Page 60 of Her Feral Beasts

Her eyes are wide as she takes me in, like she’s looking at me for the first time. I feel thirteen years old again when my nanny, Rosalina realised what I am. How I have to be kept separate. And secret.

“Please, Min,” I whisper. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

The look on her face is serious, I realise. She understands the implications of what she saw and how it makes medifferent. Something calms in me a little. My terror abates as Minnie nods slowly like she’s considering this carefully.

“Shit, Lia,” she whispers. “I totally get why you needed to run this whole time.”

“I’m sorry for getting you involved, Min. I really am.”

But she shakes her head. “Honestly, I think I’m the best person for this job.”

I stare at her in disbelief, but she’s nodding like she’s convinced. “You are going to tell me everything. That is the price of my forgiveness. I want to go into our friendship fully prepared.” She slices her palm through the air. “You have a big fucking secret, and I want to know all about it. I think I have the right now, don’t you? You wouldn’t let me help before and it’s gotten us nowhere.”

I replayed the events in my head, thinking her words over and the implications of telling Minnieeverything. But above it all, the vision of my friend bursting into her tiger form and charging at Savage, a wolf with more fighting experience and ruthlessness than anyone at this academy… “Min,” I say slowly. “You literally shifted and attacked Savage to defend me. Why would you do that?”

“I like you, Lia.” She shrugs. “And it was a dangerous situation. I think you’re a woman who’s had a difficult lot in life, and from what you’ve told me so far, I want to help.”

Tears spill all over again as Minnie yanks me back down onto my bed. “I’m getting that bag of caramel popcorn my aunt sent me, and you’re going to start from the beginning.”

It’s the sternest voice the tigress has ever used with me, and as I stare up at my friend, I realise I’ve been yearning to tellsomeonethe truth for years now. I owe her. This girl took on Savage for me and I realise now that I would have done the same for her in a heartbeat.

“You could have run from them back there,” I say quietly. “A lot of beasts would have just left me to fight for myself. Hell, Raquel and Sabrina would have left me. I know it. But you didn’t.”

“You stood up to those monsters, Lia. And the fact that your mates are those beasts? Ovaries like that? Girl, we’re sticking together.”

I let out a choked, slightly hysterical giggle because I thought I’d take this secret to my grave. Instead, I fling myself on Minnie’s bed and start talking.

I tell her about the day my anima was revealed and how I went into exile. How my father sent me on secret healing jobs over the years, and how he sent me to Halfeather’s mansion to heal a beast behind a steel door, and in that dungeon is where I met three of my mates. How I was really only there because Halfeather was looking me over to purchase me as a bride. Then I tell her about the wedding and the fire and how my uncle told me to run in the middle of the night.

By the time I’m finished, Minnie’s mouth is open, her caramel popcorn forgotten. “I’ve never heard of someone actually activating a siren song!” Her voice is a breathy whisper. “I thought it was a myth! So you never actually—”

“I haven’t really touched any of them, no.” Until today, when Savage’s lips were all over me. I shiver at the memory, but don’t want to admit to that just yet.

She puts the bag down and begins pacing between our beds. “This is complicated. Very complicated.”

No kidding.

I can see the gears turning in her mind. The shifting was a big muck up on my part, but I know it was just a response to Savage being on me that my anima must’ve just… bugged out and responded.

“We’ll get through this, Lia,” Minnie says. “I’ll help you in whatever way I can.”

I pinch the end of my nose. “Thank you. My problem now is that there’s no work around for the blood covenant my dad has on them. They have to seal the deal.”

Minnie swears. “Okay, look. It’s getting on in time. We need to come up with a statement for Theresa. And I’m sure Mr Pardalia will want to speak with you. He lookedangry.”

We pull out exercise books and come up with a story we both agree on. Minnie ties her pink hair in a ponytail and puts her pen between her teeth. “Just two nerds out to take over the world, Lia,” she says.

I nod glumly. Minnie lights a candle and incense and her altar of the Goddess. Then we write down our stories, which is really just the same thing, leaving out the blood contract and the fact that I turned into a wolf. We just said I turned into my eagle form instead.

Theresa comes back, and when she does, there are four new guards with her. Men this time, big ones with tools and a new door.

While Theresa reads our papers, Minnie and I look on with dismay as our wooden door is taken down and replaced with bars like a real, actual prison cell. They then put bars on the balcony doors, too.

Theresa nods in satisfaction after they’re done.

“You’re safe, Lia,” she assures me. “The nimpins are getting checked at the clinic and will stay there, but they look fine. Those three beasts are caged now and the deputy headmaster is dealing with them.”

Minnie exchanges a look with me. She says, “But they’ll come out eventually, right?”

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