“What the fuck are we going to do?” I growled at Jax, who was leaning against the wall with his head in his hands.
His chains tinkled in his hair as his head fell forward dejectedly. “I don’t know.”
“She’s on my father’s fucking wanted list. We have to protect her.”
“No fucking shit,” Ascher snarled.
Jax nodded. “I don’t like this. We can’t bond with her, and she’s in danger. It feels like everything is slipping through our fingers.”
“I don’t want this bond.” Xerxes punctuated his statement by twirling his daggers. Their unfathomably sharp edges glinted in the dim light of the fireplace.
It was night in the mansion, and all the girls were in Sadie’s room having a sleepover. I only knew this because Jess had come by to tell Jax that he’d “acted like a fool toward Sadie earlier.” She knew nothing.
The four of us had been holed up in mine and Jax’s room for hours trying to make sense of our situation.
We were no closer to answers than we had been hours ago.
Frustration coursed through us, amplified by the living bond that now connected us.
I could feel snippets of everyone’s emotions coursing through my chest, as if a gold live wire connected us.
We were a pack.
“How the fuck could he do this to us?” Ascher slammed his fist into the wall, and fragments of broken brick rained down.
He whipped his golden head around, onyx horns expanding atop his head, and snarled at Xerxes. “You’re an omega. Doesn’t that make you fertile or some shit? We don’t need a fucking female omega.”
Xerxes twirled his blades faster, his handsome face contorted into a snarl. “Only female omegas are guaranteed breeders. Male omegas and female omegas together have the highest chance of pregnancy. I’ve never heard of a male omega breeding with a female alpha.”
Our last shred of hope disappeared.
Ascher whirled around and slammed his fist harder into the wall, and the entire room shook.
Xerxes quietly threatened, “Don’t destroy my house.”
Ascher’s amber eyes flashed with fire. “You fucking think you can order me around? It was your fucking idea to flee to this realm. Now we’re all screwed.” He stalked toward Xerxes.
“Oh please, coming from the alpha that sold them out to the fae queen.” Xerxes held his blade and beckoned Ascher forward, like he was desperate to draw blood.
I leaned back on the bed and watched them dispassionately.
Everything was fucked.
They could carve each other up for all I cared.
I sank deeper into the broken void within my consciousness. Once again, I was untethered and out of control. Shackled by circumstances.
Trapped.
“Stop it, you two.” Jax’s chest rumbled with warning at Xerxes and Ascher, but it was halfhearted.
He slumped against the wall and rubbed at his chest like he was trying to soothe the sting of everyone’s emotions.
The bond among us was alive like electricity.
Alive with fucking anger.
It was a high-pitched buzz, like a broken instrument, and it stoked the rage inside me.
From what I understood, bonds were supposed to soothe alphas and help keep them in check. They kept them from going feral, was what my fucking father had said.
If the void inside wasn’t consuming me whole, I might have laughed.
What a fucking crock of shit.
Either everything he’d said about bonds was a lie or we were all too fucked up for it to work properly.
Aggression, tension, and general unwellness pulsed through each of us.
Ascher leaped toward Xerxes, and his rage sent a lightning bolt of anger through the bonds.
Xerxes smiled, purple eyes glowing, and threw his dagger at Ascher’s head.
The tattooed alpha moved out of the way, but the omega’s blade scraped across one of his onyx horns.
Jax’s chest rumbled with a warning growl, and my jewels transformed into shadows.
My snakes wanted to join in the chaos. To bite.
Alone, we were unwell.
Connected, we were fucking psychos.
Abruptly, a knock sounded through the room like a gunshot.
Jax stilled, his hand clutching Xerxes’s and Ascher’s shirts as they pummeled each other with their fists.
With a heavy sigh, I sauntered toward the door.
The bond strummed higher with aggression until it burned my chest like a brand.
My eyes flickered between snake eyes and human ones; my vision oscillated from normal to heat signatures.
I flung open the door and stilled because the object of all our fucking problems leaned casually against the door.
Sadie wore a fuzzy sweatshirt that dwarfed her. Her bruises were fading, and her white hair was a silky sheet that I longed to wrap around my fists.
My cock stirred.
Sweet cranberry wine stroked my senses enticingly.
“Um, am I interrupting something?” Sadie gnawed on her plush lower lip as she took in the shadow snakes on my skin, and the other three men in a pile of fists.
Her broken voice was a harsh rasp.
In her oversize fuzzy clothes, she reminded me of the kitten I always called her.
