Chapter Two
Charm got a strange sense of satisfaction locking the four detainees away inside the magical cages. As expected, none of them had wanted to answer questions during the initial interrogations, but they would try again after they had spent a little time inside their prisons.
The Reema male who had been taken into custody insisted he had simply made the bad decision to steal the tray of chips because he was drunk and claimed he didn’t know the others. In contrast, Daniel Tan had refused to say anything. He wouldn’t even confirm his own name, which meant he was probably the only professional in the group.
Arnold Meeks and Carla Wexler had demanded that they be allowed to contact their legal representatives. They’d made a lot of noise about their prominent families and their connections to high-ranking elites within the Alliance. It had been satisfying to point out that Alliance rules meant fuck all at Wonderland.
They had no rights since they had broken the rules of the sanctuary.
Once they were locked away inside the cages and the devices they had confiscated were being analyzed by Evo, Gia and Ruckus joined forces to convince Charm to visit the med-center inside the sanctuary. She had wanted to clean and wrap the wound on her arm herself, but her friends refused to allow it.
Gia sighed. “Will you stop being so stubborn?”
“I’m—”
“You are not fine,” Ruckus interrupted. “What’s the point of having a doctor and med-tech on call if you aren’t going to use them?”
Since they had a point, Charm gave in.
The slash on her arm was a little more serious than she had originally thought, which had earned her a painful round of healing treatment. They closed the wound with a dissolvable sealant before they wrapped it up again. The stark white bandage was pretty obvious. She was offered a stabilizer to wear since she chanced reopening the wound every time she flexed her wrist, but she passed on that.
She’d rather risk it than impede her movement.
By the time she walked out of the sanctuary, the sun was setting, and night was falling fast. She briefly considered just heading home, but she’d given her word to Raek, Fenris, and Juliet that she would show up to the Festival of Lights.
And her word was her bond.
Even though they weren’t real siblings, she had sworn a blood oath with Raek and Fenris to become family after their parents had been killed in the same accident. As orphans, growing up on Earth hadn’t been easy for them, and living in a group home with mostly humans had bonded the three of them even closer.
They had all taken Raek’s last name since he was the eldest of the trio and the only son of the former alphas of their pack. That made him their new alpha, older brother, and protector. It was a role that had suited Raek. He was a strong fighter with brute strength who had won the Baxxtora Tournament before, but he also had a kind, caring nature that made him a good leader.
Fenris had always been a creative soul. Charm tended to fight with him a lot, but that was simply because they liked to annoy and tease one another. She loved and respected him, but sometimes he drove her fucking crazy.
When they had all gone their separate ways after they had aged out of the group home, they had still remained close. The settlement they had received from the company after their parents’ deaths had allowed them to live comfortably, but they had each chosen a different profession to dedicate themselves to. For Raek, that had meant becoming a famous chef, and for Fenris, a celebrated tattoo artist.
Charm had always wanted to run her own sanctuary, and now that dream had come true. In truth, she was more alpha of the sanctuary than either of her brothers since she handled the overall management of Wonderland. Raek took care of dealing with the menus and stocking the restaurants, bars, and nightclub, while Fenris helped manage the staff.
Charm basically handled everything else.
The sanctuary was still new, so all the duties and responsibilities hadn’t been allocated yet. She had a few more rounds of hiring to complete, but she was willing to wait to find the right people instead of simply filling open positions with whoever she could find.
The strain of the workload was intense, and lately, it had gotten worse. Over the last few weeks, her brothers had taken some time off to be with their mate. She tried to be understanding since they had recently reconnected with Juliet. She wanted to let them spend time together and enjoy their newly mated status. She didn’t mind picking up the slack temporarily, but she needed them to get back to work soon.
Juliet had also grown up in the group home with them, and though she was human, that hadn’t stopped the trio from including her in their family unit. Even when they were young, it had been easy for Charm to see how much Raek and Fenris loved Juliet.
At first, she had been worried they would end up fighting over her, but she had been relieved once she realized that Juliet had loved both of them. She’d always thought of Juliet as her little sister. So, when she had cut contact with the three of them, it had deeply hurt them.
They thought Juliet had fallen in love with a human male whose family owned the ballet company she’d danced in. It hadn’t made sense to Charm that Juliet had bonded with anyone besides Raek and Fenris, but when she had tried to contact her, she’d been met with a curt reply asking her not to contact her again.
It pained Charm to admit that her pride had gotten in the way of tracking Juliet down and shaking some sense into her. If she had, she would have seen what had really been going on.
Juliet had been held captive by the male she had been forced to bond with. With the help of the Dragon Warriors who owned Exodus, the sanctuary in Zion, she had managed to escape. It was discovered during the trial that not only was he abusive, he had also murdered several other dancers before he’d claimed Juliet.
Raek and Fenris had lost their fucking minds when they found out what had really happened. They’d wanted to return to Earth to be with Juliet, but they had held back after Jade Vyper had made it clear that wouldn’t be what was best for her. Instead, they’d had to force themselves to wait for her to come to them.
Charm loved seeing how happy Raek, Fenris, and Juliet were together. She still carried a lot of guilt for not realizing her little sister had been in trouble. But her regret was nothing compared to Raek and Fenris’ remorse. Juliet had never once blamed any of them for what had happened to her. Still, her horrible experience made running a sanctuary even more meaningful for all of them.
