Page 63 of Claimed By a King

As the hands holding me haul me to my feet and spin me around, I come face-to-face with Gunner.

“Have you missed me, Sugar?” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively. “I’ve fucking missed you. I can’t wait to fuck you again tonight.”

“But… w-what?” I can’t make sense of what’s happening.

Ignoring my question, Gunner moves closer and reaches for my hand with the handcuff. He pulls a key from his jeans pocket and unlocks it. The chopped off limb at the other end falls to the ground with a sickening thud.

“Let me go,” I demand, my voice sounding strong. “Irina said I wasn’t going to fight, and—”

Gunner cuts me off with an eerie laugh. “No,” he corrects. “She said you weren’t fighting them.” He gestures toward a heap of bodies at the other end of the ring.

Doubling over, I retch and gag as I realize it’s the bodies of the women who lost their fight tonight.

“You’ll still be fighting,” Gunner prattles on. “Why do you think we’ve treated you so nice the last few weeks? No one wants to see the VP’s Old Lady lose because she’s hungry. But now that you’ve had a taste of the good life, you should be able to put on a show.”

I feel the color drain from my face, and I feel dizzy as I right myself too quickly. Fuck. I knew Irina wasn’t my friend, and I always suspected there was more going on. But this… fucking fuck. I fell for it when she said I didn’t have to fight.

“It’s an honor to get picked.”

Her words from weeks ago sound in my head again, and now I finally understand why I haven’t been able to shake them. She was telling me, it was there, and I didn’t see it—or rather hear it for what it was.

“Why? You’re already VP so you don’t need meto fight for you.”

Gunner moves his hand to cup my face. “Sweet, innocent, naïve, Zoe,” he croons. “The women were never fighting for the prospects to become members. That was something Irina made up for your benefit. The truth is, they fight because we want them to, and because its good entertainment.”

I really should have fucking seen that coming. The Reapers are sick enough to take women in and treat them… well, not nice… but just to use them as lambs for slaughter.

Rolling my shoulders back, I meet his gaze head on. “Who am I fighting?”

Some of the amusement falls from his face, which I take as a win. A nonconsequential one, but it still counts.

“Me!”

Irina’s voice rings out as she struts across the ring.

The surprise I know I should feel never registers. It’s not like I suspected that she was alive and well, obviously in on the elaborate scheme to trick me. I’m just so far beyond exhausted and overwhelmed that nothing feels real anymore.

I look down at the hand I’d been content on ignoring, and before I can stop myself, I ask, “Who?” It’s not a full sentence, but the one word is all I can manage.

“Mani,” Gunner chuckles. “Adam was all too happy offering her up when we asked.”

Rusty’s enhanced voice sounds just as Gunner opens his mouth as though he had more to say. “Let’s get to it!”

“Don’t let me down, Sugar,” Gunner says with a wink. Then I watch as he walks to where Rusty, Noose, and Cat are gathered.

“For the last fight, it’s our very own Mama versus our new VP’s Old Lady—”

A fight breaks out to the left of me, interrupting Rusty.

“No!” my dad bellows. “You fucking promised me, Rusty. And Irina… you said she was safe, and that—”

He’s cut off by a punch to the jaw. Several Reapers jump him, kicking, punching, and even spitting at him.

“I lied,” Irina replies smugly, doing a little twirl. “Just like when I said I loved you.”

Themoment those words leave her lips, my dad stops fighting. My heart aches for him, but at the same time, I’m sickened by him.

He threw everything away to be with this woman. Me. Leslie. Mom… we were all casualties in his… fuck. I don’t even fucking know.

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