Page 26

MARLOWE

I sat on the edge of my seat, watching as the alphas circled each other, Julian’s eyes carefully assessing the other male’s movements and tracking any weak spots.

“We will deal with your insubordination when this is over,”

Roland said, turning towards me. “That stunt you pulled with the crying won’t work again. You will submit to us.”

The male took a swing that Julian easily dodged, giving him an opening to attack the male’s unprotected left side with a sharp punch to the kidney. The male groaned, stumbled, and dropped to a knee, allowing Julian to quickly be done with him. A swift kick to the temple and the male was out cold.

Thirty seconds and not a drop of sweat on him—so far, so good.

“Competitor two has lost. Competitor three, please enter the ring.”

The male was carried out by his grumbling pack and another male took his place, the next fight beginning immediately.

I wanted to watch, to let Julian know I was here to support him for putting himself through all of this just for me. But the stress was eating me alive, and I wished I could just close my eyes and skip to the end of this as soon as possible. Keeping my gaze towards the fight and away from Roland, I disassociated and instead pictured my reunion with the pack tonight. What would we have for dinner? Did Nolan have something special in mind, or were we just going to get take out since we’d be too exhausted to cook? Did they already eat all the ice cream Cam had bought for me?

“Did you hear me, omega?”

Roland snapped.

I sighed. “Yeah, I’m just not too worried about it. Julian is going to win and then this whole nightmare will be over.”

His jaw tensed, his hands balling into fists over his knees. “Nightmare? Do you have any idea what an honor it is to serve the Conclave?”

“If it’s such an honor, then why are you forcing me into it?”

I replied, my voice flat and disinterested.

Roland growled menacingly. “Do you know what we can provide for you?”

he asked, his hand whipping out to grab my wrist and pull me towards him. “The money? The status?”

I tried to pull back but his hold was too strong. “Yeah, how does your wife feel about all of this? Or your daughter, isn’t she around my age? Do they even know?”

Linda and her friends had given me a lot of information about the Conclave. All of them, aside from Torin, were already married with kids, and it made me sick. Brennan’s adult daughter had apparently heard about this whole thing and had sent me a DM, calling her dad “an asshole of the highest order”

and apologizing for what he was putting me through.

“Leave my family out of it!”

he barked, but it didn’t affect me in the slightest.

When I’d first arrived here, before I’d known fully what it was, alpha aggression and dominance could make me flinch or obey instantly. I still jumped to attention when my pack barked at me, but they did it mostly because sometimes I liked it when they took control. Especially since they always took my barks seriously, even if there wasn’t any “oomph”

to them. It was all about respect and trust.

Roland’s did nothing for me and nothing to me.

“You attacked mine first,”

I bit back.

Julian unleashed a relentless assault against his current opponent, sending him flailing outside of the ring. I moved to stand up and cheer, but Roland threw out his arm, preventing me from leaving my chair.

Brennan leaned forward and spoke from Roland’s other side.

“Our wives will be happy that we’ve found an omega, a female who can finally satisfy us as our nature intended.”

I gagged. “Yeah, that’s not what Aspen said.”

His expression contorted into rage at the sound of his daughter’s name. “By the way, my ex-fiancé met you a few times before in Palo Alto. I have to say, you’re just as slimy as he described. And he was a vampyr! How much of a creep do you have to be for a vamp to think you’re disgusting?”

Brennan sat back with a growl, running his hand angrily through his hair plugs.

Torin chuckled from my other side. “Marlowe, I already love you, there’s no need to keep trying so hard.”

I turned my vitriol towards him next. “And I’ve always thought your movies sucked.”

But he simply grinned and patted me on the knee. “Sticks and stones, sweetheart. But you need to be careful, not everyone is as thick-skinned as I am. You really hurt Frost’s feelings the other night, and I’d rather he not break our new toy before I’ve had a chance to play with her.”

The hulking alpha on the other side of Torin leered in my direction, cracking his neck, and my face paled. These males were going to kill me. It was only a question of when one of them would snap.

“You are all despicable, sitting here and gleefully talking about how you plan to assault me. Absolutely vile.”

Julian had already made his way through four competitors, but he still had quite a few more to go before squaring off with Eamon in the last round.

This whole setup was completely unfair. Even if it was the only legal way, according to antiquated, bullshit shifter laws, for my pack to get me back, the odds were still stacked heavily in the Conclave’s favor.

“It’s not rape if you’re begging for it, sweetheart,”

Torin replied. My stomach roiled as he leaned over and whispered in my ear. “When was your last heat?”

The thought of having to go through a heat with these monsters terrified and disgusted me. I had no idea when the next one was coming. My body had been on hormone suppressants for so long, it was going to take a while for my system to regulate itself into a natural rhythm. It could be anywhere from days to weeks to months until I entered a fertile cycle.

“I think I’m going to be sick,”

I said. I signaled towards Linda and she came up immediately. “Can you take me to the bathroom?”

Torin laughed darkly and leaned back in his seat, wrapping his fingers behind his head and crossing an ankle over his knee. “You need to accept your new reality, Marlowe. If you behave, you’ll live with me in L.A., facing the public as my wife. You’ll have all the freedom to do whatever you want, as long as you play the part. But if you insist on making things difficult, well… let’s just say Grimm owns a really big ranch up in Idaho with plenty of equipment to tame wild animals.”

