Page 173 of Her Psycho Beasts

A sudden look of horrific realisation passes over Raquel’s features.

Not being able to see Ghoul’s face behind his mask makes it difficult to gauge anything of what he’s thinking, but Damien’s face is pale and sweaty, like he’s unfathomably excited.

I should have known he’d be involved in this.

My mates are frantically tapping on my telepathic shields, but I cannot let them in now. I’m so close.

“Do you have something to say?” To my surprise, Ghoul’s deep voice extends not to me, but to someone behind me.

I turn around, a bit of relief washing through my veins, to see Xander, straightening the bottom of his suit and striding towards me, gold pocket chain glinting under the hall lights.

We stand in the middle of the circle of onlookers now, and the expression on the dragon’s face is something I’ve never seen before. His usual barely repressed molten fury has turned…cold. He’s almost like Scythe in the way his face is devoid of emotion. Completely and utterly blank. And his normally glowing white eyes… I’ve never seen them this shade of harsh black. Something flickers at the edges of him. A spot of grey.

I stare in a mixture of awe and horror as a memory of an eerily similar moment comes back to me. Of Titus and Minnie in the middle of an audience just like this one.

Xander leans down so that only I can hear what he says.

“I hate you,” he hisses. “I hate you for existing. I hate you for breathing. I hate you for what you turned me into.”

He makes a movement so quick that I barely register the pain.

Crimson drips freely. I stare at my forearm, stricken into silence as a deep scratch on my skin bleeds.

Everything around me seems to darken.

Xander straightens and says loudly, “I formally reject you as my mate.”

My very being is rendered still. Frozen in time and space as something pure and crucial inside of me tears in two. I cast my memory back to the night I had spoken to him in the TV room and Savage had almost caught us.

“I know you don’t like me,” I’d said, sticking my chin up in the air. “I know you’d prefer me dead. Now, I’m giving you that opportunity.”

He’d narrowed his eyes at me, those glowing orbs becoming slits. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that if you want me gone, now is your chance. I’m going to give myself up to my father. Ghoul has agreed but we need a beast facilitating things here.”

His eyes had flickered black then, the lack of colour sending my blood pressure skyrocketing. “You don’t even know what you’re saying.”

“Oh but I do.” My voice had turned into ice and I showed him just how serious I was. “You’ll get what you’ve always wanted. And so will I. Will you do it?”

Those blackened eyes flickered again and before he said. “So be it.”

Now, under the ancient chandelier of the Animus dining room, surrounded by my mates and friends, Xander leans towards me and says viciously, “You had your plans and I hadmine.”

As if under water, my head slowly looks back up to see his face. His neck. And the place where our mating mark had been is now utterly and completely bare.

Chapter 95

Scythe

Cain Clawson stands proud before me, his aura flooded with violent black and red.

“You think you can keep me from my regina?” I laugh then. Like I’ve never laughed before at the infinity of stars above. I don’t care that it sounds mad. I don’t care that Iammad.

Cain gives a silent order and the crossbows are cocked, the strings creaking as they are drawn back.

I dive just as the arrows are fired, flinging out my power in a wave that knocks the front line off their feet. They writhe on the bitumen, coughing up blood, the wet sounds of their choking filling the air like the most beautiful song.

As I roll smoothly to my feet, I crave to hear more of it. I want a symphony.

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