified, Aran relaxed back in her seat and promptly started snoring.
"Should we be worried?" Ascher stared down at her with concern.
"Probably," I said.
Suddenly, the doors opened behind us, and Warren entered. "You need to bring the
brothers to the don immediately. He's at the high table directly across the dance floor."
"Don't tell us what to do," Cobra snapped at him, and Jax growled with agreement.
"Why did you have to come with us?" I asked as I glared at him. "I thought your role
was to be a perverted ferret."
Warren sighed heavily and dragged his hands through his hair. "I told you, I was
assigned by the don to protect the girls. It's my first mission.
His annoyingly sparkly skin glistened as he sent a boyishly pitiful glance at the girls.
"How old did you say you were?" I asked.

"Eighteen," he mumbled as he focused on his shoes. "I just shifted."
"Oh cool, I'm also eighteen. I'm going to get tested soon." Jess beamed
at him like she'd just made a friend.
"And I'm sixteen, Jala's fourteen, and Jinx is twelve," Lucinda supplied helpfully as
she also smiled at the boy like she was smitten.
I shared a glance with the men. None of us liked how much the girls
were fawning over him.
We had to kill him.
Warren had the decency to look embarrassed as he said, “I know. The
Don't worry about your safety."
Lucinda had the audacity to giggle and bat her eyelashes at him.
I opened my mouth to give my sister the sex talk, and the all-men-are-trash talk,
when a beta with a gun in his waistband and sunglasses cleared his throat. "The don
will see you now."
Cobra and Xerxes charged ahead, dragging the brothers across the dance floor as
shifters continued to twirl around us, completely unconcerned by the violence.
My skin prickled.
The beast realm was a terrifying place.
We came to a stop in front of a raised dais, where the don lounged
casually in a golden chair.
He had a cigarette in his lips, betas with guns surrounding him for protection, and a
bored expression on his face.
"The Ortega brothers," Cobra sneered as he kicked one of the limp
bodies on the ground. "They're still alive. Mostly.”
The don kept smoking his cigarette but didn't say anything.
Clarissa walked up to stand beside us, a bloodied man limping behind her in cuffs.
She fluttered her eyes coyly at the men and gave me a death glare before turning to
the dawn. "Here's Carle Fruya, the beta weapons dealer from the wanted list."
They didn't say anything.

Suddenly, six betas walked forward from seemingly out of nowhere.
"Please, I have contacts. I have an entire network I can give you," Carle
begged the don, his dark eyes frantic.
The betas pointed their guns at our prisoners.
Six pops ran out in synchrony.

They killed them all.
The music kept playing; the shifters kept twirling in their sparkly
dresses, and the don didn't even blink as he slowly smoked his cigarette.
Blood splattered across the glistening white floor.
The now-familiar stench of gunpowder and burning steel filled me
senses.
A shiver rolled up my spine.
The shifter realm had been terrifyingly cold and the fae realm savagely
bloodthirsty, but the guns in the beast realm were downright sinister.
Everyone stood in front of the dais, waiting.
Finally, the don waved his hand, and five stunning women in blush-
colored dresses floated in front of us.
Divine sugary scents wafted off them, and their features were doll-like in their
perfection.
They were omegas.
The girls blushed prettily and smiled up at my alphas as innocence radiated
around them, their scents and demeanors begging an alpha to wrap them up and
protect them.
Indescribable pain twisted in my chest.
I took a step back.
My heartbeat was loud in my ears, and I knew what the don was going to say
before he said it.
"You will pick a female omega to complete your pack and bear the next heir. You will
choose tonight or—” the don arched his eyebrow, not needing to finish his sentence.
The threat was apparent.

I didn't wait to see what they said, just discreetly grabbed Aran's
floating chair and dragged us away.
Aran passed me the pipe, and I took it with shaking fingers.
It was amazing how when you'd thought you'd hit rock bottom, there was still farther to
fall.
GHOSTS RETURN
I in the corner of the room.

Yes, stealing a plate full of hors d'oeuvres and devouring them while facing the wall
was not a healthy coping mechanism, but I was too exhausted to care.
Instead of wallowing in depression because the men were falling in love

with a pretty omega female, I'd chosen the classier path.
Eating and staring at the wall while I planned their deaths.
Sure, they'd all said they loved me, but that meant nothing at the end of the day.
I loved bread, or a good book, but I wouldn't die for it.

Love didn't mean the men were going to choose certain death at the hands of the don.
I wasn't irrational; I understood they had lives and responsibilities they couldn't forsake.
It just sucked for them because it would be the last choice they ever made.
I wasn't going to graciously let them go, or some annoying weak woman bullshit.
I'd made a plan.

It was simple—if the men chose an omega after telling me they loved
me, I would shoot them in the face.
They were dead.
If they really loved me, technically, they'd want me to kill them for betraying me.
It made perfect sense.

I sighed heavily. It sucked that I was going to have to kill all four of my
lovers later tonight, but someone had to do it.
What was the alternative? Let them be with another woman? I scoffed loudly.
The only thing more depressing than my upcoming very tragic quadruple
homicide was my best friend's erratic behavior.
Aran had promised to "hunt down our prey" and had hovered off, which
was concerning if I bothered to think about it.
Which I didn't.
Last time I'd seen her, Aran was spinning around the dance floor with a
small circle of beta females who were taken by her manly charms.
I hoped she found true love.
Cause all I found was pain, heartbreak, and a small case of acid reflux
that I thought was stress induced. It was probably from the four pieces of food
I was trying to swallow at once.
I'd also faced the wall because I'd spotted Warren twirling Jess across
the dance floor, and it had filled me with an un-sun-godly level of rage.
Everything about the boy pissed me off: (1) he was a ferret, (2) he had
manipulated the girls, (3) he ate underwear, (4) he had sparkly skin that I was
definitely not jealous of, and (5) ) once again, the underwear.
It was obvious he sucked.
I shoved another piece of food that was labeled "mini meat delicacy" but
was 100 percent a small hot dog into my mouth. I wondered if Cobra was
hissing at the omega girls and showing off his pretty jewels.
I'd kill him first.
He wanted that.
Emotions screamed across my shadow snake, but if I imagined the
snake being smothered, I was able to tune it out.
I needed time alone to eat hot dogs and plan their deaths without them
interfering.
What else did the universe want from me?
I'd had group sex in a BDSM club in front of thousands of screaming shifters.
Been assaulted in a bathroom at gunpoint, enslaved five men with my

blood, and had to watch the girls almost get murdered.
I thought I'd lost my best friend, and now my men were being wooed by
perfect omega girls.
They didn't even follow me.

