When we limped back to the forest, we found Jax and the betas standing atop a tied-up spider fae.
Jax roared with excitement as he stood over his prize.
Auntie had said the ultimate mission had been to capture a fae creature, but all had either escaped or been killed in battle.
This was a huge victory for us.
Standing in front of the betas, Ascher transformed back into his male form. All six feet, five inches of glorious tattooed male stood naked on display. His abs rippled as he hurried over to Jax.
Sensing Ascher’s urgency, Jax transformed back naked.
My long tongue rolled out of my mouth as all seven feet of impressive muscles were displayed, his piercings shining against his dark skin.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
A bunch of the beta women blushed and openly ogled the alphas. Giggling to each other, with massive guns in their hands, they whispered about the sizes of the alphas’ manhoods.
My advanced hearing caught every salacious piece of gossip. One of the twins whispered, “Jax has the biggest dick I’ve ever seen.” Her twin nodded in agreement.
I couldn’t fault their logic; the man was enormous.
Still, Jax and Ascher seemed worried and unaware of the fuss they were creating. Cobra’s hand tangled deeper in my fur, and I winced a little as his hand dug some of the spiderweb’s barbs deeper into my flesh.
“Cobra created a huge snake, like the biggest fucking thing I’ve ever seen, and it slithered away into this forest,” Ascher whispered into Jax’s ear.
Suddenly, Jax’s gray eyes filled with worry, and he snapped his head over to look at Cobra.
Jax’s face was contorted with fear. Something told me it would be a problem if Cobra’s big snake got loose.
“Cobra and Ascher, with me. We have to do some recon of the battle. Also, Sadie, help all the betas get to the ward, and get yourself checked.”
Cobra disentangled his fist from my fur and walked over to join the other two men.
My beast chuffed in annoyance. You are an alpha. Assert yourself over Jax.
I was covered in a spiderweb and blood, so I nodded and limped back into the compound alongside the other betas.
They could figure out Cobra’s shit on their own. I had a date with a hot bath.
Once inside the locker room, I lay on the ground as the betas dropped off their weapons and left for the ward. I waited to change back into my other form until I was completely alone.
Changing back was easy. The hard part was the fact that the spiderweb didn’t magically poof away like I’d hoped.
Instead, it fell on top of my much weaker flesh and opened thousands of little cuts across my sensitive skin.
Even the numb couldn’t block out the pain as the web’s hooks dug into my sensitive breasts, stomach, and thigh. Biting down on my lip, I screamed at the agony and slammed my head against the cold floor.
Blessedly, I knocked myself out.
As soon as I came back to consciousness, I wished I hadn’t.
I wasn’t lying on the ground in the warm training room.
My ass was naked. Butt fucking naked, and I was being dragged across the ground like a deer carcass. Through the snow.
Hail and frigid wind battered my exposed body.
I took stock of the situation. And what a situation it was.
A large man hauled me by my feet across the hard ground. His back was to me, but he was fully clothed and looked warm. Meanwhile, the icy conditions pummeled my naked form.
Instantly, I began to kick and writhe about as I tried to free myself from my assailant.
“What the fuck?” I screamed at the fucker who was carting my limp body through the freezing forest, like an elk carcass.
Unfortunately, I was in the aftermath of the numb. As if the cold wasn’t enough, a wave of nausea and queasiness overtook me.
I was being carted with my feet in the air so there was nowhere for my vomit to go but all over my chest.
Anger burst through me at the same time as the pain.
I had worked too hard to be treated like this. I was not a little girl anymore. I was a fucking alpha.
“Put me down and let me go,” I alpha-barked at the fucker.
Immediately, he dropped my legs, like he was surprised by my alpha persuasion.
Sadly, he snapped out of it quickly and grabbed my legs again.
I gasped in shock.
“John, what the fuck?” More bile dribbled out the side of my mouth.
The kind red-haired beta that had tried so hard to be my friend didn’t look so friendly now. He looked harder, angrier, more desperate. Still, he didn’t look evil.
“Yes, let’s not waste time on surprises. I’m about to get a massive payout from the queen, and you are the only thing between me and riches.” John calmly continued to drag me across the cold, snowy ground.
I kicked and tried to gain purchase, but with my legs up in the air, it was almost impossible. John had beta strength, and I needed to recharge the numb. Plus, I was weak in the aftermath of fighting and the world spun around me.
It was hard to focus on getting free when the cold was making my muscles lock up and everything was spinning.
You’re a fucking tiger, Sadie, I reminded myself desperately and pushed through the tingling that allowed me to shift forms. What the goddess?
No matter how hard I concentrated on transforming, nothing happened. Did he have some type of enchantment?
“Why can’t I transform?” I yelled like a banshee as the dizziness continued.
The trees might as well have been leaping about for how steady my vision was.
John said nothing.
“Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform? Why can’t I transform?” I yelled it over and over again in the loudest, most annoying voice.
Numb Sadie knew the power of silence. Un-numb Sadie knew the power of screaming like a psycho.
The cold wind bit at my skin, and the freezing temperature made me sleepy. Screaming was the only thing I could focus on. At least the cold numbed the stings from the small cuts all over my body.
“For sun god’s sake, shut the fuck up.” John twirled around and slapped me across the face.
