A woman on the patio was handing out glowing wristbands of various colors, but I wasn’t paying attention to the instructions she was giving the group of girls to my right. I scanned the area quickly. Lorelei wasn’t on the vast patio. Several masked men were, however, and many had turned to look at me. One was smoking a cigar.
On the lawn before us was less of an enchanted forest and more an enchantedlabyrinth.
Or a maze. Exactly like the ones from my recent dreams, where I was chased by people I couldn’t see.
At a flash of blonde hair moving behind a tall shrub, I ran into the yard, ignoring someone loudly telling me I needed a wristband.
I turned a corner, and I heard laughter—but it wasn’t Lorelei’s. String lights illuminated the path, and a few lightning bugs floated through the summer air. I rounded another corner, passing a man who’d pinned a helpless fairy against a shrub, slamming his mouth to hers.
I quickly grew disoriented. The sound of an animalistic noise to my left made me jump out of my skin, as if I really had entered a land of gods and monsters.
A woman screamed. Sweat beaded on my forehead. I made turn after turn, possibly going in circles, until I finally saw my target. Her back was to me, and I heard her panting, as if she was catching her breath.
She finally turned.
Our eyes locked.
My heart dropped. It wasn’t Lorelei.
No sooner did I have that realization than a man leapt out from the darkness and tackled the woman to the ground.
“Caught you.”
He shoved his hand over her mouth to muffle her cries, jerked her panties to the side, and plunged inside her with a grunt.
I backed away—right into a solid chest.
I yelped, quickly spinning.
A man with a lean build and a black, demonic mask with ram’s horns laughed as he looked me up and down. He was in all black like some dark prince of the underworld, interpreting the theme in a similar way as Jayne.
“Someone’s a little rulebreaker,” he teased. “No wristband, so you’re off limits.” He sighed, as if that was a pity.
I swallowed and inhaled deeply, forcing air back into my lungs. I made the quick calculation that the wristbands were some kind of indicator of what the prey were willing to do with their hunters.
“You look as perfect as I knew you would,” he drawled, slowly moving closer until my back hit a shrub.
Roman.
“I couldn’t help but investigate where you were running off to in such a hurry,” he said, his devil mask inches from my face. “However, this feels akin to seeing my bride before our wedding. It’s just bad luck. Enjoy yourself, Nova. I’ll see you at the auction.”
He turned and left me there without waiting for a response—the response that would’ve informed him I wouldnotbe engaging with their questionable charity efforts. I was sure he was used to buying whatever shiny new toy he wanted, but I was not going to be one of them. I was not for sale.
When I finally found my way back out of the maze, the woman handing out wristbands eyed me with a hand on her hip. I ignored the pointed sass and reentered the mansion, wandering through the realm of gods until I found myself in a grand dining room. Heads swiveled to me when I entered.
“Nova,” Archer said, delighted. He was seated between several men of various ages, each dressed like royalty. For all I knew, some of themwereroyalty.
But my gaze landed on the centerpieces of the table.
Women.
One was hogtied with a small apple in her mouth, a vibrating dildo shoved inside her pussy.
“If that dildo falls out again, it’s going in your ass,” a man said casually to her before giving her ass a slap.
Men at the other end of the table were eating sushi off a nude woman lying on her back. As their chopsticks lifted the pieces, they didn’t pay her any attention. It was as if she really was just a serving plate.
The men surrounding Archer had stopped talking about real estate to watch my no-doubt scandalized reaction.
