Page 85 of Psycho Beasts
“Really?” Ascher growled.
His back pin straight as he walked up, his face was back to a cold mask of indifference, but something unnamed sparked in his eyes as he watched Cobra and I tussle.
I turned around to huff past him and almost walked into a tall man in a business suit. Mumbling apologies, I took in my surroundings.
For a second, I forgot to breathe.
Serpentine City in the daytime was breathtaking.
The sidewalks were full of men and women clad in expensive-looking business suits and dresses.
Every woman wore heels and had her hair in an elaborate updo.
I turned in a circle and took it all in.
While all the fae were tall and willowy with similar graceful features, this realm was a different story.
Shifters of all sizes, with vastly different features and skin tones, walked briskly across the wide sidewalks, funneling in and out of the massive buildings.
I unfocused my eyes until the world blurred around me in streaks of color.
It wasn’t hard to picture all the people shifting into various animals. Even though betas and nulls didn’t shift, the animal influence was still present in their pheromones and postures.
The burnt scent of betas overwhelmed my nose. A few musky whiffs indicated there were other alphas nearby, and there were faint sweet notes of omegas in the air.
I’d never felt so alive.
It was like waking up from a nightmare and realizing none of it had been real.
A sense of belonging settled through my bones.
A man and woman held hands and hurried down the street, rich, earthy alpha scents trailing behind them. Enchanted blue jewelry dripped from their wrists and necks, matching their impeccably tailored clothes. Both had dark-golden skin and white hair similar to my own.
Two saber-toothed tigers?
I opened my mouth to ask, but they quickly disappeared into the bustling crowd.
A short older woman sidestepped a puddle and looked up, her wide bright-green eyes instantly bringing to mind a small woodland creature.
My breath caught as I realized she sported small, almost imperceptible horns that curled slightly at her temples.
Like Ascher’s, but different.
No one had jewels in their skin like Cobra, but a woman hurried by, and the shimmering around her eyes was incandescent scales.
On closer inspection, the business attire was constructed of different fabrics and colors with unique markings and symbols.
What appeared to be a crush of similarly dressed people at first glance was actually a bustling crowd of unique individuals.
Some people stalked through the crowd like predators, alphas blending in like wolves in sheep’s clothing.
The crowd instinctually parted around us. Heads down, high-heeled and dress shoes hurrying by, everyone gave us a wide berth, like they could smell the danger from our pheromones.
From what I could deduce, nulls jogged past in huddles of five people or more. No scent clung to them as they walked together in protective groups.
Even though they didn’t shift like alphas and omegas, betas stood taller and stronger than any fae.
Like their beast counterparts, their features differed widely, with the history of animals apparent in the slants of their eyes or the striped tiger markings of their hair.