Page 176 of Psycho Alphas: Part One

I was helpless, and it was enough to send me back into madness.

I had to focus.

Wait for them to fuck up… for one of them to leave…

Could I create a diversion?

Draw some away?

Thistle’s agony ricocheted through my skull like a bullet, demanding I act, ripping sanity from me. She was curled in on herself and through the bond I could feel her shame and fear swallowing her whole, as if giving in to that Alpha would make her nothing.

Her gaze found Knox in desperation, and while I wasn’t close enough to see her expression, I felt her resolution through our connection as if he gave her strength.

Knox was absolutely still, eyes wide as he watched her.

I’d known him for a long time. I’d seen him survive grief and terror, hopelessness and hatred, but I’d never seen him like this.

Statuesque.

As if the slightest movement would break him.

“Don’t do this.” His voice was stiff as he addressed Bella. “We can go.”

“Are you in love?” she asked. “With your pet’s plaything? What happened to you?”

I flinched as the Alpha shoved Thistle onto her back with his foot. She let out a whimper, as if even the movement hurt. My heart slammed into my ribs and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Knox flinch.

“Beg,” the Alpha taunted again.

“I w-won’t.” Her voice shook.

His foot came down on her throat. “Beg, you mangy little whore.”

Her heaving wheezes of pain were shards of glass splintering my sanity, devastating the calm that had settled since the moment I’d put my teeth to her neck.

“I won’t,” Thistle stammered, voice so fractured it broke my heart. It was as if she were pleading. “I’m not gonna, I… I swear it.” I was watching her bargain, as irrational as it was. “I w-won’t do it, Daddy, I p-promise…”

But I could see the truth.

Thistle was going to break. She was going to break in a way I didn’t know I could fix.

THISTLE

“I won’t do it, Daddy, I promise.”

I wanted him back.

I didn’t want this. I wanted them. My pack. My Alphas.

I’d been told to beg, and I hadn’t. I would be strong, even when it hurt, but the world was stealing him away, anyway.

How were we back here?

But I knew.

The torn remains of Bunny were all I could see, now. And we were back to that moment that made up every sharp edge.

Bunny was gone.

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