Page 257 of Psycho Beasts

Ascher rolled his eyes.

Cobra and Xerxes pulled the brothers forward (for show, we’d put handcuffs and chains on them), and I narrowed my eyes at Jax. “Is this your way of saying I’m not pretty?”

Jax narrowed his eyes back. “What?”

“Don’t answer that,” Jess said as she walked up beside him. Her green-black hair was plated in a braid and matched her velvet dress.

“I think they should stop smoking that pipe,” Jala said with wide pink eyes, her hand clutched in Lucinda’s.

Jinx rolled her eyes. “What, you don’t enjoy two women acting like complete lunatics?”

“Don’t test me,” I hissed at her.

Jax closed his eyes and tilted his head back like he was praying to the sun god.

A full-blown smile transformed Cobra’s face. “Kitten, did you just hiss?”

“Sadie, release your control of the brothers,” Xerxes snapped as he tugged at my hair and omega-whined with displeasure. “Do it now.”

Alpha instincts reared inside of me, and I obeyed.

Instantly, the crushing weight that had been driving me into a mindless state dissipated.

My legs buckled with relief, and Jax caught me.

I gasped slowly, suddenly aware that we were standing on the edge of a massive dance floor, and that I’d been acting crazy.

A few dozen shifters were present, and they twirled expertly as a live band played a classical tune.

The entire ceiling was glass, and the gray skies above were bleeding into the darkness of night.

It was like walking into a storybook.

Elegance, refinement, and decadence were the words that popped into my mind.

Aran’s hoverchair wobbled as she lunged at Ascher.

Behind me, the Ortega brothers were face-planted onto the floor—I’d been right about leaving them brain-dead.

Xerxes and Cobra looked unconcerned, dragging them by chains across the floor.

“Aran,” I hissed as my friend weakly mimicked stabbing Ascher in the kidney with a knife, as I wrestled her back into her chair. “Just pretend to be okay for a few hours,” I whispered as I held her.

Aran’s body was sweaty, her crystal eyes clouded with pain.

She wasn’t present, lost in a pain-and drug-induced delirium.

Xerxes had stabbed her with at least thirty different needles.

“We can kill them all later,” I promised, and she stopped struggling against me. “You just have to be a spy for tonight. You have to be discreet.”

Aran’s blue eyes twinkled, and she grinned like a maniac. “We’ll take them out later?”

I nodded conspiratorially. “On my cue. Just wait for it.”

Mollified, Aran relaxed back in her seat and promptly started snoring.

“Should we be worried?” Ascher stared down at her with concern.

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