Page 35 of Her Feral Beasts

Chapter16

Savage

With a cigarette between my teeth, I drag the dead body of the vulture towards the dark of the loading dock at the back of the academy. I wrapped him in an academy branded sheet to save me from cleaning the mess later, but it’s soaked through and there’s still a trail of blood. Both his arms are out of their sockets and holding on by tendons only—I’ve never been a neat sort of beast, try as they might to teach us how to be orderly in our class. Sighing dramatically, I dump him at the feet of the two waiting forklift brothers.

“Thank you, sir,” says Bertie.

“Bert the bear,” I sing around my cigarette, “all dirt and glare.” I cock my head, thinking hard. “Or should it be all flirt and glare?”

He grins at me as he hoists the body into his arms like it’s no more than a newborn baby. “I like the second one.”

“Yeah, me too.”

We grin toothily at each other.

I wave them goodbye as they load up their truck, puffing the acrid smoke into my lungs. I find it calming to my overactive mind, even if the nicotine sizzling through my veins does nothing to my wolf body.

After a few seconds, I hum my new tune, shove my hands in my pockets, and head back inside. Xander has fucked up the security cameras in the area, so little Lyle won’t have any idea we’ve even been here.

Scythe’s waiting for me when I’m back inside and he’s all frowny. “Savage.” My brother’s voice is disapproving. “What have I told you about leaving blood behind?”

“Sorry,” I mutter, exhaling smoke. “I did bring a mop, though.” The blood annoys his sensitive shark nose.

Scythe shoots me a dark look before sending Xander a thought-message about bringing the bleach.

With this many beastly noses about, the scent of a vulture’s lifesblood is bound to get some attention. There are plenty of enemies for the picking at the academy, but we can’t be obvious about our kills. We’d make sure everyone knew about itoutside, but in here we have to keep it under wraps in case Lyle calls the council executioner on my ass.

Xander turns up with the bleach within minutes, wrinkling his snout—not at its smell, but at the fact he has to clean. Prissy dragon prince.

So I launch myself at him, claws out, with a loud battle cry. “Hee-yah!”

Xander grunts and tries to deflect, but now his arm is just where I want it and I get a swipe at the skin of his wrist. I hit both arteries and they violently spurt open, spraying all over the floor.

“Oopsie!”

“Fuck!” Xander drops the bleach and lunges for me but, flashing my teeth at him, I duck and tackle him to the ground, right onto the long streak of my kill’s blood. I slash at his other wrist but miss, and we tussle like animals for a few minutes before heavy feet pound down the corridor. I let Xander get a deep swipe at my chest and blood spills all over him. By the time the guards show up, we’re back on our feet, pushing roughly at each other. Scythe is nowhere in sight and neither is the bottle of bleach.

The floor is a mess of blood. Vulture mixed with dragon and wolf. Xander should be thanking me. He doesn’t have to clean this now. Some bugger on detention will have to do it.

I’m helpful like that.

“Cut it out!” one of the guards shouts, a small wolf I could eat for breakfast. But behind him strolls Ruben.

“What’s going on now, Savage?” he says casually, eyes darting around to assess the scene of the crime. Grampa wolf doesn’t even carry a weapon, he’s enough on his own.

“He looked at me funny,” I whine, pointing to Xander, who’s angrily staunching the blood still spurting from his wrist. Reuben thinks he has me cornered now because they’ve got me inremedialclasses, don’t they? I want to be in Aurelia’s class, but apparently she’s not feral and doesn’t need the extra security or help of Class B. They’re forcing me to learn to write properly, which Scythe is happy about but I’m not. The only bonus is that we get extra fighting classes to burn off our energy. That’s where I appreciate Ruben, because he’s the only one who will spar with me now. The rest of them are too weak.

Ruben rolls his eyes at me, which sends me growling. “Sure he did, bud. Come on, let’s go to medical, then.”

He treats it like such a great task while Xander’s fiery glare promises murder. When no one’s looking, he shoots a burning flame towards my ass. It hits me and burns like a motherfucker, though I don’t make a sound just to piss him off. Dragonfire hurts in a whole new way that regular fire doesn’t, and if it hits you bad enough, it can melt your bones.

I think Xander goes to the hospital for something to do because his dragon magic will heal his wounds in minutes. Neither of us mention it, but I want to see the medical wing again too, so I happily go along with it.

Afterwards, with useless wound dressings on, because the healers don’t waste their power on simple injuries, Scythe reappears and he and Xander leave for the dining hall. For dinner, everyone is piling into the cafeteria because they have cheesecake for dessert. Someone got Scythe the sashimi he likes, so he’s keen to make a beeline right for it. I’m not hungry and settle for irritably prowling back to our dorm.

I know I hate Aurelia, but the beast inside me has my brain in a chokehold. It wants to dominate her, to make her submit and claim her as my regina.

Sometimes the wolf inside me wins, and I have to tap out. This is one of those times.

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