Psycho Shifters (Cruel Shifterverse, #1)

by Jasmine Mas

“Give me your phone, Princess.” Ascher held out his hand expectantly,

“Touch my shit and I’ll stab you with your horn after I rip it off your head.”

Ever since a little white-haired woman with shocking red eyes and a scratchy voice had joined our training, I had been acting like a madman.

My beast had gone crazy inside me. Mine, a voice had told me. I wanted to claim the magnificent alpha. I wanted to make her mine.

She had started growling yesterday, and I didn’t know if I should be concerned or turned on.

I was kidding myself. It was sexy as hell.

It didn’t escape my notice that Sadie was the only woman Cobra ever spoke to directly.

At a hundred and twenty years old, I had loved, fought, and fucked many men and women in the shifter realm. None of them held a candle to Cobra.

On the surface, Cobra was cold as ice, but underneath he was an inferno of passion and loyalty.

Between my five sisters and Cobra, in all my years, I’d never felt so loved. If only my mother were still alive.

When Sadie’s alpha scent of sweet cranberries had filled the room, I had nearly lost all control of myself. Cobra had tensed beneath me, and I had felt him clench around me. He’d also been affected. Fucking cranberries. Her alpha scent was intoxicating. Never mind Ascher, who had been so out of his mind with lust that he had goaded the little alpha like an idiot. His taunting had worked us all up.

“That is fantastic problem-solving.”

“However, I also must order you to attend a weekly psychological meeting with me to work on homicidal impulses. As a war general, you must curb them if you are to be successful.”

My heart rate sped up at what I uncovered. Her red eyes were wide, nose scrunched, and mouth wide open. With her body locked in the fetal position, the princess screamed, or tried to scream.

“Blood and ice will fall the lie, Color and white to break the queen, Heir and friend join and tie, A reborn quad the fates foreseen.”

It wasn’t their fault that I was obsessed with the little princess. However, it was their fault that they’d been touching me when I belonged to her. What the actual fuck?

I didn’t belong to the princess. I’d never even fucking kissed her. So why were her lush lips and long white hair all I could focus on?

For a second, a potent scent of cranberries reached my nose, and my heart jumped with excitement. The princess was in the room. I looked up and whipped my head around, trying to find her, then groaned with frustration when I saw Cobra had fucking cranberry sauce on his plate. This had to be an all-time low. I’d just gotten aroused over a fucking side dish. I had lost my mind.

“Really? You’re both gonna sit here and fantasize about her after we literally just killed her in the gym this morning? Am I the only one concerned about her performance?” Jax glared at both of us.

She was the female alpha, which meant she was better than the betas. If she wanted fucking friendship, she could have it with us. If she wanted more than friendship, then she could suck my dick, not his.

“We’re not intimidating one of our own soldiers because we’re jealous he gets to spend time with our little alpha,”

“Hmm.” Cobra chewed slowly, like he was thinking deeply. “Perhaps, but if he touches the girl sexually, I will kill him.” “Fine,”

We were acting like horny teenagers over fucking cranberry sauce. We were fucked, and it was all the princess’s fault.

My beast didn’t trust him. I leaned forward to take a small nibble from Ascher’s thigh to assert my dominance. “Calm down, little alpha. Turn back now,”

“Um, the princess is ruining the floors,” Ascher said dryly, but I stared down Jax.

“Remember this moment, little girl,” Cobra whispered with his silky voice.

“It was a small dose of my poison.” Cobra laid his hand on my forehead with concern.

“I am so sorry, little alpha. No one will hurt you.” Jax looked down at me with worry and stroked his massive hand softly across my hair.

“So let’s go over this one more time. You’re telling me Cobra’s freaky shadow snake things bit you, and then you became feverish and super weird and everyone started touching you and freaking out? And since then, none of them will even look you in the eye?”

“Dude, it sounds like when omegas go into heat. That’s super weird.”

“Yeah, omegas go into heat around alphas, and they lose control of their bodies. But you’re an alpha, so it must have been some freak thing. I have no idea,”

The scents of pine, chestnut, frost, and cranberry burned my oversensitive nose. The four of us ran together. We were alphas in beast form, and we did what we did best. We hunted.

Cobra and I were on the same page. For some reason, when Cobra was in his beast form, he was the only alpha that treated me like an equal, and not a weakling that needed to be protected.

“They will respect you. I’ll ensure it.”

“Fine, I won’t tell them about your scars, but that is it. I’m telling them everything else. And you need to debrief us all in detail about what happened, after you get warm and have eaten.”

So much for him respecting me as an alpha or desiring me as a woman. My secret fantasies were going to definitely remain fantasies.

The little alpha was a fucking survivor, and I would ensure no one ever hurt her again. She had just gained an angry bear as her protector. Whoever had scarred her like that, I would hunt them down.

I shook my head and tried to calm my thoughts. First, I needed to figure out why one of our betas had just kidnapped my little alpha. Mine.

After I’d been training and living with her for the past weeks, she had needled her way into my heart. Her sarcastic energy and ferociousness were a nice change from Cobra’s and Ascher’s violence. Also, it was hilarious watching her try to run. The little alpha was funny, but tough as nails. I enjoyed being around her. Now I would never leave her side.

Then it clicked. I grabbed the door frame for support. Her voice. It was so obvious: it was broken because of the goddamn abuse she had suffered. My heart burst in my chest, and I had to stop myself from keeling over and puking. The little alpha had screamed so loud from the beatings that she had lost her voice. She had been tortured.

She was mine to hold, to care for, to nurture. And I wanted to.

“While we were controlling Cobra and his beast, John dragged Sadie, naked, through the snow. He was trying to take her through the portal,” I said.

After all, no matter what anyone else thought or said. No matter what we did. No matter what she thought. She was our little alpha.

“I figured he would enjoy hanging out with a much bigger cat. Maybe he can sense your cat vibes?”

“Who needs parents? What are they good for anyway? Emotional support? It’s much healthier to repress emotions and ignore red flags.”

“The fae queen has a massive bounty for whoever can bring her in alive. All alphas have bounties for live capture, but hers is the largest.”

Apparently, we were all wanted men. Ironically, by beasts. And we didn’t even know who they fucking were or why they wanted alphas. Or why they wanted Sadie more.

That night, I dreamed about the little alpha licking something else as I hand-fed her dessert.

Yep, I wanted Jax. I wouldn’t even mind if he was covered in tattoos or had diamonds embedded in his skin and snake eyes. Mika said something to me, but I didn’t hear a word. I was too busy wishing he were more shiny or more sparkly.

“Love the punch, Jax, but he’s a friend. He didn’t do anything,” I said.