Truthfully, my face was so numb from the cold that I barely felt the hit. However, as John whirled around, a medallion on his neck flew forward. It was a vial that seemed to be filled with some type of blue flame.
It glowed with the telltale sign of a fae enchantment. I would bet all my money it was blocking my ability to shift.
One mystery solved. Now I needed to save my ass.
“And to think I was fucking nice to you and untangled you from the spiderweb,” John said angrily as he continued dragging me.
I loved that he was trying to act like he wasn’t the fucking villain in the story right now as he hauled my naked, weakened form literally through snow.
If I didn’t freeze to death, it would be a miracle.
My eyes closed, and my skin started to prickle with unnatural warmth.
Frostbite was setting in.
What would the numb do? I asked myself.
With all my remaining strength, I reached my hands wide and grabbed a massive tree branch. Quickly I swung it forward with all my might, toward the back of John’s head.
It hit with a sickening thud, and he immediately dropped me.
Unfortunately, he didn’t hit the deck and pass out. He whirled around and attacked.
Luckily, I still had a weapon, and I was able to scurry back, find purchase, and hit him with it.
A crack sounded like a gunshot as my branch collided with John’s arm. I’d never known breaking bones could feel so satisfying.
At that moment, I felt like I understood Cobra a little more.
“Just come with me. I’m rescuing you,” John said through gritted teeth as we circled each other.
I actually scoffed and swallowed down a manic chuckle. What buffoonery was this? Did John think I was the queen of dumbasses?
“By dragging me naked through the freezing forest? Were you taking me out to die?” I looked around at the swaying trees and heavy white snow.
“Of course not!” John immediately shouted back, like the idea was preposterous.
Something that looked an awful lot like guilt flashed across his face.
I fought the urge to keep my eyes open as the cold made me slow and sluggish. “Then where the fuck are you ta—” I stopped talking. As I stared around the familiar forest, it hit me like a truck.
John was taking me to the portal.
He had mentioned something about a queen as he’d dragged me. Holy shit. My knees almost collapsed beneath me. He was taking me to the fae queen. Maybe as a hostage of war?
“Why would you bring me to her?” I asked, genuinely confused, as we circled each other.
My steps were getting smaller, and I started to stumble more. While my tan ass was bare and freezing, John was bundled in heavy, warm garments.
I had a weapon, but it wasn’t going to hold him off long.
“Nothing is as it seems. This entire realm is a fucking lie,” he said cryptically as he spat onto the ground to punctuate his statement. His eyes looked down at my scarred torso, then back at my face.
His features pinched with horror as he took in my abused flesh.
I snarled at him and refused to feel ashamed over my flesh. It was his fault I was exposed and naked in the cold.
My chest tightened, and a part of my brain flickered, like I knew information relevant to what he was saying. But the cold was oppressive, and my last brain cell was barely firing. I was one second away from freezing to death.
In a flurry of motion, John dove and tackled me to the ground.
I got in a few good whacks with my stick, but the cold was seeping into my blood and the world was still spinning.
He landed two punishing blows to my face, scooped me into his arms, and began to sprint through the forest. He carried me fireman-style.
Hot blood coursed down my mouth, onto my forehead, and I noted hazily that it felt good in the cold. I knew my life was falling apart, because I was marveling at the warmth of my blood.
A kernel of rage lit inside my chest.
How dare John break my nose again? At this rate, it was going to be amazing if it ever looked normal and didn’t just hang off my face. These fucking men and my small nose. What had it ever done to hurt them?
The cold was shutting my eyes, but a part of me was still wide-awake and panicking. The fae queen was rumored to be a ruthless bitch who tortured her enemies brutally.
All rumors had some truth to them.
Opening my mouth, I screamed as loudly as I could. My only hope was that someone would hear me.
My mind flashed to the spider fae that had looked at me pleadingly before Cobra had sent it to its death. Was the moon goddess punishing me for not helping it? Why was everything so cryptic and complicated?
John yelled at me to shut up, so I bit down on his tricep.
There was a tear in the sleeve where I’d cut him with the branch. I burrowed my small teeth deep into his skin. Like my beast, I bit and savaged the exposed flesh.
John jerked and grabbed me by the hair. He ripped my head off his arm.
Still, he stumbled to a stop to do so, and satisfaction burst through me. Even with my eyes shutting from the cold, I wasn’t completely useless.
A chunk of his skin was caught in my teeth, and I spit his gore back at his head. John snarled down at me but resumed running awkwardly, with one of his hands painfully tangled in my hair so I couldn’t bite him.
Fine.
I shrieked for my life.
John tugged my hair painfully back to get me to stop, my neck bent at an impossible angle, and I just screamed louder.
I was still an alpha. He wasn’t taking me easy.
I tried to kick out with my legs, but his other arm tightened around them and held them clamped against his chest.
Out of the blue, a massive figure slammed John’s face against a tree. Instantly, my captor’s body went limp as the momentum knocked him out cold.
Terrified, I kicked away from John’s body and whirled to see the new attacker.
Had someone else come through the portal, something more terrifying than the beta?
“You’re okay, little alpha,” came Jax’s deep voice as he walked forward to my crouching form. I looked up at his friendly face.
I passed out in relief.