Sure, I'd slipped away before they'd realized, smothered my connection to
the shadow snake, and hid behind a massive house plant in the corner of the
room. Yes, I hid behind a buffet of food that concealed my scent, but it was still
the principle of it all.
Wasn't love always supposed to find a way?
No one had found me.
Therefore, they were all dead.
I curled in on myself and debated having a nice, long cry, but something
about a meltdown seemed so gauche.
Either I was that bitch, or I wasn't.
And that bitch didn't cry over men; she enslaved them with her blood
powers, laughed as they cried, and killed them for betraying her.
I ate another hot dog.
A horrifying realization hit me: Was I becoming a villain?
I do look good in black.
"Are you okay, sugar?" Molly asked, and I screamed with surprise.
Choking on a hot dog at her sudden appearance.
"No," I answered honestly after I'd spent five awkward minutes trying to swallow.
Her impressive muscles bunched as she looked down at me with a sad

smile. "This realm will do that to you."
I opened my mouth to explain how actually the pain had started a decade
ago, back when my "master" had beaten me bloody for sport. I snapped my
jaw shut at the tension on her face.
While it was hard to remember sometimes, everything wasn't all about
me
"Are you okay?" I asked.
Molly's eyes were bloodshot, like she'd been crying, and her tanned skin
was sickly pale.
She ran her trembling fingers down her face. "No, I'm really not."
A long minute passed as we both stood in silence, the weight of our mutual
grief wrapping around each other.
Finally, Molly asked quietly, "Will you come with me?" I need to..." she
trailed off, her hand shaking harder. "Never mind, forget I was here."
She backed away.
"No, wait." I jumped to my feet and followed after her.
"What do you need?" Is someone hurting you? I asked with confusion,

glancing down at her boulder shoulders and wondering what terrifying creature
could scare Molly.
"I can't. No, don't," Molly sputtered as she walked quickly away from me, zigzagging
through dancing couples as the string instruments played a fast tune.
I hurried to catch her.

Something was very wrong.
At the corner of the dais, Molly spun around and whispered furiously, "Sadie,
you need to leave." You need to get out of—”
"Molly, you made it," Z said with a smile as he walked up to us, going right
into her personal space.
As I turned my head to the newcomer, I made eye contact with the don.
who sat above us on his throne.
He stared at me with burning emerald eyes, his expression intense.
I turned back to Molly and didn't miss the way she flinched at Z's
appearance.
"Stay away from her," I growled and shoved at Z weakly.
Just following Molly across the room left me gasping for air. My vision
kaleidoscoped as sweat poured down my face, and I tried to look tough.
Z grabbed my wrists easily and smiled down at me.

Staring into his dark eyes, the memory of Hunter saying Z had told him
about our third trial whispered through my brain.
Oh shit.
Before I could do anything, a knife flashed through the air.
Burning pain.
Z shoved me away, and I stumbled, unsure of what had just happened.
What hurts so fucking bad?
In slow motion, I looked down.
Gore.
It lay on the floor, a small ring glowing blue on it.
Blood dripped.
My finger lay severed on the white marble ground, severed cleanly off
by one swipe of a blade.
Shock set in, and I turned in horror to stare at Z, who was sneering
down at me with a knife in his hand.
Molly's shoulders slumped, but she didn't look surprised.

I couldn't think.
Couldn't move.
Just stared in horror at my finger on the ground, the gaping cavity on
my hand spurting blood, and the instructors who had betrayed me.
But Molly had tried to warn me.
I shivered as sweat burned my eyes, and I went to wipe it away. Warm blood spurted
across my face as I accidentally brought up my mangled hand.
Everything shook as I shivered uncontrollably.

This was my limit.
What. The. Fuck.
I would have collapsed, but my knees had locked, the world spinning around me as
the shock overwhelmed me.
I wasn't coming back from this.
Did I even want to?
The don's words ran through me—“Be careful, my son. This realm is
crueler than you can even imagine."
Blood dripped from my hand as I stood there and waited.
Waited for the punch line.
The purpose of the savagery.
Waited for the fucking point to be made.
"You bastard," I whispered at Z as the shock slowly wore off
unadulterated rage burned me from the inside out.
"Quinque," Molly said, her voice cracking like she regretted the words the
minute they left her lips.
It hit me.
A flyer had said to speak the Latin number of the street, Fifth Street,
and the High Court would appear.
Slowly, the pieces fell together.
A scarred woman kidnapped the fae queen and is wanted.
I glanced down at the low scoop neck of my dress, felt cold air kissing my
skin from the open back.
My scars were stark and hideous against my golden skin.
An inappropriate chuckle bubbled in my throat. Was this why villains
laughed maniacally?
I got it.
Because somehow, I was back where I started, covered in scars.

The enchanted ring that had disguised them lay on my severed finger on the floor.
They played me.

There was a loud bang as two figures appeared before us in a cloud of smoke, their
silhouettes concealed by the rolling fog.
The music stopped.
Z smiled at Molly in anticipation, and she mouthed "sorry" at me while simultaneously
looking at Z like he hung the moon, like they were deeply in love and this was a grand
romantic gesture.
They'd been playing me all along.
More inappropriate laughter bubbled in my throat.
My finger lay on the ground.
It mocked me.
It didn't escape my notice that I stood alone, far apart from everyone else in the room.
The don stared coldly down from the dais.

Across the floor there was a loud hiss, a deep roar, and screamed expletives. My men
and the girls were surrounded in a circle by Mafia members pointing guns at them. Z had
planned it all out.
I would face this alone.
The fog cleared.
For a long second, shock settled through my bones, and my brain
refused to process what it was seeing.
My neurons screamed at me that there had been an error, that it wasn't real.
It couldn't be.
Adrenaline and shock had pulsed through me so many times in the last
twenty-four hours that there was nothing left for my body to give.
No emotion left to feel.
For the first time in my life, without having to flip a mental switch, I was numb.
"Hello, Sadie," Dick said casually. "Long time, no see." It was the same
man who'd beat me my entire life.
The same evil man, except massive blue crystal wings arched off his back.
Wings.
Next to him stood a man in a black cloak, and unforgettable blue eyes
glowed under his hood. The scent of ice wafted off both of them.
It was the man who took me, Aran, and Cobra to the sacred lake.
I took a step back.
The throbbing pain in my left hand was the only thing I could feel.
Z grabbed my shoulder and stopped my retreat. He flung me forward.
I slipped on my blood and collapsed to my knees.
My vision closing in on all sides, I stared blankly up at the two men.
"For what reason did you call the High Court?" Dick asked Z in the same
voice that haunted my nightmares.
Z bowed his head, a smile still plastered across his face. "We have
found the half-breed, the scarred woman that captured the fae queen.”
Another round of inappropriate mirth burst inside me.
I was so dead it wasn't even funny. My fate lay in the hands of Dick, my
tormentor, and the main antagonist in my story.
It was hilarious.
I didn't have an ounce of hope.
Dick's face reddened like it always did when he was enraged. And
what evidence do you have that this is the woman who took her?”
I nodded, accepting my fate.
But his words penetrated, and I stopped moving, gaping up at him
shock. He'd seen me in the fae realm; he didn't need evidence.
What the flying fuck was going on?
Z immediately explained, like he'd been expecting this. He pulled out a
familiar syringe from his pocket and held it up.
"We'd heard rumors about a girl with red eyes from the fae realm and
suspected her immediately. Molly injected her with this drug that reveals half-
breed traits, and it caused her to fight extremely fast, and she had an episode
where she muttered about hearing a woman's voice. It wouldn't have had
any reaction if she wasn't a half-breed."
Holy moon goddess. Cobra was right: my muscles didn't look bigger.
Disappointing.
Dick's face didn't change, and Z waved his hands more dramatically as
he tried to get his point across.
"Plus, an alpha, Hunter, fought her in the second trial, and he said she
threw something at him and it overtook his free will. She only survived
because she commanded him to stop fighting her.”
Dick's expression darkened, and Z smirked.

