Rainbow-colored strobe lights danced around the pink and purple fighting ring King Giles conjured up. Despite his Queen's protests, a vat of mud made up the ring's floor.

"I'm not sure how I feel about this," Cross admitted. "On the one hand, Rowena looks hot in her purple bikini. On the other hand, I don't like other men staring at her."

Abby scoffed. "As if she had a choice. King Giles forced her and his former royal guard to wear them before they could fight. It's totally sexist! What if Bubbles and Raven have nothing new to tell us?"

Matt nodded, holding his phone up to record the match. Abby slapped his hands, causing him to drop his phone.

"What? Cross told me to record Rowena!" Matt defended himself.

A crowd of hippies gathered around Rowena and her blue-haired opponent, the king introduced as Maxie. The two women circled one another. Somewhere in the distance, Queen's We Will Rock You began playing.

"Are we in the mud-splashing zone?" Liam asked, looking around at the fairies who were wearing raincoats. "It's like they've done this before."

Abby leaned forward. "Selig once told me the fairies loved mud-wrestling matches. Personally, I think King Giles is just a big pervert. I'm surprised his wife Daisy allows it."

"I know King Giles for getting his way," Cross reminded them. "Like the rest of the fairy population, he's devious, but it takes a strong woman to handle a man like him. I bet Queen Daisy doesn't care about these matches. If she did, she'd put a stop to them."

"Maybe she likes women fighting in mud and bikinis," Matt said, shrugging. Abby glowered at him. "What? Just because she's a royal doesn't mean she can't be a degenerate. Royals can be perverts just like us regular folks."

"Probably worse," Liam muttered.

"Did you just call yourself a pervert?" Abby asked Matt.

A cheer went up in the crowd as Maxi slipped and fell on her back, causing the mud to splash on the row closest to the ring.

Cross stood to the side, jaw clenched, and hands fisted at his hips.

"I know that look," Matt said, sighing. "Alpha, you cannot interfere in this fight. To do so, would be an insult to Rowena. Have faith in her. She's strong for a human."

"I know she can hold her own," Cross muttered. "You saw her go against my mother."

Liam and Matt both winced.

"A shifter has super strength. Rowena was at a disadvantage," Cross said in her defense.

Matt nodded. "You don't have to worry about the fairy being stronger than Rowena. I dated a sprite once and she didn't have super strength. They're cousins to the fairies and have similar abilities. Other than their height and wing length, they're pretty much the same species."

Liam nodded. "Matt is right. Rowena should be able to hold her own against the fairy as long as Maxie doesn't use her magic on your soulmate."

The alpha's eyes widened before he took a step forward. "I need to put a stop to this." He growled. "Are they taking pictures of Rowena in her bikini?"

Matt pulled him back. "No, you're going to let your future mate prove herself. If she can't, the Howler pack will lose all its respect in the paranormal community."

"I care more about Rowena," Cross admitted.

"She'll also be upset if you interfere," Abby reminded him. "You should know by now Rowena doesn't need or want anyone to fight her fights for her."

Cross frowned. "You think that? Honestly, with her family, I don't think she knows anything different. I don't think anyone's ever stood up for her."

They were silent for a moment, letting their alpha's words marinate before Maxie cried out in pain as Rowena kicked her in the jaw.

"You evil witch!" Maxie cried. "You're going to regret this. I'm a trained fighter. I used to guard the royal family before I retired."

"She's undefeated!" Princess Rose shouted, lifting a bag of popcorn, causing a few kernels to fall out of the red and white bag.

"There's popcorn?" Liam asked, looking around.

Abby shoved his shoulder. "Will you focus?"

Rowena rolled her eyes at the fairy princess. "I'm shaking in this designer bikini I'm never going to return. We've fought before and I wiped the floor with your royal guard. If she's undefeated, I'm a beaver shifter!"

Matt snorted. "There's no such thing as a beaver shifter."