Juliet had been a big help dealing with the Tarin former slaves and human females who now lived at Wonderland. While Charm was able to give them a sense of safety, they had only agreed to therapy after speaking to Juliet. Therapy had been extremely helpful in her healing process, so she was able to discuss the benefits with them on a personal level.
While Juliet was willing to take on more responsibilities at the sanctuary, Charm knew her heart was still focused on dancing. After what that bastard had done to her, she worried that she wouldn’t be able to truly reclaim her passion for dance. Because of that, Charm suggested that she create a new dance show at the sanctuary.
Juliet was excited about the idea, but she didn’t want to tell Raek and Fenris about it until the concept was more fleshed out. She wanted to impress them with a preview, although hiring more dancers was an issue on Evo.
Charm had recommended Juliet find her new dancers the same way she was hiring more staff members. Since she had already tapped most of the other sanctuaries for experienced people willing to move to Evo, she’d needed to expand her search.
Because of that, she had reached out to some of the other sanctuary owners to see if they would help her set up some video interviews. Thankfully, everyone she had contacted had agreed to help her. She’d already had several interviews with qualified candidates and had dozens more planned.
Following that advice, Juliet reached out to the crew at Exodus to help her set up video auditions with dancers willing to move to Evo. Now, she had a dozen dancers on their way to Evo to start their new lives at Wonderland.
Charm paused to watch as the blue sun dipped below the horizon. Sunsets on Evo should have been boring since the sun, sky, and water were all blue, but the sky burst into a vivid display of different shades of blue and purple every evening, making it a sight to see.
She loved standing outside of the sanctuary when day turned to night. Not just for the spectacular sunsets. She also enjoyed watching as all of the lights on the exterior of the enormous castle automatically flashed on. The lights highlighted the white stone structure and towering turrets that had been built at different levels.
Each rooftop was a different bright color, which was clear to see during the day. At night, the darkness concealed the vibrant rooftops, giving the castle a more mysterious appearance. Even the colorful stained-glass windows looked more ominous at night. The wide balconies had railings that looked like shimmering vines, and glittering lights were wrapped around the spindles that faded on and off like hundreds of tiny fireflies.
As she made her way toward the private residences that surrounded the main castle, the air was perfumed by the scent of the exotic flowers that grew on the property. The private residences were individual towers that were shaped like huge, colorful mushrooms.
Most of the staff members lived inside the private residences, but some chose to live in the suites inside the castle. Although Wonderland was located near the main resort on a wide peninsula, many people wanted to stay at the sanctuary. Even though the private residences were partially hidden behind the rows of black trees with bold blue leaves that lined the wide pathway that led to Wonderland, people were curious about the mushroom towers.
Renting out the private towers would add another income source to the sanctuary, though they didn’t really need it. However, she still thought they had miscalculated building so close to the resort. The proximity of the large structures limited their possibilities for expansion.
They could still manage the rentals since the accommodations were vastly different from the elegant suites available in the resort, but they would have to build new homes for the staff and other residents of the sanctuary before that could happen.
Realizing she was just creating more work for herself, she decided to table the idea for now. She took the private path that led down to the lake that was located in the heart of the sanctuary’s grounds.
“Alpha!”
She paused and glanced over her shoulder as two of the sanctuary’s female residents hurried toward her. Kelli was a Tarin who had been horribly abused for most of her life. Even so, she had been afraid to leave Tartarus until recently when the opportunity to move to Evo had come about.
The human female, Charm had known for years. Ari had escaped a horrible bonding situation back on Earth and had lived at the sanctuary in Jade City. She had been one of the first people to agree to join Charm after she had announced that she was starting a new sanctuary.
Kelli and Ari had met shortly after they had both moved to Wonderland. Now, they were happy and in love. Since they both still had issues being around males, they worked at The Queen’s Cup, a female-only bar at the sanctuary.
“You heading down to the lake for the Festival of Lights?”
“We are,” Kelli said. “I’ve never seen fire explosions before.”
“Fireworks,” Ari corrected with a smile.
“Ah, yes. That’s right. They are called fireworks. Actually, I have wanted to speak to you about something. I recently spoke to a few females from Tartarus who want to move here.”
“That’s great.”
Kelli glanced at Ari, who gave her an encouraging nod. “The problem is, they are even more terrified of males than I am.”
“Not a problem. We can arrange for them to live in an isolated area.”
Kelli and Ari glanced at one another again.
“What is it? Spit it out.”
Ari laughed nervously. “Actually, we were wondering if there might be a chance we could move The Queen’s Cup to a separate building. That might give us an opportunity to create a few more female-only businesses.”
Charm had considered creating a female-only building but hadn’t given it much of a priority since Wonderland was already so big and all of the space wasn’t being used yet. Obviously, that was an oversight she would have to correct.
She absently wished Ari and Kelli had spoken to her about their idea before Jecca and Jaya Tesera had left the planetoid with their mates. Having the Dragon Warriors help out with the project would have cut down on the construction time, though there was nothing stopping them from manually building the old-fashioned way.
Although she wanted to groan at the thought of adding another big undertaking to her list of things to do, she smiled encouragingly. She was their alpha, and she valued their opinions. If they wanted a female-only building for their businesses so they could feel safe, she would make it happen.
“Come on. Let’s walk down to the lake, and you can tell me more about your idea.”