I was surrounded by an enormous circus tent, the red-and-yellow-striped fabric walls stretching high overhead to a dark ceiling I couldn’t make out. I blinked again, trying to make it disappear, but stringed lights overhead popped on, lighting up the arena around me.
“What the hell?” I whispered, completely in shock.
Where were the woods? Where was my house?
I had to escape.
I had to get away…
“You look stunning,” Zero teased, and I looked down at my hoodie and leggings—what I wore when I ran away—but they’d been replaced. I was wearing a knee-length, striped dress with a corset and tights, something Bobbitt would have chosen.
My jaw fell, and I felt the blood drain from my face.
“How did…”
When I turned to look at Zero again, he wasn’t wearing his T-shirt anymore. He wore a plum and crimson jumpsuit with a matching jester hat. His white hair nearly glowed, and his face was covered in twisted clown paint.
In one hand, he twirled one of his knives.
“I want you to perform for me, Arina,” he said, his voice low and growly as he stepped closer. “Show me what makes you worthy of the Knotty Sideshow.”
“I-I…” The closer he got, the harder it was to think. His alpha aura was suffocating me, pressing down on me, making me feel small. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
How could I possibly prove my worth if I had no skills? I’d done nothing but stand in front of a target for him.
What could I really contribute?
“Show me what makes you worthy of me,” he said with a dark cackle.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I could only stare as he stopped right in front of me and trailed the tip of his knife blade over my collarbone and down my chest. Goosebumps pebbled my skin.
“What’s the matter?” He smirked as the knife dipped lower, skating over the front of my dress, and stopped when he reached my thigh. The cold kiss of the metal made me shiver. “Got stage fright?”
“I-I can’t prove myself,” I muttered, hating how childish my voice sounded.
Here he was, a fucking psychotic, sexy clown god, and I was a naive, talentless nobody.
“Aww,” he mocked with a frown that contradicted the giant blue smile painted on his face. “That’s too bad. I guess you’ll just have to do whatever I say.”
This time, I laughed. “Yeah right, fuckhead. I’m not doing anything for you.”
He tsked his tongue and dragged his knife up the inside of my thigh, the blade snagging on the tights I wore. I didn’t move, afraid he’d cut me if I did, but every inch the blade crept higher, the harder it was to breathe.
“You’re my pet,” he said matter-of-factly. “You’reourpet. Our circus slut to order around, whether that be in the ring or down on your knees.”
His laugh echoed around us, and he withdrew his knife, tucking it into the sheath on his hip.
I swallowed hard, trying not to let his words affect me, but they punched a hole straight through my chest.
Circus slut…
On my knees…
Did the alphas really plan to use me like that to keep my place in the circus?
Heat swirled in my belly, sinking lower, despite the twinge of humiliation making my cheeks burn. I hated him, and I hated what he was saying, but the thought of him closer, of his hands on me, did dark, twisted things to me.
I might have hated the thought, but my body certainly didn’t.
