35. Sadie #2
“So, are you going to visit her?” I asked casually, knowing he’d said no, but still needing to be reassured.
Xerxes, with his hand wrapped around my ponytail, gave it another yank. “Hm, maybe.”
A growl ripped from my throat. “Do it and it will be the last thing you do.”
We came to a stop, everyone’s feet slamming back onto the ground, and Xerxes released my ponytail only to grab my throat in a choke hold.
Cobra chuckled. “Oooh, Kitten pissed off the omega.”
Xerxes pushed me forward aggressively, so I had to walk backward not to fall over.
Shifters walked around us and didn’t pay us any attention.
What kind of sick place was this realm, where a woman being yanked around by her hair didn’t even merit a second glance?
Xerxes walked me backward until I slammed against a pillar.
“Stop shoving me against things.” I kicked at his shins as hard as I could.
“I thought you didn’t want to commit to our pack?” Xerxes arched his eyebrows, purple eyes blazing. “Was I wrong?”
“That’s not exactly what happened.” I kicked harder, but he didn’t release me. His muscles didn’t budge, so I turned to the other men. “You’re seriously going to just stand there as he chokes me in public?”
I made my lower lip tremble and widened my eyes like I was sad.
Cobra sniffed the air and smirked down at me. “I’m tempted to touch your cunt to see if you’re as wet as you smell.”
Ugh. I rolled my eyes. “Why’re you actually a pervert?”
“Kitten, I’d fuck you right here in front of everyone, and I wouldn’t even blink. I’d take you so hard you screamed my name.”
I ignored the way my core heated at his words.
Cobra was a lost cause, so I turned away from him and focused on looking pitifully at Ascher and Jax.
Xerxes’s fingers tightened like he couldn’t help himself.
Ascher ran his tattooed fingers across his horns and sighed. “I’m sorry, Princess, but I have to agree with him. You were the one who said you wouldn’t join the pack. What’s your answer? Either you want us or you don’t.”
Of all the times for the men to decide for us to have this conversation.
Cobra inched closer and flicked his finger over my nipple, and I jackknifed my foot into his balls as hard as I could.
He smiled like I’d kissed him.
My breath caught as worry flashed through me when he leaned into my personal space. Was he really going to touch me in a public place?
Hundreds of shifters milled around us.
Jax pulled Cobra back and put him in a headlock. “Not in public.” He growled at him.
“Why not?” Cobra stared at me and licked his lips.
Xerxes’s fingers tightened until I could barely breathe. Was he trying to kill me or turn me on?
I couldn’t tell. And weirdly, I didn’t want to know.
“Jax, save me,” I said desperately as I clawed at Xerxes’s hand.
“Xerxes, let her go.” Jax reached forward and used his massive size to constrain both Ascher and Xerxes.
I sighed with relief as oxygen flooded back into my brain.
Ascher wrapped his arm around me in support, and I slapped him away.
He was still a traitor.
“Well, that was exhilarating.” Aran stood to the side, hunched over as she itched aggressively at her back.
“You didn’t do anything to help me!” I said.
“First, you act all embarrassing and poor, and now this. Don’t be a drama queen,” she mumbled but didn’t look at me. She was too busy itching at her back.
Her obvious distress freaked me out.
“We’re not leaving until we find some type of healing ointment for…” I trailed off because Aran was miming stabbing me in my peripheral vision. “For me. Sometimes my bruises itch.”
“Kitten is hurt.” Cobra’s eyes blazed.
“Baby girl, why didn’t you say something?” Xerxes growled.
Thus began a small excursion, where the men panicked that I was falling apart and they hadn’t noticed.
Which was highly ironic because they’d just been publicly choking me.
Their irrational concern over my well-being had its benefits.
Case in point, we finally left the mall with five different creams for itchiness.
One of which was labeled a miracle cure, with a price tag that I was pretty sure was over one hundred thousand credits, but Xerxes had taken it out of my hand and bought it before I could say anything.
Ascher was the only one who wasn’t completely brain-dead.
He kept looking between Aran and me like he knew exactly what we were doing.
At one point, he pulled Aran aside and asked if she was okay, his handsome face twisted with guilt and concern.
Since Aran had responded by hunching lower and biting her nails more aggressively, the worry hadn’t left his face.
It made me feel better to know I wasn’t the only one concerned about her.
When we finally returned to the mansion, we still had a few hours until nightfall.
I followed Aran up the stairs, looking forward to a long nap.
But stopped with surprise.
The girls had made a makeshift track out of toilet paper down the length of the hall and were screaming as Noodle raced against a hamster.
I decided it was not my business where the hamster had come from.
When Lucinda yelled something about Jinx owing her ten credits because Noodle ran off the course and the hamster won, I ignored it.
Frankly, the girls developing a gambling problem was the least of my concerns.
However, my nap plans were interrupted by the scent of warm chestnuts, and a sheepish-looking Jax tapping me on my shoulder. “We need to come up with a plan.”
Aran took her ridiculously expensive creams out of my hand and closed the door.
I opened the door and pulled her back out. “This is a battle, and we only have one day to get it right. You’re a battle strategizer. You’re coming with me.”
Aran bit harder at her nails but allowed me to pull her along as she said, “If you’re too scared to face the men alone, just say that.”
“Really?” I said with conviction, “I thought you knew me better than that. I’m not a coward.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t comment. She didn’t need to.
We both knew I was full of shit.