Page 189 of Psycho Gods

Scorpius pressed her harder between us. My back was pushed against the shower wall, faucet digging into my spine, and I couldn’t find the energy to care.

I breathed raggedly as my fellow Protector pressed us against the wall with all his might like he was trying to make us burrow under his skin.

He was making it clear that he was never letting us go.

I leaned forward so my head rested next to hers, and I pressed my face into Scorpius’s bicep. A noise of contentment sounded in her throat, and she nuzzled against me.

I sighed with relief at the contact.

It was outrageous that we’d ever thought I was a Revered.

The woman between us was our purpose.

I wanted to stare at her, watch her every second of the day, and burn her existence into my corneas until I knew nothing else.

“I’m so sorry.” Shaky words whispered across my lips before I realized what I was doing. Water splattered off my lips as I spoke.

Scorpius pressed us harder against the shower wall.

Dark lashes fluttered, and electric-blue eyes stared through me. “I know,” Arabella whispered back like she, too, couldn’t speak aloud.

I tightened my fingers in her wet curls.

Scorpius made a noise like a pained animal, and his trembling intensified. His voice was hoarse as he rasped, “I’m sorry for speaking to you like that. You should never crawl for us. Not after everything that’s happened. Never again. We should crawl for you.”

A heavy sigh escaped Arabella’s lips.

Long painful seconds passed.

She whispered very quietly, “How about everyone stops crawling?”

I released her hair and wrapped my arms around my mates in a hug. “You’re right, we shouldn’t play games with each other. What’s growing between all of us is precious, and it deserves to be treated as such—you deserve better.”

She sniffed.

I promised, “We will never speak to you like that again, sweetheart. You mean too much to us.”

Scorpius nodded and the three of us shifted. “I saw that you…” He trailed off like he couldn’t speak. Tipping his head down in shame, he said, “I saw that you were trembling with exhaustion, and I didn’t help you. I watched you crawl and did nothing.”

His entire body convulsed.

Arabella whispered, “I thought it was a dream.”

I squeezed my arms with all my might and tried to hold all three of us together before we shattered into irreparable pieces.

We were fragile, jagged edges and broken promises.

For people brimming with power and strength, we all shared one thing in common: we were terrifyingly flawed.

“Prove it to me,” she said. “Please prove that you care. Prove that this isn’t all some toxic power trip.”

Scorpius pressed my back painfully against the tile wall.

I squeezed us together until I lost circulation in my fingertips and my muscles ached from exertion.

We squeezed her between our arms.

“We’re your hounds to command,” I whispered reverently, the words a prayer across my lips. “We have no purpose other than to serve you. I promise.”