As the four of us stepped into the arena, the heat from the dual suns slapped against us.
The roar of the crowd was unbearably loud.
Jax walked in the front, and Ascher and Cobra walked on both sides of me in an unspoken agreement. They shielded me with their massive frames.
“Please welcome the alpha group to the games,” the moderator said with a tinkling laugh. Her high-pitched voice echoed around us.
The crowd of fae screamed in response, and the hot sand vibrated beneath my bare toes.
My ears burned.
A group of guards led us to the center of the arena. They spoke, and we could barely hear them above the screeching from the crowd. With aggressive hand gestures, we finally understood they were telling us to stand within a glowing outline of a square on the sand.
The four of us barely fit within the outline.
I didn’t even care that I was pressed flush against Ascher and Cobra; I was too busy trying to comprehend what was happening.
Turned out standing in the middle of an arena with vicious fae screaming for my blood was the least of my problems.
In a single heartbeat, things got worse.
Way worse.
Suddenly, the hot sand shifted beneath us, and a metal platform emerged from the arena floor.
It levitated into the air. The platform was enchanted.
All four of us gasped as we rose.
The ground whooshed further away, and I was blown to the side as the wind battered against us.
Both Ascher and Cobra shot their hands out to grab me. If it weren’t for their quick movement, I would have fallen.
Far.
My stomach traveled to my throat, and my skin erupted in sweat as the stadium passed before us in a blur.
The four of us locked arms and pressed our backs together. Well, I tried to lock arms, but the men wrapped themselves around me. Cobra grabbed one of my hips in a death grip, and Ascher’s bicep flattened across my stomach to ensure I didn’t fall.
We rose higher and higher until the guards were little dots on the ground beneath us. It was like balancing on the edge of the glaciers in the shifter realm.
Irritation mixed with fear. Was it too much to ask that someone warn us we would be standing on a small platform that literally flew in the air?
We barely fit, and if one of us jostled, it would shove the rest of us off. It was the ultimate trust exercise.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to vomit as we kept rising. After what felt like forever, the platform finally stopped and hovered midair.
Now I understood why the stadium was shaped like a bowl with most of the seats in the middle section.
Our platform was levitating in the middle of the massive stadium.
If I weren’t afraid for my life, surrounded by screeching, bloodthirsty fae, and forced to participate because of the evil fae queen, I might have enjoyed the experience. I’d always wanted to fly.
Instead of staying still, because that would be too reasonable, the platform moved beneath us. It slowly circled in an elliptical orbit around the center of the stadium.
Our platform stayed about twenty feet away from the crowd, but it was still close enough for us to see each fae individually. Men and women alike were dressed to the nines in bright-colored silks, with intricate hairstyles and pretty makeup.
Everyone was breathtakingly beautiful. The fae were tall and lithe, with willowy figures, delicate ears and stunning bone structures.
Too bad they were also maniacs who screamed like psychos as we passed, and yelled slurs at us.
People called me a cunt as we flew by.
It was overwhelming.
My forearms burned from how tightly I hung on to the men, and I was definitely going to be deaf after this experience.
As we orbited around the middle of the stadium and I closed my eyes and prayed for the spinning to stop, the moderator introduced us.
Her sweet, melodic voice was a loud tinkle that echoed over the screaming fans. “These alpha beasts are warriors from a faraway land. They consist of Jax the Meat Grinder, Ascher, a girl, and Cobra, the realm’s famous sex god.”
First, wow, someone needed to give me credit for coming up with Jax’s name, although I’d only made it up a few hours earlier. How in the sun god did they know about it?
Second, the bitch did not just call me a girl. Third, the crowd went nuts when they said Cobra’s name.
Also, because why the hell not, the massive screens around the stadium rippled with enchantment, and a video of Cobra violently fucking a fae woman against the wall played in graphic detail.
There were upsetting moments in your life, and then there were upsetting moments in your life. This was the latter, and I was unwell for so many reasons.
I closed my eyes and refused to watch. Next to me, Cobra’s hand tightened across my hip, and a slight tremble ran through him.
I gripped his bicep and gave him a squeeze. I peeked open my eyes to stare up at him. His emerald gaze was far away, a dark emptiness reflected in them.
How could they treat him this way?
Cobra’s sex noises played throughout the stadium, and I glanced at the massive screen. He thrust into the fae woman.
I threw up, and it burned as I swallowed it back down.
The fae kept screaming, the platform kept spinning, and Cobra’s gorgeous body kept penetrating the fae woman across the screens.
This was my hell.
Finally, the video stopped.
If I weren’t floating, I would have dropped to my knees with relief.
Cobra trembled beside me, and I wanted to wrap my arms around him. I wished with all my might that we were back in the alpha room in the shifter realm, teasing each other as we pushed food into each other’s faces.
