LOGINRaiden’s POV The second that asshole across the border smirked at us, my stomach twisted. The kind of twist that told you something already went wrong somewhere else. Beside me Zayden went still too. Completely still. Which said a lot because that idiot almost never stopped moving unless something serious caught his attention. The women suddenly didn’t seem funny anymore. Neither did the fake threats. Or the weapons. Or the way they kept trying to keep our attention focused on them. “Fuck. They set this up,” I muttered. Kael looked over immediately. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” “Yeah,” Zayden snapped before I could answer. “They wanted us away from the palace.” Every bit of amusement vanished instantly. The bastard leaning against the rock looked entirely too pleased with himself now. Like he already knew we figured it out too late. Nyx snarled violently. “We should kill him.” “Later,” I muttered under my breath. The woman closest to the border line pouted dramatically
Unknown POV These kings really think they’re smart. It’s almost cute. The security around this palace looked impressive at first glance. Warriors everywhere. Guards rotating constantly. Patrols circling the grounds like they were protecting some damn treasure vault. Yet it only took me a few hours to figure out exactly where they were hiding Traci. A few hours. That was it. People always underestimated how easy it was to blend in when everyone around you believed they were untouchable. Arrogance made people sloppy. And these royals? They practically drowned in arrogance. I slipped quietly through the first floor hallway while staying close to the walls. My movements were slow. Every few feet I stopped long enough to listen before moving again. Voices echoed somewhere farther down the hall. Laughter. It was staff. They were completely unaware. I smirked slightly before slipping into an empty supply closet as two maids rounded the corner carrying folded towels. One of them y
Zayden’s POV We headed straight for the southern border the second the mindlink came through about a disturbance. I expected a fight. Maybe an attack. At the very least somebody stupid enough to test us. What I did not expect was… whatever the hell this was. The second we stepped through the tree line I stopped dead in my tracks. “What the fuck,” I muttered. Beside me Raiden blinked slowly before dragging his hand down his face like maybe he was hallucinating. “Nope,” he muttered. “Still seeing it.” Kael stepped up beside us and stared openly at the scene in front of us. “Soooo,” he said slowly. “What exactly is the distraction?” Yeah. Good fucking question. Because fifteen idiots sat right outside our border casually holding weapons while laughing around like they were at some damn picnic. And that wasn’t even the weird part. No. The weird part was the women. Half naked women. I stared for a long second trying to process what exactly I was looking at while Elliott stood awk
Alpha Ralph’s POV “This is bullshit!” My voice echoed through the entire damn arena while every head turned in my direction. Let them look. Because this whole damn thing was rigged. I pointed aggressively toward the ring while one of my sons struggled to pull himself off the mat after getting his ass handed to him. “That referee is fixing these fights!” I roared while throwing my arms around wildly. “There’s no damn way my boys lose this badly.” The referee pinched the bridge of his nose like he already regretted waking up this morning. “Alpha Ralph,” he started carefully, “your sons simply…” “Don’t you dare,” I snapped while stomping toward the ring. “Don’t you dare sit there and tell me my sons aren’t capable warriors.” Behind me the crowd had started whispering. Laughing too. That only pissed me off more. One idiot near the back actually barked out, “Maybe they should try hitting somebody next time.” A few people snorted. My eye twitched. “You think this is funny?” I sh
Raiden’s POV We were at the arena. Literal front row seats to the action. Did I care about the fights? Yeah. A little. I definitely wanted those damn triplets to get what was coming to them after the stunt they pulled earlier. Karma had finally showed up ready to throw hands and honestly? I was here for it. But my attention really wasn’t on the ring. Not fully. My mind kept replaying the same damn sentence over and over. ‘She wants to reject both of you.’ Yeah. Still hated that. “What if we can’t fix this?” Nyx asked quietly. That caught me off guard because Nyx usually acted overly confident about everything. “I’m hoping we can,” I answered honestly. Because I didn’t know. And that bothered me more than I wanted to admit. Beside me Zayden sat leaned forward in his chair watching the fight while bouncing his leg impatiently. Kael sat sprawled out beside him eating some kind of candy he found earlier like we weren’t sitting in the middle of a damn arena. The crowd around us
Roman’s POVTraci locked herself in her room right after demanding the kings get here so she could reject them.Yeah. That conversation went over about as well as expected. Which meant not well at all.I explained to her they didn’t want her rejecting them. That maybe she should calm down first and think about everything before making a decision she couldn’t take back.She told me to mind my business. Then slammed the door in my face.“She’s got spirit,” Ronan muttered beside me.“She’s got anger issues,” I corrected while rubbing my hand down my face.Titan snorted. “She fits right in with this damn family then.”I had a tray brought up a little while ago along with the laptop Raiden told me to set up. I still had no clue what exactly he sent over, but the second he got that smug tone in his voice earlier I already knew this was going to become somebody’s problem.Probably mine.Definitely mine.I walked over and knocked lightly on Traci’s door. “Trouble,” I called out.“I’m not talk







