BEATDOWNS
WE STOOD ALONE in the wings of the fae stadium and waited for the second match of the games to begin.
This morning, a random fae had knocked on our door and told us to get ready. Who gave someone an hour’s notice before they had to fight to the death? So rude.
I didn’t even get to eat breakfast, which was not cool. Dying on an empty stomach was just so…depressing. Not the journey I wanted for myself.
“Stick behind me, and I mean it this time.” A growl shook through Jax’s chest, and his usually warm gray eyes flashed with warning.
The big man was pissed.
He was clearly referencing the first time we’d fought in the woods, when he’d told me to stay behind him. Instead, I had almost gotten run over by a monster spider fae and had shifted into a saber-toothed tiger.
I rolled my eyes at him and cracked my neck back and forth. “I’m also an alpha. I don’t need to hide behind anyone.”
If Jax wanted to cock-block me, that was fine, but I wasn’t about to roll over and act like a weak little girl.
I had a reputation to uphold in the fae community.
Yes, part of that reputation was face-planting aggressively in front of a million people.
Everyone had to start somewhere.
Public relations wasn’t an easy business, and I knew I’d woo them with my alpha prowess, eventually.
“You will listen to him,” Cobra sneered and pressed his chest against me until his large body pinned me against the wall. A weird rattling hiss shook his chest.
Jax stepped forward beside Cobra and they crowded my space.
Great, I was stuck between two mentally unwell men who were growling like animals right before I was supposed to battle for my life.
Not the energy I was trying to create for myself.
I pretended not to notice that they were both gorgeous. I also ignored the fact that Cobra had wrapped his long fingers around my throat and was exerting a bit of pressure that I didn’t hate.
My ego didn’t love it.
With a grunt, I wrestled Cobra’s jeweled hand off my skin and threw my long hair over my shoulder with sass. “Your energy is toxic and ruining my pre-fight headspace. Also, you both sound like rabid animals and should probably get that looked at.”
The men backed up, and I breathed with relief as the temperature instantly cooled around me. Sweat dripped down my torso from my pits.
It had taken being kidnapped into a different realm for me to discover I had a sweating problem. Highly unfortunate and not fun and flirty.
“Here, let me help,” Jax said as he slapped Cobra’s hand and pushed him away from me.
The snake man had been slowly reaching his hand out like he was going to choke me again.
It might just be me, but I was 70 percent sure Cobra was acting more unhinged as of late.
Cobra muttered expletives, his jewels casting refractions of light across the shadowy wings of the stadium.
I smirked as Cobra stumbled away.
Instead of sneering back like I expected, he raked his jeweled hand through his dark hair and slowly ran his red tongue over his sinful lips.
I gaped at him…was he trying to seduce me before a
gladiator tournament? Who did that?
Jax’s warm fingers brushed against my neck, and I jumped as the sensation sent tingles down my spine.
Wow, the big man had said he didn’t want to have sex with me and now he was casually touching my neck?
The mixed signals were throwing me out of whack.
I steadied my breathing and tried to act like I wasn’t hyperventilating.
Before I could complain about him sending mixed signals, he turned me around and tightly braided my long hair.
Thank the moon goddess I had said nothing. That would have been awkward.
Also, of course the big guy liked to do something as sweet as freaking braid hair. My ovaries sobbed, and I tried to discreetly shuffle further away from his magnetic pull.
He was the most addicting combination of sweet and aggressive, and it was scrambling my brains.
I handed him hair ties that I always wore on my wrist— you never knew when you might have to fight for your life— and thanked him for his help.
“No problem. I’ve always done my sisters’ hair for them. I like to braid.” Jax’s smile fell as he spoke, and he clenched his jaw.
Suddenly, the big man was tense and quiet. Tension radiated off him.
“We’ll get back to them before they even know you’re gone,” I said as I thought about Lucinda and my stomach pinched with pain.
Everyone knew Jax’s five sisters were his world; they were his favorite thing to talk about at dinner.
A small part of me dreamed of a world where all our sisters met and became best friends. A world where we didn’t have to train and fight for our lives.
“The braid looks good,” Jax said softly as he fiddled with it. It was clear he didn’t want to talk about his sisters.
“Hmph,” Ascher grunted and arched an eyebrow at Jax.
The colorful flame tattoos that decorated his neck and the side of his face looked menacing against the dark shadows of the narrow wing.
If Jax was sweet and aggressive, then Ascher was aggressive and aggressive.
“Got something to say about Jax?” Cobra stalked forward and shoved his chest into Ascher. Their noses were inches from each other.
On the other hand, Cobra was just psychotic.
But it was cute that he was defending Jax’s love of hair braiding.
“Nope.” Ascher backed away from Cobra’s posturing and leaned casually against the wall.
Clearly, Cobra just wanted to fight, because he whipped his head around and stalked back toward me.
