Page 85 of Her Feral Beasts

They look impeccable as always, and not as if they’ve spent an entire week in a cage. Freshly shaved, recent haircuts, and not a wrinkle in their usual dark clothing. The only new addition is that Scythe and Xander have thick black metal around each wrist. Magic dampening shackles.

This means that Xander gets the most side-eyes stares because what we see—or don’t see—is terrifying. Xander is not just blind. He hasnoeyeballs at all in his sockets, with red scars around them as if they’ve literally been cut out.

My anima screams at the realisation.

Xander’s shoulders tense the barest fraction as if he hears it. He’s back to normal within seconds, but I’m so caught up in trying not to cry and scream and leap out from my chair at the fact that—

Someone has brutalised my mate.

“Lia!” Minnie hisses. She leans over the table to grab my hand because she’s the only one who realises what’s happened. “Lia, stop,” she growls with a little push of her power behind her voice, and it snaps me out of my rage and shock. I realise that Henry has been violently pecking at my earlobe.

“Breathe, Lia.” Stacey grabs my other hand and squeezes. “Come on, you can do it. You’re safe with us.”

I blow out a steady breath as Stacey squeezes my left hand, Minnie digs her nails into my right and Henry pinches my ear with his beak. The pain grounds me and I nod at them in thanks.

Henry squeaks softly, his reminder for how I should pace my breathing.

The healer in me wonders how something like Xander’s injury could be fixed, if at all, and I know the answer. Unless you’re a mythical starfish shifter, you can’t grow back entire organs or body parts.

Despite not having any magic to see with now, Xander still manages to take his seat with his back toward me with no trouble. He seems not to need eyes at all.

Savage and Scythe sit at the table and are soon joined by their entourage of scary beasts, including the Siberian tiger Yeti and the huge, bearded wolves.

Slowly, the dining hall seems to relax now that we know no one is going to be maimed, and the talking resumes again at a low murmur. Our anima table is so silent that I can hear Minnie’s erratic breathing as we finish breakfast and Gertie’s chattering in her ear. We’re all getting up in an unspoken, unanimous agreement to leg it out of the hall when a brazen hyena decides to shoot his shot.

“Going so soon, ladies?” he says, rubbing his hands like a villain from a black and white movie. I want to point and tell him that if he wants to learn how to be really evil, he should go to the mafia table, but he just starts blabbing about some party on Friday night.

Someone drops a plastic cup at the other end of the dining hall and then everything moves slowly.

Like a revolving clown at a fair, my head swivels of its own accord towards said mafia table. Minnie and the animas follow the sound, too.

We watch as all the blood drains from Savage’s handsome face and he goeswhiteas plasterboard. His pupils blow out, engulfing his hazel irises completely, taking me in from head to thigh. His empty hand is poised in mid-air as if he was taking a sip from his cup and dropped it on the way there.

It’s then that Scythe, his silver hair catching the morning light like pure starlight, turns in his chair to look at me. When he does, his ice-blue eyes, too, become consumed by his pupils.

Minnie giggles nervously under her breath, but I can’t stop looking at my mates. The entire room, including the babbling hyena, disappears until it's just the four of us.

Xander turns to look at me, his nostrils flaring, his head cocked as if he’s listening to something. I’m not sure how much he can ‘see’, but he knows something is up.

A logical part of me remembers I came here with something to prove. These bastards tried to abduct me, and Savage threatened Minnie.

I make the executive decision to turn my head in dismissal of them and then proceed to turn my body towards the hyena. The spell is broken, and I feel like I’ve surfaced from a deep dive.

“Did you say party?” I ask in a sassy voice, popping my hip. My Aunt Charlotte would be so proud.

The hyena runs a hand through his oily black hair as his eyes stop at my cleavage and he nods. “Yeah, I was saying—”

But I don’t get to hear him because a spear of telepathy is thrown right at me and Savage’s voice is an assault to my brain.

“Get rid of him, regina, or I promise you, his intestines will be in my teeth in five fucking seconds.”

My heart thunders under my ribs as I slowly turn to glare at Savage. His teeth are clenched so hard I’m surprised he’s not crushing them to powder. Scythe’s eyes are pure predator on me and he’s not even blinking. I swear I can see the shark in himmovingin there.

“Five. Four.”Savage’s counting is a low, menacing drone.

Wait, is he serious?

“Three.”

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