"You're insane!" Maxie screeched. "You never beat me." She looked at the king and shook her head vigorously.

"Lie all you want, but I'll do it again. You tried to trick me into your cult!" Rowena cried, kicking at Maxie with a mud-covered leg. "Drugging me is one thing, but trying to get me to join a cult? Unforgiveable!"

Liam frowned. "Is she saying she's okay with being drugged?"

Maxie gave a shrieking war cry before head-butting Rowena in her stomach. "You had your crazy shifter friend kill my friends!"

"Shifter friend? I don't know what you're talking about," Rowena groaned before fisting her hands in Maxie's mohawk and yanking. "By the way, the nineteen eighties called. They want their hair back!"

"Mohawks are a classic hairstyle!" Maxie lifted a hand to her hair.

"For eighties cover bands!" Rowena boxed Maxie's ears with her fists. "You think you're all that because you were a royal guard? That means nothing to me. I've gone toe to toe with old women over a used table at an estate sale before. I'm much tougher than I look."

"Is this some sort of ploy?" Maxie asked, spitting a wad of blood onto the mud. "Confuse me until I give up?"

"I've met plenty of bad people in my life," Rowena shared, her brown eyes narrowed on Maxie. "My mother, my father, my cousin's ex-husband who asked me to sleep with him for an empanada... the list goes on. As many bad people I've come across, not a single one of them tried tricking me into a cult. That's just a new low!"

"What's an empanada?" Liam asked.

"It must be good if her cousin's ex thought it could get her to sleep with him," Matt answered thoughtfully.

Abby made a negative sound. "From what Rowena has shared in the past—he may just be a random guy who thinks women will sleep with him for Mexican pastries."

"Did you say you're wearing Mexican pasties?" a hippie behind Abby asked, staring at her chest. She kicked his shin and stood closer to her brother.

"It wasn't a cult," Maxie denied. "We were recruiting human helpers. You showed up to our party like all the other fairy fangirls. I figured you wanted to be assigned a fairy to serve for the rest of your life. I was doing you a favor!"

"Liar! If that were true, you wouldn't have drugged me. Hector had to save me from your crazy cult."

"Hector?" Maxie scowled. "You mean that lion shifter? He destroyed our compound. It's a cat sanctuary now! We haven't had new human helpers in months."

"It's her fault they shut our compound down?" Rose screeched, pointing at Rowena.

"Lion shifter? You're saying Hector is a lion shifter?" Rowena shouted. "Time out." She turned to Cross, her hands on the ropes. "There are lion shifters?"

"Rowena, look out!" Abby cried as Maxie punched Rowena in the back of her head.

Rowena's face bounced off the ropes. Her friends grimaced and Cross unleashed an unholy howl, causing the surrounding fairies to distance themselves from him. Rowena ducked and clawed at Maxie's thighs before jumping out of reach. "You evil cow! I said time out!"

"There are no time-outs in mud wrestling!" Maxie hissed.

"Knock her out!" Princess Rose shouted, followed by a cheer of agreement.

"I always thought fairies were kind," Rowena mumbled. "You all are a bloodthirsty group. It reminds me of my family get-togethers."

"Your shifter friends want to interrogate Bubbles and Raven, but you'll need to go through me first. You don't stand a chance, human." Maxie cackled before lowering her head to one side, popping her bones.

Rowena frowned. "Seriously, do you have selective amnesia? I took you down when you tried to kidnap me?"

"If you don't have it on film, it didn't happen," Maxie shared, snickering.

Rowena cursed under her breath. She knew the police would find Gina guilty of Karen's murder if she didn't help. She lowered herself to a crouch and fisted her hands. "I'm done playing around."

Before Maxie could respond, Rowena jumped forward, leg out. The heel of her foot slammed into Maxie's head. The blue-haired fairy jerked into the ring's rope before falling to the side, getting tangled in the rope. Rowena stalked forward and grabbed both of Maxie's ears before slamming Maxie's face against her knee.