He knew he'd won.
"She didn't have any scars, but we noticed the enchanted ring on her
finger. Heard they were commonly used for bodily concealments in the fae
realm. I chopped off her finger, and looked at her body.
Z spat with disgust.
He sneered at my abused form while pointing to my finger proudly.
I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes as I glared up at Dick.
Oh, he knew about my scars all right.
Dick and the cloaked man, apparently High Court members, stared at Z
for a long time.
Nobody spoke.
The silence stretched, and I shifted at the awkwardness.
My head was spinning from blood loss, but I couldn't gather the courage
to touch my gaping finger hole.
Just let the blood slowly drip out of me.
I was tired, but maybe I could still use it. Should I fling it at Z or Dick
first?
Definitely Dick.
I couldn't take my eyes off the man that tormented me, standing next to
the man who'd somehow positioned all of us in the shifter realm.
"Why did you do it?" Dick asked Z.
Molly sighed, and Z's smile fell. "Molly and I lost our packmates last year.
Without a pack, we've lost our resources and have been relegated to training
new recruits." He spat when he said recruits, like it was the most heinous job
possible.
"With this reward, we can afford to attract new packmates and can go
back to policing the city like we should be."
Dick's eyebrows furled, his signature expression before he lost his
Temper and beat the shit out of a person. Or at least beat the shit out of me.
"I believe the flyer said there would be no reward."
Z's mouth dropped with confusion.
The cloaked man pulled out a familiar flyer and handed it over.
Dick read, "A woman covered in scars who is suspected of being a half-
Breed is expected to have kidnapped her. Contact the High Court.”
He dropped the flyer onto the ground.
Dick's voice dripped with scorn. "It says nothing about a reward. It says
to contact us, which you did. That is all that was needed."
He looked away from Z, eyes dark with fury, and his massive blue
wings unfurled impressively as he turned to me.
I stared up at my monster.
He glared back.
THE THIRD TRIAL
"F .”
I spat at Dick.
My saliva dripped down his leg and filled me with satisfaction.
Dick's complexion was ruddy with anger. "I see you're as incompetent
as ever Really, you got your fucking finger cut off by an idiotic alpha?”
"I see you're as homicidal as ever. Where's the belt? I know you're just
dying to beat me," I mocked.
"Also, didn't that dude"—I pointed at the cloaked man who still stood beside him with
his hood up—"take me from the sacred lake while you chased after him like a crazy man?"
Now you're working together? Must be awkward.
Dick's face reddened another shade.

He was so easy to wind up.
Dick's lips puckered like he tasted something sour. "We had a minor
disagreement on the best way to raise you. I wanted to give you more time
to come into your powers. He wanted to throw you into training. I was trying
to protect you.
I burned with anger.
"You did a great job of protecting me." I gestured at the scars littering my
body. "Parent of the fucking year."
Dick's spittle rained down, like it always did when he lost control of his rage.
"Don't you have fucking blood powers? Did I not beat you with a belt
until you bled? Can you still not see that everything I did was for your benefit?
Or are you still the same ignorant little girl?
I blinked.
Then I blinked again.
Grabbing my head in my bloody hand, I scrambled to my feet until I was face-to-face
with Dick.
"You're telling me you TORTURED ME EVERY DAY OF MY FUCKING LIFE BECAUSE
YOU WERE TRYING TO HELP ME UNCOVER MY BLOOD POWERS?"
My voice was rough and ragged, a result of his handiwork.

"YES!" he screamed back.
We stood chest to chest, snarling in each other's faces.
Under the glass ceiling of an opulent ballroom, in a cruel realm filled with guns and
monsters, the evils of my past slanted and twisted into something different.
Still nightmares, but maybe less evil?

I'd always thought it was weird how Dick had beaten me like it was a routine.
A chore he had to do.

He'd always get so mad at me, like he wanted me to do something but I wasn't doing it.
I'd always thought it was strange how he didn't have a motive.

He'd just given me a motive.
I covered my mouth in horror, and I took a step away from him.
"Why?" I rasped out, my blood splattering both of us as I gestured at him with my
bleeding wound. "Wings?" I added weakly, not even sure what I was asking.
He understood.
Dick spoke quietly so only I could hear. "War has come to the realms as it does every
eon."
He paused.
The soft splat of my blood dripping onto the ground echoed between us.
A familiar sound.
Dick sighed heavily, and for the first time, he looked down at me like he didn't hate me.
Something close to pity flashed across his face.

When Dick spoke, each word smashed across my consciousness, breaking down my
psyche into smithereens.
"A champion is needed to lead the shifters and fae into battle. They are some of the
strongest warriors in the realm, but they struggle to obey the gods. This champion is
created using rare technology from the god realm.
They are made for the singular purpose of defense, and they have to embrace their
birthright and learn to lead. But first, they have to learn to survive.”
I took a step away from him.

His voice rose. "She births her champions, and every eon, they have no choice but to
rise."
I took another step.
"It was my job to hurt you." Dick's eyes softened, like he had feelings and wasn't a
soulless monster. "It was my job to break you and build you into something stronger."
I backed away.
"I'm what you would know as an angel. We are her soldiers. I had no choice but to
serve her and to help you. She gives a piece of herself to form her champion. To save the
realms.
My knees shook.
Dick stepped forward, walking towards me, not letting me get away, demanding I hear
the truth.
"When you were young, you didn't hear her. You weren't showing anything
signs of your birthright."
"No," I whispered as my back bumped into the dais.
There was nowhere left to run.
Dick came closer. "I was desperate—I sacrificed so much for you, more than you can
know. Only when I beat you, did your eyes glow red. Only then did you finally hear her."
A silent scream burned my throat.

"They always make more female half-breeds," Dick whispered. "A backup plan if the
expected champion does not come into their power.
They've failed before."
I froze.
My lungs stopped dead as I realized what he was saying.
Suddenly, Dick looked tired and older than I remembered. "If you didn't hear her—if
you didn't come into your blood powers—I was told to exterminate you and try the next one.
If that one failed, there were three others."
We both turned our heads at the same time.

We stared across the ballroom at the four girls: Lucinda, Jala, Jinx, and
Jess, who I'd always thought of as so sheltered.
Dick's words were so quiet I almost didn't hear them. "I know how much
Lucinda meant to you. It was you or her. Even though you didn't know why, I
knew what you would have chosen. You would have demanded I do it to you.”
I turned back to Dick.

Up close, he smelled like the ice of the shifter realm.
Coldness wafted off him in a burning wave.
And as I looked up into the eyes of my antagonist, I saw the truth shining
in them, my bottom lip trembled.
It wasn't fair.
Dick was supposed to be the bad guy.
I wasn't supposed to understand what he was saying. I wasn't supposed to
to feel a swell of relief that he'd beaten me bloody to spare my sister.
I wasn't supposed to feel gratitude.
It took a couple of tries—my mouth was paper dry—but I finally croaked out six words.
"Who is this she that you serve?"

