“Fuck you.”
I spat at Dick.
My saliva dripped down his leg and filled me with satisfaction.
Dick’s complexion was ruddy with anger. “I see you’re as incompetent as ever. Really, you got your fucking finger cut off by an idiotic alpha?”
“I see you’re as homicidal as ever. Where’s the belt? I know you’re just dying to beat me,” I mocked.
“Also, didn’t that dude”—I pointed at the cloaked man who still stood beside him with his hood up—“take me from the sacred lake while you chased after him like a crazy man? Now you’re working together? Must be awkward.”
Dick’s face reddened another shade.
He was so easy to wind up.
Dick’s lips puckered like he tasted something sour. “We had a minor disagreement on the best way to raise you. I wanted to give you more time to come into your powers. He wanted to throw you into training. I was trying to protect you.”
I burned with anger.
“You did a great job of protecting me.” I gestured at the scars littering my body. “Parent of the fucking year.”
Dick’s spittle rained down, like it always did when he lost control of his rage.
“Do you not have fucking blood powers? Did I not beat you with a belt till you bled? Can you still not see that everything I did was for your benefit? Or are you still the same ignorant little girl?”
I blinked.
Then I blinked again.
Grabbing my head in my bloody hand, I scrambled to my feet until I was face-to-face with Dick.
“You’re telling me you TORTURED ME EVERY DAY OF MY FUCKING LIFE BECAUSE YOU WERE TRYING TO HELP ME UNCOVER MY BLOOD POWERS?”
My voice was rough and ragged, a result of his handiwork.
“YES!” he screamed back.
We stood chest to chest, snarling in each other’s faces.
Under the glass ceiling of an opulent ballroom, in a cruel realm filled with guns and monsters, the evils of my past slanted and twisted into something different.
Still nightmares, but maybe less evil?
I’d always thought it was weird how Dick had beaten me like it was a routine.
A chore he had to do.
He’d always get so mad at me, like he wanted me to do something but I wasn’t doing it.
I’d always thought it was strange how he didn’t have a motive.
He’d just given me a motive.
I covered my mouth in horror, and I took a step away from him.
“Why?” I rasped out, my blood splattering both of us as I gestured at him with my bleeding wound. “Wings?” I added weakly, not even sure what I was asking.
He understood.
Dick spoke quietly so only I could hear. “War has come to the realms as it does every eon.”
He paused.
The soft splat of my blood dripping onto the ground echoed between us.
A familiar sound.
Dick sighed heavily, and for the first time, he looked down at me like he didn’t hate me.
Something close to pity flashed across his face.
When Dick spoke, each word smashed across my consciousness, breaking down my psyche into smithereens.
“A champion is needed to lead the shifters and fae into battle. They are some of the strongest warriors in the realm, but they struggle to obey the gods. This champion is created using rare technology from the god realm. They are made for the singular purpose of defense, and they have to embrace their birthright and learn to lead. But first, they have to learn to survive.”
I took a step away from him.
His voice rose. “She births her champions, and every eon, they have no choice but to rise.”
I took another step.
“It was my job to hurt you.” Dick’s eyes softened, like he had feelings and wasn’t a soulless monster. “It was my job to break you and build you into something stronger.”
I backed away.
“I’m what you would know as an angel. We are her soldiers. I had no choice but to serve her and to help you. She gives a piece of herself to form her champion. To save the realms.”
My knees shook.
Dick stepped forward, walking toward me, not letting me get away, demanding I hear the truth.
“When you were young, you didn’t hear her. You weren’t showing any signs of your birthright.”
“No,” I whispered as my back bumped into the dais.
There was nowhere left to run.
Dick came closer. “I was desperate—I sacrificed so much for you, more than you can know. Only when I beat you, did your eyes glow red. Only then did you finally hear her.”
A silent scream burned my throat.
“They always make more female half-breeds,” Dick whispered. “A backup plan if the expected champion does not come into their power. They’ve failed before.”
I froze.
