Page 109 of Psycho Shifters

“Fine, I won’t tell them about your scars, but that is it. I’m telling them everything else. And you need to debrief us all in detail about what happened, after you get warm and have eaten.” Jax gently lifted his sweatshirt and helped lower me to the ground.

Turning around, he gave me his back and pointed to his locker.

Wordlessly, I pulled on his sweatpants and sweatshirt. The warmth from the building was too much on my frozen skin, and I was barely able to pull the clothes on without screaming in agony.

Each brush of warm clothes over my flesh burned.

Thankfully, the sweatpants had a tie, so after rolling the waistband ten times, I tied them off. I still had to hold them up as I walked, but Jax’s sweatshirt fell past my knees, so my modesty was intact.

“You can t-t-turn around now.”

I winced at the roughness of my voice. Now that he had seen my scars, it wasn’t going to take much for Jax to put two and two together about why my voice was so broken.

So much for him respecting me as an alpha or desiring me as a woman. My secret fantasies were going to definitely remain fantasies.

“You aren’t alone now, if you ever need to talk.” Jax reached forward and cupped my chin with his rough hand.

His clothes smelled of warm chestnuts, and the scent wrapped around me, comforting. I leaned forward into his hand and smiled up at him.

“H-H-Honey, I need more therapy th-th-than you can offer.” I cackled and punched his arm to lighten the mood. The tension in the room was heavy, and I didn’t want Jax to view me as broken.

“Go to the ward now, get warm, and eat. I am going to bring back John.” When he started speaking, he looked down at me with warmth and care. However, by the end, he was shaking with rage and his gray eyes had become cold chips of ice.

For a second, I was afraid for John. You didn’t want Jax mad at you.

The large alpha spun and charged out the door, back into the howling wind.

Hastily, I hurried away from the cold door and stumbled back into the compound. I had almost died a lot today, and I couldn’t wait to drown myself in a delicious bath of healing salts.

I deserved it.

Stumbling down the long halls and rickety stairs, I wondered for the billionth time who’d designed the compound and what drugs they had been using when they did. They must have been good drugs, because the building was a complex maze of halls and stairs that made literally zero sense.

Arms pressed against the walls for support, I barely dragged myself through the door with an A. A doctor wasn’t going to do anything that a good bath filled with healing salts wouldn’t fix.

When I walked through the bedroom door, Ascher immediately stalked across the room toward me.

“Where the fuck have you been? We were hunting down Cobra’s snake, then we came back, and no one knew where you were. You freaked us all the fuck out!” Ascher yelled, and I noted that both his arms were in slings. Jax must have made him stay in the room, and the tattooed man was pissed as shit about it.

I didn’t have time for his drama.

“I was g-g-getting kidnapped.” I tried to shove past him.

“What the fuck, Princess!”

I winced; he really was a drama queen. Frankly, it was exhausting.

“Likely story,” Cobra sneered. He was propped up against the wall behind his bed with an ice pack across his head. For the most part, he looked fine.

Still, the pale man managed to look paler than usual and his sharp cheekbones seemed to protrude further, his cheeks more sunken. Summoning that massive snake must have drained him.

Shuddering from the cold and the thought of the creepy snake, I ignored his distrust. I had been expecting it.

At least Cobra’s eyes were no longer snake eyes. The dark, emerald abyss of hatred swirled in his normal eyes. It was nice that he was back to normal.

“W-W-Whatever, J-J-Jax is g-g-going to bring b-back the kidnapper now. H-He kn-knocked him out,” I barely managed to say through chattering teeth. The building was warm, but the cold had spread bone-deep and I felt myself growing sleepy.

“Get in the fucking hot bath now.” Ascher shoved me forward toward the bathroom.