The second the question left my lips, I wished I'd swallowed it down.
Wanted so desperately to take it back.
Dick tilted his head up, and I followed his gaze.
The glass ceiling of the ballroom, which had earlier showcased dreary
gray clouds, was now a midnight-black sky.
It was clear why the ball was on the equinox.
For the first time since I'd been in this realm, clouds didn't cover the night
sky.
Six full moons were massive, gleaming and pale in a straight line.
So large in the sky it seemed as if you could reach up and touch them.
Like they were going to crash through the clear ceiling of the glass ballroom.
"The moon goddess," Dick said.

His voice was a quiet rasp, but he might as well have shouted. Screamed
the words at me Bellowed in my face.
The voice.
The woman who ordered me when I fought.
The feeling of endless strength, emotionless precision.

The thing that made me a killing machine.
The numb.
It was the moon goddess, the woman I'd always felt an overwhelming
compulsion to worship.
Endless seconds trickled by as I stared up at the luminous moons and
realized it had all gone wrong at birth.
I'd never had a choice in any of it.
"What about the poems reading themselves to us?" I asked.
Dick narrowed his eyes, "What poems?"
My intuition screamed with warning, and I gnawed on my lower lip, not
wanting to think too deeply about the masculine voice that bellowed riddles.
at us.
What could be a secret from the High Court.
Not good.
I deflected and asked, "Why did you put my description on the flyer?"
What does the High Court want with me?”
Dick breathed deeply. "War is coming sooner than we ever expected,
and we needed a way to contact you. To help train you.
Dick reached into his pocket and pulled out a circle.
It appeared to be some type of thin golden wire, about the size of a hand.
"It's a halo, a way of communicating. Just tap the air in the middle, and it will
connect you to me.”
The monster from my childhood held it out to me.
My fingers trembled, but I reached forward and grabbed it from him.
The metal was cold against my fingers.
We stared at each other.
Not knowing how to go forward, while knowing we'd never go back.
"Stay in touch, Sadie." Dick's ruddy complexion didn't seem so menacing as
he backed away.
He stopped beside the cloaked man, who hadn't spoken a word, just stood
still, eyes roaming across the ballroom.
There was a loud bang, smoke, and both of them disappeared.
I stared down at the halo in my hands and slipped the gold circle over my
wrist.
I'd have loved to say I'd always known, that I'd felt the truth in my bones and
had a sense of the bigger picture.
But that would be a lie.

Then the reality that my finger was still lying on the floor, the High
Court was gone, and Z and Molly had betrayed me and crashed over me.
Across the ballroom, a circle of guns surrounded the people I cared about.
Blood loss hit me hard, and I grabbed onto the dais to stop myself from face-
planting onto the floor.
As the absence of the High Court sank in, the room buzzed with tension and
energy.
Molly had the grace to look at me with regret, while Z narrowed his eyes
eyes like he couldn't fathom where his plan had gone wrong.
"Ahem," the don cleared his throat.
The buzz stopped, and the room fell dead silent.
"I don't believe I gave orders to draw guns?" the don said slowly, and
immediately weapons were put away.
Cobra hissed loudly.
Three alphas and one cinnamon-spiced omega flew across the floor, falling
around me.
Jax roared when he saw my finger on the ground, and Cobra's skin
turned black with snakes.
Xerxes omega-whined, and Ascher fell to his knees, swearing.
I couldn't do anything other than grab the dais as I tried not to pass out.
Slowly, the men turned away from me with glowing eyes and stared down Z. Their
intent was clear.
"Nobody moves," the don ordered, and the command in his voice was as potent
as an alpha bark but much more terrifying.
The whole ballroom froze—every shifter paralyzed by the command.
Everyone except one person.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Aran screamed, careening around the corner as
she headed directly at Molly and Z.
Paralyzed from the don's words, I could do nothing but watch as mine
friend raised her arms in front of her.
Two ice daggers crystallized in her palm and flew across the room, directly into
the heart of the two alphas.
Crack.
Crackkkkkkk.
There was a loud crunching noise, then suddenly Molly and Z shattered into a million
pieces and dissipated like frost.
Like they'd never even existed.
Aran's eyes were pitch black, her face burning with fury as she trembled with rage.
"Harness your rage, escape your cage," a man's voice said from somewhere behind
her.
Aran whipped her head around, like she was searching for the voice, but
there was nobody there.
The don sighed heavily, and the room buzzed with the sounds of motion
and mumbles as he released all the shifters from his compulsion.
"Well, that solved that problem," the don said casually, staring down at
Aran with something close to respect. "You said you were a water fae?"
Aran nodded her curly head, eyes unfocused as she stared at the frost where two
alphas had stood.
There was nothing left of them.
"Everyone who assisted Molly and Z, please present yourself at the dais."
The twelve betas who had drawn their guns on the men walked forward and stood in
a straight line.
The room was silent.
Then, the Don pulled out a handgun and walked down the line. Pops ran out as he
shot each one in the forehead.
Their bodies tumbled off the dais.
The "Loyalty" tattoo on the don's neck twitched as he clenched his jaw with rage. "Well,
even though we've had a little show this equinox, we are still here for one reason."
The don turned to his son and gestured to the pretty omegas who sat on the stage
with him.
"Which one will you be bonding with tonight?"
He'd just casually shot twelve men in the head without explanation.
He'd shown us the sheer power in his voice.
There was no disobeying him.
I backed away towards Aran, wanting the comfort of my best friend as well
My men chose a different woman and undoubtedly broke my heart.
The gold halo was heavy around my wrist, a reminder that I was born for a purpose.
It's fine, you have a different life path, I tried to reassure myself, but it wasn't
comforting.
I grabbed Aran's hand and turned away.
We gripped each other like we were the only lifelines we'd ever had.
She was the only person who could understand what I was going through, what it
was like for your life to crumble beneath you, over and over again.
“No,” Cobra hissed. "We're not taking an omega."

My eyes widened. The blood loss was making me delusional.
"I choose Sadie, and if you can't accept that, then you'll have to fight me to the death."
Cobra's voice echoed.

Jax growled, "We all chose her a long time ago."
"You'll have to kill me before you take her from me," Xerxes snarled.
and there was a sharp sound that signaled he pulled out his knives.
"We'll kill you all if you try to stop us," Ascher promised.
Suddenly, there was a pressure on my scarred shoulder, and icy fingers tugged
me, so I turned around.
"Look at me when I say this to you," Cobra snarled roughly.
I blinked as I stared up at him.
Suddenly, four men fell to their knees in front of me and bowed
heads down
They defied the don.
They chose certain death for me.
"You can't," I whispered as my eyes burned and moisture streaked
across my cheeks, as blood loss made my head spin. "He'll kill you."
Cobra's eyes glowed as he grabbed my hand and snarled, "Shut the fuck
Up, Kitten. I told you I loved you. What did you think that meant?"
"Actually, you told me you owned me," I pointed out narrowly
eyes. I was still slightly salty about it.
"Don't be fucking dumb," he growled. "What I feel for you is more than love. You're
my everything, and if that means I must die to be by your side.
Then so be it.”
My face crumpled, and my throat burned.
"But you can't. He'll hurt you."
This time, it was Xerxes who growled, "Baby girl, we're already
fucking dead if we're not with you."
For a moment, I paused with horror. Did they know about my plan to kill
them if they chose an omega?
Jax's chest rumbled, the chains on his golden braids tinkling as he shook his head.
"We've told you, little alpha, that we love you. Do you think we lied?
"Yeah, but he's threatening to kill you!" I snapped back, my hands