My lungs stopped dead as I realized what he was saying.
Suddenly, Dick looked tired and older than I remembered. “If you didn’t hear her—if you didn’t come into your blood powers—I was told to exterminate you and try the next one. If that one failed, there were three others.”
We both turned our heads at the same time.
We stared across the ballroom at the four girls: Lucinda, Jala, Jinx, and Jess, who I’d always thought of as so sheltered.
Dick’s words were so quiet I almost didn’t hear them. “I know how much Lucinda meant to you. It was you or her. Even though you didn’t know why, I knew what you would have chosen. You would have demanded I do it to you.”
I turned back to Dick.
Up close, he smelled like the ice of the shifter realm.
Coldness wafted off him in a burning wave.
And as I stared up into the eyes of my antagonist, saw the truth shining in them, my bottom lip trembled.
It wasn’t fair.
Dick was supposed to be the bad guy.
I wasn’t supposed to understand what he was saying. I wasn’t supposed to feel a swell of relief that he’d beaten me bloody to spare my sister.
I wasn’t supposed to feel gratitude.
It took a couple of tries—my mouth was paper dry—but I finally croaked out six words.
“Who is this she that you serve?”
The second the question left my lips, I wished I’d swallowed it down. Wanted so desperately to take it back.
Dick tilted his head up, and I followed his gaze.
The glass ceiling of the ballroom, which had earlier showcased dreary gray clouds, was now a midnight-black sky.
It was clear why the ball was on the equinox.
For the first time since I’d been in this realm, clouds didn’t cover the night sky.
Six full moons were massive, gleaming and pale in a straight line.
So large in the sky it seemed as if you could reach up and touch them. Like they were going to crash through the clear ceiling of the glass ballroom.
“The moon goddess,” Dick said.
His voice was a quiet rasp, but he might as well have shouted. Screamed the words at me. Bellowed in my face.
The voice.
The woman who ordered me when I fought.
The feeling of endless strength, emotionless precision.
The thing that made me a killing machine.
The numb.
It was the moon goddess, the woman I’d always felt an overwhelming compulsion to worship.
Endless seconds trickled by as I stared up at the luminous moons and realized it had all gone wrong at birth.
I’d never had a choice in any of it.
“What about the poems reading themselves to us?” I asked.
Dick narrowed his eyes, “What poems?”
My intuition screamed with warning, and I gnawed on my lower lip, not wanting to think too deeply about the masculine voice that bellowed riddles at us.
What could be a secret from the High Court.
Not good.
I deflected and asked, “Why did you put my description on the flyer? What does the High Court want with me?”
Dick breathed deeply. “War is coming sooner than we ever expected, and we needed a way to contact you. To help train you.”
Dick reached into his pocket and pulled out a circle.
It appeared to be some type of thin golden wire, about the size of a hand. “It’s a halo, a way of communicating. Just tap the air in the middle, and it will connect you to me.”
The monster from my childhood held it out to me.
My fingers trembled, but I reached forward and grabbed it from him. The metal was cold against my fingers.
We stared at each other.
Not knowing how to go forward, while knowing we’d never go back.
“Stay in touch, Sadie.” Dick’s ruddy complexion didn’t seem so menacing as he backed away.
He stopped beside the cloaked man, who hadn’t spoken a word, just stood still, eyes roaming across the ballroom.
There was a loud bang, smoke, and both of them disappeared.
I stared down at the halo in my hands and slipped the gold circle over my wrist.
I’d have loved to say I’d always known, that I’d felt the truth in my bones and had a sense of the bigger picture.
But that would be a lie.
Then the reality that my finger was still lying on the floor, the High Court was gone, and Z and Molly had betrayed me crashed over me.
Across the ballroom, a circle of guns surrounded the people I cared about.
Blood loss hit me hard, and I grabbed onto the dais to stop myself from face-planting onto the floor.
As the absence of the High Court sank in, the room buzzed with tension and energy.
Molly had the grace to look at me with regret, while Z narrowed his eyes like he couldn’t fathom where his plan had gone wrong.