Jax rolled his eyes as once again the handsome jeweled shifter invaded my personal space and glowered down at me.
Cobra snarled, “You still need to obey Jax’s orders. Stay behind us.”
My chest tightened with anger. He might treat Jax with respect, but he sure as shit didn’t treat me as anything other than a possession.
I was tired of men telling me what to do.
Suddenly, a memory of Dick looming over me with his belt flashed before my eyes, and I stumbled backward in desperation.
“Step away from her,” Xerxes said with his smooth accent as his cinnamon scent spiked spicy in the small space.
A long rattling hiss erupted from Cobra’s throat, but he immediately stepped back and gave me space.
“Are you okay, Kitten?” Cobra whispered quietly as he clenched his hands into fists. He gnawed on his lower lip and reached forward, like he wanted to go to me but didn’t know what he’d done.
“No, she’s not okay because of you.” Ascher snarled at Cobra and cracked his tattooed knuckles like he was finally ready to fight.
“Well, technically you’re the reason—” I was cut off from correcting Ascher because Jax shoved me behind him as he and Cobra stalked toward the ram shifter.
There was a loud scrape as Xerxes withdrew his twin daggers and stepped forward beside Ascher.
I could practically smell the testosterone and rage in the air.
Three alphas and one omega stared one another down. Gray, green, amber, and purple eyes glowed in the shadows.
Notably, the one woman, and only rational person in the group, did not engage in the showdown.
My eyeball twitched with annoyance as the men flexed their biceps and postured at one another.
And men called women irrational. Anyone who was around any male for any extended period would realize immediately that was a joke.
“ALPHA TEAM, COME ON OUT,” the moderator’s female voice boomed loudly through the stadium and ended the shifter showdown.
Suddenly, guards came out of nowhere and shoved us forward out onto the hot sand. Xerxes stayed back and watched us go with a scowl on his face.
His purple eyes were cold and unforgiving.
He was probably excited to watch us fight to the death.
Even though Xerxes was clearly an ass, there was a tiny part of me that thought he cared a little. That he wouldn’t
laugh over our corpses.
My instincts were telling me he was a good person at his core and that something had happened to make him so rude.
I shook my head and tried to focus on the million fae screaming at me, and not my irrational urge to bond with a handsome omega that hated alphas.
The feminine urge to try and fix a sinfully handsome but rude man was real and highly inconvenient.
As we walked forward, my bare feet burned from the hot sand, and my ears ached from the reverberations of the roaring crowd.
Fae guards guided us forward with outstretched, glowing batons and forced us to come to a stop in the middle of the stadium.
Instinctually, the four of us stepped close together with our backs touching. We all remembered the platform elevating beneath us last time.
We pressed against each other and linked arms, the tension from earlier forgotten. Fighting for your life in a bloodthirsty tournament in a foreign realm would do that to a person.
Arms locked with Ascher and Cobra, I squinted and tried to take in the sheer magnitude of the stadium.
Once again, voices screamed Cobra’s name, and his gorgeous jeweled face flashed across the large screens.
My head ached from sensory overload, but I noted that the crowd no longer screamed “cunt” at me.
Of course, at that very moment, they stopped screaming for Cobra and started chanting, “Kill the girl!”
I took it as a good sign—my public relations plan was working.
Sweat dripped down my forehead, and Ascher and Cobra gripped my arms so tightly that they ached, as the four other teams emerged from different wings around the stadium.
Ryak glared at me as he walked out with the water fae team. From his expression, he was really enjoying the chanting crowd.
Suddenly, there was a new wave of chants, and “dismember the girl” started echoing through the stadium.
Rumbling noises came from Jax’s chest. Cobra did his weird rattling hiss thing, and Ascher death glared at everyone.
The three alphas shuffled closer, and Cobra stepped in front of me to block me from the crowd.
A part of me was grateful that they guarded me from the crowd’s vitriol.
A large part of me gagged because the men were sweating up a storm, and three large bodies pressed against me was not a pleasant sensation.
My white shirt stuck to my clammy skin, and I wondered if fae ever just walked around naked in the intense heat. If I’d grown up here, I would 100 percent be on the nudist train.
Suddenly, the sand trembled beneath our feet, and the men pressed tighter together.
I gasped and tried not to suffocate. The crowd would just love that.
This time, however, a small platform didn’t elevate beneath our feet.
Nope. The entire freaking floor of the stadium, sand and all, lifted into the air.
Of course, because whoever oversaw this little shindig was seriously disturbed in the head, the massive elevating platform began to rotate.
Sun god forbid we not get motion sickness while fighting for our lives.
Frankly, it was a little inconsiderate, and a part of me wanted to ask to speak to whoever was in charge of the death games.
Good news—the platform rotated slowly, and it was so big that the risk of falling off was slim to none.
Bad news—my stomach did not care.
Any spinning was too much spinning. I tried to breathe through the nausea.
