16. Sadie #2
What could I say? The small-dick men smelled my potent female stench and got all hot and bothered. “Hot” as in overheated by rage; “bothered” as in embarrassingly worried about how to detach my head from my body.
But now I was going through super-fun alpha-beast gang initiation, a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, with another female alpha.
Thank the sun god.
The don gestured for us to join the other two initiates, slapped Cobra on his back, and marched out of the room.
As soon as the door shut behind him, the loud, screeching music turned back on.
Alphas resumed grunting and flexing.
Weights slammed down and shook the floor with vibrations.
Jax led us forward as we walked through the sea of sweaty half-naked men toward where the don had pointed.
Most of the alphas had cigarettes hanging from their lips as we navigated through the fighting rings.
A scary-looking alpha leaned forward and purposely blew his smoke into my face. His bald head was unnaturally shiny.
I coughed and gagged with disgust.
Before I could introduce my knee to his balls, Ascher guided me forward. He whispered in my ear, “He’s not worth it.”
The alpha grinned and muttered something under his breath as Ascher pushed me past him, and I mentally debated how bad it would be if I made the jerk my blood servant. Or maybe I’d shift and show off my massive canines.
That would teach him respect.
The other men said nothing, and I grumbled as we continued forward.
A week ago, Xerxes would have stabbed the jerk, and Cobra would have tried to rip off his eyelids to defend my honor.
Now they didn’t even blink, like they were fine with people treating me like shit.
My chest burned with disappointment.
It’s for the best .
I didn’t want men who only protected me when it suited them. I wanted men who wanted me for me and genuinely cared.
We arrived at the fighting ring splattered in blood that the don had pointed at.
A large red-haired alpha with a gun strapped in his shorts and “Loyalty” tattooed across his pecs stepped forward. “I’m Z, one of the trainers for initiates.”
There was a long, awkward pause as he looked over each of us, then stared at me.
“You’re a female alpha?”
He raised his red eyebrows in disbelief.
I was still silently fuming at the men’s lack of response to the jerk blowing smoke in my face, so I didn’t bother to respond.
Z asked me, “Where did they say you were from?”
“They didn’t say,” I snapped back.
“You have interesting coloring.” He reached a hand forward like he was going to touch my hair, but Xerxes shifted in front of me and blocked him.
The queen’s soldier was back, and Xerxes’s voice was glacier cold. “I believe introductions were conducted.”
Z nodded and smiled good-naturedly as he took his attention off me and back to the two alphas standing in the ring with him. “This is Clarissa and James. This is their first day at the fight club too, so you guys will be initiating together.”
Clarissa reached forward and shook Ascher’s hand, licking her lush lips.
She slowly ran her eyes over his tattooed body.
From the way she stepped closer into his personal space, she liked what she saw.
Ascher was expressionless, but he didn’t push her away or tell her off.
A razor blade stabbed inside my gut.
She was tall and stunning. Standing next to each other, she and Ascher looked like the perfect match. No one would ever wonder why they were together.
Finally, Clarissa stepped away from Ascher and moved toward me.
I stuck my hand forward with a forced smile, but she didn’t smile back and just let my hand hang there awkwardly.
James snickered next to her, his features similar to Clarissa’s. He bunched up his nose like I smelled.
Great, rude alphas.
Groundbreaking.
I stepped back and rolled my eyes like I wasn’t bothered while discreetly sniffing my armpits.
There was definitely an odor coming off me—stress sweat was real—but it wasn’t that noxious. Aran’s fart had been way worse.
Clarissa ignored me and turned to Cobra.
He gave her a dashing smile.
“I’m Cobra. Pleasure to meet you.”
His jewels sparkled across his annoyingly perfect features as he bowed to her.
Jax shifted uncomfortably. Ascher looked over at me with wide eyes, and it took me a long second to realize what had just happened.
Cobra was talking to her.
A woman.
My heart dropped in my chest.
Great. Now he’d gotten over his past trauma and toxic masculinity and decided to talk to the female sex.
For the first time, and last time, I missed the patriarchy.
Cobra smiled at a female alpha who was literally one of the prettiest people I’d ever seen and looked nothing like me.
My shadow snake sensed my distress and gave a zip of comfort across my skin, sending me images of cuddling and happiness.
Melancholy filled me at the reminder of whose the snake had once been, but I focused on sending it loving images back.
At least I still had a shadow snake, even if that was all I got from Cobra.
