Page 49 of Psycho Beasts

Aran was a fellow soldier. Violence recognized violence.

I smirked. “It’s gonna get messy.”

Aran grinned. “We’re probably going to have to kill some people.”

“We’re going to need to find weapons.”

A cough down the hall caught my attention, and when I looked away from Aran, I was surprised to find everyone standing in the hall, staring at us oddly.

“What?” I snapped.

Had I somehow fucked up again?

Sadie smiled, walked up to me, and patted my chest. “You just earned some major brownie points for not being a total dick for once.” She paused, then ran down the hall, shouting, “Also, I call the biggest room!”

I gaped at her retreating form, noting once again that something close to happiness had sparked in me at her words. The feeling quickly dissipated into confusion.

“I call sharing. I get night terrors!” Aran yelled, and sprinted after her.

Sadie laughed. “Bitch, I definitely have worse PTSD. Get your own room.”

“Literally, I’m not sleeping alone. So get used to me, roomie.” Aran followed Sadie.

They cackled at each other, and then all four of the teen girls raced down the hall after them, fighting over who was bunking with who.

Noodle, the damn ferret, even squealed loudly like he wanted to add to the noise.

I sighed heavily and followed like a normal, sane person who didn’t want a roommate.

Walter had literally just shown us over twenty rooms.

Jax smiled and clapped me on the back as I walked up to him, and Cobra nodded at me.

I didn’t know what had just happened, but for the first time in my life, the inferno in my chest wasn’t eating me alive.

And I had earned something called brownie points.

It felt nice.

Chapter 10

Sadie

TRUSTING YOU

“Are you seriously not going to get your own room? This house has like twenty.” I rubbed my tender face tiredly as Aran threw herself onto my massive four-poster bed.

Well, mine in the sense that I’d screamed dibs at the top of my lungs.

Aran arched an eyebrow, but it didn’t have the same snooty effect as when she was a girl. “Are you seriously trying to kick out your best friend, who is emotionally unstable right now?”

“We’re twenty-one-year-old grown women. Don’t you want your own bed?”

“No, you’re twenty-one. I’m twenty-four. Which means, as your elder, I demand you cuddle with me every night.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re really not joking?”

Aran climbed off the bed and inspected the elegant decor scattered around the room. She flipped a switch on the wall, and the massive fireplace roared to life.

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