“Are you all okay?” I ask the group, concern lacing my voice, but I can’t bring myself to move from Knox’s lap.
“A-okay, bestie! Me and Chestie tore up the place. He’s a real beast. Grrrr,” Moni says, bobbing up and down and showing her teeth, mimicking a ferocious monster.
“Yeah. I saw.” Catching Chester’s eyes, I raise my eyebrow, “A rhino?”
Chester’s cheeks turn bright red before he clears his throat and pushes up his glasses.
“Yeah. Umm. I don’t like using him as much because he has worse eyesight than me.” His voice cracks, and I stifle a grin. “He’s practically blind,” he grumbles, looking bashful, and my heart goes out to him.
“Well, I’m grateful that you did. You saved our asses out there,” JP admits, handing him a bowl of food. “Eat up, guys, while the food is hot,” he announces and whistles for Reaper to join him for his own meal.
Before I can even contemplate food, Lynx offers to get ours. I watch as he grabs three bowls and carefully balances them on his arm, then drops down before us.
“Here you go.” He smiles and digs into his meal with gusto.
From the smell of the bowl, JP whipped up some kind of chicken meal, and my stomach growls in approval. As I dig in, the group goes around recounting their own versions of Rage and what happened while we were apart.
As JP gathers everyone’s dishes and Levi helps clean them, we all get comfortable with the large pillows lying around, and I find my sweet spot against Lynx. “So Rez, want to tell us what happened to you?” Ryker calls out lazily. His arms are behind his head as he lays on his back, but his eyes are focused only on me.
“What do you mean?” I ask, leaning back into Lynx’s tiger form and trying to ease the scrutiny of his stare.
Keeping his promise to let me curl up into his fur after dinner, Lynx is back, already fast asleep. I don’t blame him after hearing what his group ran into when it came to Rage. They were fighting from the very start.
“You weren’t yourself when we found you,” Knox provides, pulling me back to the present. He’s lying by my feet and brushing Reaper’s coat out, trying to settle him down to rest.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Zeke coaxes from JP’s arms by the fire.
Closing my eyes, I try to pull the memories of the enemies I fought and the feeling of losing control, but I draw a blank as a cold shiver runs down my spine.
“I-I…I don’t know what happened,” I admit honestly, and I cringe at the sound of insecurity in my voice. “I found myself alone, and I had to fight my way through the mobs. It wasn’t until I saw Reaper surrounded by beasts that the voices started,” I tell them. Reaper, sensing I’m talking about him, crawls closer to me and snuggles against my chest. He licks my cheek, bringing a brief smile to my lips before I continue. “It started off as if something or someone was guiding me or showing me the best movements. Like the sweet spots in my targets…” I trail off, unsure how to explain it.
“They’re the kill spots,” Knox inserts. “As shifters, we assess for the weakest points to cause a chain reaction if we can’t easily terminate the kill spot. Our instincts or animals help guide us through it.”
A line forms between my furrowed brows as I shake my head in confusion.
“Kitten, there’s something else.” My heart rate increases as I feel a spike of concern and apprehension through our link before it disappears. Knox purses his lips slightly before continuing. “When we found you, you were in an awakened state. I couldhear an inner voice coming from you, but it didn’t sound like yours.”
Awakened state? Like I was on another plane? What is he getting at?I blink at him with a blank stare, and he continues.
“An awakened state is when shifters give in to the rage inside them and lose their humanity in the process.” He squeezes my ankle, sending a wave of comfort down our link, and I bite my lip.
“I do remember the voice, but I’m not a shifter, Knox,” I point out.
“Maybe it’s because of our mate bond.” He shrugs.
“Is that what happened to your neck?” I ask, pointing to the bite, horrified at what the answer might be. Levi has already cleaned it and put a salve on it to help heal, but it still looked red and irritated.
“The only way to break you of that state was for you to fuck it out of your system,” he tells me with a soft smile.
My jaw drops as I get a flash of a smirking white-haired, blueish-gray-eyed man with piercings.
“Slayer?” I ask, shakily covering my mouth in horror.What have I done?
‘We weren’t complaining at the time, and I consider it an honor to be with my mate in her time of needing a beast to fuck.’His smokey, arrogant voice rings out inside of my head.
“Knox, I am so sorry.” I move to get up and go to him, but he squeezes my foot, stopping me.
“Kitten, it’s okay. It’s not like you cheated, and the only wound that seemed to cross over to my body is this one,” he says, gently touching the skin around his bite.
