Page 114 of Her Feral Beasts

Flanking them both are five athletic men, rivalling my father’s height. They wear half face masks painted to look like the bottom part of a skull, and all-black tactical gear.

To everyone else, these men look like the guards of the king of serpent court. But I instantly know that he’s come here prepared for war.

Within my father’s court, these males, while masked and their identities hidden, are famous. The five serpent generals. We don’t know their names, but we know their breeds. One is a Black Adder, one is an Eastern Brown—the Snake Eater—one is a Saw-scaled Viper, the most dangerous snake in the Pacific, and the other two, I’m not familiar with.

My skin crawls, and I think it’s a little dramatic, but this show of power is no doubt meant to intimidate me and anyone who might want to stand with me.

I’m a predator. I’m a beast like no other. I’m… seriously fucking intimidated.

Lyle abruptly stops and steps in front of me, obstructing my view of Mace Naga and the six serpents.

My hands start trembling, and I clench them, but the metal cuffs still rattle.

“Miss Aquinas,” Lyle says. “Control yourself.”

I gulp, not looking up at him and just nodding at his black tie as Henry guides me to slow my breathing down. After a moment, nothing changes and my hands still don’t stop shaking.

“Drink this.” He holds an opened bottle of water up to my mouth.

Adrenaline floods my veins like cold fire and I shake my head because now my jaw is trembling, too.

Lyle sighs.

“I… I need the bathroom.”

“Of course.”

One of the female guards gestures to me and I’m taken into the female toilets where I have to sit with the door open as my guard stands and watches me. If you’ve never tried to use the bathroom with handcuffs on, you won’t know that it’s actually really difficult and I’m worried I’ll get pee on my dress the entire time. That’ll be a great look as I enter the courtroom.

Luckily, I just manage it without any splashage or spillage and quickly wash my hands.

“That your dad, Aquinas?” the guard grunts at me.

“Yeah.”

She grunts. “I don’t envy you.”

I glare at her because I don’t really need reminding of that right now.

Henry plonks himself back down on my shoulder and we walk back out, where Lyle is talking to a middle-aged man with long natural blonde hair and brown eyes.

“Good morning, Miss Aquinas,” he says, holding out his hand.

Awkwardly, I shake it. “Good morning.”

“I’m George Fontaine, your lawyer. I’d like to go through a couple of things before we go in. Is that alright?”

My eyes slide to Lyle, but his expression is unreadable. “Of course,” I say quietly. “Thank you, Mr Fontaine.”

Chapter50

Scythe

The fact that I have a seat at the council today is laughable.

But the usual holder of the marine seat didn’t respond to the call, and since I’m the only marine beast in the state, old laws they can’t ignore decree that I have a place here. Despite me being at Animus Academy and trying everything they could to circumvent the rule, they had no choice but to call me in for Aurelia’s trial.

Conveniently, my attempted abduction of Aurelia went unnoticed. Corruption at its finest. If Mace Naga thought I would vote against him, he might have tried harder to get me killed. According to my informants, after Aurelia is his, the goal will be to remove all of Aurelia’s mates from the world of the living. He knows of three of us, but not the identities of the other two. They’ve kept themselves so well hidden that I think they often forget they are her mates.

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