Sure, the fae realm had been less than ideal: evil queen, gladiator matches, millions of bloodthirsty fae screaming “die, cunt,” and the sour reek of the patriarchy.
However, surviving the fae realm might have given me a tad bit of false confidence.
I was instantly humbled.
The room was dimly lit with about a dozen men seated against the far wall. All of them wore business suits and sunglasses.
Cigarettes and cigars hung from their lips and created a hazy cloud of smoke in the small room.
A distinct burnt scent wafted from them. Betas.
But the most disturbing element was how each beta held a massive machine gun. They glowed blue with enchantment and were bigger and fancier than any weapon I’d ever seen.
At least a dozen red dots were trained on all of us.
Immortal alphas could only die two ways: having all their blood drained from their body and being decapitated, or being shot with an enchanted bullet.
Slowly, I shifted in front of Lucinda.
Jax whispered, “Get behind me.” Jess, Jala, and Jinx slowly moved so his large frame blocked them.
There was a soft clack as a pair of expensive dress shoes walked out from the dark shadow in the room’s corner.
A deep voice asked slowly, “Is it true? My long-lost son has returned?” He enunciated each word oddly, and they blended together, as if he was overcompensating for a lisp.
My jaw dropped as he stepped forward into the dim light.
Gasps sounded.
He could have been Cobra’s twin.
Familiar emerald eyes gleamed with menace.
The only differences were his black hair hung long, his pale skin wasn’t embedded with diamonds, “Loyalty” sprawled across the front of his neck in massive, tattooed letters, and a frosty scent didn’t waft off him.
He smelled like oil and rubber. A musky, intense scent that made his presence impossible to miss.
The man’s suit was immaculate, and his crystal accessories practically screamed wealth.
A massive white snake draped casually over his wide shoulders.
The snake was so large that its tail rested on the ground, and its head raised high in the air. It towered above its owner’s six-foot-five frame.
Still, he had the same sinful lips, high cheekbones, and chiseled jaw. Same gorgeous complexion that seemed too perfect to be real.
But there was no doubt this was Cobra’s father.
The don of the city.
Cobra stood eerily still as he stared across the room at his father, but his face gave away zero emotions.
My gut told me this would not be a joyful reunion.
It would be a miracle if we walked out alive.
The don took a long drag of his cigarette and blew smoke into the air. His emerald eyes were cold and sharp, the white snake hissing on his neck.
He was a predator.
The don sucked in smoke casually. “Prove to me you’re my son right now, or my men will open fire. Then, while you’re incapacitated, they’ll decapitate each and every one of you. We’ll hang your bodies from the streetlights.”
His gorgeous features were a stony mask of indifference.
He meant it.
Immediately, Cobra’s diamonds transformed into shadow snakes and streamed off his body.
They piled atop one another until they formed a massive snake as black as his father’s was white.
The don said nothing, just took another long drag of his cigarette as his white snake slithered off his shoulders.
It approached Cobra’s black snake until they were face-to-face.
Slowly, it opened its massive jaw, flashed opal fangs, and gave a harsh warning hiss.
Cobra’s snake replied in kind.
I gulped and tried desperately to remember if snakes bonded with their young.
From the current energy in the room, my best guess was that no, they did not. The don’s snake, which apparently was the don, was giving off extremely aggressive vibes.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of the two snakes hissing at each other, the don nodded.
The white snake slithered back over his wide shoulders, and the don lounged back into a green velvet chair.
He flicked his long black hair over his shoulder casually, but everything about him screamed violence.
Since we were all standing and he was sitting, we should have been in the position of power.
We weren’t.
He looked down at all of us, even while seated.
Sweat dripped down my side even though I was still drenched in chilly rain.
The don slowly blew out a cloud of cigarette smoke. “So you’re my son.”
It wasn’t a question.
Cobra’s enormous snake broke apart into thousands of shadow snakes, and they streamed back onto his flesh. With a gleam, they flashed back into diamonds and crystals across his skin. “Appears so.”
The don ran his eyes slowly over Cobra. “Interesting that your snakes are so…fractured. Even stranger that you wear them on your skin as jewels.”
Cobra said nothing.
The don said nothing.
A dozen machine guns still pointed at us, and the men in sunglasses, holding the weapons, didn’t move a muscle.
Hazy smoke rolled around us.
