Page 12 of Her Feral Beasts

Except, I know in my heart it’s more than that, because Animus Academy is just as much a prison as it is a reform school. And no one in history has ever escaped.

Chapter5

Savage

I’ve never been more pissed off in my life.

Aurelia was so close.So closeI could practically taste her perfect fucking olive skin on my tongue. Taste those rosebud lips and those delicious chocolate nipples. Xander got the first physical touch over me, and as we sit on the floor of the rumbling military truck, I’m ready to pull his brains out of his eye sockets for it.

Snapping out my leg, I strike the ugly dragon where he sits against the wall. “Fuck you, Xander.”

Even rendered blind by the magic-suppressing shackles, my dragon brother doesn’t take it lying down. He launches himself at me and we break out into a vicious scuffle. Does it matter that we’re bound neck to pelvis with tourmaline chains? Not one bit.

As Scythe sits, still and brooding next to me, Xander and I try and break each other into pieces by sheer force of will. He snaps at me with his teeth and I jerk my head to the side before body slamming him against the titanium wall. The entire truck shakes from the force of our aggression.

Just as I’m considering shoving my teeth into his eye holes, there’s a shout from the driver’s seat. It’s only a matter of seconds before they’ve swerved us off the road and I go tumbling to the other wall. Xander lands on top of me with a grunt.

“Ugly lizard,” I snap as he rolls off me.

“Fetid mutt,” he spits back.

Once again, Xander proves his entitled upbringing by throwing big words around. What doesfetideven mean? It sounds like an STD, and the thought sends me growling.

Heavy boots crunch on gravel and the doors are pulled open to reveal a big scary bastard of a wolf and four others flanking him, their automatic rifles pointed at us.

It’s Reuben fucking Lunaris. An almost seven foot tall motherfucker with a ruddy beard and even though he must be at least fifty years of age, he’s tanked.

“Separate them,” Reuben barks like he doesn’t know us. “Full gurney restraint.” I turn to give Scythe a look to see if he’s seen the wolf our father used to call the ‘Monster Wrangler’, but my half-brother is staring drolly ahead at the wall. He often does that, stares into the distance, thinking dark thoughts. He’s probably thinking about how he’s going to kill me. Or maybe he’s thinking about Aurelia and her long fluttery eyelashes.

Xander and I are dragged out roughly by our scruffs like we’re cubs and dumped on the gravel on the side of the road. Wisely, they leave Scythe where he is.

When I see what they have planned for us, I tilt my head back and give a hacking laugh.

“He’s rabid,” mutters one of the retrieval mutts.

“Nah,” says Reuben, before he shoves a cloth sack with a breathing mesh over my head, “just mad.”

I’m still laughing as they begin strapping me, upright, to the wheeled gurney with more heavy metal chains. By the time they’re done, Xander and I are covered neck to toe in obsidian with not an inch left to wriggle.

Hannibal Lecter, my personal god, has nothing on us.

As they wheel me to my own vehicle, I squeal a high-pitched, “Weeeee!”

My regina is going the same place as us and that’s theonlyreason for my good mood. They’ve captured herforus and I’m thinking of sending someone flowers for it.

The monster wrangler grabs the doors to my new truck and I can just make out a white-toothed grin through the mesh. Before he slams the heavy metal shut, he mutters, “Good to see you alive and kicking, Sav.”

Not for long, it won’t be.

* * *

Hours later, we arrive at Animus Academy in a style only me and my bond-brothers deserve. At the back of my mind, I wonder what Lyle Pardalia is going to do with us at his cute little school. Xander and I can’t be controlled. Scythe has his own agenda and is a menace all on his own. I hardly understand why he agreed to be taken in the first place. I could have done this myself, but my brother always has his own nefarious reasons for doing what he does. The things a shark can see and feel, no one else can.

I begin to smell the ferality of the school forty minutes out. It’s a smell that warns civilised beasts to stay away. It’s a marker of the type of creatures who are forced to attend the so-called academy.

There’s a bump as we pass through the gates and outside, I can hear the ruckus that is enrolment day. There’s a general feeling of tension, aggression, and outright violence perfuming the air.

My favourite type of cologne.

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