13. Sadie
ULTIMATUMS
“So, any questions?” the don asked casually as he lounged at the long dining table like he was right at home in Xerxes’s mansion.
There was an awkward silence.
No one said anything.
A few minutes earlier, we’d all been feasting at the table and laughing.
I momentarily forgot my annoyance with Xerxes as Lucinda and Jess peppered me with questions about my blood powers.
Jax was explaining to Jala how we’d defeated the fae queen, and Ascher was asking Jinx questions about her observational skills.
The seven of us all sat at one end of the table, talking and catching up.
The other side, aka the drama-queen side, was not doing well.
Xerxes stewed in silence with a stormy expression darkening his face.
I was doing my best to ignore the moody omega and the complex dynamic between us that I couldn’t even begin to process.
Next to him, Aran had a sweatshirt wrapped around her head because “if she heard one more story about what happened with her mother, she was going to puke and stab someone.” She kept itching aggressively at her back, and I wondered if she had a bug bite.
Cobra scowled next to her with a carving knife clenched in his hands. Apparently, he was still pissed that we’d followed him into the initiation room.
Everyone ignored the three of them.
The lunch had been going great—at least on our side of the table—until five seconds ago, when the front door had slammed shut and the don had stepped into the opulent dining room.
Surprisingly, he hadn’t immediately murdered everyone.
His massive six-foot-five frame was clothed in an expensive black suit, and it was impossible to miss the outlines of the guns tucked into his waistband. Skull rings decorated his fingers and flashed as he sucked in the smoke of his cigarette.
Wrapped around the base of his throat, his white snake was much smaller, a moving necklace that hissed and slithered in a circle.
The “Loyalty” tattoo across his throat rippled as he took a long drag from his cigarette.
He casually pulled out a seat at the head of the table and leaned back.
Walter sprinted in after, the don gave him a single look, and the butler snapped his mouth closed.
“No questions?” the don repeated, and his casual inquiry shook everyone out of their stupor.
Cobra pointed a carving knife at his father. “What are you doing here?”
Everyone waited.
The don chuckled, and his shoulders relaxed as he waved his cigarette around. “I just wanted to congratulate you all. I’m pleased that I didn’t have to dispose of everyone like I had planned. It is rare to have one alpha pass the first initiation test, let alone four and an omega. I’m impressed.”
No one smiled.
The don smirked and raised his eyebrows but said nothing else, just lounged back in his chair like a king addressing his subjects.
Which he was.
After five minutes of awkward silence, I asked, “Why are you really here?”
Patience was never my strong suit.
The don turned and speared me with his gaze.
Sweat broke out across my body.
His youthful features made him look like Cobra’s older brother, but his emerald eyes were his tell; they were perpetually more snake than man, like his beast was overtaking him with age.
I swallowed thickly and tried to give off “I’m not prey” vibes.
Any good predator would sense fear pheromones, and the man before me was on the top of the food chain.
Finally, the don stopped filleting me with his gaze and looked around the room. He took a moment to stare at each one of us, including the teenage girls.
Jinx was the only one that met his gaze.
The don even smiled at Noodle, who was tucked under her arm and hanging upside down dramatically.
I shifted closer to Lucinda and grabbed her hand under the table. She squeezed it back.
She looked over at me, mouth open slightly like she wanted to whisper something, but she closed her mouth and said nothing.
We all waited.
After what felt like an eternity, but was probably ten awkward minutes, the don’s deep and slightly lisping voice was startlingly loud.
“I’m here for three reasons.”
He blew out a perfect ring of cigarette smoke. It transformed into a serpent in midair and circled above the table.
Creepy.
“First, I wanted to discuss the initiation. The first trial was the hardest to pass. Bravo. The second trial will be the most painful and the third the most revealing. You will begin the second trial tomorrow. It’s a long process, and everything will be explained at the gym.
A car will arrive at dawn to pick you up. This trial I think you will enjoy.”
He smiled, flashing elongated canines.
“If you don’t, then you won’t survive in this realm. The third test must be completed by the next equinox, three weeks from now.”
He took another long drag of his cigarette.
“Also, since you’re all ignorant of recent events, rare half-breed females are rumored to be appearing in the different realms. Any woman suspected of being a mix of two species must be immediately brought to me.
They are all on the city’s wanted list. Although, I suspect this is more rumor than truth.
