After three hours of a strange lady rubbing oil all over my muscles, I was going to kill someone. I didn’t like being touched by strangers.
The only good thing was that Cobra lay on the table next to me. His frosty scent wrapped around me in a calming embrace.
Unlike Cobra, who had a smug look of contentment as he lay sprawled on the massage table, I was not feeling relaxed.
Because of my large size, the masseuse had crawled all over me and whacked at my muscles painfully.
We had both requested male masseuses, but they’d only had one, so Cobra got him, while I got the fae lady that liked to hit.
I ground my teeth together and refrained from alpha-barking at her to stop touching me, because for the first time in my life, strangers weren’t afraid of me, and I didn’t want to ruin it.
Sure, it was a little annoying the way the fae crowded around and asked for the Meat Grinder’s signature.
I reminded myself that it was still better than them staring at me with horror because of my gigantic size, which was my usual experience.
Finally, my masseuse stepped away from me and stopped touching my skin.
Cobra’s man did the same, and the two fae mumbled random crap about energy alignment, healing crystals, and inner peace.
Then a chef brought in a rolling tray of fruit with a chocolate fountain and drinks.
I thanked them for their service, but Cobra looked away and said nothing. He still didn’t talk to women, but the masseuses beamed with happiness and didn’t seem to care about or notice his hostility.
Finally, everyone left the spa room.
Cobra and I were alone.
A waterfall gurgled down one of the dark marble walls, and a dozen floating balls of enchanted fae fire lit the dim room.
We both lounged on velvet massage beds. Soft, tinkling music echoed around us.
For the first time since the stranger had started touching me, I relaxed and enjoyed the peaceful environment.
Cobra sauntered across the room in his towel and picked at the exotic, colorful fruit of the fae realm.
His jewels sparkled across his cut torso as he moved silently across the room.
Once again, I was blown away by how breathtaking he was.
Cobra bit into a lush piece of fruit, and juices leaked out of the corner of his mouth. His smirk told me he knew how gorgeous he was.
He loved to taunt me.
I sighed heavily and pulled at the knot of my braids.
The attendant had made me tie them up on top of my head. My shoulders relaxed as I freed the heavy mass of braids and they fell back around my shoulders.
I felt bare without my gold jewelry hanging around me.
My five little sisters loved jewelry.
Even the youngest, Jinx (who preferred intellectual pursuits over what she called “boring material distractions”) braided a chain into her black hair to match mine.
Of course, she had chosen a chain with a skull symbol at the end and said something about Nietzsche respecting her choice.
I’d never seen her take it out.
Now, because of my sisters, my hair was covered in chains.
For most of my life, I’d worn a single gold chain in my hair. It matched the simple chain I’d given my mother.
About ten years ago, when my oldest sister, Jess, was ten years old, she’d complimented my jewelry.
The next time I’d visited, I’d brought her home a gold chain so we could match. She’d been so happy when I’d braided the chain into her hair.
Jess was full of energy and spirit. All I ever wanted to do was make her smile.
My chest cramped as I thought about her running my deceased mother’s florist shop all alone in the shifter realm. She’d be waiting for me to visit.
It made me sick.
At this rate, I wouldn’t show up.
I took a deep breath and fingered the chains to calm myself. Touching the multitude of gold chains in my hair reminded me of why I kept fighting.
Who I was fighting for—five little girls who acted like I was the greatest big brother in the world.
They depended on me.
Six years ago, after I’d gained four new sisters under circumstances that I was still confused about, I started to collect jewelry for all of them.
Jala, the second youngest, who had just turned fourteen, loved jewelry the most.
She wore her bright-pink hair in many small braids like I did and braided them full of gold-and-silver chains.
Whenever I visited, she loved to brag to everyone that we matched.
Even Jen and Jan, who were sixteen and full of sass, had pierced their own ears and asked for matching earrings. All three of us wore golden frost-flower earrings.
Now, wherever I went, I looked for new jewelry to bring back to my sisters.
They were all energetic girls with beaming hearts, but the shifter realm was a cold, barren land, and its citizens were cruel and hard.
I was their rock and provider. I refused to let the realm hurt them.
In return, their love and support kept me going.
