Before anyone could blink, I shoved my chair over, hit the ground, 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 upward, 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 the tattooed fingers that 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 his 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 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. Do not 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’d 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 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 didn’t 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 muc—”
“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 large 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 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 the paper up.
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 beneath 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 my 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.
