Page 23 of Psycho Shifters

In the aftermath of the numb, every repressed emotion battered through my head.

Dragging my body on aching arms, I crawled out of the warm water until I lay belly first on the cold tile.

My head swam, and I fought not to pass out.

Nausea swirled heavily in my gut, and I vomited water onto the ground.

Pain coursed through every cell in my body.

The longer I held the numb, the harder the recovery.

I didn’t know how long I lay buck naked in the bathing room, but eventually the pain left my stomach and sanity returned.

Thank the moon goddess the shifters had given me a private bathing room.

Gingerly, now that I no longer wanted to die from endless pain, I felt my face, my ribs, and my ankle. The salts had definitely accelerated my healing because my nose was back in its rightful place.

Slowly, I tested my legs beneath me and sighed with relief when my ankles easily supported me and there was no bone-crushing pain. I had cracked my foot training this morning.

Nothing was broken anymore.

However, it felt like I had been flattened by a building and then beaten by a hundred beta shifters. I basically had.

Now that the numb was gone, emotions whipped through my psyche.

It sucked.

Thinking about Dick made my skin crawl with anger and disgust.

The clock on the wall said I had napped for thirty minutes.

Thankfully, it was still lunchtime. I had just taken a quick nap. Zed had said to meet in the alpha dining hall after training.

I avoided looking in the large mirror as I dressed in the green training sweats and sweatshirt.

Quickly, I covered the scars that mottled my torso, chest, and arms from Dick’s belt.

Fucking Dick loved his belt and had made me hideous.

With tired arms, I barely ran a brush through my hair and left it down to air-dry.

It hung in straight white strands down to my lower back.

A quick glance showed the purple bruises under both my red eyes were even darker. Plus, there was now a matching purple bruise across my golden jaw and forehead.

Apparently, the healing salts helped heal bones quicker than bruises. Or, as an alpha, I could heal my bones quicker?

It didn’t make any sense, and I rubbed at my forehead tiredly.

“Look good, feel good,” I had heard a woman at the bar say before.

“Look like shit, feel like bigger shit,” I said to the mirror and gave myself a thumbs-up.

I turned to walk to lunch—and fell over.

My legs gave out beneath me.

Sure, my broken bones were healed, but I still hurt everywhere.

---