Page 56 of Her Feral Beasts

I scream Minnie’s name, and a primal force tears my very body open. My blood rushes like electricity through my veins and I explode. There is no thought in my mind, no semblance of logic or rationality.

My body changes and I am nothing but fur and teeth and claw and violence as I charge at Savage with the full force of my rage behind me.

Chapter24

Xander

Scythe swears as he sees what we’re all seeing. Aurelia is a black wolf, her blue eyes dilated and almost rabid with uncontrolled rage as she launches herself at Savage. I’m thoroughly confused as I see my supposed regina tackle Savage off Minnie and take him to the ground, allowing the tigress to jump up and follow. Minnie leaps onto Savage’s back, digging her claws in.

The three of them begin tussling.

Scythe and I let it play out, knowing Savage will win this fight. But if we don’t stop them, we’ll be looking at two seriously injured girls within minutes. The bears are waiting with the truck and I’m getting impatient as my Hungarian rock music blares in my ears. Anyone could come out at any second and try to stop us.

My shark brother takes a causal step forward and Minnie seizes, falling to the ground, her paws sticking up in the air like a fainting goat as Scythe grips her mind in his mental fist.

Lia falters as she’s caught by surprise. Savage takes advantage and leaps onto her, and with his bigger size, pins her down onto the grass.

She growls and snaps, her dark fur glistening under the sun, her eyes as vibrant as the sea on a summer’s day. But what the actual fuck? She’s a wolf, too?

Scythe steps forward and Lia goes limp, shifting back to her human form, her naked olive skin bare to us all. Savage sits on top of her, resting his big furry head on her naked chest as if he’s claiming a possession. His tail wags. Even though he knows she’s going to go away now, his beast enjoys being close to his regina.

It’s sad for him, but that’s life.

Lia’s eyes are screwed shut, glistening tears streaming down her face.

“When the fuck did we start abducting women?” I mutter under my breath, because even my skin prickles as we execute this plan and Scythe crouches down next to her.

Oh, I know when. When our own regina rejected, betrayed and lied to us. That’s when. When our regina turned out to be the daughter of a snake and became a threat to us all.That’s fucking when.

Scythe exhales through his nose. The shark in him doesn’t like this either, but it has to be done. The threat needs to be eliminated.

“At any cost, Xan,” he growls, crouching down to stare at Lia.“We do this because it’s what we need to do.”

Lia’s lips are pursed shut as if it hurts her to have Scythe inspect her psychic defences.

“I’ve never seen this before,”Scythe projects to us. “She has seven fucking layers of protection.”Then he does something that surprises me. He reaches out a hand and strokes Lia’s tear-streaked cheek with a finger. But it’s not in an endearing way, it’s more in a fascinated, inspection sort of way. But Savage takes this as permission to lick her chin with his big wolf’s tongue.

Scythe says to the snake girl, “I’m going to tear down your shields one at a time, Aurelia. I need to see what you’ve been hiding from us before you go back to your father.”

Lia’s face screws up and I sigh, turning away from her face to look at Minnie, who is in a hilarious position with her paws frozen straight out. I get my phone out and snap a picture. Maybe use it as leverage later on, I don’t know. Things like this are always useful.

Scythe’s power thrums through the air, brushing my skin, and I know it’s doing a lot more than brushing the snake girl. Lia whimpers as she feels its effect and Savage whines, but I know Scythe won’t stop until he gets to the bottom of this: our regina and her strange powers.

I always assumed our regina would be a mythical creature like me, because who else would be powerful enough to be regina for the likes of us? But now I don’t know what to think.

Scythe makes a noise of approval as he mentally tears into her and I register her regina scent immediately. Like flowers and sunlight mixed with something heavy like thunderclouds. Her fear also perfumes the air, making me flinch with disgust. I can’t stand that smell, let alone onher. My animus huffs in annoyance. I turn my music up louder as I turn to look at what has Scythe excited, when he’s never excited over anything.

He turns Lia’s head to the side with a thumb and now visible on her neck for us all to see is our mating group mark. A skull with five streams of light erupting out of it. Silver and bright.

A massive, powerful body roars to life inside of me, followed by a feeling of satisfaction and heat. So much heat that it makes me clench my fists in anger. It’s the fourth time in my life I’m seeing my sign on the neck of another and it should drive me to my knees. But it doesn’t. I refuse to let it.

Lia the Liar. It fits like a glove.

Chapter25

Aurelia

Scythe’s voice is like the Grim Reaper’s above me. “I’m going to tear down your shields one at a time, Aurelia. I need to see what you’ve been hiding from us before you go back to your father.”

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