16. Sadie
FIGHT CLUB
I choked.
“Just one hundred fights” echoed around my head like a bullet.
Sometimes, it was important in stressful situations to ground yourself and remember your core value. Mine was the ability to throw my blood and infect someone until they became my mental slave.
It was the only thing that kept me from crumpling to my knees and crying like a baby.
“Follow me. You’ll begin your training today.” The don opened a door and led us down a dimly lit hallway.
Beta men in black suits flanked us on all sides, holding massive machine guns. The lights flickered.
What was it with this realm and creepy flickering lights?
We followed him into a narrow elevator that I recognized from a book on advanced technologies back in the shifter realm. Nondescript music played, and our reflections rippled across the sleek glass panels of the small box.
“Um, also, one last thing.” I tilted my head to the don. “The girls need an education. Lucinda is only sixteen, and I believe the others are of similar ages?”
Jax nodded at the don. “Jess is eighteen, Jala is fourteen, and Jinx is twelve. I would appreciate it if you could figure out schooling for them.”
The don pressed his palm against black glass, and the white light of the elevator turned dark red.
Abruptly, we plummeted downward.
If I had any sense of self-preservation, I might have panicked and screamed.
Instead, I couldn’t hold back the laughter that escaped my lips as my hair floated around me and my feet elevated off the floor.
In contrast, the men’s faces were stoic as they levitated upward.
Xerxes’s long blond locks curled up at the ends in all directions. He twirled his dagger in midair and glared at me.
Once again, the scent of sweet cinnamon filled the space with undertones of frost, chestnuts, and pine.
Abruptly, the elevator stopped moving, and I slammed back down. The door opened with a whoosh, and I stumbled forward on unsteady legs.
Ascher caught my arm and held me upright, his tattoos pulled taut across his cut jaw as he growled with annoyance. “Be careful.”
A pitch-black corridor greeted us.
The only sources of light were neon cursive words on the wall that said, Hell is paved in the bones of the disloyal , which didn’t have the same shock value the second time around.
The don led us forward.
The dark hall seemed to go on forever and was eerily quiet, and instead of panicking over that fact, I focused on ranking the different wall sayings from most inspirational to least.
Sweat, Suffer, Survive —A fun little remake of “Live, Laugh, Love.” Gotta respect the angsty creativity. Whoever had written it was definitely in their feels. Ten out of ten, inspired.
Rage-fight like a beast, annihilate coldly like the moon goddess —Very badass. When had the moon goddess become a terrifying figure? I thought she was associated with inner peace? I liked their version better. Eight out of ten, inspired.
Mess with an alpha, and you fuck with the pack —I liked it, but also, too soon. Seven out of ten, inspired.
When it’s time to rest, scheme; when it’s time to fight, massacre —Hm, didn’t know how to feel about it. I valued a nice rest day. Six out of ten, inspired.
A death for an eye, and the beast realm survives —It reminded me of another saying, but I couldn’t remember what it was. Points off because it was confusing. Two out of ten, inspired.
Busted knuckles, split lips, broken bones, loaded gun, and it’s only Monday —Immediately, no. One out of ten, made me uncomfortable.
Half-breeds warning: War is coming —For obvious reasons, zero out of ten. Very creepy and upsetting, unnecessary half-breed slander if you asked me.
The don turned to make small talk, and I pretended I wasn’t having a panic attack over the last saying.
“What about the boy with you—I believe he said his name was Aran? Does he need to go to school?” His tone was too casual.
I shook my head and tried to appear nonchalant. “No, he’s twenty-four and a water fae, so he won’t be attending school. He’ll look after the girls.”
If by “looking after the girls,” I meant “asphyxiate them in their sleep,” then Aran was going to get Nanny of the Year.
“Hm.”
Could snakes sense lies?
The don kept leading us down the narrow hall. “I will arrange for education for the girls. Do you know what they will shift into?”
I shrugged. “Um, I’m an alpha, but we don’t know our parents, so I’m not 100 percent sure Lucinda will also be an alpha.”
Jax had been trailing behind with the other men, but now he walked forward to stand beside me. “No, all my sisters are adopted. We are unsure of any of their parentage.”
A sense of déjà vu washed through me.
I shivered.
It was probably just chance, but it seemed weird that none of us knew who our real parents were.
Half-breeds warning: War is coming.
Nope, I was not dwelling on it, and instead pictured prancing through a fae flower field.
