We sat 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 babied 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 fling 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’s 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 smirk 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’s 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 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 eye 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 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 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 hadn’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 sssshow them what happenssss 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 his 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 quickest 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 get 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 silent 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 quicker, 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 hurt 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. That 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 released me. I thought he was crazy, but weirdly 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 wallowing.
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, like 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.
