Page 34 of Her Feral Beasts

Personally, I can’t wait for those classes because I can’t fight to save my life in my human form, and I’ve never had to in beast form. As much as I’ve watched cage fights over the years, I have no idea how to actually do any of those moves myself.

The rest of the day, us animas and our nimpins take our classes without our animus friends. Little Henry plonks himself right on my shoulder and he is a tiny, softly chirping weight that actually helps to ground me. The three beasts always sit at the corner of my mind, haunting me and my anima. It’s like I can feel their eyes watching me wherever I go, even when they’re not around. It makes my skin crawl, and then I think about how Savage touched me thatonetime and I get all hot and bothered. Henry vibrates like a phone on my shoulder whenever I get these thoughts. It snaps me right out, making him my new favourite person after Minnie.

After a long day of introductory classes, we head to dinner and Connor happily gives us the gossip about the who’s who of the unmated male dorms. As we sit down and I scope out the hall, I let out a sigh of relief that my mates are not here. I noticed Scythe didn’t eat breakfast, while Xander and Savage most definitely did. Savage once told me that Scythe only eats raw fish and I didn’t see any here–but I’m shoving my nose in the wrong place, completely wasting my energy thinking about it.

I’m too busy chastising myself that I don’t notice the male with the spiky dark blond hair and tall athletic physique draws up a chair beside me until Beak says, “Hi, Lia.”

Violently flinching and then trying to hide it, I cough. “Beak?”

He grins, all handsome, tan, and white teeth. I smile tentatively at him, though I’m not sure how I feel about meeting him here. Before I met the three psychos, I drooled over Beak and he flirted with me. My anima being a lonely and desperate hussy, I responded to him immediately.

He did nothing to help me when I was forced to marry Halfeather. On the other hand, he couldn’t do anything to foil the political machinations of powerful beasts, especially when one of them was the Serpent King. I don’t see how I can be angry with him.

A few of the beasts from the tables nearby stare at him jealously. Henry hops reassuringly on my shoulder, but it doesn’t stop me from tensing up at the thought that Savage and Xander might walk in at any second.

“Are you alright?” he says, searching my face. “I got really worried when—”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I say quickly, eyes darting around. The fewer people who know the details of my escape, the better. “I…ran, but they got me.”

He rubs the back of his neck, which flexes his large bicep. I know he does it on purpose to show me his muscles. Peacocking at its finest. He’s a good-looking guy, and one time I would have gladly fallen into bed with him. Now I’ve met my mates, my body doesn’t respond the same way to other males.

“Yeah, I heard. It’s impossible to get away from the retrieval team.” He then lowers his voice, his eyes darting around the hall as if looking for someone. “Have they been giving you trouble? You need to be—”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say quickly, wary of the other animas pretending not to listen. “Thanks for checking on me, Beak. Everything’s been fine. Just…look after yourself.” I make my eyes big to try and indicate the males he should be wary of. I don’t understand why they’ve left him alone. It just seems like a murder waiting to happen.

“Oh, don’t worry about me.” He actually laughs.

“You’re not worried. At all?” I say, exasperated. “I mean, you were one of their jailors.”

He shifts in his seat, glancing at the other girls. “Yeah…well, can I talk to you in private?”

“You really need to go, Beak. You could really get into trouble talking to me.”

“But—”

“Go,seriously.” I glance at the door again, but it’s empty.

He sighs, running his hand through his hair again. “Alright, well if you…needanything, you come right to me okay?”

The suggestion in his voice makes my face heat up. When all I do is blink rapidly at my plate, he does reluctantly leave, and heads back to the table with the other birds of prey. His friends smirk at him while beasts from other orders glare enviously at him.

“Ex-boyfriend?” Sabrina asks a little too casually.

“No. Just someone from a place I never should have been in.”

“Girl,” Minnie says, shaking her head, “I know exactly what you mean.”

It turns out that the animus’ have a system surrounding how to approach the animas. Moments after Beak returns to his table, he’s confronted by an older hawk and his cronies. The burly males with feathers tatted all down their arms surround Beak and his friends on all sides, bending down to say something clearly threatening.

“He shouldn’t have approached,” Connor mutters to us. “The most senior students are supposed to approach us first. And then it goes down the hierarchy. Same orders try first and then the other orders get to try. They’ll probably tear his feathers out for this.”

My heart leaps into my throat as everyone watches the quiet but heated discussion. The guards patrolling the sides of the hall watch the group carefully but don’t step in. Then Beak sits back in his chair with his arms resting by his sides and smirks. He says something I can’t make out but the older hawk visibly stiffens, his brows twitching up before he gives a sharp nod and…leaves.

“Or not?” Connor frowns.

Beak looks over at our table and winks at us.

“Well shit.” Stacey says, impressed. “Looks like birds have a new pecking order.”

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