Linda, who had been trying to appear as neutral as possible, finally couldn’t hide her revulsion and snapped. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

He shrugged, looking at his shoulder and picking off a strand of hair. “We’re not leaving here empty-handed, and we certainly aren’t going through all this trouble to be blue-balled by a mouthy omega. You’ll put out one way or another.”

A growl rippled through my chest. “I will fucking kill you all.”

“Mmm, I told you to stop trying. You’ve already got me hard as a rock,”

he replied, biting his lip.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed Linda’s arm and we headed towards the restrooms.

My whole body shook. I didn’t want to even consider the possibility that Julian could lose, but hearing what the Conclave had planned for me had me teetering on the edge of a breakdown.

Another round of cheering echoed through the hallway outside the temple hall, and the priestess ordered the next competitor into the ring.

Julian had defeated twelve now, with nineteen more to go. And Eamon was last.

Linda followed me into the bathroom, closing the door behind us and leaning against it. I went straight for the sink, gripping the porcelain sides and snarling at my reflection and the sight of the silver collar around my neck.

A symbol of the Conclave’s desire to own and control me.

Linda checked to make sure no one was in any of the stalls, then locked the door and came up to my side.

“Nolan asked me to send along a message,”

she whispered. She pointed towards the small window near the ceiling. “If things go south, I’m going to get that collar off, then help you out that window. From there you’ll need to shift and run as fast as you can, due north. Can you do that?”

Goddammit, I knew contingency plans were necessary, but it still broke my heart to hear them. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. “But what about you? They could kill you!”

Linda took out her phone and showed me a video she had secretly recorded of our conversation with Torin.

…let’s just say Grimm owns a really big ranch up in Idaho with plenty of equipment to tame wild animals…

“I’ve just sent this to Diana, Samantha, Beth, and Nolan’s cousin, so I’ll let the Conclave know that if they try anything with me, it immediately goes out to shifter news outlets across the country. We’re going to send it out anyway, but the blackmail will be enough to give you a head start and keep us safe.”

I wrapped my arms around Linda’s neck and hugged her tightly, letting myself finally release all the deep sobs I’d been holding in my chest. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

She hugged me back, resting her cheek on the top of my head. “You’ve really helped me realize how much shit females have been sweeping under the rug. It’s time we finally make a stand.”

“Competitor fifteen, please enter the ring.”

I sniffed and grabbed a paper towel to blow my nose. “We should get back. I need to be out there supporting Julian.”

“Of course.”

I refused to engage with the Conclave anymore for the rest of the Rite. I didn’t look at them, I didn’t speak to them. My eyes were glued on my pack, and I cheered after every one of Julian’s victories, sending him constant waves of love, affection, and support down the bond.

He only had five more to go, but I could see the exhaustion setting in. The kind of swings he had dodged without a problem in the beginning were now starting to land. In between each match he’d quickly drink his water and bring the handkerchief I’d given him to his nose, my scent reinvigorating him for the next round.

Eamon finally took off his tracksuit and started warming up. I didn’t think it was possible to look bigger without clothes on, but he was a beast of a male. The biggest one by far that Julian would be facing tonight.

The crowd gasped and I turned my attention back to the ring, where Julian had almost been pushed out. I stood, clasping my hands in front of me as my heartbeat tripled in speed.

He managed to stop himself just before touching the rope, and flipped his opponent out instead. I sat back down before the relief caused my knees to buckle and fail.

Four more to go. Another shot of love for Julian through the bond, and then to the rest of the pack. They had done a good job of compartmentalizing their emotions for me that day, not just in the bonds but with the neutral looks on their faces.

Cam’s white knuckles told me all I needed to know, though, so I sent a bump of affection for him. His eyes flashed towards me and the corner of his mouth lifted as he volleyed it back.

My heart metabolized the hit too quickly, and soon I was back to being a nervous wreck. I tapped my legs compulsively, biting my lip and cracking my knuckles. Eamon chuckled and then stood in front of me, blocking my view as he bent down and took my chin in his hand. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at him, but he didn’t seem to mind and spoke anyway.

“General Thorne has promised me first knotting if I knock your little boyfriend out in less than thirty seconds.”

He looked behind him and scoffed. “I only need ten.”

When I didn’t reply, he lowered his lips to my ear, his fingers running along the silver collar. “How do you like your gift? It’s vintage—alphas back in the day made it to teach their bitches to heel. Seemed like something you might benefit from.”

I couldn’t take it any longer. Anger coursed through my body, my hands tingling with the need to take action. I typically abhorred violence, but in this case, I would gladly gut each and every member of this fucking Conclave and string them up by their intestines. “I don’t need to shift to kill you.”

“Competitor thirty-one, please enter the ring.”

Eamon smirked. “I look forward to seeing you try.”

He finally let go and resumed his stretching, watching every move Julian made. A right hook got him right in the jaw and I nearly screamed as his eyes glazed over for a moment, but then he shook his head and got right back into it, his chest heaving from the exertion. A one-two punch sent the male stumbling out of the ring.

Eamon winked and blew me a kiss. “Get ready, omega. I’m going to knot you right here in front of your old pack once I win, so they know exactly who owns you now.”

“Competitor thirty-two, please enter the ring.”