Page 18 of Psycho Shifters

Ascher sashayed forward until I could smell the thick pine scent of his alpha dominance. It filled my nose with notes of balsam and cedar.

It took all my willpower not to move forward and breathe it in.

Instead, I leaned my head back to look at him.

Ascher towered over me, and my neck hurt as I leaned further back to meet his amber eyes.

With me standing so close to him, my small stature seemed like a cosmic joke.

He was a monster of a man, and I was the size of a child. Yet, somehow, we were both alphas.

“Excited to fight?” Ascher flashed a row of brilliant white teeth behind his overly lush mouth. His horns were large and menacing.

His perfect teeth should have made him look more polished and less scary. But life wasn’t fair. Somehow, coupled with his sharp jawline, they added to his menace.

“Can’t wait.” I grinned back at him and scrunched my nose up patronizingly.

Break off his horn and use it as a weapon.

I let him see the crazy in my eyes.

He wanted to scare me, but the numb was coursing through my veins in a rush of cold adrenaline.

All he did was challenge it.

He should be afraid.

Jax walked over and glared at Ascher. They shared some type of silent communication, and Ascher backed away from me with one last glare.

The heady scent of pine drifted away, and I fought the urge to follow the intoxicating scent.

Jax walked over, and I noted that my eyes barely came to his chest. “We’ll see how you do with hand-to-hand combat. It is the starting point of all training.”

He turned and addressed the room.

As he spun, his alpha scent of warm chestnuts made my mouth water. “Today, we will do King of the Hill. Everyone will participate in twenty-minute one-on-one battles. Whoever gets in the most hits at the end of the time moves up to the next partner. If you lose, you stay where you are and don’t advance. The new alpha training begins now. As always, we protect this realm. We are the harbingers of fae death.”

I stopped drooling over Jax.

Prepare to fight.

The numb was ready.

Jax raised his fist into the air and gave a roar.

Every person in the gym lifted their fists and bellowed in response.

I tried to not let the shock show on my face.

The most fighting experience I had was breaking up a couple of drunk bar fights or getting away from larger shifters who tried to grope me.

In one day, I went from playing tortured servant to playing war soldier.

We will kill them all.

The numb didn’t care. It was all the same: endless violence.

Following the betas, I stood in a line on the blue mat, across from a heavily muscled man. He sneered at me, and I took a centering breath.