Page 50 of Her Feral Beasts

I have none and I’m not willing to ask anyone for any because my pride is the size of Greenland. I have the diamond choker Halfeather gave me on my wedding day, but I’ll need to find a way to pawn it. A simple pawnbroker isn’t going to have that type of money in their shop, so I’ll be without cash for a little while.

That’s fine, I’m used to sacrificing. I can handle this.

So I just wait it out, but at some point on Thursday, being around my mates becomes unbearable.

In elocution class, some of the students have to be taken to extra special classes because the more feral you get, the less a beast likes to talk. Some of them can’t enunciate words properly, or forgot how, so they need a speech therapist to re-learn how to do that. Raquel has a small speech impediment with their stutter and so gets time with the speech therapist along with the others.

Xander has been so quiet for all our classes that his supervisor, a threatening-looking wolf, gestures for him to follow the feral students. Xander snarls and grabsAnimal Farmout of his hand and reads from it in a smooth, formal tone that is so beautiful I can’t help but stare at him, my stomach flopping on itself at his deep cadence.

I wonder yet again how a dragon ended up with the Slaughter Brothers. They are wealthy and snobbish folk who get private school education, and yet Xander landed himself in Halfeather’s dungeon with no one to bail him out. I thought it odd at the time, but now that he’shereit’s even more suspicious.

I get the feeling it has something to do with what happened to his eyes.

Minnie and I are the last to leave class because I need to loiter behind to swipe more perfume samples left over from the class before. I’ve been using it to hide the fact that my scent shield is up at full force and leaving me with no scent at all.

I exit the room ahead of Minnie when the sight ofhimwipes the triumphant smile clean off my face. My three plastic sample tubes go clattering to the wooden floor.

Scythe is leaning against the wall opposite me, his powerful arms crossed over his wide chest. Terror laced with deep yearning strikes me in my sternum as his ice-blue eyes bore into mine like a sign of my doom.

With his gaze alone, he holds me prisoner.

It’s like in a horror movie where the main character is walking through the haunted house and you just know the demon is going to jump out and get them, but you hold your breath and don’t look away, enamoured by the fear, the tension.

A sheet of power as cold as ice spreads between us, its fissures spider-webbing out long and wide. I know then that Scythe has a power like I’ve never known. That he has the ability to do torrential and profound damage to whatever lies in his path.

Just like he told me back in their room.

I can’t breathe. I can’t blink.

And yet I know in the deepest part of me that I want him.

I’m sure I’m going to shatter into pieces when he suddenly kicks off the wall and prowls down the now-empty corridor. All I can do is watch that body; that slow, languid walk of pure power as lazy as an afternoon tide.

When he turns the corner, the spell is broken, leaving me in a puddle of my drowned wits. Henry vibrates on my shoulder as Minnie pats my back to ask me to move. I step to the side and sag against the door frame, clutching my churning stomach. Henry makes a small sound on my shoulder and Gertie replies to him like they’re having a conversation. I don’t have time to ponder it as Minnie stares at me with concern.

I can’t help the irrevocable feeling that I’ve been given a warning.

If all sharks are like this, they could take over the world. Except none of them want to, preferring to stay in their watery-blue realm beneath all things. Or perhaps above them.

And yet, here Scythe is. Watchingme. Threatening me and my underwear, which is currently on fire because my anima wants him so badly she’s weeping hot tears from between my legs.

I don’t know how I’m going to survive this. What just passed between us is something I can’t even explain.

“Are you alright, Lia?” Minnie asks, picking up my fallen samples.

Henry clicks his beak in emphasis.

“One day,” I murmur faintly. “One day, I’ll be alright.”

Chapter22

Aurelia

Friday arrives and I just have to get through this day until 2 p.m. when the delivery trucks arrive. I’m excited and tense and Minnie notices right away.

“Lia?” she asks as we get ready for breakfast.

I’m checking my duffle bag, which is currently crammed full of stolen items. Aurelia, the thief. My father would be so ashamed. My mother too, I’m sure, although I like to think she’d be proud of me for surviving this.

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