A deafening roar filled the air.

"Did Rowena just win over the fairy crowd with her fighting skills?" Abby asked, impressed.

Maxie wavered, her weight shifting from one foot to another. She lifted her fist as if preparing for a punch. Rowena sighed and shoved the woman away. Maxie stumbled and fell face-first into the vat of mud.

A man dressed like a referee jumped out of the crowd and began counting. A few moments later, he jumped up and lifted Rowena's arm, declaring her the winner. The mud disappeared and Rowena's bikini turned into a white mini-dress. Cross pushed himself through the ropes and pulled Rowena into his chest.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I feel much better now," she whispered, nuzzling her face in the crook of his neck.

"You're bleeding," he noted as he stared at her mouth. He leaned down and kissed her, flicking his tongue against her skin. It healed instantly.

King Giles clapped his hands, and the fairies quieted down. He stomped to Maxi, who was still unconscious, and snapped his fingers. She disappeared in a cloud of glitter.

"What did you do to her?" Rowena asked, pulling away from Cross.

"Sent her to the infirmary," King Giles answered with a smile Rowena didn't trust. "Someone with her fighting skills shouldn't have lost as she did. Are you also trained in several fighting skills?"

Rowena shrugged. "I have a lot of anger issues and grew up with horrible cousins. It was punch or be punched."

"I see." The king nodded and gestured for Bubbles and Raven to come forward. His daughter Rose trailed after them. Queen Daisy gave a bored sigh before instructing the other fairies to return to the show.

"Father, you can't really let them question my friends," Rose insisted.

"Quiet," King Giles hissed. "I made an agreement with the alpha, and I intend to keep it."

Bubbles stomped up to Cross. "I have nothing to say."

The fairy king's smile widened. "That's true. I said I would allow it but not that the girls had to answer."

Raven laughed hysterically. Abby shook her head, a grimace on her face. "Can you take meds for that laugh?"

"She might be part hyena," Liam suggested.

"Cross," Rowena said while her arms were still around him. "Your eyes are yellow."

"We have a full moon tomorrow night," Matt said. "Cross doesn't need to combat the moon, but it still puts him on edge."

Rowena shuddered. She knew from experience how dangerous it could be around unmated wolves during a full moon. They either wanted to fight or get physical with their mates in a way that resulted in baby shifters. She tugged at Cross' shirt, causing him to look down. "If the full moon is tomorrow night, you'll need to take me out on a date tonight."

"Rowena, you just fought a fairy. You need to rest," Cross reminded her.

Her brows raised. "You're not going to lick me and make me feel better?"

"That sounds really wrong," Abby muttered.

"Baby," Cross sighed. "You know I—"

"No, you owe me a date," Rowena insisted. "I get that we're here to talk to Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum over here, but it's not like they're going to admit they killed Karen and pinned it on Gina for some weird reason. They're not very smart, so it's not like we won't figure it out. Heck, they even left behind glitter in the toilet they used to kill Karen. I bet if we investigated, we'd find the drug they used on her before they drowned her. Unless they put whatever was left in Gina's things."

Bubbles gasped. "We are not dumb! You think you're so smart, but you're not. Just because there was glitter at the scene of the crime doesn't mean it was a fairy who killed your stupid human friend."

"Bubbles," King Giles admonished.

Raven laughed.

"Is that all you can do?" Rowena asked the laughing fairy. She turned back to Bubbles. "You framed Gina. Just admit it so I can hurt you and hand you over to the human police."

"We didn't frame Gina," Bubbles contended. "Yes, we met her, and we had some things in common, but we had nothing to do with her being framed. Why would we want to frame someone we liked? She told us funny stories about her stripper days."

"She told you about her time as Tipsy?" Rowena asked, a hurt tone in her voice. "She hasn't told me anything about her stripping days! And I've asked."