shaking with fear even as their devoted words made my heart sing.
Had everyone lost their fucking minds?
I just found out my entire life was a lie and now this.
There was only so much a person could take.
Just because I was planning on killing them didn't mean I wanted them
Don't do it. That was different.
Ascher had the audacity to laugh, neck tattoos rippling as he knelt
before me
Suddenly, his amber eyes hard and voice harsh, he said, "Princess, they
can try to kill us. But they won't succeed."
Great.
They were dumb.
I pinched my working fingers at the top of my nose as I prayed for patience.
Shaking my hand, I waved my hand that was missing a finger at them;

blood splattered across the ground, and if that didn't sum up the vibes of the
night, then nothing did.
It reminded me of what was at stake.
I yelled at them "No! Stand the fuck up right now. You don't get to just
choose to die for me It doesn't work that way.
Cobra's perfect face transformed into a cruel smile.
That was my only warning.
Suddenly, he stood up, wrapped his jeweled hand around my throat, and
dragged my face towards him.
Cobra whispered menacingly, "You're going to accept our love and bond
with us right now, Kitten. You think you can stand here hurting and bleeding
and tell me I can't bond with you? That I don't get to care for you?"
I rolled my eyes and 'accidentally' flung some blood on him. "Yes.

That's exactly what I'm saying."
Cobra's face darkened. "I'm going to punish you later for your little act
of disobedience. Understood?”
I choked on my scoff.
The. Fucking. Audacity. Of. This. Man.
"Or are you too chickenshit to accept us?" Cobra bent his massive body
low so he could snarl in my face, "Are you too much of a little bitch?"
I saw red.
It took every ounce of control I had not to shift into a saber-toothed tiger
and bite his cocky ass.
"Fine." I leaned forward and snarled back, "I was going to kill you
anyways."
A purring hiss rattled in his chest.
"Oh, Kitten, don't talk dirty to me in front of all these people," he
whispered huskily.
He really was a psycho.
"Fine, what the fuck," I growled as the anger coursing through my body
allowed me to make a massively stupid decision.
Cobra gloated, a smile splitting his too-perfect face as he once again fell
to his knees in front of me.
Xerxes pulled his knife out of his pocket and quickly slashed all the men's
hands, and asked, "Will you bond with us, baby girl?" Will you allow us to be
yours forever?”
Under six full moons above a glittering ballroom where dark secrets had been revealed,
in the cruelest realm, with all my scars on display, four men knelt and offered me the world.
"Just do it," Aran whispered her voice cutting through the thousands of
reasons not to that echoed in my mind.
Xerxes raised his head. "We refuse to live without you."
Ascher's voice broke. "We need you, Princess."
A low rumble echoed through Jax's chest. "Please, let us be yours."
Cobra hissed, “I refuse to go another fucking moment without you as my
mate. If this is an ownership issue, I understand that I might be a tad...
possessive sometimes. But I won't fucking apologize for it.”
I rolled my eyes at him. "Why are you so obsessed with me?" obviously
the blood loss was getting to me.
"Stop being so scared. It's pathetic and weak. Cobra snapped back.
He didn't just call me weak.
My chest twisted with anger at the insult, and the emotion propelled me
to grab the knife with my good hand.
Cobra wanted to be crazy.
I'd show him crazy.
I slashed my already bloody palm, because why not? At this point there was
more blood outside my body than there was inside.
Before I could think about it, I slammed my mutilated hand against each of
their outstretched palms.
A golden thread exploded through my chest.
The world remade itself in shades of shimmering jewels and an
unfathomable depth of devotion.
Suddenly, the men stood up and enveloped me in a massive hug.
Of course, Cobra got to me first, and there was a brief scuffle with him
snarled "mine" and tried to keep me away from the other men.
Jax growled and wrestled me out of his grip so everyone else could hold
me
Meanwhile, Cobra whispered that he was going to kill me if I ever got a finger
chopped off again, and then went on about all the sordid things he was going to
do to my body.
I ignored him.
Because gold was exploding in my chest and surrounding me with the
endless warmth of love and devotion.
Far away, Aran and the girls cheered.
The don cleared his throat, and I sighed as I tried to push away, but the men
held me tighter.
Refused to let me go.
Together, we turned to him.
Great, you acted rashly, and now you're all dead.
Instead of pulling out his gun and shooting us in the foreheads—which I was
99 percent sure was about to happen, but had decided I didn't want to live
anyways without the men—he didn't do something even more shocking.
For the first time since I'd met him, a smile split across Don's face.
His voice boomed, "Congratulations, you passed your third trial."
I blinked.
The men were still beside me as confusion and hope strummed across
the golden thread connecting all of us.
"The third trial is a loyalty test, and Sadie proved her loyalty to you in her first initiation
trial. She refused to give up any information on you, even under extreme duress. Your test
was to see if you'd earned her loyalty back."
We all stood in shock.

"What about the Ortega brothers?" Jax recovered first. "And the Black Wolves?"
The don shrugged. "Decades ago, the brothers worked with the wolves to steal Xerxes
from the omega center. You needed a red herring, and I gave you revenge as a boon. I
knew you'd handle them."
He waved his hand casually like he hadn't almost killed us, had just sent us on an easy
quest.
My jaw gaped.
The don shook his head like we were hopeless. "I even gave you Warren to protect
the girls. He is extremely talented.
The young boy blushed under the don's praise, and we all glared at him.
We weren't impressed.
"Clarissa, you were told in the beginning of your trial to befriend Sadie to help her
adjust to this realm, since you're both female alphas. That was your loyalty test. You failed.
The don aimed his gun at the dance floor, and Clarissa dropped dead.
I grimaced.
A lot of people had been dropping dead recently, and I was starting to feel sick.
The don beamed like a proud father and gestured to Cobra.

He yelled, "Well, this is the best time to announce my son has returned to the beast
realm." Cobra is the crown prince!”
The room gasped.
Then the orchestra came alive, champagne was handed out, and
everyone started to twirl around.
Missing a finger, scars on display, with a goddess inside me, I spun with
each of my men across the glittering dance floor.
Love was more than a sentiment.
It was unwavering loyalty, even in the darkest place.
The Don
I smiled as my beloved son twirled his mate across the dance floor.
Physically, she was nothing special, but there was a fire that burned within her that I
hadn't seen in centuries. A similar fire burned inside the Aran boy.
I glanced across the room, smiling when I saw Jinx was glaring down at
a beta soldier who was wiping at his face like he was crying.
She glanced up at me, and I tipped my hat to her. I'd been done long enough to know
a soldier when I saw one.
She was going to grow into a magnificent killer.
Cobra twirled Sadie close to the dais, and I smiled fondly down at my long-lost son,
who'd grown into an impressive man.
I smiled as Sadie narrowed her eyes at me over his shoulder.
I'd always known this would be their outcome. Known since my beloved son's eyes had
glowed white as the moons when he'd bonded with the other men.
All their eyes had glowed an even brighter white when they bonded with Sadie.
They were fated mates.

