Page 72 of Psycho Beasts

We were no closer to answers than we had been hours ago.

Frustration coursed through us, amplified by the living bond that now connected us.

I could feel snippets of everyone’s emotions coursing through my chest, as if a gold live wire connected us.

We were a pack.

“How the fuck could he do this to us?” Ascher slammed his fist into the wall, and fragments of broken brick rained down.

He whipped his golden head around, onyx horns expanding atop his head, and snarled at Xerxes. “You’re an omega. Doesn’t that make you fertile or some shit? We don’t need a fucking female omega.”

Xerxes twirled his blades faster, his handsome face contorted into a snarl. “Only female omegas are guaranteed breeders. Male omegas and female omegas together have the highest chance of pregnancy. I’ve never heard of a male omega breeding with a female alpha.”

Our last shred of hope disappeared.

Ascher whirled around and slammed his fist harder into the wall, and the entire room shook.

Xerxes quietly threatened, “Don’t destroy my house.”

Ascher’s amber eyes flashed with fire. “You fucking think you can order me around? It was your fucking idea to flee to this realm. Now we’re all screwed.” He stalked toward Xerxes.

“Oh please, coming from the alpha that sold them out to the fae queen.” Xerxes held his blade and beckoned Ascher forward, like he was desperate to draw blood.

I leaned back on the bed and watched them dispassionately.

Everything was fucked.

They could carve each other up for all I cared.

I sank deeper into the broken void within my consciousness. Once again, I was untethered and out of control. Shackled by circumstances.

Trapped.

“Stop it, you two.” Jax’s chest rumbled with warning at Xerxes and Ascher, but it was halfhearted.

He slumped against the wall and rubbed at his chest like he was trying to soothe the sting of everyone’s emotions.

The bond among us was alive like electricity.

Alive with fucking anger.

It was a high-pitched buzz, like a broken instrument, and it stoked the rage inside me.

From what I understood, bonds were supposed to soothe alphas and help keep them in check. They kept them from going feral, was what my fucking father had said.

If the void inside wasn’t consuming me whole, I might have laughed.

What a fucking crock of shit.

Either everything he’d said about bonds was a lie or we were all too fucked up for it to work properly.

Aggression, tension, and general unwellness pulsed through each of us.

Ascher leaped toward Xerxes, and his rage sent a lightning bolt of anger through the bonds.

Xerxes smiled, purple eyes glowing, and threw his dagger at Ascher’s head.

The tattooed alpha moved out of the way, but the omega’s blade scraped across one of his onyx horns.

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