Page 188 of Psycho Beasts

It didn’t work.

I roared as I shifted into a saber-toothed tiger and stalked across the room.

Cobra hissed back a laugh, jewels transforming into shadow snakes as I cornered him against the wall with my massive furry body.

Before I knew it, I wrapped my mouth around his neck, arm-long fangs grazing his flesh as I shook him back and forth like a doll.

“PUT HIM DOWN, SADIE! SHIFT BACK NOW!” Jax alpha-roared.

I dropped my prey and instinctually shifted back into my smaller form.

Suddenly, Cobra’s hands were wrapped around my throat, and he choked me. He lifted me up by the neck and threw us both against the wall.

“You like this, Kitten? You want it rough?”

I kicked him in the knees and body slammed him into the wall.

Cobra whispered in my ear, “Don’t pretend to play rough, little Kitten, because you won’t be able to handle what I give you.”

There was a loud smack as Jax ripped Cobra back by his hair and threw him across the room as he roared, “You better not be threatening her!”

I marched and grabbed my ridiculously tattered clothes, pulling them around me like a regal cloak.

“Please, we both know that I threaten him.”

With as much dignity as a woman who had just shifted into a tiger and shaken a man in her mouth like a doll could muster—which was terrifyingly little—I marched out the door.

There was a loud crash and yells behind me, and it sounded like all four men had started to fight one another.

I rolled my eyes.

They could work through their issues without me.

Still, as I walked down the hall, happiness bubbled in my chest as I thought about Xerxes telling me he loved me, and how amazing the sex had been.

The grand window at the end of the hall showed that it was nighttime, and a storm raged outside.

I opened my bedroom door.

The room was empty and dark.

“So,” a deep voice said from the dark.

I screamed with surprise.

“The slut has returned.”

Chapter 33

Sadie

DINNER PARTIES

Aran sat in the dark, smoking a pipe.

“Um…” I trailed off, confused why she was sitting in a chair with no lights on.

She flourished the long stick between her fingers, and I wondered how much drug use warranted an intervention.

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