Kota: One of the Hungarian girls is going to go with me. Just so you don’t worry or anything.
Kota: Some of the males are getting rowdy. Can you take hall duty and send Galyna down?
Kota: You might need to both come. Some of these guys are really drunk and the strip poker has turned risqué. A couple of the females are intoxicated and half naked. I’m going to try to break it up but I need backup.
Kota: Please hurry. One of the drunk girls is Valens’s sister.
The last text had dread souring my stomach. “Shit on a fucking stick. Valens, we’ve gotta roll.”
“What?” He ran his hands over his face. “What time is it? You’re supposed to rest until breakfast. It’s still dark out.”
“Yeah, well, unless you want your drunken sister stirring up shit with strange alphas at strip poker, we’re going to have to burn rubber.”
He spewed an impressive string of curses in English before switching to Hungarian. By the time I’d dragged pants on and the closest T-shirt over my sports bra, he was wearing his own sweats, boots, and storming out the door bare-chested. I snatched up my sword and chased after him.
I didn’t have time to fill Galyna in, so I just hollered for her to read her messages as we raced by.
We ran together through the darkness, as I racked my brain trying to remember what Dakota had said about where the various events were happening.
“I think strip poker’s in the stables,” I told Valens as we sprinted through the nearly empty knights’ hall.
People had apparently decided to really live it up after the gathering earlier, because almost no one wasfucking sleepinglike a normal person.
We wove through crowds of partiers on the grounds, all of them at least mostly dressed and therefore their own problems for now.
When the stables—a giant stone stable complex with multiple stories that were being used to house a lot of guests since they’d survived the worst of the burning—came into view, the thumping bass music blaring out through the open windows was enough to set my teeth on edge.
As were thehighlyinappropriate catcalls we could hear over the music.
I skidded to get in front of Valens before he could snatch the door off its hinges. “Let me go in first. Your sister’s in there, and you cannot lose it. I’m a maiden. I’ll kick all their drunken asses out of here. Give me five minutes.”
“You’ve got sixty seconds,” he spat, the veins in his forehead pulsing in a way I’d never seen before as Savannah’s tipsy laugh reached our ears.
Better than I thought I’d get.
I flew through that door, reciting prayers to the Goddess and the maidens who came before me that it wouldn’t be as bad as Dakota had implied it was.
But fuck me sideways, it was worse.
There were at least two separate couples actively fucking in corners, each with a crowd of horny watchers. Alpha pheromones hung so thick in the air that it was choking. I scanned the crowd in a panic, looking for Dakota and Savannah.
I spotted them in the middle of the floor, Savvy with a mostly empty bottle of whiskey lifted overhead, dancing in nothing but heels and red lace.
Shit.
Three separate males had hands on her, and from the discombobulated way she gyrated, I could tell she was far too drunk to make any kind of consensual decisions. Dakota was grappling with a fourth, who looked like he was trying to get in on it.
“Everybody, listen up. This party is over. Put the alcohol down and your clothes on, or I will throw you out on your ass in the cold. Now!” I did my best impression of an alpha bark, despite my beta status. A commanding tone would usually do for anyone below me in the order and at least thin the herd.
None of the jackasses feeling up Savannah even blinked, but probably about half the crowddid, sending people drunkenly fumbling for clothes and shoes. It wasn’t perfect, but it made a dent in the crowd at least.
I cut a swath through the retreating partiers, praying Valens would give me a little bit longer to deal with his sister before charging in since I’d managed to start an exit, at least.
Something told me she wouldn’t want him to see her like this, no matter how close they were. There were some things you didn’t need your family to witness. This felt like one of those moments.
“Everybody, back off. Now,” I snarled, charging them.
One of them stumbled backward in surprise, saw the wrath in my eyes, and made himself scarce. The other two? Alpha assholes who just smirked.
