Page 113 of Psycho Beasts

Aran’s eyes twinkled with an expression I’d never seen on her before.

It took me a second to place it.

She was proud.

“I was average on most sections but scored first out of thirty-three million in battle strategizing.”

My jaw dropped.

Aran shrugged. “Not like that’s actually a useful skill, and no one listened to me in the shifter realm when I tried to bring up the fact that our fighting strategies made zero sense.”

“Okay, General. Remind me not to mess with you if we ever find ourselves on the opposite sides of a war.”

Aran’s gloating expression disappeared. “My mother was overjoyed, for obvious reasons, and almost every elite fae male applied to breed me. I ran away to the shifter realm the next week.”

I reeled from her admission and blinked in shock at my best friend, who was apparently a battle genius.

“Well, I’ll have you know, I was also impressive in school.”

“Really?”

“I ranked fortieth out of a class of fifty people. Although, technically, the last ten didn’t live till graduation.”

Aran laughed, then covered her mouth when she realized I hadn’t joined her. “Oh my sun god, you aren’t joking.”

I shrugged, unbothered. “My talents lie elsewhere.”

Also, I was 99.9 percent sure I had some type of attention disorder, because I’d never been able to sit still long.

Aran slapped the desk with determination. “Well, it doesn’t matter because you’re studying with me. And I don’t fail tests. You’re going to pass this, even if it means you don’t sleep all night.” She checked her watch. “Night hasn’t fallen, and the test is midday tomorrow.”

She turned her attention back to the book. “Oooh, rule four is interesting. It says that, while rare, some ABOs have fated mates. No one is allowed to intervene or stop fated mates from forming a pack together. The punishment for interference is disembowelment.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Why is everyone getting their organs torn out? Seriously.”

“That’s interesting. I think I’ve read about fated mates in the fae realm. They can occur in all species.” Aran flipped through the pages aggressively. “The only other thing about it is a footnote that says they are blessed by the gods and it will be clear they are fated.”

“Yeah, Molly said the moon goddess blessed packs, but that stopped after some big war eons ago.”

I gnawed on my lip as I tried to imagine what type of war would cause a goddess to abandon an entire realm.

Also, it was too much of a coincidence that the poem had said something about a war and the gods being dead.

A neon-red sign flickered in my memory.

Half-breeds warning: War is coming.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel so good.

Aran pinched my arm.

I yelped. “What the fuck?”

“Write the rule, bitch. This isn’t for fun. Your life’s on the line.”

I rolled my eyes but dutifully wrote it down.

Aran continued reading ahead. “Rule number five: Unwavering loyalty to all members in the Mafia. Any discrimination, bias, or prejudices against a fellow member based on their status as an ABO, the animal they shift into, or for any other reason relating to identity, will result in the prejudiced person being burned alive.”

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