Page 11 of Her Feral Beasts

A stupid mistake and one I would definitelynotbe repeating.

The memory makes me shiver and I clamp down on my wild anima, who knows that sex with my mates would be excellent fuel for my power.

What to do, what to do.My brain is mush, and the fine bones in my wings burn with strain.

Suddenly, a cold presence at the corner of my thoughts comes slamming into me and I clamp down on a scream.

I would know Scythe’s ice and tundra power anywhere.The water.He’s found me. How could I be so stupid as to sit here, by a body of water, when one of my mates commands that element?

Cursing my horny ass, I make a split decision and leap out from under the bridge. The air is fire in my throat and there’s definitely the spicy scent of dragon-made smoke in the air, but I beat my battered wings for all they’re worth, shaking the water from them as I do. Neither men nor dragon are anywhere to be seen as I head into open air and away from the forest once again.

There’s a group of buildings on my left and I turn around to see a large park full of people…and no less than ten black hunting vans, blue and red sirens flashing.

It’s funny because for the past five days, I knew all these beasts were after me, but seeing the vans sprawled out, officers in black tactical gear running around with automatic weapons, blue and red lights flashing? I’m stumped. Actuallystumpedthat this is all for me and my mates.

Just as my stomach drops in tortured realisation, a voice like the jagged edge of a knife cuts through the air.

“Don’t touch her, she’s mine!”

Frantically, I look down to see Lyle Pardalia in a navy three-piece suit standing like the archangel of death at the head of the tactical forces. There’s a long black machine on his shoulder that’s aimed right at me. His amber eyes flash in lethal calculation.

Seriously? A bazooka…and a suit? What is wrong with this guy?

His tanned jawline could cut skin open, I’m sure, with the signature long blonde hair that lions typically wear, tied off his face. I’m stunned by his figure, by the fact that he looks like he wants to kill little old me.

The lionreallydoesn’t like me. I probably hurt his male ego by thwarting him that first time at the motel. He’s definitely out for revenge now.

Just as I try to veer backwards, I am held in place by a force so great I think it’s going to squeeze me until my intestines burst out of my abdomen. I let out a high-pitched shriek just as Lyle fires his weapon. The ball shooting out of it becomes a black net of tourmaline and obsidian. It swallows me whole, closing around my body and immediately rendering any of my power useless.

The net burns my feathers right through and it’s so darned painful as the magic-neutralising properties in it force me to shift back into my naked human body.

It’s also embarrassing as all hell due to the audience of well over thirty council hunters, both male and female, staring in disbelief. Lyle levitates me—telekinesis being the feline power—down to land as they all shamelessly stare. But from this high, I can make out a flurry of activity across the clearing. A group of council hunters are surrounding three males.

Savage is putting up, what I’m sure is, a half-hearted fight, thrashing out, kicking and punching as he manically laughs. Abruptly, he shouts, “If anyone hurts my chicken, they’re fucking dead! Hear me? Fucking dead!”

Sure enough, the rooster gives a sad, muffled squawk from his own cage, a tiny black hood on his head stopping him from seeing anything.

A very human and naked Xander is laughing as two council hunters are spontaneously set alight, their bodies erupting in violent orange flames. They scream for a single terrifying second before the flames go out and they drop to the grass. I watch the glowing white lights fade from Xander’s eyes as obsidian nets are thrown upon him. He merely scoffs at his captors like they’re all disappointments.

Scythe is coming willingly, on his feet, already handcuffed in the black shackles, and I’m surprised when I see the hunters keeping a respectful distance from him. The shark’s cold eyes are on me, however, as Lyle dumps me unceremoniously onto the grass, my arms bound to my torso, thankfully covering my breasts. But my ass is laid bare to the world in between the thin ropes of the net.

Knowing the deputy headmaster of Animus Academy is in complete control of my body when he comes to look down upon me, amber eyes narrowed, makes me want to punch him in his pretty face. But I can’t even snarl at him with my frozen form.

“You made me do this the hard way, Miss Aquinas,” he says in that flat monotone he seems to enjoy using. I’ve dubbed it his ‘shopping-list voice’. “At Animus Academy, you’ll get the help you need. You’ll be safe.”

A mad laugh is trying to make its way out of my chest, but I’m too tired and it turns into a cough. This beast thinks I’ll besafein a prison school? Where the most feral and criminally minded eighteen to twenty-five years olds of our kind try and learn how to be civilised?

Laughs and jokes all around, lion-man.

Mr Deputy Headmaster-slash-jailer grabs a blanket from a council hunter and throws it over me. Even as I grind my teeth together in shame, I’m relieved he at least has the decency to do that.

Because, as he levitates me back up, I can see that now there’s a crowd of humans waiting on the other side of a line of police tape, and many of them have their phones out. I die a little on the inside at the humiliation of it all as Lyle levitates me through the open back doors of a waiting military-grade van.

I’m so deeply fucked by this capture I don’t even know whether to cry or scream when the doors shut and plunge me into an all-encompassing darkness. As the vehicle rumbles to life and rolls onto the road, my exhaustion comes back in full force. My eyes slide heavily shut and my entire body goes limp, my anima warbling sadly.

A teeny,tinypiece of me is relieved that I now get to lie down and rest. That I don’t have to run for my life for the next few hours. That was getting really tiring, really fast.

This is just a reprieve for me, right? Only a teensy detour in my well-laid plans.

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