Page 272 of Psycho Beasts

I pinched my working fingers at the top of my nose as I prayed for patience.

Shaking my hand, I waved my hand that was missing a finger at them; blood splattered across the ground, and if that didn’t sum up the vibes of the night, then nothing did.

It reminded me of what was at stake.

I yelled at them “No! Stand the fuck up right now. You don’t get to just choose to die for me. It doesn’t work that way.”

Cobra’s perfect face transformed into a cruel smile.

That was my only warning.

Suddenly, he stood up, wrapped his jeweled hand around my throat, and dragged my face toward his.

Cobra whispered menacingly, “You’re going to accept our love and bond with us right now, Kitten. You think you can stand here hurt and bleeding and tell me I can’t bond with you? That I don’t get to care for you?”

I rolled my eyes and ‘accidentally’ flung some blood on him. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Cobra’s face darkened. “I’m going to punish you later for your little act of disobedience. Understood?”

I choked on my scoff.

The. Fucking. Audacity. Of. This. Man.

“Or are you too chickenshit to accept us?” Cobra bent his massive body low so he could snarl in my face, “Are you too much of a little bitch?”

I saw red.

It took every ounce of control I had not to shift into a saber-toothed tiger and bite his cocky ass.

“Fine.” I leaned forward and snarled back, “I was going to kill you anyways.”

A purring hiss rattled in his chest.

“Oh, Kitten, don’t talk dirty to me in front of all these people,” he whispered huskily.

He really was a psycho.

“Fine, what the fuck,” I growled as the anger coursing through my body allowed me to make a massively stupid decision.

Cobra gloated, a smile splitting his too-perfect face as he once again fell to his knees in front of me.

Xerxes pulled his knife out of his pocket and quickly slashed all the men’s hands, and asked, “Will you bond with us, baby girl? Will you allow us to be yours forever?”

Under six full moons above a glittering ballroom where dark secrets had been revealed, in the cruelest realm, with all my scars on display, four men knelt and offered me the world.

“Just do it,” Aran whispered her voice cutting through the thousands of reasons not to that echoed in my mind.

Xerxes lifted his head. “We refuse to live without you.”

Ascher’s voice broke. “We need you, Princess.”

A low rumble echoed through Jax’s chest. “Please, let us be yours.”

Cobra hissed, “I refuse to go another fucking moment without you as my mate. If this is an ownership issue, I understand that I might be a tad…possessive sometimes. But I won’t fucking apologize for it.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Why are you so obsessed with me?” Clearly, the blood loss was getting to me.

“Stop being so scared. It’s pathetic and weak.” Cobra snapped back.

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