Page 146 of Psycho Beasts

Cobra came to his senses and shoved Aran off the bed.

“Thisss issss not funny.” Shadow snakes writhed across his flesh as he bunched the covers in his fists and shook with anger.

“Why is no one else panicking?” Ascher asked softly. He stood beside the bed and was staring down at me with glowing amber eyes and a horrified expression.

Jax roared again and punched the wall.

Xerxes, who had been standing silently in the corner, pulled out his knives and stabbed one into the wall as hard as he could.

A soft omega whine sounded as he trembled, like he was falling apart.

I pursed my lips and did what had to be done. “Okay, all men get out of the room.”

Cobra stopped hissing and turned his head to stare at me like, well, like a creepy snake, and asked, “What?”

“Out. We need to have some girl talk.”

Cobra sputtered, “You just woke up from a two-day coma. What do you mean, you need girl talk? What the fuck could you possibly talk about?”

Surprisingly, it was Lucinda who patted the jeweled alpha on his shoulder. “Sis just needs to talk to us. It’s okay, you guys can wait outside.”

Xerxes spoke from the far corner, “I don’t know. We can’t leave her again.”

Lucinda smiled at the omega and shook her head. “She just wants us for a second. I promise you’ll be with her soon.” Her calming voice did something to the omega, and he nodded at her.

Even more surprising was Cobra’s response. “Don’t let her hurt herself.”

“You know I won’t.”

Cobra grumbled but nodded at Lucinda and climbed off the bed, and the other men followed him out the door.

I gaped at my little sis, and she answered my unspoken question with a shrug. “While you were passed out, I played a lot of cards with Cobra and Xerxes. Aran and Ascher were busy strategizing how to kill the people who hurt you, and Jax was hanging with his sisters. Cobra and Xerxes are both all bluster, no bite.”

I choked on a small chunk of my flesh that hadn’t healed and was still clogging my throat.

Cobra and Xerxes were literally all bite.

“So, why did you want them to leave?” Lucinda asked as she smiled at me like I was beautiful and not a troll that resembled roadkill.

“Um.” A wave of self-consciousness passed over me. Lucinda was my sister and Aran my bestie, but I’d technically still just met Jax’s sisters, and I didn’t know how they all felt about me.

I whispered, my voice barely legible, “Could we cuddle?”

At once, five girls and a ferret climbed into the bed and surrounded me in a massive hug. I didn’t even mind that my broken bones were being pulverized into smithereens.

I didn’t know who started it—I was 100 percent sure it wasn’t Aran and 99 percent sure it was me—but someone broke into a massive sob.

Abruptly, four of us were crying uncontrollably and holding one another.

Through blubbery cries, I noted that Aran and Jinx were dry-eyed and glaring at all of us like we’d lost our minds. Still, they hugged us and looked at each other in horror.

“I don’t want to die and leave you guys. I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“You can’t leave us with Aran,” voices wailed back, and we all cried harder at the thought of them being stuck with Aran.

After twenty minutes of wailing, Aran climbed out of the pile. “I’m going to get the guys.” As she walked away, she itched at her back, and I made a mental note to ask if she had gotten some type of rash.

Jala cried harder. “Thank the sun god she’s gone. I woke up to her choking out Jess, and she threatened to scalp me if I interfered.”

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