I didn’t realize how relaxed everything had been until now.
The moderator’s voice boomed, and the crowd quieted. “As you all know, the gracious fae queen has banned all alpha shifting in the realm for the safety of all her precious citizens. These alphas cannot access their second forms and are extremely pathetic and weak.”
Cobra’s and Ascher’s forearms tightened with rage against me.
I didn’t know what they were smoking, but nobody in their right mind would ever look at the men and think “weak,” especially not Jax. Me, on the other hand—I got that.
The fae citizens booed and threw popcorn at us as we orbited past them.
The moderator continued, “Don’t worry, the fae queen is a gracious host who loves her citizens. As a special treat for this millionth centennial celebration, the queen will allow them to fight in their shifted forms in certain matches.”
The crowd screamed louder with excitement, and the sound caused our platform to wobble back and forth as we spun around.
I choked on more throw-up and swallowed it down.
We were just toys to be played with by the fae queen. Objects of entertainment.
Finally, after ten more orbits from hell, the platform stopped spinning and moved to the center of the ring.
Then the floating black square shivered beneath our feet and extended in every direction.
We all exhaled with relief.
It gave us enough space to stand without falling off. Still, Ascher and Cobra didn’t release me; they held me in their death grips.
They couldn’t have made the platform a little larger as we’d spun and orbited for our lives? I wanted to kill whatever air and earth fae controlled the platform. They were so rude.
The next minutes passed in a blur of me leaning over with my hands on my knees and hyperventilating. I told myself not to look over the edge, to the ground, but I couldn’t stop glancing down.
At any second, I expected the platform to disintegrate beneath our feet and for us to fall to a brutal, violent death.
Jax rubbed his hand across my neck comfortingly. Cobra wrapped his fingers around my arms like he wanted to make sure I wouldn’t fall, and Ascher scooted in front of me to block my view of the vile, screaming crowd.
The waves of screams had changed, and now they chanted “shifter cunt” in unison.
Part of me was impressed that all million fae could join in synchrony.
A larger part of me wanted to cry for the mother I’d never had.
I envisioned Dick, my abusive captor who’d given me scars, as a mother figure, and the disturbing image made me laugh. The dark humor was the only thing that kept the tears at bay.
The crowd alternated between calling me a cunt and screaming Cobra’s name like he was a superstar.
My ears gave me a wind tunnel sensation as my anxiety grew.
I barely heard the moderator welcome a group of four water fae, a group of five air fae, and a group of three earth fae.
All of them orbited around the stadium on tiny platforms, then came to hover near us in the center of the stadium. From my peripheral vision, I noted they were all massive men.
I was starting to understand why “shifter cunt” was being chanted with such vigor. It seemed like the Fae Games was a male-only experience. The fae realm appeared to have a tiny sexism issue, which was ironic because they had a queen for a leader.
Also, it was clear as day that I was not the woman to help educate them.
In books, the women who broke barriers and did heroic shit were usually tall and strong. And if they weren’t physically impressive, then they were wicked smart. Also, I was pretty sure every empowered female I’d read about could run for five minutes without asphyxiating.
I couldn’t.
I was not the woman for the job. Sure, sexism sucked. You know what also sucked? Being heckled by a million people because you had vagina lips and small, unimpressive breasts.
If the fae realm wanted to keep me locked in a kitchen, making bread and knitting, that was fine. I would get my yeast and yarn ready to go.
Now I just needed to talk to the moderator lady and explain to her that I was a little woman, and I did not want to fight anyone or anything. Ever.
My panic attack was interrupted by a tidal wave of screams from the crowd. I covered my ears with my hands and ducked my head as I prayed my eardrums wouldn’t burst.
The last group of competitors whizzed around on their platform so fast that I couldn’t discern what they looked like.
A sign flashed in my periphery, and I did a double take at the neon letters.
They read, “The Half Warriors, 100-Year Gladiator Champions.”
My mouth dropped open in shock, and the buzzing that tingled my skin had nothing to do with the screaming crowd or the horrible death drop below my feet.
When the flying platform came to a stop near us, I didn’t know if I wanted to cry, smile, scream, or laugh.
Three men stood on the platform, and unlike every other person I’d seen in the fae realm, they didn’t have pointed ears.
The tallest of the men was built as wide and tall as Jax. He had long black hair that hung past his waist in a silky sheet, bright-pink eyes that glowed against his deeply tanned skin, and black tribal tattoos that covered his body.
My mouth dropped open, and I gaped because I’d seen the men before, drawn in the pages of my favorite book growing up.
They were the Big Three. The half warriors.
And the largest man with the pink eyes was Demetre, my childhood idol.