“I’m Clarissa. The pleasure is all mine. I’ve never met someone with jewels in their skin.” She shook his hand coyly and fluttered her long sooty eyelashes.
Cobra said smoothly, “You have a lovely name.”
The razor blade in my gut became a machete.
As they clasped their hands together, overly long if you ask me, Cobra had the audacity to look over his shoulder and smirk at me.
Fuck him. If he wanted to make love with another woman’s hand, that was his prerogative.
He’d made it clear I was nothing to him.
I purposefully lifted my fingers to my face and gave the snake a little kiss. “Such a good little snake,” I praised, and it shivered with happiness.
I sent it more visions of love and kisses, and it barrel-rolled with glee across my gold skin.
Cobra’s face fell, and an unnamed emotion flashed across his face. He abruptly released Clarissa’s hand, stumbling back like she’d stung him.
Clarissa didn’t notice anything and gave her amorous attention to both Jax and Xerxes.
She cooed over Xerxes’s hair and marveled at Jax’s size until I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon.
Her brother, James, followed behind her and shook everyone’s hand but mine.
After fawning over Xerxes for an unnecessarily long time, Clarissa leaned forward into his personal space and whispered something about her treating an omega right.
Her midnight hair contrasted with his shiny blond locks, and the scent of cinnamon mixed with her lemony alpha one.
The scents weren’t awful together.
Fucking hell, kill me.
Abruptly, when her nose was almost touching his throat, Xerxes rubbed at his chest at the same time as Jax, Ascher, and Xerxes.
My gut dropped.
Xerxes’s bond was acting up because he was attracted to beautiful fucking Clarissa.
A low alpha sound crept up my throat, and I swallowed down an embarrassing growl.
He is not your omega .
My fingernails bit into my palms and I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood.
I couldn’t look away as Clarissa whispered something else to Xerxes, and he trembled slightly.
The machete in my stomach turned into a grenade.
Our instructor, Z, turned toward me, and I ripped my attention away from the man-whore. “Don’s ordered us to split you up for training. Sadie, you’re going to train with Molly. The rest of you will be joining me.”
Great, I was being singled out for being the runt of the group.
But relief coursed through me as I hurried away from the men, toward the corner ring Z had pointed to. I needed to get away from them before I shifted into my tiger form and embarrassed myself.
I’d made my choice, and they’d shown their true colors.
Whatever we’d had was over before it had even begun, and I needed to accept it.
But if the don thought he was going to make me do some wimpy female version of training, he was going to be surprised.
Did he really think I couldn’t hang with the men? I was a fucking saber-toothed tiger shifter.
Had he seen my teeth? They were longer than his arms.
With every step forward, I fought the urge to look over my shoulder.
At this rate, Clarissa was probably straddling Xerxes and Cobra and humping both of them at once. Ascher would enjoy watching, and Jax would get turned on at the sight of Cobra with such a beauty.
It was all too easy for them to replace me.
Forget about me.
Move on.
A slashing sensation burned my back, and I tripped over a barbell. I was barely cognizant that I was stumbling, my mind flashing back to a small tavern and a beta’s belt.
Parents who’d abandoned me.
Maybe Clarissa was what they’d always wanted. Someone sophisticated, tall, and gorgeous who would simper at them and pamper their fragile male egos.
That wasn’t me.
Preoccupied with mentally eviscerating the men, I didn’t watch where I was going and walked into a wall.
Long, callused fingers reached out and grabbed my forearm as I stumbled back and apologized.
The rippling mountain of muscle in front of me turned around, bulging arms and impressive thighs shining with the sweat of a warrior of lore.
Half the person’s head was shaved, while the other half had long, dark hair.
I gasped when they looked up.
Olive skin, wide hooded eyes, and soft features smiled at me.
“You ready to work, sugar? I’ve been assigned to train you,” the woman said, and I realized in a daze, that unlike all the fae women, Aran included, she wasn’t that much taller than me.
My jaw flapped up and down uselessly as I stared at her sculpted perfection.
Scratch everything I’d just thought about being the runt; it would be an honor to work beside her.
Apparently, Molly was a gorgeous mountain of muscles.
From the three-hundred-pound dumbbells she was casually slinging up and down in each hand, it wasn’t just for looks.
She was everything I aspired to be: strong, beautiful, and more impressive than any man.
“You’re my hero,” I blurted.
Molly chuckled and smiled kindly. “Let’s get to work.”