And fate always found a way.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
"S, Sadie, how are you coping without your finger?" How have you been
feeling lately? I know this was a traumatic experience for you," Dr. Palmer
said, her harsh face puckered like she'd tasted something sour.
It was her usual expression.
She was Serpentine City's preeminent therapist, and she'd been seeing
Aran and me for the last couple of weeks.
Her services were compliments of the don.
"Honestly, it's been great. Xerxes and Ascher designed this special glove.
Here, I'll show you."
I pulled out the fabric I always kept on me for emergencies.
"Wait for it, you're gonna love it."
After putting the black glove on my hand, I flexed my knuckles and
pressed down on the button on the palm.
A wicked sharp knife sprang up where my left ring finger had once been.
"I'm actually better now in hand-to-hand combat. Makes stabbing people

easier.”
Dr. Palmer narrowed her eyes, and the stark lines around her mouth
became more severe. "You can admit to yourself that you miss having your
finger."
I slashed the air dramatically.
"Are you not seeing this weapon? I'm honestly glad it's gone."
Aran, who was sitting next to me on the uncomfortable couch, nodded in
agreement.
"Do you see how sharp that knife is?" Why would she want a finger?"
Aran tapped her lip as she watched me withdraw and conceal my blade.
"I've actually been debating cutting off one of my fingers so I can have one.
No one sees the blade coming, and it makes a punch wickedly effective.”
I beamed at her.
"Aw, I didn't know you were considering that. I could cut yours off for you.”
Aran smiled back. "I'll let you know. Maybe we could do it next we—”
"No one is cutting off their finger," Dr. Palmer interjected, her usual
monotone voice dripping with scorn.
The therapist closed her eyes like she was counting to ten.
When she opened them, she gestured to my tank-top-clad torso and tried
a new line of questioning.
"And I see that you are still choosing not to wear the enchanted ring.
How does seeing your scars each day make you feel?
"Really great," I smiled. "I've established quite a reputation in the city.
Shifters are terrified of the girl covered in scars. Makes the Mafia work easier.”
Aran high-fived me.

"Yeah, you should see her on the street. Shifters turn and run when they
see her. Everyone's terrified of the girl in league with the High Court and who's
rumored to have a goddess inside her."
I punched Aran lightly on the shoulder with my non-knife hand. “Not as
scared as they are of the fae guy who shoots icicles of death.”
Red stained the tops of Aran's cheeks at the praise.
She was still disguised as a boy and had garnered quite a fan club in the city. Mostly
beta women, and a few men, who were taken with her "fae" charms.
Dr. Palmer took a long sip of water and mumbled something about needing
a raise.
"Fine," the therapist snapped and turned away from me.
She raised her hand. "Now, Aran, have you stopped sleeping in bed with Sadie now
that she's in a pack relationship with four men? Since you're just her friend?"
The therapist narrowed her eyes at us.

She thought we were secretly in a relationship and couldn't understand
our dynamic (she didn't know Aran was secretly a girl; that was confidential
information above her clearance).
"No," Aran said as she looked at me and grinned. "I can't fall asleep if I'm not in the
bed with her. I tried once, and it was awful.
Dr. Palmer scowled. "You are aware that it is not healthy, and you are avoiding your
personal problems by relying on Sadie. Which is unsustainable. Also, you're hindering her
romantic relationships as well as your own."
"What possible relationships could I have?"

Aran laughed at such a ridiculous idea.
The one-hundred-thousand-credit cream had worked wonders for her itching, but her
back still burned when she was turned on.
Plus, it didn't help that she was a wanted monarch on the run and disguised as a boy.
"Actually—" I pursed my lips. "—it's nicer sleeping with her. Don't worry, I have sex in
Xerxes's nest with the men, like, constantly. But the men are all big and have a tendency
to lie on top of me and crush me. I prefer to go to sleep with Aran after. It's calmer.
Aran gagged.
The therapist's wrinkles pulled tighter.
She closed her eyes while breathing deeply.
When she spoke, it was through gritted teeth.
"Isn't it true, Aran, that you're still trying to strangle Sadie in her sleep?
I'm not sure how that is a calm experience."
"Hey," I said in defense of my friend. "A little smothering never hurt anyone. I'm a big
girl and can fight her off."
Dr. Palmer dragged her hands across her face like she was at her wits' end.
"The point is you shouldn't have to fight for your life every night.
That's not healthy."
I scoffed. "Sometimes we snuggle. Don't make it weird.
Aran nodded. "Sadie's cool like that."
The therapist's voice rose, which was highly unprofessional. "Have you at least stopped
smoking, Aran? I know you were using the enchanted drug as a crutch.”
"I've actually quit completely."

Dr. Palmer's eyes widened with surprise, and her face softened for the first time during
our appointment. "Wow, that is actually very impressive, Aran. I'm proud of you for facing
your—”
She stopped talking as Aran pulled out her pipe and took a long draw.
"Just kidding. I can't go ten minutes without it."
Dr. Palmer's eyebrow twitched.
A few minutes later, we were walking back into the mansion.
"I don't understand why she kicked us out. That was so rude," Aran said
with annoyance as we entered the foyer.
I threw my hands up in agreement. "I get it—we're not perfect—but she doesn't have to
be such a bitch about it? Like what does she want me to do, cry all day because I have
terrifying scars and a cool knife? Sorry I'm not lame.
Aran nodded aggressively in agreement. “Exactly. Like okay, I'm not

perfect. Sometimes I smother people in my sleep. It happens.
"And what bugs me is she gets so mad about you doing enchanted
drugs. Meanwhile, she's always drinking coffee. Make it make sense.”
Suddenly, Jinx appeared at the top of the grand staircase. "You guys are back. Would
you like me to collect your coats?” Jinx asked with a soft smile as she bowed her head low.
For a split second, we stared at the girl.

"Lucinda, young lady!" I bellowed. "Stop infecting Jinx with yours
blood and making her play butler.”
"She wanted to do it!" Don't be such a mom!" Lucinda yelled back from
somewhere upstairs.
Still, Jinx's entire body relaxed, like she'd been released from a mental
persuasion.
She glared at us. "I'm trying to practice breaking free of her hold. You two
ruin everything.
With that, the young girl whirled and marched away.
"Where is Jinx?" "We were going to practice breaking Lucinda's hold."
Cobra said as he appeared from the hall.
"That is not appropriate." I glared at him.
"Aran, Sadie, look!" Jess and Jala said with excitement as they ran around the corner
with knives in their hands.
"Ascher and Xerxes were teaching us hand-to-hand combat, and we
learned how to roll and stab someone in their kidney!"
"Aren't you all supposed to be in school?" I asked with confusion.
"Nah, Jax said we could take the day off to work on self-defense. He says
we need private lessons if we're going to keep living in this realm."
Jala grinned.
Jax appeared around the corner with the stack of paperwork in his hands that we had
to complete after each Mafia assignment.
From the other door, Xerxes and Ascher appeared with a bruised and bloody Warren
trailing them.
"They're having us practice on Warren," Jess said as she grinned at the bloody boy.
Warren smiled back, and Xerxes slammed the hilt of a knife into his stomach so he
doubled over.
"We're helping train all of them," Ascher said as an explanation, but we all knew they
were just torturing the perverted ferret.
The don had demanded Warren stay with the family and accompany the girls to
school in ferret form.
Now that Cobra had been revealed as the prince of the city, there were more threats
on their heads.
"Why are you guys already back from therapy?" Jax asked. "I thought you still had
another hour."
I waved my hand at him dismissively. "She let us out early."
Aran nodded. "We think Dr. Palmer's intimidated by our prowess.
Which we get.
Jax looked at us in disbelief. "I feel like that's not it."
"Anyway, I'm going to go take a nap," Aran said with a yawn as she trudged up the
stairs.
I followed after her and said casually to the men, "I think I'm just going
to hang out in the nest. Come see me when you're done with training."
The sudden silence in the room was loud as all the men understood what I was saying.
A few hours later, I rode on top of Xerxes on the fluffy bed while Cobra took me from
behind, Jax filled my mouth, and Ascher watched from the corner while stroking himself
and yelling instructions.
Soft snow fell around us, and a warm fire crackled.
When we were all sated, we cuddled under the fluffy blankets, basking in the scents
of cinnamon, frost, chestnuts, pine, and cranberries that filled
our nest.
Alphas rumbled with contentment, and Xerxes shifted into his kitten form so he could
lie on top of all of us and also purr.
The gold string strummed with love as we snuggled, and I marveled at how lucky I'd
gotten.
The gold halo still hung around my wrist. The other day, a mirage of Dick had appeared
in the center, informing me that he would contact me in a few weeks.
I didn't discuss the revelation with anyone, and if they mentioned it, I played it off. Only
Lucinda recognized the polished, winged version of Dick.
But she didn't cry.

