Aran grabbed a book off the desk and handed it to me while she took another long drag of her pipe.
At least her hands had stopped shaking.
She’d been smoking so much the last three days that it no longer seemed to have any effect on her.
“Molly said you have the test tomorrow morning, and you have to pass, or you’ll be executed. The men said something about studying together tonight, but I figured you’d want some space.”
“Oh, I need space all right.” I grabbed the book out of her hand and tried to rip it in half in a fit of rage.
Screaming, I tugged and tugged at the paper.
It didn’t tear at all.
My vision blurred red as I thought about it.
They couldn’t even give me a one-day extension after I’d passed out, or whatever the hell had happened.
Never mind the creepy maid.
Knowing my luck, the wings mentioned in the poem were just a hint that I’d be turning into a giant pigeon.
No hate to the pigeon community, just didn’t know if that lifestyle was for me.
Aran snatched the book from my hand and stomped over to the ornate wood desk in the corner. “Now I see why my tutors were always sighing.”
She plopped down and gestured for me to take the seat next to her. “Let’s just try to forget about the poem for now, because you’re not dying on my watch.”
“Aw.” I put my hand over my heart. “I love this moment for us.”
“No chance in shit do you get the easy out while I’m stuck living with Jinx. Do you know she calls me a cannibal whenever we’re alone? Who does that?”
The moment was over.
“Is she wrong?”
Aran smacked me, hard, and picked up the book. “Whatever. We need to focus.”
She read aloud, “First rule in the Mafia. Unwavering loyalty to the don and the Mafia. Anyone who is not loyal will be executed with a bullet through the brain and their body hung from the tallest building in the city for all to see.”
“Wonderful.”
She shrugged. “I mean, it could be worse.” Her eyes narrowed as she read ahead. “See, rule two says that if an alpha is caught physically harming a null, beta, or omega while unprovoked, the don will disembowel them, then burn them alive.”
Aran shuddered at the last part, and I was immensely glad I had eaten nothing recently.
“Why couldn’t I have been a null?”
She looked at me like I was dense. “Honestly, the fae realm was worse. At least this place has rules. Back home, the monarchy could do anything, to anyone, for any reason. Anything. And Mother was nothing if not creative.”
I pursed my lips, still not convinced.
“And don’t forget the shifter realm was forty degrees below freezing on a good day, and it was common for people to get lost in an ice storm and never come back.”
“Yeah, I guess. Do you think the human realm is peaceful?”
Aran shook her head vehemently. “Everyone knows it’s anarchy over there. Rumor is that they have weapons that can level an entire realm, killing everyone instantly in a mushroom of poisonous fire.”
“Why is everything so fucked?”
I scrubbed at my arms while ancient fae words promising death still echoed in my ears.
Aran slapped the book for emphasis. “No more distractions. You aren’t failing this test, because you have me. I was always at the top of my class, and you aren’t dying because of a test. That’s ridiculous.”
I pursed my lips. “Weren’t you tutored? So wasn’t it a class of one?”
Aran rummaged through the desk until she found a pen and a stack of paper. “Start writing everything I say so you don’t forget.”
She smirked. “And Sadie, my sweet flower, all fae are assigned anonymous identification numbers and required to take a three-day standardized test at sixteen years old. Then we’re ranked against one another.”
Aran’s eyes twinkled with an expression I’d never seen on her before.
It took me a second to place it.
She was proud.
“I was average on most sections but scored first out of thirty-three million in battle strategizing.”
My jaw dropped.
Aran shrugged. “Not like that’s actually a useful skill, and no one listened to me in the shifter realm when I tried to bring up the fact that our fighting strategies made zero sense.”
“Okay, General. Remind me not to mess with you if we ever find ourselves on the opposite sides of a war.”
Aran’s gloating expression disappeared. “My mother was overjoyed, for obvious reasons, and almost every elite fae male applied to breed me. I ran away to the shifter realm the next week.”
I reeled from her admission and blinked in shock at my best friend, who was apparently a battle genius.
“Well, I’ll have you know, I was also impressive in school.”
“Really?”
“I ranked fortieth out of a class of fifty people. Although, technically, the last ten didn’t live till graduation.”
Aran laughed, then covered her mouth when she realized I hadn’t joined her. “Oh my sun god, you aren’t joking.”
I shrugged, unbothered. “My talents lie elsewhere.”
Also, I was 99.9 percent sure I had some type of attention disorder, because I’d never been able to sit still long.
