Page 25 of Psycho Shifters

Cobra sat next to me, so I inhaled his alpha scent.

Unlike Jax, who smelled like warm chestnuts and Ascher pine trees, Cobra’s scent was frosty and slightly burned.

It was like burying my head in a snowbank. I couldn’t tell if I wanted more or less of it.

Instead of sniffing the air near Cobra like a weirdo, I focused on my unanswered questions. “So alphas heal quicker than normal, I take it? Or are those healing salts magical?”

I rolled my foot that had been badly broken this morning and marveled that it felt fine. The times Dick had cracked my ribs, my arms, and my legs had taken me at least two weeks to recover.

Now I was good as new.

Jax said, “Alphas heal broken bones in about a day, but the salts are actually enchanted chips of unicorn bone. They accelerate the healing of broken bones. We heal bruises and muscles quickly on our own, but it usually takes about a day.”

I blew a raspberry, and my mind mentally exploded. There was so much to unpack in his statements.

First, I hadn’t even known unicorns were a thing. Second, I was going to pretend it was salt and not whatever the hell he’d just described. Third, it seemed lame that I couldn’t heal bruises and muscles immediately.

Jax narrowed his eyes like I was a puzzle he was trying to figure out. He seemed to think I was way more mysterious than I actually was.

I didn’t know why they were convinced I was a spy after fighting. It seemed much more probable that I had a homicidal voice inside my head and turned into a killing machine.

I ignored all of them and ate my food as they looked on in horror.

They had not been fed one meal a day for sixteen years of their lives, and it showed. Prissy bitches.

The pit in my stomach was endless, and I had a feeling that no matter how much I ate, it would never be full. I had gone hungry for too long.

There was a basket of bread rolls in the center of the table.

Greedily, I grabbed about five with one hand and positioned them neatly on my plate.

My knuckles were scabbed over, but when I opened my hand quickly, the scabs cracked, and blood dripped out.

I winced when I got a little blood on my bread. Embarrassment pooled through me as I brushed it off as much as possible.

A small, girlish part of me was embarrassed that the men thought I was disgusting. I tried to ignore those emotions because I was starving.

Since I was only half-unhinged, I had standards to uphold. One of them was not eating blood like a sadistic fae vampyre of lore.

Staring down, I concentrated hard on biting around the bloody edge of the bread.

Even though it was gross because it had blood on it, I was too hungry to let food go to waste.

“Oh my sun god, this is pathetic to watch.” Ascher put his bread roll onto my plate. “Just eat this one and try not to bleed all over it.”

I made the mistake of glancing up into his striking amber eyes.

The three alphas were so physically gorgeous it was nauseating. They reminded me of how hideous I was.

“You did well for your first day of training.” Jax smiled, and his praise warmed me like a hug. Of the three alphas, Jax seemed the nicest. A shocking character trait for a shifter.

“I wonder who trained her?” Cobra asked coldly to Jax.

I leaned my head slightly to the side and discreetly inhaled their potent alpha pheromones.

Jax’s warm chestnuts, Ascher’s strong pine, and Cobra’s frosty ice scents mixed in a mouthwatering combination.

“No one.” I sighed heavily and shoved more bread in my mouth.