Six years ago, when my elderly null mother had passed away, my entire world had crumbled beneath me.
For over a century, it had just been the two of us. Growing up, I had no siblings or even a father.
It had just been me and my mother.
Now she walked peacefully in the valley of the sun god. Often, I felt her presence looking out for me.
Still, it hurt unbearably to have lost her.
I fingered the chain in my hair that matched my mother’s, and bit down on my lower lip. My eyes misted over.
Every time I touched it, I liked to pretend she somehow felt my presence reaching out into the afterworld. That she touched her chain back and smiled, and bragged to all her friends that her son loved her unconditionally.
Visiting and hanging out with my five younger sisters was the only thing that had gotten me through that dark time.
My mother had adopted them, so each one of them was part of her legacy. Just as I was.
I would provide for them and make my mother proud.
It was my purpose.
I rubbed at my aching chest and sighed heavily. Now I just needed to escape this fucked-up realm and get back to them.
A task that seemed impossible.
I pulled the towel tighter around my waist and joined Cobra at the buffet of food.
The prisoner in the fae dungeon had told us that all alphas in the shifter realm were kidnapped children from the beast realm.
That we were all orphans without families.
He was wrong.
I had a family—a loving mother and five perfect little sisters who meant everything to me.
Nothing anyone ever said would change that.
“Want some fruit, Meat Grinder?” Cobra joked as he punched me lightly on the shoulder.
His emerald eyes stared at me with intensity, and he shuffled closer, like he could feel my sadness.
He was too perceptive for his own good.
“Sadie was ridiculous with that name,” I said, and coughed slightly. My throat was still rough from thinking about my deceased mother and my sisters.
Cobra’s soft expression disappeared at the mention of Sadie, and the planes of his gorgeous face tightened with anger. “Sadie cannot be in proximity with a vampyre. We can’t let this happen.”
His frosty scent became colder and colder until it burned my nose.
Suddenly, the entire room smelled like a blizzard had blown through. It was so frigid. I was surprised I couldn’t see my breath in front of my face.
Just because Sadie was small didn’t mean we should underestimate her.
“I’m also worried,” I said softly and let Cobra hear the sincerity in my voice. “But she’s still an alpha, just like us. If you keep trying to coddle her, you’re just going to push her away. It’s safer if we plan together as a group instead of trying to shield her.”
I thought back to the last challenge when I’d ordered her to stand behind me.
Instead of obeying, the little alpha had transformed into her massive saber-toothed form and leaped over Cobra into the thick of battle.
By trying to control her, I’d pushed her to act rashly.
For the second time.
It was my fault.
When she’d thrown herself into the fray, my bear had gone mad with rage and fear.
Still, I’d quickly realized she could hold her own better than Cobra, who was shackled by the enchanted collar and basically defenseless.
A point that had become abundantly clear when Cobra had been knocked unconscious by an earth fae chucking a rock at him.
In contrast, I’d looked over and found the little alpha on her back, kicking the half warrior’s limp form like a kitten with a ball of yarn.
She’d been coated in blood, and I swore that even from a distance, I could feel her unbridled happiness.
A saber-toothed beast was not an animal to be messed with.
Abruptly, a loud rattling hiss shook from Cobra’s throat, and the jewels embedded in his skin flashed with menace.
His voice lashed out like a frosty whip. “We can’t let her put herself in harm’s way.”
A part of me understood he’d been through intense trauma at the hands of women and that his trauma manifested in the need to protect Sadie from everything.
It wasn’t a coincidence that she was the only woman he ever talked to.
He was deeply obsessed with her.
Still, it was becoming annoying.
If Cobra didn’t figure out his shit, he was going to lose the little alpha before he even had her.
“We don’t let her do anything. She’s competent just like we are, and you need to stop calling her a possession.” A low growl rumbled from my chest as I pressed against him.
“But she is mine.” Cobra’s tone was confused, like he couldn’t even understand what I was saying.
Irritation spiked through my chest.
I grabbed Cobra around the back of his neck and pulled him close. Frosty ice burned my nose deliciously, and my beast roared in my skull.
His endless capacity for violence, the bizarre way he looked at the world, was as enticing as it was infuriating.