For the first time, the bond connecting the four of us stopped goading us to violence.
The high-pitched whine burning through all of us abruptly dissipated, leaving a cool tingle.
Instantly, we calmed down.
I licked my suddenly parched lips. “Depends on what you want from us.” The insinuation was clear from my sultry tone, and I slowly adjusted my throbbing cock in my pants. In case she didn’t get my message.
Sadie sighed heavily and rubbed at her eyes.
A pang of pain stabbed through our new bond. She looked small and exhausted, and it was our job to protect her from pain.
Not cause it.
I shook my head in confusion. Those weren’t my thoughts; they were the thoughts of my new packmates.
She might be tired, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fuck the exhaustion out of her and make it better.
Another pang of pain pinched my chest.
The men clearly did not agree with me.
It was hard to decipher what the bond meant, but images of protecting and comforting her flashed through my mind.
The other three wanted to coddle her.
Was this what having a conscience was like, an overwhelming feeling of softness and confusion?
I whirled around and hissed. “Fucking calm down. Stop being little bitches. Fucking can be relaxing too.”
My chest burned with a sharper pain.
Apparently, all of them disagreed with me. Pussies.
I projected images of fucking her against the wall as Kitten screamed and grinned as male voices groaned.
Sadie backed away from the door with a confused expression. “Okaaaay, I see you guys are busy here.”
My throat emitted a low, rattling hiss. “Don’t back away from me. Why are you here?”
Sadie sighed heavily, and she moistened her plush lips like she was nervous.
I’d give her something to be nervous about: my jeweled cock in her lips.
A stab of censure spiked across the bond.
Instead of turning around and beating my new packmates into the ground, I focused on the kitten in front of me.
Sadie nodded like she’d come to a decision. “I know this is probably hard for everyone, but I’ve been talking to the girls, and I’ve realized something.”
I arched my eyebrow at her as images of her pinned against the closet wall filtered through my mind.
Would she be a screamer and yell like Jax, or would she moan softly?
One thing was clear: she’d finally realize she was my possession and be ready for me to take her.
The other three men stood beside me, the bond strumming with contentment the closer we stood to each other.
It was a physical and mental bond.
Kitten gnawed on her lower lip as she looked at each of us with her big ruby eyes. She took more deep breaths, like she was trying to build up her courage.
“I’ve decided it’s time to grow up and act like an adult.”
My cock was hard as steel in my pants. She realized I owned her soul, and I was going to pick her up and fuck her against the wall until she forgot her name.
Images of all of us defiling her in every position flashed through our bond.
Ascher muttered, “Fuck,” and Xerxes groaned. A growl escaped Jax’s throat.
Now we were all hard as rocks. Xerxes’s cinnamon scent spiked nauseatingly sweet, like he couldn’t help but respond to our alpha pheromones.
Sadie cleared her throat and continued, “I’m on your father’s wanted list.”
I snarled. “That doesn’t fucking matter to us.”
She shook her head sadly.
“It’s not just that. None of us have actually had sex yet, and I think it is for the best. Truthfully, I had reservations about actually bonding with you guys because of how overbearing everyone has a tendency to act.”
My gut twisted at her tone.
She paused. “Well, everyone but Jax. Cobra, your father was right that you need a pack, and it’s not fair for me to get in your way of having children. You might not care about it now, but someday you will.”
The bond screamed with a tidal wave of frustration.
It almost brought me to my knees.
“What did you just say?” I growled at my kitten, who was backing away with wide eyes.
Sadie shook her head. “Any relationship between the five of us is over. It has to be this way.”
Xerxes chuckled harshly, his entire demeanor hardening.
The menace that had radiated off him when he’d worked for the fae queen was back as he snarled at her, “You’re a coward.”
Sadie’s ruby eyes sparked with anger. “This is literally what I’m talking about. If you guys would just grow up and act realistic, we could talk about this like adults.”
Ascher cracked his tattooed knuckles, his horns expanding larger on his head. “You never listen to us anyway, Princess. So why the fuck does it matter what we have to say?”
For the first time, I agreed with Ascher.
Jax ran his hands roughly through his braids. “Everyone needs to calm down. And you don’t mean that, Sadie.” His gray eyes were clouded with betrayal.
The new bond among all four of us literally strummed with agony, with devastation.
We were breaking.
How could she tell us it was over before it had begun?
Sadie was giving up on all of us.
My kitten was giving up on me.
She was rejecting me.
