Page 16 of Psycho Beasts

Cobra sneered with disgust, “I don’t owe you anything.”

The don continued speaking like Cobra had said nothing. “If you try to leave this city, you’ll be defecting from your duty, and you’ll be immediately taken out.”

He let his words sink in and looked over at Jinx with a raised eyebrow, like he was begging her to call his bluff.

She said nothing.

He took another drag of his cigarette. “As my son and an alpha in the Mafia, you need to bond and form a pack in the next three months. All alphas in the city must be in a pack. Also, you must pass Mafia initiation trials.”

“I refuse,” Cobra sneered with his signature frosty expression. Ice wafted off him.

The don shrugged. “Then everyone in this room dies.”

A rattling hiss shook through Cobra’s chest.

Suddenly, the don opened his mouth, and his perfect white teeth transformed into two long daggers that protruded from his upper jaw. A blood red forked tongue shook as he hissed back at his son aggressively.

Creepy.

“If any of them are harmed, I’ll kill you.” Cobra shook with rage.

The don didn’t flinch.

His tongue and teeth transformed back, and he motioned to a door on the side of the room. “Then initiation begins now. If you want everyone to survive.”

Before any of us could process what was happening, two betas stood and grabbed Cobra’s arms. They promptly escorted him out of the room.

He didn’t fight them.

We all watched in horror.

At the last moment, Cobra turned back and stared directly at me. He alpha-barked, “No one is to follow me! I must do this alone.”

The command momentarily paralyzed me.

The door swung shut, and the don chuckled. “Anyone else want to be initiated? Until alphas are indoctrinated, they’re forbidden from shifting into their animal forms or they’re immediately exterminated. Snipers are positioned throughout Serpentine City. I highly recommend joining our ranks. It will improve your chances of surviving this realm. Eighteen and older only, of course. We aren’t savages.”

He clearly didn’t care about his son’s wishes.

There was a long moment as we all gaped at him.

“Don’t you dare hurt him,” Jax growled and stepped forward menacingly.

The alpha bark wore off, and I regained control of my body.

“Fuck this,” I said and stomped after Jax toward the damn door Cobra had been taken through. Ascher and Xerxes followed behind me.

It wasn’t like I could just let Cobra suffer alone.

None of us could.

The don blocked our path and focused on Xerxes. “As an omega, there is no need for initiation.”

Xerxes showed his teeth. “So long as I’m in this city, I will not be living like a traditional omega.”

The don raised his hands and chuckled. “So be it. You’re not the first.”

Xerxes’s mouth dropped open as he stared in confusion. Clearly, he’d never heard of an omega in the Mafia before.

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