“Ahem,” the don cleared his throat.
The buzz stopped, and the room fell dead silent.
“I don’t believe I gave orders to draw guns?” the don said slowly, and instantly weapons were put away.
Cobra hissed loudly.
Three alphas and one cinnamon-spiced omega flew across the floor, falling around me.
Jax roared when he saw my finger on the ground, and Cobra’s skin turned black with snakes.
Xerxes omega-whined, and Ascher fell to his knees, swearing.
I couldn’t do anything other than grab the dais as I tried not to pass out.
Slowly, the men turned away from me with glowing eyes and stared down Z. Their intent was clear.
“Nobody moves,” the don ordered, and the command in his voice was as potent as an alpha bark but much more terrifying.
The whole ballroom froze—every shifter paralyzed by the command.
Everyone except one person.
“HOW DARE YOU!” Aran screamed, careening around the corner as she headed directly at Molly and Z.
Paralyzed from the don’s words, I could do nothing but watch as my friend lifted her arms in front of her.
Two ice daggers crystalized in her palm and flew across the room, directly into the heart of the two alphas.
Crack.
Crackkkkkkk.
There was a loud crunching noise, then suddenly Molly and Z shattered into a million pieces and dissipated like frost.
Like they’d never even existed.
Aran’s eyes were pitch black, her face burning with fury as she trembled with rage.
“Harness your rage, escape your cage,” a man’s voice said from somewhere behind her.
Aran whipped her head around, like she was searching for the voice, but there was nobody there.
The don sighed heavily, and the room buzzed with the sounds of motion and mumbles as he released all the shifters from his compulsion.
“Well, that solved that problem,” the don said casually, staring down at Aran with something close to respect. “You said you were a water fae?”
Aran nodded her curly head, eyes unfocused as she stared at the frost where two alphas had stood.
There was nothing left of them.
“Everyone who assisted Molly and Z, please present yourself at the dais.”
The twelve betas who had drawn their guns on the men walked forward and stood in a straight line.
The room was silent.
Then, the Don pulled out a handgun and walked down the line. Pops rang out as he shot each one in the forehead.
Their bodies tumbled off the dais.
The “Loyalty” tattoo on the don’s neck twitched as he clenched his jaw with rage. “Well, even though we’ve had a little show this equinox, we are still here for one reason.”
The don turned to his son and gestured to the pretty omegas who sat on the stage with him.
“Which one will you be bonding with tonight?”
He’d just casually shot twelve men in the head without explanation.
He’d shown us the sheer power in his voice.
There was no disobeying him.
I backed away toward Aran, wanting the comfort of my best friend as my men chose a different woman and undoubtedly broke my heart.
The gold halo was heavy around my wrist, a reminder that I was birthed for a purpose.
It’s fine, you have a different life path, I tried to reassure myself, but it wasn’t comforting.
I grabbed Aran’s hand and turned away.
We gripped each other like we were the only lifelines we’d ever had.
She was the only person who could understand what I was going through, what it was like for your life to crumble beneath you, over and over again.
“No,” Cobra hissed. “We’re not taking an omega.”
My eyes widened. The blood loss was making me delusional.
“I choose Sadie, and if you can’t accept that, then you’ll have to fight me to the death.”
Cobra’s voice echoed.
Jax growled, “We all chose her a long time ago.”
“You’ll have to kill me before you take her from me,” Xerxes snarled, and there was a sharp sound that signaled he pulled out his knives.
“We’ll kill you all if you try to stop us,” Ascher promised.
Suddenly, there was a pressure on my scarred shoulder, and icy fingers tugged me, so I turned around.
“Look at me when I say this to you,” Cobra snarled roughly.
I blinked as I stared up at him.
Suddenly, four men fell to their knees in front of me and bowed their heads low.
They defied the don.
They chose certain death for me.
“You can’t,” I whispered as my eyes burned and moisture streaked across my cheeks, as blood loss made my head spin. “He’ll kill you.”