Sadie sighed heavily and gave Jax a watery smile that made me want to beat someone until their brain splattered.
Her voice cracked. “It’s nothing personal. I just think it might have been for the best. Jala pointed out that most things happen for a reason, and I think that’s true in this case.”
I scoffed. What a load of fucking shit.
Nothing happened for a reason. The world was a dark, cruel place; it either fucked you over, or you rose from the ashes and fucked it.
That was it.
Jax’s soft voice had a hard edge. “And what did Jinx say?”
Sadie chuckled weakly, tears tracking down her cheeks. “She said that men were mostly useless, and I was saving myself a lot of unnecessary emotional energy.”
“Do you agree with her?” Jax asked slowly, the razor-sharp edge in his voice making the skin on the back of my neck prickle.
You didn’t piss off an alpha bear.
Sadie avoided making eye contact with any of us. “I think we’re all better off as friends. We can still pass initiation and work together to survive this realm.”
I hissed at her.
“You guys are my teammates, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. But I’m still only twenty-one, and I need to focus on what I want out of life. I can’t do that if I’m your guys’ possession. Plus, the don took the choice away from us.”
Jax’s gray eyes were sharper than the knives Xerxes was twirling dangerously fast through his fingers.
He asked softly, “Did he really take the choice away?”
“Yes,” Sadie said, her chin clenched with stubbornness.
She’d come to her decision.
Of course she was abandoning me, just like every fucking woman I’d ever known. Fucking evil, vile creatures.
My gut instincts about her had been right.
The prettiest predators were the most poisonous.
“Well, then fuck off.” I hissed, heat signatures bursting before me as my eyes flickered to snake eyes.
Ascher’s voice was cruel. “Yeah, we didn’t want you anyway.”
“As you said. Go find someone you can dominate.” Xerxes’s British accent was colder than his blades.
My eyes flickered back, and I noted dispassionately that her plush lower lip trembled.
Sadie’s almond-shaped ruby eyes were enormous as she stared at Jax and ignored the rest of us.
She pleaded to him, “We can still be friends.”
A bolt of lightning shot through the bond.
All of us were on the same page. If she wanted to reject us, that was fine because we didn’t need her.
Jax snarled, “No, we can’t.”
He turned away from her.
Sadie gasped and bowed her head like she was physically struck, and for a long second, a tiny spark of hope shot through the bond.
She was going to realize the error of her ways.
My kitten will fight for me.
She’ll choose me.
When Sadie straightened, ruby eyes glowed like the red sun of the shifter realm. Cold and bright, offering no warmth and no hope.
Just cruelty.
“Fine, I don’t need a bunch of overbearing men in my life. I never asked for any of this, and I’m sure as shit not going to beg for your friendship. I’ve been through too much to ever let a man tear me down again.” Sadie’s cranberry scent spiked like it was on fire.
Another person abandoned me.
She doesn’t want me.
I’m not good enough for her.
Sadie whirled and marched down the hall.
I clenched my hands and reminded myself that she was just another female snake. It wasn’t worth my time to hunt her down the hall.
No matter how badly I wanted to chase after her and claim her, it was useless.
She wasn’t worth my time.
“Fuck you!” Ascher bellowed after her, his stoic facade cracking completely as his lips pulled back in a sneer.
Sadie flipped both her middle fingers in the air but kept walking.
She didn’t look back.
“She’s not worth it. She’s not what we need,” Xerxes growled low and patted Ascher on his back.
Our golden bond turned gray from the force of Xerxes’ lie.
Sadie was exactly what we needed.
No. She abandoned you.
Fuck her.
The bond in my chest burned with pain and betrayal.
I was fucking over the girl.
She didn’t deserve to be owned by me.
She didn’t deserve to be my kitten.
Jax roared like a wild animal and threw a dresser. It crashed against the wall with a boom, bursting into hundreds of pieces. Ascher mumbled expletives, and Xerxes reassured him that she wasn’t worth it.
Once again, our bond turned gray.
No. Xerxes is right. Forget her.
But for some reason, I couldn’t drag my feet away from the doorway.
I couldn’t stop staring down the long hall as Sadie retreated to her room.
I couldn’t move an inch.
Because even as the connection in my chest strummed with violence, the tiny voice of my shadow snake that lived on Sadie, whispered that I was making a grave mistake. That my kitten was everything to me. That I was nothing without her.
I flung images of death and pain back at it and shut down my connection to it.
It wasn’t on my flesh anyway.
I’d made my decision.
