Page 120 of Her Feral Beasts

I frown at him and then shake my head. “But I’m her mate. I would never—”

Reuben arches a brow at me.

“Shit.” Ididwant to hurt her. I wanted her dead.

Reuben’s voice is soft. “My regina rejected me at first.”

I gape at him. “What?”

“Yeah, I know. I used to be a bad, bad guy,” he smirks. “You might not remember, but I did all sorts of shit. Once I landed in prison, I thought she’d reject me for good. But…”

Getting onto my knees, I press him. “What did you do? How did you win her back?”

He tuts at me. “It’s not about winning her; it’s about growing trust and mutual respect. You need toearnher, Sav.”

Earn her?

Reuben must see my confusion because he barks a laugh. “You’ll figure out what you need to be for her. If you really want to care for her and be her mate, you need to find out what she needs and give it to her. You… need to put her first, Sav.”

I fall onto the mat with a dramatic thump. “They’re going to take her away from me.”

“Who?”

“Her father. Mace Naga is going to execute her under the Old Laws.”

Reuben swears under his breath. “He’s involved in dark serpent magic. You need to be careful.”

Mother Wolf, I know that. I chopped that magic off my body. Mace wants to get rid of her because of her power. He doesn’t want a rival.

I say absently, “The day Scythe and I got our mark, it felt like something more than destiny.”

Reuben sucks in a shocked breath. It’s common for brothers to share a mating group, but brothers of different orders usually don’t. Reuben doesn’t question it though, and instead says. “What happened to your dad, Sav? Did you do it? Or was it Scythe?”

I stare at him, the massive wolf who was friends with my dad. Friends, and yet he stood up to him on more than one occasion. There is no anger in him now, only curiosity.

But the thought of death, the thought of Lia on an execution block, makes me so violently angry that I throw myself at Reuben again.

Pain explodes in my left thigh and I stop short. A second pain bursts down my side and I grunt in surprise before the rage hits me.

There are only two beasts in this world that could sneak up on me.

With pain spreading up my torso, I recognise the fiery magic lacing the bullets. Slowly, I swivel around to see Xander standing at the entrance to the gym, a cigarette hanging from his mouth and in his hands, an automatic dart firearm.

“I’m sorry, brother,” Xander says over his cigarette. “It had to be done.”

The pain reaches my chest and I break out into a sweat as my heart pumps the poison up to my brain.

My legs stop working and I allow myself to fall to my knees.

I only have seconds.

“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I grunt.

“I know.”

My vision narrows, before everything goes black.

Chapter52

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