Page 3 of Her Feral Beasts

“This is your home now,” Father says.

I gape at the peeling paint, the tin roof, the shattered glass windows. “Father, I don’t understand why I have to stay here. None of it is my fault.”

“YourMajesty,” one of his vipers snaps. “You will address him appropriately,mutt.”

Her words burn like a brand.

I raise my chin, but my father stands over me, once a mountain of protection and safety. But the look in his eyes tells me he is now the opposite.

“There is one thing about life that you must learn, AureliaAquinas.” His voice announcing me by my mother’s official surname is a dangerous hiss that makes me go still. “We do not always get what we want.”

And in his voice, I hear a deep sorrow, a profound loss. I was his dream, and that dream is now dead. The Serpent Princess is no more.

“You will keep your protections up at all times,” he continues. “You will not letthemfind you. If you do, your life will be forfeit. Every power-hungry beast in the country will come for you. Chain you up. Breed you until you are dead.Do you understand?”

His words are a cruel blow to the gut, and I bow my head, if only to hide the tears of shame now falling freely. My mates can never be mine.

Nothing will be the same again.

Chapter1

Aurelia

Present day

There are at least three murderous psychos hunting me and yet all I can think about is food.

I’ve officially gone loopy. Like proper, doctor-please-admit-me-to-the-grippy-sock-hotel type loopy. I’ve always known my mental break was coming, and it took being framed for murdering my new husband and being forced to run away in the middle of the night for it to pull the plug on my sanity.

I’m not normal.

None of this is normal.

My current legs are piddly sticks, but they do the job by slowly inching me towards a group of elderly ladies at a fancy breakfast cafe.

They’ve just been brought their lunches.

It’s a tourist town on the coast and the summer holidays are coming to an end, so everyone is out while they can. I know I should be working at this cafe. Living my life free and unbothered. Safe. Happy. Instead, I’m half a foot tall and skulking across the ground like the felon I’m supposed to be.

But I can’t care less about that now because I. See. Their. Food.

One has a chicken Caesar salad, the second, a cheese and chive scone, and the third has the most mouth-watering, juicy, succulent chicken burger complete with all the regular trappings.

Ding, ding, ding. The winner is me.

Dear Wild Goddess and all that is holy. That burger is mine.

I know how I sound, but I haven’t really eaten in five days. When I left my beloved bungalow in the middle of the night, it was by car, under my special eighth shield of invisibility. I had cash, my phone, and my battered duffle bag carrying my meagre possessions.

But they found me in the first motel I stopped at. Not the three psychos, someone actually worse. And I didn’t realise it was possible for someone to be worse.

It was the Deputy Headmaster of Animus Academy, who the authorities no doubt sent to hunt the rabid crim (me) down. They usually send a dedicated retrieval team to hunt rabid or feral beasts to protect the human community, but I guess they thought I was a special case and that they needed to send the best lion in the state. Aspecialist,as it were.

Lyle Pardalia.

The sheer furore on his angelic face when I thwarted him will forever be etched in my mind. Sure, I was grateful he took down my father’s scummy retrieval team. I mean,no onewent against the King Cobra and lived to tell the tale. But when I mentioned it, he scoffed and said he had no issue with it. And a lethal hunter like that? The only way I could get away from him was to shift and fly away, but it meant I had to leave all my stuff behind.

I don’t own that much, so the loss of all my savings was a massive blow.

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