I assured everyone that I would explain when it was time, and they respected my
decision.
We'd had enough trauma to last a lifetime.
For now, we had time to just enjoy each other, to just enjoy the present,
before we looked to the future.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Cobra stirred.
Aran hollered that she would get it.
I closed my eyes as I hugged my men tighter, and I pushed my concerns down into the
abyss at the back of my mind because, for now, life was perfect. We fell asleep in a cocoon
of love and support.
I woke up in the middle of the night to fingers around my neck.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I grumbled and slapped at icy hands.
Cobra snarled quietly. "You're mine now. You will wear my collar.
My eyes snapped open at his words, and I looked down. It took a moment for my eyes
to adjust because only the soft glow from the fire lit the nest.
When they did, I gasped.

A leather choker was wrapped around my throat. Attached to it was a long silver
pendant that hung between my scarred breasts, all the way to my waist.
I picked up the shiny gold heart at the end of the chain and brought it close so I could
read the inscription. Two words were engraved on each side.
Cobra's Property.
I flipped it over.
My Kitten.
"Absolutely not."
"You're my mate," Cobra snarled back, like that made everything okay.
I raked my hands over my face tiredly. "Fuck you. Then why don't you put
a collar on all the men?"
"Because it's different. They're not my kitten like you are," Cobra said
in a "duh" voice like I was the one being dumb.
I growled and flung myself at him, not sure if my plan was to choke him or
just beat him up.
Bodies groaned as we wrestled across them.
"Go back to sleep, you two," Xerxes rumbled tiredly.
I hissed with annoyance, "Cobra is trying to make me wear a collar."
Xerxes's eyes shot open.
A few moments later, Xerxes restrained me across Cobra's lap as the
psycho spanked me.
Cobra whispered reverently as he massaged my backside, "I told you I
would punish you for fighting me at the ball."
"He did tell you that," Xerxes said casually like they weren't both being completely
irrational. He tugged at the long chain around my neck and whispered, "Baby girl, you're
going to count for us or we're adding ten more."
Cobra's palm smacked my ass, and I groaned with pleasure.

Then he trailed his hands down the cursive letters I'd gotten tattooed
down my spine LOYALTY
It looked pretty badass, if you asked me.
Of course, all the men had gotten theirs tattooed across their necks for
maximum effect, even Ascher, who'd just placed it over his existing flames.
I picked my back because it was covered in a patchwork of scars. My skin
told my story, and I wasn't forgetting the past, because I was done hiding
from it.
Instead, I was making something new.
Cobra spanked me harder, and I growled, "Fuck you both." But the
bond strumming between us told a different story.
"We love you too," they chorused back as Xerxes yanked on the chain
and Cobra spanked me.
Afterwards, when we all collapsed satiated, Jax pulled me against him.
The big man scooted me between his legs and whispered, "Are you okay
love?" Were they too rough with you?
"Nah, it was fun," I said sleepily as chestnuts surrounded me.
Jax gathered my tangled hair in his hands and gently plaited it.
Ascher sat up with a cheeky grin. "I'm good Jax, thanks for asking." He
rolled over, so he was pressed against me.
I giggled at his antics.
Jax's warm fingers traced across my neck and sent delicious tingles down
my spine.
Since I lost my finger, he appointed himself in charge of doing my hair. I
told him I could still do it, but he would hear nothing of it. As a result, I
constantly found myself tugged against the big man as he braided my hair.
Now, I melted against Jax as he laid my hair down gently and peppered
soft kisses across my forehead.
In his arms, I was warm and loved.
"Aw, I want a kiss too," Ascher whined, his tattooed hands grabbing
playfully at us.
The three of us laughed as we snuggled together.
Not wanting to be left out, Cobra and Xerxes pushed themselves close,
so we lay in a giant pile.
In the shape of a star, a gold string connected our pack.
Love held us together.
Forever.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
ELITE ACADEMY
T .
"I got it!" I yelled, not wanting to disturb Sadie and her men.
My best friend deserved some peace, especially after everything. Her missing
ring finger was a constant reminder that those fuckers had hurt her.
The darkness in my soul rattled against its cage.
Pausing with my forehead pressed to the wall, I breathed in smoke from my
enchanted pipe.
You killed them. They're gone.
I willed myself to remain blasé and to calm the monster—that I'd come to
identify as myself.
As I descended the grand mahogany staircase, inhaling smoke with each
Step, I fingered my sweatshirt pocket.
Caressed the smaller finger-length pipe Ascher had gotten for me.
Again, the doorbell rang.
What rude fucker was calling at midnight?
I gritted my teeth as my monster snarled louder, banging against its steel cage.
Another pause, another long, deep drag. Any stimuli threatened the
carefully desensitized state that I'd worked so hard to create.
The space between my shoulder blades itched.
Breathe in smoke for five seconds, hold for five seconds, breathe out for five
seconds, pause for five seconds.
Repeat.
A storm howled outside, and rain slammed against the brick structure.
Thunder cracked.
With a falsely constructed sense of ennui, I opened the door, and the night storm
echoed throughout the dark foyer.
"What do you want?" I asked calmly.
Silhouetted in the dark was a massive figure. Taller than the door with
layers of muscles that could only be used for one thing: war.
Sucking in smoke, I pushed the door shut in his face.
Step one to being cold and callous: You don't engage in basic impulses like fear. You
react to nothing.
Survival of the unfeeling.
Crack.
The massive thing slammed a hand against the door and stepped past me into the
mansion.
"Are you Aran?" a baritone voice growled as the man flung the door wide.
Wet shoes squeaked on polished marble. Pouring rain traveled on cold wind and
slammed against both of us.
I focused on my cage, fortified steel bars, until the slightest rattle of emotion was
silenced by a prison. I assessed in a hazy inhale of smoke that if the creature was asking
for me, it wasn't a threat to the others.
I relaxed my shoulders. "Who's asking?"
Lightning flashed.
And illuminated a towering male with a brutal scar slashed across his eye.
Long hair dragged in a wet braid against the marble floor, and a tailored
suit stretched across an impossibly muscular figure.
Twin opal fangs protruded from red lips.
"I'm asking," Lothaire growled, voice dripping with anger.
He wasn't used to being questioned.
"Ah, Lothaire, the vampire. I've heard of you. I nodded and sucked in smoke, presenting
a lazy, uncaring figure.
I'd done more than hear.
I'd watched him bow to my mother under the dual suns of the fae realm.
Watched him attack Sadie on the hot sand of a gladiator stadium.
Watched him proclaim her unworthy as he attempted to drain her blood.
He'd stood witness to my atrocities.
Said nothing, just observed, as I'd ripped out my mother's beating heart and consumed
it.
The cage rattled.