Somehow, even though no one spoke, the tension in the room escalated tenfold. A live wire of cackling energy.
More sweat streaked uncomfortably down my side.
A smile split the don’s handsome face.
It wasn’t a nice expression.
He casually twirled his cigarette in his fingers and nodded like he’d decided something.
My neck itched, and my intuition screamed at me to run.
Ever so slowly, I dragged one of my fingernails across my forearm until I scented the copper tang of blood. I didn’t bother with the numb; it most likely still needed to recharge.
Instead, I reached into the dark recess of my mind that had always existed. The recess I’d discovered on the sands of the arena wasn’t a recess at all.
Unlike last time, I didn’t need to speak any words to access my blood power. Immediately, it responded to my mental probe.
Each individual droplet that dripped from the gash on my forearm coagulated at my will, like I was connected to each drop.
The don said casually, “On my mark, kill everyone he’s with. Only my son can live. They all know too much.”
The room erupted into chaos.
“No!” Cobra bellowed. His eyes flickered to snake eyes, and shadow snakes streamed off his skin toward the men.
Beta fingers tensed on machine guns as they prepared to fire on their don’s mark.
I poured my will into the blood dripping from my arm.
Sweat blurred my eyes as I scrunched my face and slowly levitated a droplet.
Next to me, claws erupted from Aran’s fingernails, and a black film spread across her eyes until there were no whites left.
Wait, what?
That was new. I’d never seen a fae do that.
Next to me, Jax and Ascher began to shift, and Xerxes pulled out his twin knives and leaned forward. He was ready to throw them.
I almost had enough control over my blood to throw it. I just needed a little longer, and then…
“STOP!” Jinx screamed at an extremely high pitch, her voice reverberating through my brain in an ungodly screech.
Instantly, everyone in the room stopped moving.
Paralyzed.
My blood stopped rising. It twisted and spun in a small ball of power above my forearm that only I could see.
“He’s bluffing,” Jinx said in her normal voice, and the grip she had on the room broke.
Once again, everyone looked over at the small girl, who was definitely not a shifter, because I’d never heard a living creature emit such a high-decibel noise.
It had frozen everyone with more force than an alpha bark.
Jax turned to look at his little sister. “Jinx?” The question in his voice was clear.
Instead of being embarrassed that she had just emitted a high-pitched wail the likes of which a person had never produced before, Jinx shrugged.
Jess and Jala were the only two people in the room that didn’t look surprised by her outburst.
I’d bet all my money this wasn’t new to them.
The don began, “Wha—”
Jinx raised her hand and spoke over him. “Did no one see his body language? He was clearly bluffing. His eyes became drier, and he squinted slightly as he spoke. It was a test.”
Once again, we gaped at her.
How could someone tell a person’s eyes were dry in a dim, hazy room?
What was most shocking was how the don just tilted his head at her and said nothing.
The smallest smile played at the corner of his lips.
A long moment passed as the don didn’t deny it, and everyone slowly realized Jinx was correct.
The don waved his hand. The betas lowered their machine guns so they pointed at the ground.
Ever so slowly, I pulled my floating blood sphere back into the cut on my arm.
Thank the sun god I didn’t infect anyone with my blood; talk about making things awkward and outing myself.
Jax and Ascher stopped shifting into their animals and returned to normal. Xerxes resheathed his daggers.
Cobra’s shadow snakes slithered back onto his flesh, but this time, they didn’t transform into jewels.
Slowly, the tension in the room lowered.
The don pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit it. When it was burning in his mouth, he said, “You were right, and you were wrong. I was bluffing. I wouldn’t have killed you right here on my white floors. I’d have taken you out back afterward and shot you.”
The tension ratcheted back up.
A low, rattling hiss sounded from Cobra’s chest, and Jax let out a rumbling roar. Ascher’s horns straightened on his head, and Xerxes palmed his knives.
My chest shook with a slight growl.
No one threatened our sisters.
The don kept speaking, like he hadn’t just casually admitted his plan to execute all of us. “But you just put on an impressive display of power. It would be a shame to waste such talent when our glorious city can always use a little…help.”
Jinx grumbled, “He was totally bluffing. He’s just covering now.”
Jess kicked her sister in the shin.
Abruptly, the don’s eyes shifted into snake eyes, and he stared at Jinx. His slit pupils were larger and darker than Cobra’s snake eyes, and the effect was terrifying.
