Page 22 of Her Feral Beasts

Eventually, all the rebels were subdued and Minnie and I tumbled into bed, where it took me a while to calm my racing heart.

I wondered if any of those wolfish howls were Savage, but I felt like I wouldknowhis howl if he ever did it. Anxiety clawed through me, thinking about my mates, because I knew that the animus dorms would be downright rowdy and full of men trying to establish a hierarchy. The medical wing was going to be busy overnight, that was for sure.

Minnie is out within half an hour, showered with a full face of makeup, ready to choose what clothes and jewellery she’s going to wear. Dragging myself out of bed, I head to the toilet, where I sit down with my face resting in my palms and try to wake up. Immediately, I notice the giant metal poster screwed into the door. Being so tired yesterday, I was barely able to use that awful LFS all-in-one wash before collapsing into bed.

The metal board has the school rules written in big black letters and I huff a laugh as I read:

Class A offences-subject to judicial hearing

· Murder

· Torture

· Consuming other students or staff

Class B offences-subject to local punishment

· Permanent maiming or mutilation

Class C offences-subject to remedial classes

· Shifting in non-shifting areas

· Accidental grievous bodily harm

· Marking via urination, furniture oranyproperty

· Public nudity (accidental or otherwise)

· Public fornication or acts of indecency

· Disrespectful behaviours towards staff

So, as long as I don’t kill, maim, or eat anyone, I’m all good. Sounds like a breeze while I work on my escape plan. I intend to stay as invisible and under the radar as humanly possible, biding my time until I can find a way to get past all the security and leg it out of here to a quiet life of freedom with a fake identity in a blended university. Since the entire place is wing-proofed, my options are limited and I’ll need to plan this carefully.

Minnie’s positive attitude has spread to me like fleas because suddenly I’m all, ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’, and by the Wild Goddess, I’ll find my exit.

When I emerge from our bathroom, trying to untangle my long mess of black hair, I find Minnie in a black and pink striped dress and shiny black platform shoes, pacing before the altar to the Wild Goddess she carefully set up last night. A stick of incense sends tendrils of smoke over a tiny pink candle and an idol of the Goddess in her human form, sitting on the back of a tiger. Minnie is biting her fingernail, and when she sees me, her face brightens but I scent the sharp tang of her fear.

“Ready?” she asks, bouncing on the balls of her feet, bangles chiming.

I look down at my faded jeans and thin, dark green blouse. I put the red blouse on first and decided against the colour, knowing some feral beasts are attracted to bright and red colours. My hair is super dry and crispy from the LFS, so I try to hide it in a messy bun. For shoes, I only have flip-flops from the donation box in the medical wing. Whatever I look like, it’s surely better than the orange prison jumpsuit, right? “Yeah. Let’s do this, Min.”

She grins nervously, sticking a sparkly pink biro into her dress pocket. I don’t even own a pen, so I pretend not to notice that as we put our lanyards on.

“Should I bring my folder?” she asks, hefting up the pink tome.

“Nah, let’s leave it for the moment.” She looks a little sad at that, so I say, “But I’d really like to look through it page by page tonight, if that’s okay.”

The tigress brightens immediately, and we wait next to our door for the security locks to open at 8 a.m.

The locks power down with a sad whine and Minnie pounces at the bronze door knob, eagerly yanking it open. “They told us to meet out front, right?” she says as our neighbour’s doors open up at the same time.

Raquel and Sabrina walk out. The former in the same double denim outfit with motorcycle gang patches and heavy black boots. Sabrina wears leopard print leggings and a matching crop top, telling us all what order she is. She’s chewing gum as she looks us both up and down, delicately sniffing us.

“Morning!” Minnie says enthusiastically.

Raquel grunts and their face bears zero facial expression while Sabrina says a deadpan, “Hi.”

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