Page 273 of Psycho Beasts

He did not just call me weak.

My chest twisted with anger at the insult, and the emotion propelled me to grab the knife with my good hand.

Cobra wanted to be crazy.

I’d show him crazy.

I slashed my already bloody palm, because why not? At this point there was more blood outside my body than there was inside.

Before I could think about it, I slammed my mutilated hand against each of their outstretched palms.

A golden thread exploded through my chest.

The world remade itself in shades of shimmering jewels and an unfathomable depth of devotion.

Suddenly, the men stood up and enveloped me in a massive hug.

Of course, Cobra got to me first, and there was a brief scuffle as he snarled “mine” and tried to keep me away from the other men.

Jax growled and wrestled me out of his grip so everyone else could hold me.

Meanwhile, Cobra whispered that he was going to kill me if I ever got a finger chopped off again, and then went on about all the sordid things he was going to do to my body.

I ignored him.

Because gold was exploding in my chest and surrounding me with the endless warmth of love and devotion.

Far away, Aran and the girls cheered.

The don cleared his throat, and I sighed as I tried to push away, but the men held me tighter.

Refused to let me go.

Together, we turned to him.

Great, you acted rashly, and now you’re all dead.

Instead of pulling out his gun and shooting us in the foreheads—which I was 99 percent sure was about to happen, but had decided I didn’t want to live anyways without the men—the don did something even more shocking.

For the first time since I’d met him, a smile split across the don’s face.

His voice boomed, “Congratulations, you passed your third trial.”

I blinked.

The men were still beside me as confusion and hope strummed across the gold thread connecting all of us.

“The third trial is a loyalty test, and Sadie proved her loyalty to you in her first initiation trial. She refused to give up any information on you, even under extreme duress. Your test was to see if you’d earned her loyalty back.”

We all stood in shock.

“What about the Ortega brothers?” Jax recovered first. “And the Black Wolves?”

The don shrugged. “Decades ago, the brothers worked with the wolves to steal Xerxes from the omega center. You needed a red herring, and I gave you revenge as a boon. I knew you’d handle them.”

He waved his hand casually like he hadn’t almost killed us, had just sent us on an easy quest.

My jaw gaped.

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