My back burned as the slur "WHORE" festered on my flesh, an
Enchanted penance for a wrong I hadn't even gotten to commit.
Lothaire had bowed to my mother.
He smiled at her.
Breathe in smoke for five seconds, hold, breathe out, rest. Repeat.
Why is he here?
Lothaire's singular eye flashed like the storm that raged against us.
He spoke as if he read my mind. "A power anomaly was detected in this
realm on the equinox, and rumors are that a man named Aran was responsible."
Lothaire took another menacing step forward. "Are you Aran? I won't ask
again." His voice dripped with warning.
Thunder boomed.
The mansion shook.
I took a long drag of my pipe and focused on feeling nothing and
expressing nothing. Being nothing.
After all, Lothaire had planned this visit for that very purpose, to
unnerve me
But the one class I'd succeeded in above all else, beyond what I should
have, was battle analysis.
Lothaire had come at midnight, in the height of a storm. Entered without
invitation. Stepped into my personal space. Said nothing of why he was here,
just cryptically demanded my name. I asked him.
I took another long drag and sighed heavily.
Somehow, everything was war.
Small skirmishes, allies, enemies—all with changing allegiances—and
every player possessed an agenda uniquely their own.
Game theory at its finest.
But how could I respond and best him when I didn't know his motive?
The facts I knew: He called me Aran, he referred to me only as a man, he
was referencing the event three weeks ago when I'd killed Sadie's attackers,
and he'd come at night with the purpose of unsettling me.
Plausible deduction: He wasn't here for the fae queen, and he wanted
something of me that I wouldn't want to give.
Exhale smoke, inhale calm.
I shrugged. "I'm not the person you seek. Don't know anything about a
power anomaly. Why are you here?
First rule of game theory: You don't give away information.
A threatening rumble filled the foyer.
He stalked forward.
Fuck.
I'd miscalculated. Game theory assumes all actors are rational.
Without warning, Lothaire slammed his fangs into my neck.
Stabbing pain, then exquisite pleasure blinded through me, and the
Enchanted wound on my back burned like I'd been set on fire.
I bit down on my lip to stop from screaming.
Lothaire stumbled away from me, wiping blood off his mouth. His voice
was raspy with surprise. "Who are you?" What are you? Why are you so
powerful?
Shit. I'm a few wrong moves from him figuring out I'm not even Aran, that I'm
Arabella.
I rolled out my shoulders slowly, like I was stretching. Like the wound on
my back wasn't filleting me with agony.
Nonchalantly, I said, “Water fae. I'm a cousin of the monarchy. Aran Egan.”
In a battle, the best lies were those closest to the truth.

Lightning cracked, and highlighted Lothaire's harsh features.
His lips pulled into a smile, and his scar puckered tight across his missing
eye. He stared down at me with unnatural stillness as he crowded my
personal space. "Are you sure you're fae, Aran Egan? You have quite the
power in your blood.”
My face was a blank mask, eyes dead, muscles permanently relaxed with boredom.
With haughty male arrogance, I rolled my eyes. "Obviously I know who I

am. I'm Aran, cousin of the royal family, and water fae."
My body language screamed that his question was preposterous.
Lothaire smiled like he'd won the war.
“Perfect. Congratulations, Aran Egan, water fae, you've officially been
enrolled at Elite Academy.”
My mask fell. "Excuse me?"
"This is a highly coveted institution and I expect you to perform
rigorously.” Lothaire's smile transformed into an outright snarl.
Thunder boomed.
"Classes start tomorrow."
Before I could protest, reanalyze the situation, and decide the best path
forward, Lothaire grabbed my arm. "We leave now."
Flames exploded. And we disappeared.
To be continued
You can read the first chapter of Psycho Academy at blog.

jasminemasbooks.com. You can also preorder it now on Amazon.
Also, please leave a review on Amazon! It allows me to keep writing books.
See you at Elite Academy ;)

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Machine Translated by Google

"The third trial begins now," the don said casually.

, I shoved my chair over, hit the ground, B and rolled

I crouched low, waiting for the gunfire to erupt.

A tension headache began to throb in the front of my skull.

Clarissa's warning rang through my head.

Xerxes swore at the name.

"Jinx," Jax growled threateningly.

"Another person, usually a naked one, during rough penetrative sex,"

Jinx shrugged. "I've been places."

I tapped my foot with concern as my intuition screamed at me that what

I told her it was worth the risk.

I pulled it on and gasped.

"Why haven't you come up to check out?" Xerxes asked as he walked

Xerxes looked back and forth between us with confusion.

"I know. I just need to find a different store.”

I love you hung in the air between us like a tangible weight.

I launched myself at him, but he expected my move and grabbed me by my ponytail.

Xerxes yanked my head back until I yelped.

She swiveled her hips suggestively, showcasing her crotchless panties.

Shifters walked around us and didn't pay us any attention.

W around the roaring fireplace in the great room.

She wasn't fine.

"Jax's right," I said as Xerxes and Ascher nodded in agreement.

The girls would be alone in an unfamiliar world.

No one had a better idea.

There was a long pause as her plan sank in.

Xerxes had been sitting as still as a statue the entire time.

The shame etched onto his face.

Cobra hissed, and Ascher's horns expanded.

Jax and Cobra nodded in agreement.

Xerxes stayed silent. He seemed to be reeling from the alphas'

I squeezed his hand back as I struggled to find the appropriate words.

Intensity swirled among us.

A log popped in the fire.

The chandelier rocked faster, crystals clacking.

Voices shouted from far away.

We had one night to pass this test—one night to survive.

Barely noticed the rain soaking me on the way to the car.

The distinction between the before and the after.

Averting our eyes when it was right before our faces.

THE BLACK RIBBON CLUB

N into the night as misty rain spattered around

His warm skin burned through the sheer material.

A reminder of what we were here to do.

The four men surrounded me in a blockade.

A beta woman tugged on Jax's gold-twined braids. He whipped his head

"Mine," Cobra sneered at the people touching Xerxes.

Their eyes slowly traced my body.

Snake eyes glowed in the dark.

Jax leaned forward to claim my mouth as Ascher slowly licked across

"It's all about the plan," I said through gritted teeth.

Strobe lights stopped flashing, and bright light shone on them.

Red strobe lights pulsed overhead.

SHADES OF BLOOD RED

Cobra cracked it again.

Jewels shimmering under the lights. He was demonic.

Xerxes flinched dramatically, like it hurt, but his eyes smoldered.

The roar of the crowd covered Xerxes's moan of pleasure.