Jax shifted to block Jinx, but she moved her small body to the side to stare down the don.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not scared of you.”
A visible shudder shook through the don, and the white snake across his shoulders bared its fangs and hissed at her.
“Still not.” Jinx inspected her cuticles.
This time, both Jess and Jala kicked her in the shins.
I was low-key impressed, because I was afraid and he wasn’t death glaring at me like he wanted to wear my skin as an outfit.
The don’s slit pupils widened, and something unexplainable transformed his face. “How interesting.” He stared at Jinx.
Another rumble sounded from Jax’s chest, and my chest shook with a growl. I didn’t like the way he looked at her.
From the way Ascher and Xerxes shifted closer to her, none of us did.
After a weird standoff between Jax’s twelve-year-old sister and the terrifying Mafia leader, the don shook his head.
He turned to Cobra. “As soon as you entered this realm, you took up your mantle of responsibility as my only heir. Blood and family are the most powerful inheritance, and you have a duty to our organization and this city.”
Cobra sneered with disgust, “I don’t owe you anything.”
The don continued speaking like Cobra had said nothing. “If you try to leave this city, you’ll be defecting from your duty, and you’ll be immediately taken out.”
He let his words sink in and looked over at Jinx with a raised eyebrow, like he was begging her to call his bluff.
She said nothing.
He took another drag of his cigarette. “As my son and an alpha in the Mafia, you need to bond and form a pack in the next three months. All alphas in the city must be in a pack. Also, you must pass Mafia initiation trials.”
“I refuse,” Cobra sneered with his signature frosty expression. Ice wafted off him.
The don shrugged. “Then everyone in this room dies.”
A rattling hiss shook through Cobra’s chest.
Suddenly, the don opened his mouth, and his perfect white teeth transformed into two long daggers that protruded from his upper jaw. A blood red forked tongue shook as he hissed back at his son aggressively.
Creepy.
“If any of them are harmed, I’ll kill you.” Cobra shook with rage.
The don didn’t flinch.
His tongue and teeth transformed back, and he motioned to a door on the side of the room. “Then initiation begins now. If you want everyone to survive.”
Before any of us could process what was happening, two betas stood and grabbed Cobra’s arms. They promptly escorted him out of the room.
He didn’t fight them.
We all watched in horror.
At the last moment, Cobra turned back and stared directly at me. He alpha-barked, “No one is to follow me! I must do this alone.”
The command momentarily paralyzed me.
The door swung shut, and the don chuckled. “Anyone else want to be initiated? Until alphas are indoctrinated, they’re forbidden from shifting into their animal forms or they’re immediately exterminated. Snipers are positioned throughout Serpentine City. I highly recommend joining our ranks. It will improve your chances of surviving this realm. Eighteen and older only, of course. We aren’t savages.”
He clearly didn’t care about his son’s wishes.
There was a long moment as we all gaped at him.
“Don’t you dare hurt him,” Jax growled and stepped forward menacingly.
The alpha bark wore off, and I regained control of my body.
“Fuck this,” I said and stomped after Jax toward the damn door Cobra had been taken through. Ascher and Xerxes followed behind me.
It wasn’t like I could just let Cobra suffer alone.
None of us could.
The don blocked our path and focused on Xerxes. “As an omega, there is no need for initiation.”
Xerxes showed his teeth. “So long as I’m in this city, I will not be living like a traditional omega.”
The don raised his hands and chuckled. “So be it. You’re not the first.”
Xerxes’s mouth dropped open as he stared in confusion. Clearly, he’d never heard of an omega in the Mafia before.
The don chuckled as he sucked on his cigarette.
Something told me there was a lot about this realm we didn’t know. A lot I didn’t want to know.
I looked back.
We couldn’t just leave Lucinda and the girls. Jax also stopped, like he’d realized the same thing.
Aran waved her hands. “It’s fine. I’ll look after the children. Not like I have massive problems of my own to deal with right now.”
“We’re not children,” all four of them said at the same time.
I nodded and stepped forward, but Ascher blocked my path. “Princess, you should stay back.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed past him. Who didn’t want to get initiated into a bloodthirsty gang against their will? Me.
But I wasn’t about to pussy out because Ascher told me not to.
I might be stupid, but I wasn’t dumb.
