Page 20 of Psycho Beasts

Ascher and Jax chuckled, Xerxes calmed down, and Cobra just glared at the man like he was fantasizing about dismembering him.

I whistled poorly as I swung back and forth from the ceiling and tried to pretend that I was lying in a sunny field of flowers.

The stench of sweat and fear saturated the small space and made it very difficult to imagine anything other than death, pain, and suffering.

My shoulders tingled, and I was 30 percent certain my arms were going to snap off.

“Why would anyone willingly go through this?” I mumbled incoherently at Xerxes.

Xerxes grimaced. “The Mafia runs the city and maintains peace among ABOs. If you’re not in the Mafia, you’re an independent alpha.”

Xerxes paused as if he was lost in his memories. “There are only a few thousand alphas in the entire city, and only a few dozen aren’t in the Mafia. Every single one of them is involved in heinous practices that would make your skin crawl. The Mafia keeps order in a society filled with weak nulls and violent alphas.”

I shivered at the intensity in Xerxes’s voice.

He’d flung daggers with pinpoint precision into a vampyre’s skull and worked as the right hand of the evil queen.

I couldn’t even imagine the horrors that would intimidate him.

“Why did he say omegas didn’t need to be initiated?” I asked quietly as I tried to distract myself from the overwhelming pain.

“Omegas are revered breeders who are guarded and treated like possessions.” Xerxes spat the last words. “As soon as they transform, they’re automatically protected by the Mafia. Betas work for the alphas and don’t need to be initiated because they rely on the don’s protection. Otherwise, they’d be destroyed by rabid alphas.”

“Lucky them.” I kicked my legs.

Xerxes shook his head. “You don’t understand. Alphas must pass initiation. It’s the only check on the immense power that they have in the city.”

There was a long silence as all of us let Xerxes’s words sink in.

Still didn’t understand how making me hang from the ceiling proved anything, but I got the gist.

“Then why would you do it?” I mumbled groggily.

The flickering fluorescent light was making my eyes hurt, and I struggled to focus on his handsome face as he flashed in and out of shadows.

Xerxes pulled back his upper lip, and he scowled with more emotion than I’d ever seen on his face. “Because if I’m going to be in this fucking realm, it will not be as a fucking possession. Never again.”

The silence in the room was deafening.

My heart hurt for Xerxes.

Across the room, the asshole alpha snarled, “A fucking omega is trying to get initiated. What a fucking joke.”

Before any of us could sneer back, a door was flung open, and a giant stepped into the room.

He rivaled Jax for size. But instead of being handsome and fit like Jax, the man was bald and half his face was disfigured, like it had been smashed repeatedly. His body was enormous, with bulging muscles.

“Loyalty” was tattooed across his forehead.

It was the same tattoo as on the don’s neck.

The giant’s voice was deep and grating. “My name is Spike. I will ask you a question. First one to answer gets to leave.”

Maybe this won’t be so bad?

Spike raised his hand and showcased, in the creepy, flickering light, a colossal needle and syringe.

Scratch that.

---