My chest vibrated, and a low growl worked out of my throat. “No. You belong to me. She doesn’t belong to either of us, and she won’t if you keep acting like this.”
I shoved my hips against his and wrapped my hands around his pale throat and diamond collar.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his hiss vibrated through my hand.
“She’s mine,” Cobra grunted out as I bucked my hips against him.
His eyes flickered to snake eyes and back.
“You’re mine,” I growled back, and Cobra relaxed further against me.
The gorgeous bastard was as dominant as he was submissive; he yearned for control as much as he yearned to let go.
I knew how to help him let go.
“On your knees,” I alpha-barked.
The corner of Cobra’s lush lips tilted upward because the handsome bastard loved to give head.
It did not surprise me that he’d gone down on Sadie. It was his favorite thing to do.
He reached forward with his long, jeweled fingers and tugged the towel off my hips.
My large, pierced cock sprung free and bobbed against my abs. My gold piercings glinted in the firelight.
I reached over to the table of food, dipped my fingers into the chocolate fountain, and coated my dick with the luscious, rich chocolate.
With my hands fisted in Cobra’s short, inky hair, I guided his gorgeous face forward until his sinful red lips touched my dick.
From this angle, his cheekbones were sharp as ice, his features perfect.
He smirked up at me, emerald eyes gleaming with mischievousness. Then he swallowed my entire dick.
I groaned and threw my head back as Cobra took me ridiculously deep.
In all my years, no one had ever been able to take my entire cock, no one until Cobra.
The handsome bastard didn’t have a gag reflex.
My knot swelled against his tongue, and his throat bulged where my massive cock speared him.
I groaned as he pulled his head back and brought both his hands up to the base of my thick shaft.
He twisted his hands back and forth and bobbed up and down aggressively.
Chocolate sauce coated his lips and fingers, and his icy scent wafted softer. Instead of a blizzard, it reminded me of ice thawing in springtime.
His jaw tightened as my knot continued to swell, and I shuddered as his tongue flickered over it.
With a low groan, I erupted.
Cobra swallowed my ecstasy and grinned up at me with cum-stained chocolate lips. He got to his feet, and his towel tented impressively.
“I still own her.” Cobra grinned and sauntered away to his clothes.
I sighed heavily and considered the merits of picking up the big bastard, slamming him against the wall, and fucking him until he agreed he didn’t own Sadie.
But my chest pinched as I thought about the little alpha and my agreement with Cobra. I’d only agreed to not touch her sexually because Cobra was clearly losing his mind over it.
I was sure the icy bastard would learn to share, if that was even what Sadie wanted.
I was also sure he was hanging on by a thread.
It wasn’t a coincidence that he was becoming more aggressive while stuck in the fae realm.
Cobra acted like he was tough, but I saw the way he shuddered and picked at his thumbs every time a fae woman screamed his name. They viewed him as a celebrity.
His trauma was their entertainment.
I wanted to scream at the women to leave him alone, and tear the fucking fae queen’s head off her shoulders for what she’d did to him.
Still, I could see the hurt in Sadie’s eyes when I’d agreed to Cobra’s demands.
I wanted to hold her. To reassure her, because holy fuck, I was interested.
Every night I lay awake and fantasized about taking Cobra and Sadie at the same time.
Cobra was so obsessed with her. It would be exhilarating to watch him worship her as I worshipped him.
I wanted to fuck him hard while he slowly made sweet love to her.
I longed to take them both. To command both of them until they writhed with pleasure.
A rumble echoed through my chest, and I rubbed at my vibrating sternum.
Before we could make the little alpha ours, we needed to survive these damn Fae Games. A vampyre was nothing to mess with, and I didn’t like how much the stakes were increasing.
Fighting was one thing, but a seduction contest?
Things were getting ridiculous.
My mind flashed to Ascher, and another growl ripped from my throat.
The tattooed bastard might act like he cared, he might pretend to be remorseful, but that didn’t change the fact he’d betrayed us.
He was the reason Cobra was trapped in his personal hell and Sadie was fighting for her life.
Everyone was going to learn.
Cobra and I weren’t alphas you fucked over.