Aran slapped the desk with determination. “Well, it doesn’t matter because you’re studying with me. And I don’t fail tests. You’re going to pass this, even if it means you don’t sleep all night.” She checked her watch. “Night hasn’t fallen, and the test is midday tomorrow.”
She turned her attention back to the book. “Oooh, rule four is interesting. It says that, while rare, some ABOs have fated mates. No one is allowed to intervene or stop fated mates from forming a pack together. The punishment for interference is disembowelment.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Why is everyone getting their organs torn out? Seriously.”
“That’s interesting. I think I’ve read about fated mates in the fae realm. They can occur in all species.” Aran flipped through the pages aggressively. “The only other thing about it is a footnote that says they are blessed by the gods and it will be clear they are fated.”
“Yeah, Molly said the moon goddess blessed packs, but that stopped after some big war eons ago.”
I gnawed on my lip as I tried to imagine what type of war would cause a goddess to abandon an entire realm.
Also, it was too much of a coincidence that the poem had said something about a war and the gods being dead.
A neon-red sign flickered in my memory.
Half-breeds warning: War is coming.
Suddenly, I didn’t feel so good.
Aran pinched my arm.
I yelped. “What the fuck?”
“Write the rule, bitch. This isn’t for fun. Your life’s on the line.”
I rolled my eyes but dutifully wrote it down.
Aran continued reading ahead. “Rule number five: Unwavering loyalty to all members in the Mafia. Any discrimination, bias, or prejudices against a fellow member based on their status as an ABO, the animal they shift into, or for any other reason relating to identity, will result in the prejudiced person being burned alive.”
I chewed on the end of my pen, surprised. “Really, just set on fire?”
Aran flipped the page. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize it went on to the next page. They’ll be burned alive, then disemboweled.”
That made more sense.
About twelve hours later, my head thudded with a dull ache, and I struggled to keep open heavy eyes.
Aran hadn’t lied when she’d said she was serious about studying.
I would have fallen asleep a dozen times if she hadn’t slapped me awake as soon as my eyes closed.
Once, Aran had threatened, “I will slowly detach your scalp from your skull if you don’t stay awake.”
Have I mentioned she needs help?
My hand ached from writing out a summarized line of every rule Aran had read to me.
Now she pushed a glass of water into my mouth. “Drink it. We’re done. If you fail, I’ll kill you myself.”
I groaned as I stood up. “Why is everyone always trying to off me?”
After not moving for hours, my bones creaked and my lower back hurt like I’d been punched repeatedly.
Which was one of the few places on my body Molly hadn’t pulverized with her fists.
Who knew studying could be so physical?
Even though the circumstances were dire, without Aran, I probably would have just flipped through the book, skimmed stuff for about an hour, and called it a day.
I mean, what else could a girl do?
Apparently, a lot more than I’d thought.
Aran was methodical and unrelenting, refusing to move forward until I’d read, written, and retained every. Single. Law.
She’d explained that the mind was a massive library where you filed and cataloged information, neatly tucking it away until you needed it.
I hadn’t had the heart to tell her that my mind was more an empty space with a dark abyss in the back that I shoved everything I didn’t want to think about into.
Poor girl was convinced we both had mind palaces of libraries that we needed to take care of.
I let her keep the illusion for the sake of our friendship.
As I stumbled in an exhausted stupor out of the mansion, Walter informed me in his crisp, no-nonsense tone that the men had already left to go to the training center.
I gave him a big hug and thanked him for helping control the men while I was passed out.
With a red blush across his pale wrinkled cheeks, Walter stood still as a statue. He patted me gently on my arm and mumbled something about idiotic males.
When I finally arrived at the fight club, Z was waiting for me at the door with a packet and a pen. “You made it just in time.” He pushed me into a side room, then shoved me roughly into a spare seat that had a desk attached.
Great, I was beside Clarissa.
The room was silent.
I growled at Z for pushing me, but he had already moved to the front of the small, windowless room.
“You have three hours to take the test. Each question has a line underneath, and you must write the answer. It is enchanted, so you’ll automatically get your grade on the top of your paper when you finish. There are two hundred questions, and one hundred and thirty is passing. One point per question. Begin now.”
Sun god, this was a lot.
My palms were sticky with sweat, and my hand shook slightly from exhaustion.
I flipped open the first page. The first question read, What happens to alphas who hurt omegas or betas?
The moon goddess was truly with me. Thank fuck for Aran.
I grinned and scribbled down, “They get disemboweled by the don, then set on fire.”
Two hours into the test, I began to lose steam and had to stifle another yawn with my fist.