Cobra’s eyes glowed as he grabbed my hand and snarled, “Shut the fuck up, Kitten. I told you I loved you. What did you think that meant?”
“Actually, you told me you owned me,” I pointed out with narrowed eyes. I was still slightly salty about it.
“Don’t be fucking dumb,” he growled. “What I feel for you is more than love. You’re my everything, and if that means I must die to be by your side. Then so be it.”
My face crumpled, and my throat burned.
“But you can’t. He’ll hurt you.”
This time, it was Xerxes who growled, “Baby girl, we’re already fucking dead if we’re not with you.”
For a moment, I paused with horror. Did they know about my plan to kill them if they chose an omega?
Jax’s chest rumbled, the chains on his golden braids tinkling as he shook his head. “We’ve told you, little alpha, that we love you. Do you think we lied?”
“Yeah, but he’s threatening to kill you!” I snapped back, my hands shaking with fear even as their devoted words made my heart sing.
Had everyone lost their fucking minds?
I just found out my entire life was a lie and now this.
There was only so much a person could take.
Just because I was planning on killing them didn’t mean I wanted the don to do it. That was different.
Ascher had the audacity to laugh, neck tattoos rippling as he knelt before me.
Suddenly, his amber eyes hard and voice harsh, he said, “Princess, they can try to kill us. But they won’t succeed.”
Great.
They were dumb.
I pinched my working fingers at the top of my nose as I prayed for patience.
Shaking my hand, I waved my hand that was missing a finger at them; blood splattered across the ground, and if that didn’t sum up the vibes of the night, then nothing did.
It reminded me of what was at stake.
I yelled at them “No! Stand the fuck up right now. You don’t get to just choose to die for me. It doesn’t work that way.”
Cobra’s perfect face transformed into a cruel smile.
That was my only warning.
Suddenly, he stood up, wrapped his jeweled hand around my throat, and dragged my face toward his.
Cobra whispered menacingly, “You’re going to accept our love and bond with us right now, Kitten. You think you can stand here hurt and bleeding and tell me I can’t bond with you? That I don’t get to care for you?”
I rolled my eyes and ‘accidentally’ flung some blood on him. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Cobra’s face darkened. “I’m going to punish you later for your little act of disobedience. Understood?”
I choked on my scoff.
The. Fucking. Audacity. Of. This. Man.
“Or are you too chickenshit to accept us?” Cobra bent his massive body low so he could snarl in my face, “Are you too much of a little bitch?”
I saw red.
It took every ounce of control I had not to shift into a saber-toothed tiger and bite his cocky ass.
“Fine.” I leaned forward and snarled back, “I was going to kill you anyways.”
A purring hiss rattled in his chest.
“Oh, Kitten, don’t talk dirty to me in front of all these people,” he whispered huskily.
He really was a psycho.
“Fine, what the fuck,” I growled as the anger coursing through my body allowed me to make a massively stupid decision.
Cobra gloated, a smile splitting his too-perfect face as he once again fell to his knees in front of me.
Xerxes pulled his knife out of his pocket and quickly slashed all the men’s hands, and asked, “Will you bond with us, baby girl? Will you allow us to be yours forever?”
Under six full moons above a glittering ballroom where dark secrets had been revealed, in the cruelest realm, with all my scars on display, four men knelt and offered me the world.
“Just do it,” Aran whispered her voice cutting through the thousands of reasons not to that echoed in my mind.
Xerxes lifted his head. “We refuse to live without you.”
Ascher’s voice broke. “We need you, Princess.”
A low rumble echoed through Jax’s chest. “Please, let us be yours.”
Cobra hissed, “I refuse to go another fucking moment without you as my mate. If this is an ownership issue, I understand that I might be a tad…possessive sometimes. But I won’t fucking apologize for it.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Why are you so obsessed with me?” Clearly, the blood loss was getting to me.
“Stop being so scared. It’s pathetic and weak.” Cobra snapped back.
