Page 34 of Her Psycho Beasts

All the nimpins have found a perch somewhere on Connor’s or Minnie’s head or shoulders. Their dark eyes peer at us through the gloom, patiently waiting for us to sort our shit out.

The only thing that would help right about now is if I could shift into a penguin or seal, something with insulation. But alas, I don’t have the skill to do either.

“Xander,” Minnie says slowly from Yeti’s shoulders.

“What?” Xander says flatly.

“If someone got your shackles off, do you think you could smash the glass tank?”

There’s a beat of silence before a sigh. “Yes.”

Being a dragon, Xander’s physical strength, even in his human form, is more than even a bear’s.

“Guess what?” Minnie says, and her white teeth flash in the gloom as she grins at me and holds up the set of lock picks Sabrina had gifted each of us. “Looky what I have.”

Connor lets out a triumphant cackle. “And guess,” he says, “who’s the best lock picker of us after Sabrina?”

Heat suffuses my cheeks as I realise Connor meansme. Sabrina had spent ages teaching me how to pick handcuff locks so I could escape the day my father came to the school to take me for my execution. The execution Scythe and Xander had led me to.

But Xander can’t say no to this, when it’s not just me fighting the cold, but his beloved Yeti and Minnie as well.

“Hand them over,” I say, withdrawing my hand from the water and reaching up.

Minnie hands the small rectangular cloth bundle to me and I hold it high above my head as everyone shuffles around to let me squeeze past.

I follow the celestial light of my mark to the other side of the cage, squeezing against tall masculine bodies until I get to the giant one in the corner. Unfortunately, this means that the moment the last guy moves aside, I’m immediately pressed against Xander, his shackled hands brushing against my stomach. And it’s even worse because of how I have to keep my face angled upward. I’m forced to stare right up at him.

“Get off me,” he grunts, breath tickling my forehead.

“I literally can’t,” I grit out, even though I’m dying to be pressed up against him more. Even under the water, I can feel his natural dragon heat and I imagine it’s like cosying up to a hot water bottle on a cold night.

“Let me lift you up, sweetheart.” It’s Ashton, one of the flirty lions whose voice sounds behind me.

“Don’tfucking touch her.”

Everyone goes quiet, including me. And the only thing I can hear is the blood pounding in my head. Everyone knows Xander hates me. Why then did his voice scream possession?

“Alright,” Ashton grumbles. “But how’s she gonna do anything with her head at that angle?”

With the obsidian bars around us, no one could even use telekinesis to help me up.

Xander mutters something that is probably awful under his breath. He then proceeds to nudge my legs apart with his knee. Alarmed, I stare at him with wide eyes. Although with his dark eye sockets in view, he can’t see my expression. So quietly, that I know only he wants me to hear it, he mutters with deep resentment, “Get on.”

“Get on what?” I say, alarmed and confused and a bit wet.

“My knee.” He pushes said knee higher between my thighs.

Dear Mother Goddess almighty and a bag of tits, he wants me tostraddlehis thigh. Breathlessly, wordlessly, and feeling like I’m going to combust, I open my legs, allowing him to get his knee between mine. But the angle is all wrong. I have to get closer.

Holding my breath in case this is one giant prank the universe is playing on me, I place my palms on Xander’s chest. He raises his shackled hands above his head and I do a little jump onto his thigh.

He raises his leg just in time, bracing his foot on the cage behind him and I land bodily on his leg, my clit sending a little zip of pleasure. As water sloshes around my shoulders I realise my lower stomach is flush against his groin, and I watch as the dragon’s dark brows knit together in annoyance.

Wild Mother help me. I’ve never been this close to him, and his furious, volcanic scent wraps around me in the mostlovely,dangerous caress.

Xander makes what I think is an unhappy sound in the back of his throat as he lowers his arms.

“Hurry up,” he snarls.

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