I sat in the corner of the room.
Yes, stealing a plate full of hors d’oeuvres and devouring them while facing the wall was not a healthy coping mechanism, but I was too exhausted to care.
Instead of wallowing in depression because the men were falling in love with a pretty omega female, I’d chosen the classier path.
Eating and staring at the wall while I planned their deaths.
Sure, they’d all said they loved me, but that meant nothing at the end of the day.
I loved bread, or a good book, but I wouldn’t die for it.
Love didn’t mean the men were going to choose certain death at the hands of the don.
I wasn’t irrational; I understood they had lives and responsibilities they couldn’t forsake.
It just sucked for them because it would be the last choice they ever made.
I wasn’t going to graciously let them go, or some annoying weak woman bullshit.
I’d made a plan.
It was simple—if the men chose an omega after telling me they loved me, I would shoot them in the face.
They were dead.
If they really loved me, technically, they’d want me to kill them for betraying me.
It made perfect sense.
I sighed heavily. It sucked that I was going to have to kill all four of my lovers later tonight, but someone had to do it.
What was the alternative? Let them be with another woman? I scoffed aloud.
The only thing more depressing than my upcoming very tragic quadruple homicide was my best friend’s erratic behavior.
Aran had promised to “hunt down our prey” and had hovered off, which was concerning if I bothered to think about it.
Which I didn’t.
Last time I’d seen her, Aran was spinning around the dance floor with a small circle of beta females who were taken by her manly charms.
I hoped she found true love.
Cause all I’d found was pain, heartbreak, and a small case of acid reflux that I thought was stress induced. It was likely from the four pieces of food I was trying to swallow at once.
I’d also faced the wall because I’d spotted Warren twirling Jess across the dance floor, and it had filled me with an un-sun-godly level of rage.
Everything about the boy pissed me off: (1) he was a ferret, (2) he had manipulated the girls, (3) he ate underwear, (4) he had sparkly skin that I was definitely not jealous of, and (5) once again, the underwear.
It was obvious he sucked.
I shoved another piece of food that was labeled “mini meat delicacy” but was 100 percent a small hot dog into my mouth. I wondered if Cobra was hissing at the omega girls and showing off his pretty jewels.
I’d kill him first.
He’d want that.
Emotions screamed across my shadow snake, but if I imagined the snake being smothered, I was able to tune it out.
I needed time alone to eat hot dogs and plan their deaths without them interfering.
What else did the universe want from me?
I’d had group sex in a BDSM club in front of thousands of screaming shifters.
Been assaulted in a bathroom at gunpoint, enslaved five men with my blood, and had to watch the girls almost get murdered.
I thought I’d lost my best friend, and now my men were being wooed by perfect omega girls.
They hadn’t even followed me.
Sure, I’d slipped away before they’d realized, smothered my connection to the shadow snake, and hid behind a massive house plant in the corner of the room. Yes, I hid behind a buffet of food that concealed my scent, but it was still the principle of it all.
Wasn’t love always supposed to find a way?
No one had found me.
Therefore, they were all dead.
I curled in on myself and debated having a nice, long cry, but something about a meltdown seemed so gauche.
Either I was that bitch, or I wasn’t.
And that bitch didn’t cry over men; she enslaved them with her blood powers, laughed as they cried, and killed them for betraying her.
I ate another hot dog.
A horrifying realization hit me: Was I becoming a villain?
I do look good in black.
“Are you okay, sugar?” Molly asked, and I screamed with surprise, choking on a hot dog at her sudden appearance.
“No,” I answered honestly after I’d spent five awkward minutes trying to swallow.
Her impressive muscles bunched as she looked down at me with a sad smile. “This realm will do that to you.”
I opened my mouth to explain how actually the pain had started a decade ago, back when my “master” had beaten me bloody for sport. I snapped my jaw shut at the tension on her face.
While it was hard to remember sometimes, everything wasn’t all about me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Molly’s eyes were bloodshot, like she’d been crying, and her tanned skin was sickly pale.
She ran her trembling fingers down her face. “No, I’m really not.”
A long minute passed as we both stood in silence, the weight of our mutual grief wrapping around each other.
