Page 206 of Psycho Beasts

Walter was a blur of gray as he sprinted past the room.

None of us moved, but the anxiety in the room increased in intensity at the reminder that it wasn’t just our lives at risk if we failed at the third initiation task.

The girls would be alone in an unfamiliar world.

I dug my palms into my eyes. “Well, there’s only one option for the first part of the plan. We get the Ortega brothers’ attention by standing out in the club.”

Everyone stared at me.

“Sexually.” I grimaced.

Jax asked tiredly, “Sadie, how are we supposed to stand out in a club full of experienced BDSM players?”

“We could figure it out,” Xerxes said slowly as he thought about it. “It really is our only option.”

Cobra smirked, “I’m down.”

Ascher ran his hands roughly over his horns. “So you’re all fine with wax play? Whips? Floggings? Knife play? While a room full of strangers watches us? It’s fucking not that simple.”

I glanced over at Xerxes, who had a smirk on his lips. “I may have some experience with knife play.”

The men turned to him in shock.

Memories of his savagery in the bedroom made me shiver. I was not surprised.

Xerxes said with conviction, “It’s the only thing that makes sense. We have one night to pull this off. We don’t really have any other choice.”

“He’s right. We can do this,” I agreed.

Jax arched his brow like he didn’t believe me, but no one refuted the plan.

No one had a better idea.

“Say we catch the Ortega brothers’ attention,” Jax replied. “Then what are we supposed to do? They’ll have weapons and aren’t just going to give up the Black Wolves.”

Aran sat up straighter and waved her hand. “Oh, that part’s easy. It’s pretty obvious what you need to do.”

Everyone stared at her.

She narrowed her eyes when she realized it wasn’t obvious to everyone else, then sighed heavily.

“You’ll have to pretend to be disappointed with Xerxes. And tell the Ortega brothers you want to give him back to the Black Wolves. Then once they lead you to them, Sadie infects the brothers with her blood and holds them hostage. To take out the wolves, Xerxes will have the element of surprise and he has the best chance of slitting their throats with the sex knife before they realize it’s a trap.”

There was a long pause as her plan sank in.

“Fuck, that might work.” Ascher smiled down at Aran, who avoided eye contact and bit harder on her nails.

“I like it.” Cobra’s jewels flashed to snakes like he was imagining the carnage.

Jax shrugged. “I don’t have a better idea. I say we go for it.”

The three alphas nodded, clearly relieved that we had some type of game plan and there was some hope we would survive this.

“We can’t,” I said as my stomach hurt thinking about it. “We can’t do that to Xerxes.”

Xerxes had been sitting as still as a statue the entire time.

But I knew him enough to notice that his fingers gripped the hilts of his knives too tightly.

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