The sensation magnified until I gasped shallowly. “Sadie, are you okay?” Ascher asked with concern.
Since I was bent over with my hands on my knees, heaving like a cat, I think it was clear I was not okay. The man had the observational skills of a rock.
The men stepped forward, and a cool breeze whipped my face.
The nausea slowly subsided, and I thanked the moon goddess for the gusts of air, which cut through the stifling heat.
A horrible thought dawned on me: what if I got hairballs?
“Kill the cunt!” echoed loudly around through the stadium.
I didn’t mean to be dramatic, but this was the worst day of my life.
Relief spread through me when the roaring stadium went dead silent at the moderator’s voice.
“The queen has lifted the shifting ban for this round of the competition. The last competitor still conscious wins 100 points for their team. Begin!”
What the flying fuck?
The crowd screamed, and Cobra plucked an icicle dagger out of the air in front of my face.
A water fae had immediately chucked a weapon at me.
Who did that? Was chivalry really that dead?
I’d been an inch away from being stabbed through my skull.
Yep, worst day of my life.
My breath became shallow as I hyperventilated all over again.
A lot was happening quickly.
I needed at least ten more minutes to emotionally prepare to be a girl boss.
Did she say the last one conscious? I prayed I’d misheard.
“Shift now!” Jax alpha-barked at all of us.
Then there was a loud rip as his clothes split, and he grew taller and wider until he was a monstrous bear with fangs.
Thick, shaggy black fur covered his entire body. Long, dagger-like claws decorated both his feet and hands, and massive black spines poked out from his back like armor.
Next, Ascher’s clothes ripped, and he also grew taller.
His massive ram head thickened, and horns grew until an animal head sniffed the air aggressively through giant nostrils.
I went to flip on the numb. Nothing happened.
WHAT THE FUCK? It should have been recharged by now.
I flipped and flipped and tugged at the switch in my brain where the numb resided. I could feel its heavy pressure in my brain, but it felt like it still needed time to recharge. It was just out of my use.
Fucking shit. My little coma had done more of a number on me than I’d realized.
“SHIFT, SADIE!” Cobra screamed. His snake eyes flickered on his face.
Time to be a girl boss in this bitch! I yelled at myself and pretended it was the numb speaking to me.
Cobra tugged at his jeweled collar desperately, and no shadow snakes slithered over his skin. For some reason, the fae queen wasn’t letting him completely shift.
Still, Cobra’s hands moved impossibly fast. He caught ice daggers as they flew in the air directly toward my face.
I searched for the telltale tingle of my shift.
Thankfully, my body responded, and my clothes ripped off as I transformed from a woman into a saber-toothed tiger.
My spine popped deliciously as my bones cracked and expanded.
My body grew until my head reached higher than Cobra’s.
The heat from the two suns was oppressive, and I panted in the hot, sticky air. I missed the comfortable, cool temperature of the shifter realm.
These conditions were unbearable.
My advanced eyesight took in the chaos of all the competitors fighting around me.
I might not be numb, but I was a tiger.
With a little too much glee, I tilted my head back, expanded my lungs, and roared. My massive fangs were heavy in my mouth, and I clashed my teeth together for dramatic effect.
I was also hungry, and suddenly, all the competitors were smelling a little too much like chicken.
Another ice spear flung toward me, and Cobra grabbed it out of the air before I could react.
Poor Cobra was small and defenseless in front of me. He was so little and handsome, I just wanted to eat him up.
He was also a member of my team, and he needed protection.
I shook my head and motioned at him to get behind my big, furry body.
Instead of running behind me because I was massive, with ridiculous canines hanging from my mouth that were bigger than Cobra’s arms, he stood in front of me.
Like I needed his puny body’s protection.
Jax and Ascher stood on either side of me. The three alphas surrounded me.
I tilted my head back and roared with annoyance. My large, shaggy body was projected across the massive
screens at the top of the stadium.
For a second, I took a moment to admire myself. My fur was pure white with black markings.
I squinted my glowing red eyes and tried to figure out why the black stripes looked familiar.
They covered the tops of my shoulders and my back in a crisscross pattern.
Then I realized why the black markings looked familiar: they mirrored the thick white scars that marred my flesh.
Oh, I sure as shit wasn’t numb.
Anger coursed through my veins, and I roared even louder, the deep bellow starting in my gut and unfurling into a terrifying reverberation that echoed through the stadium.
The fae hushed in shock, then screamed even louder. My meaty muscles rippled with anger.
Fucking Dick had scarred my human flesh and my tiger’s fur.
I wanted to rip his face off.
Cobra caught another ice dagger chucked over from the water fae. I narrowed my eyes at the assailant—Ryak.
He wasn’t Dick, but he was annoying as fuck. He would do.
My thigh muscles bunched and released as I leaped over Cobra and charged directly at the water fae.
With my mouth open, fangs gleaming, it was time to fuck up some men.
