Page 103 of Psycho Beasts

They were rubbing their new woman in my face.

I fucking hated them.

“Protect your face!” Molly yelled.

I hunched low with my forearms protecting my innards just in time to block a roundhouse kick that would have 100 percent made me infertile.

Although, I wasn’t even sure if an alpha female could have kids.

“Good. See, sugar, you’re learning.”

“I don’t get it,” I gasped and awkwardly spat out saliva and blood around the mouthguard that Molly had said all alphas were required to wear.

Apparently, teeth regrew very slowly, and enchantments to help were ridiculously expensive.

Therefore, fight club rules: Everyone wore a mouthguard.

However, as far as I could tell, that was the only safety precaution anyone took. No one even bothered to wrap their hands in this realm.

Since Molly still had a gun tucked into her shorts, the mouthguard rule seemed like a bad joke.

When I’d pointed out to Molly that you broke your knuckles if you didn’t wrap your hands, she’d asked, confused, “Why does it matter if you break your knuckles? They heal in two days. What’s the problem?”

They were all masochists.

“Get what?” Molly asked.

She peppered me with a three-punch combo that somehow left my arm, stomach, and face burning before I even realized it had happened.

I tried to bounce back and forth on my toes like she’d taught me and gasped out, “Why tell me to protect my face, then punch low?”

Molly didn’t respond, just said, “Protect your face.”

I hunched to protect my organs, and she slammed her bare knuckles into my cheek.

The crack echoed loudly, and I barely kept myself on my feet.

“That!” I spat out more blood and ignored the bloody saliva dribbling down my chin.

After three days of being beaten on by Molly, any confidence in my abilities had been completely eviscerated.

A tiny part of me enjoyed the beatdown.

All I had was a terrifying shifted form and a creepy ability to enslave people with my blood.

I didn’t have any in-between capability.

Like if someone stole my purse on the street, what was I going to do, enslave them? Shift into a saber-toothed tiger and maul them?

That would be overdramatic and embarrassing.

As far as I’d come since the day I’d discovered I was an alpha in the shifter realm, I still had a ways to go before I achieved any sort of physical mastery over myself.

Training with Molly, I could taste the control within reach.

Plus, if half-breeds were wanted, then my powers were more of a curse than any blessing.

If I relied on them to protect me, I was signing my death warrant.

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