The words were blurry on the page, and I barely read the question before writing, “Disembowel them.”
If I’d learned one thing last night, it was that the punishment was almost always organ extraction.
Three hours later, Z shouted, “Time! Put down your pens. Close your booklets.”
My heart beat erratically as I turned the test over, and a number appeared at the top.
Glowing green on the top of my page, it read, “131. Passing.”
The scores and our names appeared on a blackboard at the front of the room. Everyone had passed.
Jax had the highest score, and I had the lowest one.
Clarissa snickered and whispered something derogatory, but I was too busy grinning from ear to ear.
I’d fucking passed. Who gave a flying fuck about the score? I was on top of the world.
Now I didn’t have to enslave anyone with my blood powers and fight to the death against the don.
What a glorious day.
Aran was a fucking angel from the rumored god realm. A true queen.
Jax blushed as Z clapped him on the shoulder, and I wondered proudly what the man didn’t excel at.
“You can have the rest of the day off. Official fighting starts tomorrow. Be here at dawn, and don’t be late.” Z turned to look at me pointedly.
I smiled like a loon.
He frowned.
What a wonderful time to be alive.
Slumped in my seat, slightly high from the drugs still in my system, sleep deprivation, and the sheer bliss of passing a hard test, I didn’t even realize everyone had left the room.
On shaking legs, I stumbled to the door, chuckling as I imagined how excited Aran was going to be.
Clarissa blocked my exit, and her stunning face was contorted into something ugly.
“Are you a badger?” I asked.
“What?” she asked with confusion.
“Is your alpha form a giant badger? I don’t know why, but I can see it.”
Clarissa snarled, “You don’t deserve to be a part of the pack.”
“Wow. I went left with this convo. You went right.”
The elation slowly drained out of my bones until my legs were unsteady and my headache began to throb again.
When was the last time I’d eaten?
She snapped her perfectly manicured red nails in my face. “Are you paying attention? I said you don’t deserve the pack.”
I didn’t ask what pack she was referring to.
It was obvious.
Clarissa flipped her silky black ponytail. “Xerxes is not just any regular omega. He comes from one of the oldest beast families in Serpentine City. Everyone knows he was owned by the notorious Black Wolves.”
She paused and stepped into my personal space.
“They’re independent alphas. They’re as rich and crazy as they are wanted for crimes against beasts. Xerxes is only alive because he ran before they could complete the bonding, because he was too young for it to take.”
Her alpha scent wafted off her in waves of lemony tang.
I’d never liked lemons.
My stomach hurt for Xerxes, but I said nothing. It wasn’t like she actually wanted to have a conversation.
Clarissa’s voice pitched until she growled. “The Black Wolves are hunting Xerxes as we speak. He’s going to need to be surrounded by the strongest alphas in Serpentine if he’s going to survive. His alphas are strong, but the weak link in the chain is you. If the pack needs anyone, it’s other alphas that are strong enough to protect him. Not some scrawny runt who passes out while fighting.”
Any lingering joy from not failing the test drained from me.
The sleepless night caught up to me.
I took a shaky step back from Clarissa as if I could distance myself from the horrible meaning behind her words.
She wasn’t wrong.
If Xerxes really was being hunted, he needed to be protected. My heart hurt for everything he’d been through.
Clarissa took another menacing step forward.
I went to step back again, and I bristled at my cowardice.
She didn’t know who the fuck I was.
Jinx came to the forefront of my mind, and I channeled the twelve-year-old.
“I’m not weak. You know nothing about the pack or Xerxes. I’m the one who’s lived and fought beside them. You’re just a lonely, jealous female alpha who’s acting like an animal because you’ve met a male omega way out of your fucking league.”
Her dark eyes flashed with warning, and I could have stopped the backhand that I saw coming from a mile away.
But I was fucking tired, and a part of me welcomed the pain.
I’d let her be the bad guy all she wanted. I’d let her think she had the upper hand. It would be all the sweeter when one day, I’d show her who I really was.
Her backhand struck my cheek, and the force of the blow slammed me into the wall.
She was no delicate flower.
But it wasn’t her hand that stung; it was her next words.
Clarissa’s blood red lips curled up at the corners. “Xerxes invited me to his first heat. Said it should be soon, and he needed a female alpha present. You’re not special, so stop pining over them like you’re fated mates. Everyone can see they’re over you.”
What was left of my heart incinerated into ashes.
My knees gave out, and I struggled to stop myself from collapsing as the world rocked around me.
Clarissa was silent as she walked away.
She didn’t need to say anything.
She’d already destroyed me.