Finally, Molly asked quietly, “Will you come with me? I need to…” she trailed off, her hand shaking harder. “Never mind, forget I was here.”
She backed away.
“No, wait.” I jumped to my feet and followed after her.
“What do you need? Is someone hurting you?” I asked with confusion, glancing down at her boulder shoulders and wondering what terrifying creature could scare Molly.
“I can’t. No, don’t,” Molly sputtered as she walked quickly away from me, zigzagging through dancing couples as the string instruments played a fast tune.
I hurried to catch her.
Something was very wrong.
At the corner of the dais, Molly spun around and whispered furiously, “Sadie, you need to leave. You need to get out of—”
“Molly, you made it,” Z said with a smile as he walked up to us, going right into her personal space.
As I turned my head to the newcomer, I made eye contact with the don, who sat above us on his throne.
He stared at me with burning emerald eyes, his expression intense.
I turned back to Molly and didn’t miss the way she flinched at Z’s appearance.
“Stay away from her,” I growled and shoved at Z weakly.
Just following Molly across the room had left me gasping for air. My vision kaleidoscoped as sweat poured down my face, and I tried to look tough.
Z grabbed my wrists easily and smiled down at me.
Staring into his dark eyes, the memory of Hunter saying Z had told him about our third trial whispered through my brain.
Oh shit.
Before I could do anything, a knife flashed through the air.
Burning pain.
Z shoved me away, and I stumbled, unsure of what had just happened.
What hurt so fucking bad?
In slow motion, I looked down.
Gore.
It lay on the floor, a small ring glowing blue on it.
Blood dripped.
My finger lay severed on the white marble ground, severed cleanly off by one swipe of a blade.
Shock set in, and I turned in horror to stare at Z, who was sneering down at me with a knife in his hand.
Molly’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t look surprised.
I couldn’t think.
Couldn’t move.
Just stared in horror at my finger on the ground, the gaping cavity on my hand spurting blood, and the instructors who had betrayed me.
But Molly had tried to warn me.
I shivered as sweat burned my eyes, and I went to wipe it away. Warm blood spurted across my face as I accidentally brought up my mangled hand.
Everything shook as I shivered uncontrollably.
This was my limit.
What. The. Fuck.
I would have collapsed, but my knees had locked, the world spinning around me as the shock overwhelmed me.
I wasn’t coming back from this.
Did I even want to?
The don’s words ran through me—“Be careful, my son. This realm is crueler than you can even imagine.”
Blood dripped from my hand as I stood there and waited.
Waited for the punch line.
The purpose of the savagery.
Waited for the fucking point to be made.
“You bastard,” I whispered at Z as shock slowly wore off and unadulterated rage burned me from the inside out.
“Quinque,” Molly said, her voice cracking like she regretted the words the minute they left her lips.
It hit me.
A flyer had said to speak the Latin number of the street, Fifth Street, and the High Court would appear.
Slowly, the pieces fell together.
A scarred woman kidnapped the fae queen and is wanted.
I glanced down at the low scoop neck of my dress, felt cold air kissing my skin from the open back.
My scars were stark and hideous against my golden skin.
An inappropriate chuckle bubbled in my throat. Was this why villains laughed maniacally?
I got it.
Because somehow, I was back where I’d started, covered in scars.
The enchanted ring that had disguised them lay on my severed finger on the floor.
They played me.
There was a loud bang as two figures appeared before us in a cloud of smoke, their silhouettes concealed by the rolling fog.
The music stopped.
Z smiled at Molly in anticipation, and she mouthed “sorry” at me while simultaneously looking at Z like he hung the moon, like they were deeply in love and this was a grand romantic gesture.
They’d been playing me all along.
More inappropriate laughter bubbled in my throat.
My finger lay on the ground.
It mocked me.
It didn’t escape my notice that I stood alone, far apart from everyone else in the room.
The don stared coldly down from the dais.
Across the floor there was a loud hiss, a deep roar, and screamed expletives. My men and the girls were surrounded in a circle by Mafia members pointing guns at them. Z had planned it all out.
I would face this alone.
The fog cleared.
For a long second, shock settled through my bones, and my brain refused to process what it was seeing.
My neurons screamed at me that there had been an error, that it wasn’t real.
It couldn’t be.