Raven laughed again. Rowena sneered and popped her in the face with a closed fist. The laughing fairy crumpled to the ground. Queen Daisy smiled. Princess Rose gasped. King Giles sighed.

"You didn't have to hit her," Bubbles whined. "She laughs when she's nervous."

"All she did was laugh," Rowena said, annoyed.

"She laughs when she's angry," Bubbles added. "And sad. Happy. Okay, fine! She's always laughing."

"Who else leaves glitter behind when they use magic?" Cross asked. "I've heard tales, but I want confirmation."

Bubbles stole a glance at the fairy king, who was glaring at Raven's body. She turned back to Cross and whispered, "The trolls."

"Like Treasure Trolls?" Rowena asked.

Bubbles nodded. "To get someone to drown in a toilet, magic had to be involved to make it large enough to stick someone's head in and drown them. The trolls share Magic Meadows with us, but they live in the Forest of Decay. They've been trying to make our existence known for years. They think if humans find us, they'll run us out and the trolls will finally be able to have the entire Magic Meadows to themselves."

"Do you think they killed Karen to draw attention to the fairies?" Rowena asked, not quite believing what Bubbles was saying.

The fairy shrugged. "They aren't the brightest bunch. It's not like the humans could see the glitter to know a supernatural being was involved."

"No," Cross agreed. "There must be something that we're missing."

"We've got to find the trolls," Rowena agreed. "Maybe they can help us figure out why Karen was killed. I told you it had something to do with the pageant. Maybe the trolls wanted to enter, and Karen told them they couldn't?"

Bubbles laughed. "Trolls could never enter a pageant. They're hideous even when they take on a human glamour. Besides, even if the trolls were responsible, they'd never tell you anything."

King Giles stepped forward. "That is true. Fairies are devious, but Trolls are downright mean. If they killed your friend, there may not be a reason behind it."

Remembering her friend Marcus, Rowena shook her head. Marcus worked at the flea market selling things he stole, but he was very much in the know about what went on in Clarkton. If someone said Karen's death had to do with the beauty pageant, she trusted him.

"Have you ever wondered," Bubbles asked, her eyes on Cross in a way Rowena didn't like, "if maybe your friend Karen wasn't killed because of something she did but because of something Gina did?"

Rowena frowned. "What are you saying?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. Raven and I spent quite a bit of time with Gina. I just don't think you know your friend Gina as well as you'd like to think you do."

"I think this questioning has gone on long enough," Princess Rose declared with a scowl on her face.

"It's a good thing no one cares what you think," Rowena muttered.

Before the princess and Rowena came to blows, Cross dragged her back, looking at King Giles. "With your permission, we'd like to search for the trolls soon."

The king scratched his jaw before nodding. "I don't see the harm in that if you promise to warn me if they're plotting something against my kind. Our identity must remain a secret. Humans covet our magic and fear what they don't understand. The last thing we need are humans interested in our kind."

Cross agreed.

Bubbles smirked. "When you're done playing with your human, maybe you'd like to spend a few nights with me, Alpha."

Rowena growled and broke free from her boyfriend's arms, punching Bubbles in the face. She gave a strangled wail before falling to her knees. The princess gasped and pointed a finger at Rowena while Liam and Matt helped Cross drag her back to their van. "How dare you harm my friends. What's your name, human? I swear I'll get revenge against you. I'll make your life a living Hell for hurting my friends. Tell me your name so I can have my protectors hunt you down!"

Rowena scoffed. "I'm not afraid of you! You want to fight? Bring it!"

"Rowena, that's enough," Cross muttered. King Giles placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

"Tell me your name!" Princess Rose demanded as Liam slammed the passenger door closed on Rowena. "Or are you too afraid I'll really find you?"

Rowena rolled down the window. "I'm not afraid of anything! You want to make my life Hell? Track me down and do your worst. I'll be waiting. My name is Carmen. Carmen Flores!"