My imagination was shit, because the field warped into a dungeon and massive rats climbed over me.
“Oh shit. Legolas.”
The don stopped walking. “What?”
“The dude in the prison, he said something. Some star thing…” It was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t quite remember it.
Everyone looked at me expectantly, and I scrunched my nose like I was remembering.
Really, my mind was completely blank. All I could recall was the awful stench of the feces.
Cobra walked forward from where he was whispering something to Ascher (give a man a pack, and suddenly they’re all buddy-buddy) and sneered, “Legolas from the High Court, position 4444, said to alert someone that he was being held hostage in the, now very dead, fae queen’s prison. Also, Sadie, your memory is shit.”
My chest rattled as I growled at him.
Cobra hissed back.
Sun god forbid a girl have a slight mental lapse after fighting for her life against an evil ruler and being tortured. Also, I’d never claimed to be the brightest; my talents were elsewhere.
The don’s eyes glowed. “You are sure that is what he said?”
Cobra looked bored. “Positive.”
The don gulped, his Adam’s apple moving and distorting his neck tattoo until the O in “Loyalty” was stretched. “I will alert someone right away. You don’t want to mess with the High Court.”
“Who?” I asked at the same time as the men.
The don grabbed a handle of a door that was hidden in the darkness of the hall. “The people that rule over all the realms. More powerful than you can imagine.”
I gaped. The don’s long black hair swished behind him as he casually walked through the door like he hadn’t just obliterated my entire concept of how the world worked.
Legolas had talked a good game, but I hadn’t actually believed him. The man was an emaciated prisoner in a dungeon, for sun god’s sake. Who knew what those conditions did to a person’s mind?
“I’m gonna be sick,” I mumbled.
“No time for that. We have to survive,” Jax whispered under his breath, and once again Ascher placed his palm against my lower back, gently guiding me forward.
Cobra and Xerxes stood stiffly behind us.
The first thing I noticed was the noise: the eerie silence of the hall was replaced with a shrieking voice and loud, banging instruments.
The second thing I noticed was the towering ceiling.
The room was dimly lit and filled with neon-red lights and hazy smoke, and it reeked of cigarettes and sweat.
Did no one turn up the lights in this realm, and what was with the excessive smoking?
The third thing I noticed was the dozen fighting rings scattered across the floor. In between the roped-off mats, weights and barbells were strewn everywhere.
Alphas pounded each other with their fists, and loud cracks echoed as they broke bones.
Blood, sweat, and saliva flew.
There were a couple dozen alphas, all shirtless and either fighting one another or lifting massive amounts of weight.
The powerful stench of sweat overwhelmed the different alpha scents, creating a disturbing combination that reminded me of dozens of candles burning. If the scent of the candle was BO with musky undertones.
A voice yelled, “The don arrives!”
Abruptly, everyone stopped fighting or lifting and shifted into a wide-legged stance.
Heads bowed, arms clasped behind backs.
Someone turned off the screeching music.
I decided to not dwell on the glowing handguns tucked into the sweaty shorts of almost every alpha.
The don addressed the room, his voice harsh and commanding. “We have five new recruits. One of them is an omega, and one is a female alpha. They are all bonded to each other except for the female alpha.”
Way to rub it in.
There was light muttering around the room.
Cobra muttered something under his breath, and I didn’t miss the fact that he and Jax shifted slightly in front of Xerxes.
Ascher’s fingers pressed harder against my lower back.
The don’s voice deepened an octave, and he spoke with a slight hiss.
“There are confidential extenuating circumssstancesss ssssurrounding them. All you need to know isss they didn’t grow up in Ssserpentine City and are unaware of mossst of our culture.
Anyone who hasss an isssue with the omega initiating can bring their complaintsss directly to me. ”
Alphas stopped muttering and bowed their heads deeper.
I’d bet all my supposed money, which notably I had yet to see any of (and no one had told me how to claim my credits), that no one was going to bring a complaint to the don.
His massive white snake slithered lazily around his neck.
The don smiled and relaxed his shoulders, probably sensing that he was the most terrifying bastard in the room, and continued his speech.
“They will join the two alphas currently initiating.”
He gestured over to the only two people who stood in a fighting ring without guns tucked into their waists. It was a man and a female.
I’d been nervous because I’d only seen three women in the entire room, and I had a long, torrid love affair with toxic masculinity and alpha douche canoes.