Fear mongers love to whisper about the return of the female half-breeds and the end of the realms.”
The stillness at the table was deafening.
Of fucking course.
If the patriarchy could just not for literally one day, I would appreciate it.
The don stared at me.
Wait, he’d said something about fear and the end of the realms. Am I a messiah of the apocalypse?
I’d never even heard of female half-breeds existing.
Just after I’d discovered I was one, it only made logical sense that I’d be a plague bringer of doom that was wanted.
It spoke to the general trajectory of my life.
Frankly, I was only mildly surprised by my new status as a wanted pariah.
When I’d infected an overpowered evil fae queen with my blood and made her obey me, I’d had a hunch that it wasn’t a good thing.
But a razor blade bit my gut as I realized this definitely just wasn’t my problem.
My sister’s red eyes, Aran’s black eyes, Jinx’s screech, Jala’s and Jess’s unnatural bright colorings.
I calmly gnawed on my fingernails and considered the merits of flipping the table, throwing the girls behind me, enslaving the don with my blood, and fleeing to a different realm.
The don turned toward Cobra and smiled casually, like he had no idea of the turmoil his words had caused at the table.
“Also, as alphas, you must all join packs if you are to live in this city. Even independent alphas form packs at eighteen to keep them from going feral. There will be no exceptions.”
He snarled “independent” like he was talking about the lowest forms of life.
Cobra scowled at the don. It wasn’t hard to imagine him as feral.
“Most alphas have years to choose their packs,” Xerxes said softly, his jaw clenched tightly.
I kept forgetting he’d grown up in this foreign world.
The don’s calm voice changed into a lisping rasp. “Most alphassss grow up in the realm and know the rulessss. They don’t jusssst arrive after yearssss of absence.”
Xerxes glared back and said nothing, anger radiating off him in a dark wave.
His anger from earlier was now boiling over, and his face contorted with malice. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sold me out as a half-breed.
Cobra reacted to his father’s threatening demeanor with his own warning snarl.
Yep, 100 percent feral.
I opened my mouth to bring up the pesky little fact that we were kidnapped , but decided against getting into a fight over semantics with the leader of the Mafia.
Abruptly, the don’s demeanor grew more relaxed.
He arched a dark eyebrow and chuckled like he found his son’s menacing scowl cute. “I have scheduled meetings with suitable alpha packs for all of you. You will each begin meeting with the different—”
Cobra held up his hand and cut off his father. “No. We have a pack. I will bond with the alphas and omega at this table.”
Jaws dropped.
Xerxes turned and stared at Cobra like he’d never seen him before.
Jax sighed heavily and rubbed his hands across his eyes like he wasn’t surprised.
I’d bet all my money they’d discussed it last night, and Jax had advised Cobra to ask us like a civilized person.
Instead, Cobra just squinted at all of us like he was daring someone to disagree.
No one said anything.
Sweat dripped down my pits and streaked uncomfortably across my rib cage.
They legit couldn’t bond with me. Not only was I apparently a wanted half-breed, but also, what ?
This wasn’t good.
I rubbed my clammy palms across my leggings.
Cobra wasn’t dumb, and he’d definitely realized the situation. I tried to make eye contact with him and shake my head, but he purposely didn’t look my way.
This was too much, too fast.
Not only was my entire existence apparently frowned upon (honestly, no one was surprised), but a pack seemed like a big deal.
My intuition told me it wasn’t a platonic relationship.
Moon goddess, I was still a virgin.
Never forget the fact that they were overbearing assholes who called me a possession and made me want to tear out my hair half the time.
How did one politely blurt out that they didn’t want to bond without offending people?
At the same time, the thought of bonding with strangers made my skin crawl. I couldn’t imagine not spending my days with them, no matter how difficult some of the days were.
But still, bonds were for an immortal’s life ; that much I knew for sure.
“Good, then it’s settled. We’ll form the bond now. Cut your palm and hold it up to the man next to you. Pass the knife around. You all must mix blood,” the don ordered.
Shockingly, Cobra obeyed and held his bloody palm up to Xerxes, who sat beside him.
We seriously were going to do this right now?
Didn’t anyone want five minutes to think it over? Make a pros-and-cons list, cry dramatically into their pillow, attempt to drown themselves in the bathtub, fight the don to the death?
There were still options .
Xerxes stared at Cobra for a long moment, then turned his head to me.