He did not just call me weak.
My chest twisted with anger at the insult, and the emotion propelled me to grab the knife with my good hand.
Cobra wanted to be crazy.
I’d show him crazy.
I slashed my already bloody palm, because why not? At this point there was more blood outside my body than there was inside.
Before I could think about it, I slammed my mutilated hand against each of their outstretched palms.
A golden thread exploded through my chest.
The world remade itself in shades of shimmering jewels and an unfathomable depth of devotion.
Suddenly, the men stood up and enveloped me in a massive hug.
Of course, Cobra got to me first, and there was a brief scuffle as he snarled “mine” and tried to keep me away from the other men.
Jax growled and wrestled me out of his grip so everyone else could hold me.
Meanwhile, Cobra whispered that he was going to kill me if I ever got a finger chopped off again, and then went on about all the sordid things he was going to do to my body.
I ignored him.
Because gold was exploding in my chest and surrounding me with the endless warmth of love and devotion.
Far away, Aran and the girls cheered.
The don cleared his throat, and I sighed as I tried to push away, but the men held me tighter.
Refused to let me go.
Together, we turned to him.
Great, you acted rashly, and now you’re all dead.
Instead of pulling out his gun and shooting us in the foreheads—which I was 99 percent sure was about to happen, but had decided I didn’t want to live anyways without the men—the don did something even more shocking.
For the first time since I’d met him, a smile split across the don’s face.
His voice boomed, “Congratulations, you passed your third trial.”
I blinked.
The men were still beside me as confusion and hope strummed across the gold thread connecting all of us.
“The third trial is a loyalty test, and Sadie proved her loyalty to you in her first initiation trial. She refused to give up any information on you, even under extreme duress. Your test was to see if you’d earned her loyalty back.”
We all stood in shock.
“What about the Ortega brothers?” Jax recovered first. “And the Black Wolves?”
The don shrugged. “Decades ago, the brothers worked with the wolves to steal Xerxes from the omega center. You needed a red herring, and I gave you revenge as a boon. I knew you’d handle them.”
He waved his hand casually like he hadn’t almost killed us, had just sent us on an easy quest.
My jaw gaped.
The don shook his head like we were hopeless. “I even gave you Warren to protect the girls. He is extremely talented.”
The young boy blushed under the don’s praise, and we all glared at him.
We weren’t impressed.
“Clarissa, you were told in the beginning of your trial to befriend Sadie to help her adjust to this realm, since you’re both female alphas. That was your loyalty test. You failed.”
The don aimed his gun at the dance floor, and Clarissa dropped dead.
I grimaced.
A lot of people had been dropping dead recently, and I was starting to feel sick.
The don beamed like a proud father and gestured to Cobra.
He yelled, “Well, this is the best time to announce my son has returned to the beast realm. Cobra is the crown prince!”
The room gasped.
Then the orchestra came alive, champagne was handed out, and everyone began to twirl around.
Missing a finger, scars on display, with a goddess inside me, I spun with each of my men across the glittering dance floor.
Love was more than a sentiment.
It was unwavering loyalty, even in the darkest place.
The Don
I smiled as my beloved son twirled his mate across the dance floor.
Physically, she was nothing special, but there was a fire that burned within her that I hadn’t seen in centuries. A similar fire burned within the Aran boy.
I glanced across the room, smiling when I saw Jinx was glaring down at a beta soldier who was wiping at his face like he was crying.
She glanced up at me, and I tipped my hat to her. I’d been don long enough to know a soldier when I saw one.
She was going to grow into a magnificent killer.
Cobra twirled Sadie close to the dais, and I smiled fondly down at my long-lost son, who’d grown into an impressive man.
I smirked as Sadie narrowed her eyes at me over his shoulder.
I’d always known this would be their outcome. Known since my beloved son’s eyes had glowed white as the moons when he’d bonded with the other men.
All their eyes had glowed an even brighter white when they’d bonded with Sadie.
They were fated mates.
And fate always found a way.
