Page 45 of Psycho Shifters
“Every locker has your battle gear!” Jax yelled, and betas scrambled, opening lockers and putting on clothes.
There was a locker labeled “Sadie,” and I opened it up to find…nothing inside.
Fear made my hands shake. Great, they wanted me to die.
I took a waffle out of my pocket and had a bite. My terror abated slightly.
“We fight in our alpha forms.” Ascher stood close to me, and I jumped in surprise.
My locker didn’t have any battle gear, and my petrified brain struggled to understand what Ascher meant. “So you don’t use anything else? I’ve never fought, like ever before.” I swallowed roughly around the waffle in my throat.
War was all fun and games until you were smack dab in the middle of it. I’d thought growing up with Dick would prepare me for anything.
It hadn’t.
Ascher handed me a large gun. I had never fired before, but I had seen men use them, so I got the gist.
The long, cold barrel sent a chill down my spine.
“We know, Princess.” For once, the name didn’t sound like an insult. “We were told you had no experience. You have to come with us, but just stay behind us. It might trigger your transformation.” Ascher stared down at me with an intensity I hadn’t seen from him. He seemed different. Less hotheaded. Calmer and more controlled.
For a second, Ascher’s amber eyes hardened, and it felt like a different man was staring down at me. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but he snapped it shut.
He looked away from me, like he could see the question in my gaze.
I bit my lip to stop my teeth from chattering in fear and nodded like I was fine with going into battle. I didn’t feel like agreeing, but there were literally zero other options.
What was I going to do, refuse to fight?
The oligarchy forced all alphas to fight in the war. It was our purpose in the realm. I had to act like an alpha. Even if it was just pretend.
“Sadie will not lead a beta team until she is ready!” Jax shouted to the betas, who were donning forest-green armor, the color of the oligarchy.
The beta soldiers strapped guns to their waists along with throwing knives. Almost all gripped swords in both their hands.
“We will head out in our three usual teams. Sadie will come with my team. She will follow my lead and fight behind me,” Jax said, and all the betas and alphas turned to stare at me. Biting my lip hard enough to draw blood, I knew I looked like the nervous wreck that I was.
I tried to nod and give the room a smile of encouragement.
Whatever they saw on my face satisfied them, because everyone turned their attention away from me and back to preparing their weapons.
“Harbingers of fae death. Death to the queen!” Jax bellowed, and everyone raised their arms in the air and shouted it back.
Nothing in life was ever black and white, and I wasn’t going to believe the fae were monsters just because shifters said they were.
Before I could start panicking again, the door was thrown open, and we ran out into the cold winter’s day.
Heavy gray clouds obscured the sun and made the towering mountains seem melancholy. Wind shrieked through the forest in front of us, and the cold instantly froze my bones.
My face hurt as we jogged to the line of trees that separated the forest from the training compound.
“Alphas, transform now.” Jax’s deep voice could barely be heard above the howling winds. “No matter what happens, stay behind me, Sadie.”
Nodding, I walked over to where the three alphas had separated themselves in front of the betas.
Suddenly, Jax shifted into a monstrous bear.
If Jax was seven feet tall as a man, he was almost twice that as a bear.