Adrenaline and shock had pulsed through me so many times in the last twenty-four hours that there was nothing left for my body to give.
No emotion left to feel.
For the first time in my life, without having to flip a mental switch, I was numb.
“Hello, Sadie,” Dick said casually. “Long time, no see.” It was the same man who’d beaten me my entire life.
The same evil man, except massive blue crystal wings arched off his back.
Wings.
Next to him stood a man in a black cloak, and unforgettable blue eyes glowed underneath his hood. The scent of ice wafted off both of them.
It was the man who’d taken me, Aran, and Cobra to the sacred lake.
I took a step back.
The throbbing pain in my left hand was the only thing I could feel.
Z grabbed my shoulder and stopped my retreat. He flung me forward.
I slipped on my blood and collapsed to my knees.
My vision closing in on all sides, I stared blankly up at the two men.
“For what reason did you call the High Court?” Dick asked Z in the same voice that haunted my nightmares.
Z bowed his head, a smile still plastered across his face. “We have found the half-breed, the scarred woman that captured the fae queen.”
Another round of inappropriate mirth burst inside me.
I was so dead it wasn’t even funny. My fate lay in the hands of Dick, my tormentor, and the main antagonist in my story.
It was hilarious.
I didn’t have an ounce of hope.
Dick’s face reddened like it always did when he was enraged. “And what evidence do you have that this is the woman who took her?”
I nodded, accepting my fate.
But his words penetrated, and I stopped moving, gaping up at him in shock. He’d seen me in the fae realm; he didn’t need evidence.
What the flying fuck was going on?
Z immediately explained, like he’d been expecting this. He pulled out a familiar syringe from his pocket and held it up.
“We’d heard rumors about a girl with red eyes from the fae realm and suspected her immediately. Molly injected her with this drug that reveals half-breed traits, and it caused her to fight extremely fast, and she had an episode where she muttered about hearing a woman’s voice. It wouldn’t have had any reaction if she weren’t a half-breed.”
Holy moon goddess. Cobra was right: my muscles hadn’t looked bigger.
Disappointing.
Dick’s face didn’t change, and Z waved his hands more dramatically as he tried to get his point across.
“Plus, an alpha, Hunter, fought her in the second trial, and he said she threw something at him and it overtook his free will. She only survived because she commanded him to stop fighting her.”
Dick’s expression darkened, and Z smirked.
He knew he’d won.
“She didn’t have any scars, but we noticed the enchanted ring on her finger. Heard they were commonly used for bodily concealments in the fae realm. I chopped off her finger, and look at her body.”
Z spat with disgust.
He sneered at my abused form while pointing to my finger proudly.
I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes as I glared up at Dick.
Oh, he knew about my scars all right.
Dick and the cloaked man, apparently High Court members, stared at Z for a long time.
Nobody spoke.
The silence stretched, and I shifted at the awkwardness.
My head was spinning from blood loss, but I couldn’t gather the courage to touch my gaping finger hole.
Just let the blood slowly drip out of me.
I was tired, but maybe I could still use it. Should I fling it at Z or Dick first?
Definitely Dick.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the man that tormented me, standing next to the man who’d somehow positioned all of us in the shifter realm.
“Why did you do it?” Dick asked Z.
Molly sighed, and Z’s smile fell. “Molly and I lost our packmates last year. Without a pack, we’ve lost our resources and have been relegated to training new recruits.” He spat when he said recruits, like it was the most heinous job possible.
“With this reward, we can afford to attract new packmates and can go back to policing the city like we should be.”
Dick’s eyebrows furled, his signature expression before he lost his temper and beat the shit out of a person. Or at least beat the shit out of me.
“I believe the flyer said there would be no reward.”
Z’s mouth dropped with confusion.
The cloaked man pulled out a familiar flyer and handed it over.
Dick read, “A woman covered in scars who is suspected of being a half-breed is expected to have kidnapped her. Contact the High Court.”
He dropped the flyer onto the ground.
Dick’s voice dripped with scorn. “It says nothing about a reward. It says to contact us, which you did. That is all that was needed.”
He looked away from Z, eyes dark with fury, and his massive blue wings unfurled impressively as he turned to me.
I stared up at my monster.
He glared back.
