Page 233 of Psycho Beasts

We hadn’t fucked her yet because we were afraid the intensity would scare her away. Terrified of hurting her, of dimming the spark in her red eyes.

And now we were going to do just that, in the worst way possible.

In public.

In front of thousands of depraved shifters.

I yanked harder on Xerxes’s leash and kicked at shifters who got in my way.

Ahead, two alphas stood in the melee, staring at Sadie, waiting for her.

The bond screamed with warning as we recognized the two alphas who had hit on her after they’d fought her in the second trial.

I licked my lips with anticipation.

Oh, how I longed to hurt them for daring to smile at her after they’d marred her flesh.

As a child, I’d been horrified by my snake’s bloodlust, by the wild temperament I’d housed inside myself. I didn’t want to be a monster.

But you didn’t get to be what you wanted to be in life.

You got to be what you were.

After years of torture, I’d stopped trying to pretend I was anything other than fucked up. A dark void of violence that yearned to exact retribution.

That loved to hurt others.

Except for the select few that were mine. Those I would protect until my dying breath.

It was the only code I lived by.

Sadie pushed forward. Xerxes and I hadn’t been expecting it, so we didn’t stop her when she walked up to the alphas.

She tilted her head back and curled her white hair around her finger coyly.

I read her lips. She was asking about how to get into the private club. Her stature wasn’t her normal haughty stance. She was acting, playing the part like I was.

The gold string burned.

Erections strained the leather pants of the two alphas who stared at her with undisguised longing, sniffing her skin and shuddering when she wasn’t looking at them.

My hands shook with the need to maim.

To kill.

A low hiss rattled from my chest. The sound grew stronger the closer she stood, the longer she talked to them.

My vision flickered, and the world plunged into darkness and glowing orange heat signatures.

The alphas raised their eyebrows at her expectantly.

Kitten’s shoulders slumped slightly, and she rose on her tiptoes, leaning away from their hands as she aimed for their cheeks.

Gold thread exploded, and the void snapped.

With impossible speed, I flung myself forward and tangled my fist in her silky locks.

I dragged her head back before cranberry lips could touch alpha skin and kissed her as hard as I could.

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