4. Rozronuuk
Chapter four
Rozronuuk
The Autumn Court
“ Y ou don’t need to manhandle me,” I snapped at the siren guards by my side in the windswept sky. “I’ll fly down.”
I dived through the air with my bat-like wings. The flexible appendages, almost like another set of forearms, swooped as each bone moved like a finger stretching the membrane of skin.
The guards nodded at the ground below and I dove for the center of the colosseum where I’d sensed my fated mate. I was too late, though. The flash of her bright tangerine gown slipped through the gates a second after my feet hit the ground. I roared, but another crack of thunder so immense it shook the ground and swallowed the sound. For this woman, who was my fated mate, sure liked to slip away from me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she wasn’t mine, but the way my body tightened into need at a mere glimpse of her told me all I needed to understand.
“The cages are down there.” A guard pointed to a metal grate in the wall.
“You’re keeping us caged?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Your choice. Stay and compete to be the siren queen’s mate or head back to wherever you originated.” The guard shrugged like she didn’t care which one I’d choose.
I shot her daggers with my eyes, but she didn’t flinch. Well, well, weren’t the mighty sirens a tough bunch of women? Would their queen be as tough, or did she have a gooey center? One I’d lick? The thought made my pants tighter.
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Lock me up if you feel the need, but if this is some ruse to kill me, then you’re sadly mistaken if you think I’ll go so easily.”
The guards glanced at each other.
“This is a no-kill competition.”
“You don’t say?” My eyebrows shot up on my forehead and almost hit my horns.
“Queen’s orders. All competitors will leave alive. She will give all competitors multiple tasks to perform once the battles are over.”
“Interesting.” I released my arms. “Lead the way so I can find out whatever else your queen has in store for us ‘entrants’.”
“You won’t find out until you win your first battle.” The guards marched me over to the metal grate.
“So one of the other tasks isn’t to see who can give her the most orgasms?”
One guard coughed to cover her laugh while the others hid their smiles by ducking their heads.
“I’d win.”
Their gazes traveled over me with instant sexual interest, but there was only one woman for me. Only one siren for me.
A guard cleared her throat. “You can always stay at my house tonight.”
I narrowed my eyes and gave her a hard stare. “You’d go behind your queen’s back? Bed her potential mate?”
She dragged her gaze away and wet her lips. “No?”
“You don’t sound so sure.” I took a step toward the would-be traitor.
“No,” she hurried to say.
Another guard unlocked the grate after shooting the other guard a disgusted look. “This way. We have a cage for posturing jerks like you.”
I rounded on her. She took a step back with an audible gasp. Good, they feared me. So they should. The siren queen was mine. Nothing and no one would get in my way. I snapped my wings into my back, as did the sirens. Retractable wings were a notable feature for immortals who possessed the ability to fly. I walked through the gate and down the long corridor to the underground system. Cage after cage of iron-barred cells lined the walls. Each bar-enforced cage held an immortal male. My competitors. I’d have to incapacitate them without killing them.
Hard for a demon, but not impossible.
The guard pointed to a cell at the end. I stepped inside and she locked me in. Every fiber of my being roared in protest at being caged. I gripped the bars and rattled the door. It held strong. I let go and settled on the cold stone floor. The guard walked off with a salacious wink at me. It sent my blood boiling, but I held my rage back as my brother had taught me.
A rage demon was no good if he couldn’t control his rage. The rage would consume him and everything in its path, including entire realms. I searched for the calming center of my rage, the eye of the storm. Focusing on the quiet sensation there, I whispered in my most threatening voice into the cavernous cell room and all those contained within the walls, “The queen is mine.”